W0DK “The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of….. CQ FIELD DAY… CQ FIELD DAY… This Is WØDK, Whiskey Zero Delta Kilo… CQ FIELD DAY”

This is probably not quite what Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein had in mind when they were writing the music and lyrics to the classic version of this famous song from the play “Sound of Music”. Nevertheless, the “Hills” above Boulder, Colorado do come alive each and every ARRL Field Day with the chanted chorus above repeated hundreds of times each and every year on the last full weekend in June by members of the Boulder Amateur Radio Club (BARC) from high atop the hills west of the City of Boulder at the beautiful Betasso Preserve. This lofty location, some 6500 feet above sea level, provides a very nice launching point for radio signals emanating from BARC’s Field Day antennas.

Typically, in years past, WØDK (BARC’s club call) has fielded a 2A class station plus GOTA and VHF/UHF for its Field Day entry. This year, due to a lack of available operators for Field Day 2010, the BARC Field Day committee decided to drop down in class to a 1A station operating alternatively between SSB and CW modes. The equipment used would ultimately be some of the very best available to ham radio operators anywhere today. For the transceiver, an Elecraft K3 was selected and would be provided by Field Day Chairperson, John Reilly NØTA. The tower would be provided by Allen Bishop KØARK. His home made 55-foot trailer mounted telescoping gem of a tower that he built last year. On top of the 55’ telescoping tower would be Allen’s 3-element SteppIR Dreambeam 36 with 6M through 40M capability.

While we were planning the Field Day station a wonderful, new and exciting opportunity arose. I received a telephone call from well-known DX’er, Gordon Hardman, WØRUN asking me if we might want to use one of his Alpha 9500 amplifiers on Field Day! Gordon is the CTO of RF Concepts Alpha Power Company here in Boulder and a long time friend. He told me that this was one of their amplifiers that had been used on the now famous KP5 Desecheo Island DXpedition. I passed this idea by the committee and after a short discussion we all agreed to accept Gordon’s most generous offer. We all agreed that this would be quite a different operating experience from our usual low power entry in the way that we operated. With this exceptional station, we probably wouldn’t need to search and pounce for any Field Day QSOs. This would be a great learning opportunity for our operators to see what it might feel like to be on the other side of a DX pileup too. A station as loud as this one had the potential to be would cause a stir on the bands, and was bound to attract many calls from all over. And it did! We were heard across the width and breadth of the USA and Canada plus by a few DX countries too, as it turned out. From the moment Field day started until it ended 24 hours later, we were continuously picking out call signs and parts of calls through DX pileup-type conditions.

The pileups continued both day and night, and on any band we operated, both on SSB and CW. It was truly a great new experience for all of us. We just hoped we didn’t miss anyone calling us or ‘stepped’ on anyone in the melee of finding a spot within the crowded band conditions. We ended up with over 1500 contacts, 500 on CW and over 1000 on SSB. That was similar to the amount of QSOs we had in one of our 2A efforts. Not too bad for having half the operators as are usually available.

To add to our Field Day activities, our Boulder County ARES AEC, Dale Scott KAØQPV set up a Packet station demo for training purposes and generated a dozen NTS messages to a local Packet BBS to be picked up by one of the NTS Central Traffic Net Controllers. This Packet to voice relay system worked very well as I was greeted at home Sunday afternoon by my XYL who announced that she had a pleasant surprise message from me called in via telephone to her by one of the NTS relay operators.

No matter what the gathering whenever there are ham radio operators around, food is involved somewhere. Certainly there is no better event for hams and food to comingle than here at Field Day. BARC contributes a generous budgeted stipend every year for the Field Day event. The operators have always chosen to spend the budgeted monies to improve station equipment and accessories versus spending on creature comforts. Not that we certainly have ever done without, but we have been a little conservative on our food and beverage budgeted items. Not this year, though! One of BARC’s members, noticing our hamburger and hot dog supper last year, wrote us an additional check and said, “This is my contribution to BARC’s Field Day. Get some steaks for dinner this year, fancy chocolates and ice cream, etc...” And we did! Thank you so much for adding to our glorious Field Day experience (as well as our waistlines), Doug!

Saturday evening, after most of the operators had succumbed to fatigue and welcome sleep, local wildlife began to appear at the site. Most notably was the presence of a very friendly fox that has visited us before (or one that looked just like him) looking to satisfy his sweet tooth on our leftovers. He walked by me and sat just like he was expecting a handout. I don’t think it prudent to feed wild animals, no matter how ‘tame’ they appear to be. I took a picture of him and we went our separate ways.

Last year, BARC was honored by QST magazine that picked one of our Field Day pictures to grace the cover of the June 2009 QST Field Day issue. This year we were doubly honored because that same picture now is on the 2010 ARRL Field Day Handbook!

Lots of visitors came up to the site. Some to operate, but most to just sit around and add to the camaraderie of the day. A few new members were added to the club from these visitors too. Welcome aboard! We hope you will add to future BARC Field Day adventures. What could have been better?

The first and foremost thought that comes to mind has to do with the ARRL Field Day rules for 1A class stations. In 1A class, a GOTA station is not allowed. Also, the ‘free’ VHF/UHF station is not allowed. These rule exceptions appear to us to be counter to the ARRL’s effort to achieve maximum participation of all operators on Field Day. It was allowed up until a few years ago when the rules were changed disallowing these ‘extra’ stations in 1A. Someone will have to explain to me how these counter-productive rule changes have advanced Field Day participation. Even if we never run as a 1A class station ever again, I think the ARRL needs to reconsider their extra station positions in this class of operation.