Field Day 2013 was an exciting and enjoyable event for the Beaver Valley ARA despite the poor band conditions on 10 meters and thunderstorm QRN on 80 and 40 meters at night. The 80, 40, 20 and 15 meter bands this year became the workhorses for us.  6 meter sporadic E and meteor scatter events helped boost contacts on the "magic" band.  We took pride in our 349 contacts from our 4A operation in WPA as we struggled to reach last year’s results with less ham participation.

Each year we like to push the technology and try new antennas and equipment.  Last year, for example, we built the HF Triplexer that was described in the June 2010 QST article to provide better utilization of our transportable yagi and tower.  This year, we utilized a 50-foot vertical with many ground radials and an SGC-237 tuner at the base.  In addition, we put up a six meter yagi to take advantage of several daytime openings.  Once again our wireless network and logging software helped to comfortably record our efforts without the dreaded “duplicates”. 

Hams from other clubs, curious visitors, warm and sunny weather, great food, many bonus points, people helping each other, and generally having fun made this Field Day at a new site a memorable event for the Beaver Valley ARA.  This year we are celebrating our 90th Club Anniversary.  Please take a minute and check out our web site at  www.W3SGJ.org for more information and additional pictures.  We’re already talking about Field Day 2014!