Field Day Flashback – 2014

by KF0Q

The newly mowed bare site is transformed when the deluxe 50 foot aluminum communication tower/trailer arrives. Smiles turn to frowns from damp soil problems with mechanical outrigger feet, but Winona Firefighters – and more firefighters arrive with the fire truck and wood blocks to save the day. With a whirr of the cable winch motor the gleaming structure rapidly un-nests with a “pop” from the bound up cable end. Water from the pumper truck provides the solution for the ground rod trick that almost works. Successful deployment places the VHF stack in a never before elevation; many look up in awe at its beauty.

The portable toilet arrives and is carefully placed at the marker on the street. The Sheriff himself delivers the operating position trailer on his way to investigate a reported death; no time for conversation this day.

The Saturday setup crew arrives enforce; antennas rise from poles and masts; wire and yagi some hoisted with borrowed carabineers up the steel guys for the tower. Pulleys break loose and ropes jamb but the wires reach the desired height with determination from the crew.

The one panel solar array with its batteries and inverter are properly oriented to provide the energy needed for solar powered qso’s, ground fault circuits trip with the backup inverter generator; not for use this time out.

Station equipment of foot switches, mic headsets, cat 5 router and its blue cables, bandpass filters, coax jumpers, operating positions: HF1, HF2, VHF + Satellite, power supplies large and small, CAT cables/ci-V cables and more populate the white Formica countertops in the rear of the trailer with coax looped through the handles of the closet doors.

Physics and a short ladder prevail; the enormously heavy tri-band yagi rests at fifteen feet instead of the more possible height closer to thirty; the un-used guys flap in the wind.

WiFi Mesh node/s, APRS radios, TNC’s, batteries and a mesh router inside a plastic bag attached to a portable mast distract the digital crowd and offer connections almost a half mile from the site. The gateway however not quite accomplished this time out.

Kettle grill, charcoal, BBQ tongs and fresh food provide nice rain free picnic on the road. Good friends and great food; welcome back the Field Day meal on Saturday night!

ISS downlink excitement but couldn’t break through; cool to hear reports “you’re loud in space”. Taking turns both men and women – hams and not tracking the pass with the arrow antenna in hand is a popular task. The world’s top operator handles the pileups well “you should hear it from space” working the 9’s, then 3’s and finally 1’s just before LOS. 

Rotor problems…tri-bander stuck east; vhf stack stuck west. With a new day the rotor fixed – the tri-bander now turns; (only five wires but their order does matter). VHF never moves but works netting a handful of contacts; almost silence on six meters except for the distant static crashes.

A rotating group of operators experience pileups on 40M with rates beyond 80 and slower multiple calls on other bands searching and pouncing on the calling stations. Some signals are quite good; it helps when you have the correct antenna, feedline and bandpass filter connected. Twenty meters crowded as ever but does work with the repaired and tuned yagi; another plastic bag taped to the mast in hopes of protecting the assembly from the wind driven sheets of rain. 

Almost unworkable conditions exist from dreadful crashing storm noise that transforms to late night 80 meter bliss; early morning 15 meter conditions cause a smile; ten meters opens briefly.

Kites and more kites, strings and lines, cut lengths of radials and some speaker wire for the balloon antenna are ready to go as is the helium tank. A few loops in the wind and a crash; repeated. No kites for today. Balloons remain in the USPS box even though they arrived by FD start – high winds and rain prevent the launch – maybe next year we sigh…

Sunday morning a tired but successful CW op departs. Later in the rain-free morning more donuts than operators arrive.

Old friends, new friends some Ham and some not; provide a list of names a few pages long.

Efforts to break the three hundred qso mark continue toward the end of the allotted time; the goal ultimately achieved and more.

Computer clocks display 1800Z on Sunday and the hum of the generator disappears. Logs stored in the networked N1MM database on three machines close. The force from the newly arriving manpower quickly creates piles of feedlines, cables, aluminum sticks and ropes that are orderly packed for the next venture. 

The heavy low mounted tri-band yagi yet remains; the last piece to come down on the ground but safe, although one piece is lost and remains in the field. Steel fence posts jacked or levered or screwed out from the earth; damp soil is tapped off for next time. 

Leftover food removed from the county fridge and the forgotten level jacks restored as the last load of aluminum and steel are secured to the van’s roof rack just as the rain returns.

Another Field Day complete