06/30/2002 | KH6DXC KONA HAWAII DX CLUB FIELD DAY OPERATION 2002

The Kona Hawaii DX Club operation for Field Day 2002 is over and all of us have deemed it a complete success. There were times when we were all pretty tired by all in all we agreed that it was really fun, the antennas worked very well and we are already planning for next year. Speaking of planning, it was only in the last month that we found we could use Kapaa County Park for our operation. There was a 'site survey' by Stu, KH7DX, and Gary, KH6GMP, and then we spent a lot of our time making and going over checklist after checklist. We must have done a pretty good job because there were only a couple of items that were not there when we found we needed them. Kapaa Park is on the northernmost shore of the Big Island and is just about 50 miles north of Kailua-Kona.

Gary packed up a good bit of the gear Thursday and was ready to go. He went out alone at 8am, arriving at 9am on Friday morning and did as much as he could. The next to arrive was Bob, W7UEA, with his Land Cruiser filled with more of our gear and equipment while Dewey, NH6M, and Stu were back in Kona loading all the big antenna poles, the yagi (TA-33) and the radio equipment into Deweys truck. They arrived on scene at about noon. By then, Bob and Gary had the tent up and ready for occupancy. Once we were all assembled at the site the erection of the mast and the yagi began. That operation went surprisingly smooth but was a lengthy process. The antennas and cables were in position and the equipment was setup in the tent ready for operation by about 530pm and that was just in time for the arrival of Henry, KH6GQM, and our Friday Night Dinner. Henry had offerred to bring the whole group our dinner and we took him up on the offer. He drove in right on schedule and unloaded a huge buffet-size serving dish filled with that delicious home-made chili and another pan filled with rice plus there was the poki (raw fish with spices and onions) and boiled peanuts. The picnic table was all set up right next to the water and we all enjoyed an absolutely wonderful dinner as we watched the beautiful sunset out over the Pacific. Friday had been a very clear day but the tradewinds where quite strong. This gave us a couple of anxious moments with the antenna and the tent but there were no problems and the wind kept it quite cool. A lot of checks on the radios and a few contacts for signal reports. We were using all battery power, had several heavy duty 12volt batteries and the transceiver was a Kenwood TS-50, operating in the very roomy 10 x 14 foot tent. Everyone went to bed fairly early and we all had a good nights sleep but were all up by 6am and getting ready for the operation that was to begin at 8am local time, 1800z, for those stations that are already set up.

We opened up on 20 meters, there were plenty of good signals, a few contacts but we couldnt get the rates we wanted so we went to 15 meters at about 1830z where we made about a page of qsos but we still couldnt get enough responses to our calls. At about 1930z we decided that we ought to try 10 meters and tuned up there and immediately got began to get continuous responses and signals were super loud. Ten meters kept us busy until about 2140z and we went back to 15 meters where we had very good rates until 0300z with all of us taking turns in the operating chair. The weather was cloudy with scattered showers all day, which was a blessing as it kept us quite cool. We had a visit from Jack Wheeler, KH6CC, during the afternoon and it was great that he could come by for the visit. Another visitor was Jake, N6XIV, who was visiting the Big Island from the San Diego area. John, KH7T, came by to join our effort and he jumped in there and made many contacts for us during his time in the operating chair. Just before sunset Stu started the charcoal fire in the grill and did his usual job of barbequing some wonderful thick and juicy steaks. We all enjoyed our "Steak by the Seashore" dinner while the operating continued up in the tent which was about 100 feet away from our "Dining Room". After dinner the operation continued on 20 meters, operators rotating on 2 hour shifts quite late into the night. We did make a try on 40 meters with the 2 element wire beam at about 0900z but without much success so it was back to 20 meters until about 1200z (2am local time) when we again tried 40 meters. This time we had several contacts on 40 and stayed on there until about 5am when we ran into an absolutely 'Cant work anybody' situation. We had a few contacts on the higher band betwee 5am and the end of our 24 hours at 8am on Sunday morning.

We began dismantling the station and antennas at 8am and had everything done with all the equipment and loaded into the vehicles at 930am and after a quick walk-through to insure we were 'Good Campers' and everything in the camping area was just as we found it. We felt that we had a great operation, made many more contacts than we had expected we would make and we all just had an absolutely great time. The next chore was to decide how to divide up all the leftover food and beverage items that were left after the weekend. The logs were turned over to Gary for transscription into the computer software in order that the logs may be submitted to the ARRL. We ended up with 865 qsos with about a 7 percent dupe rate.

Just a few random thoughts from this year and plans for next year. Bob who is a dentist brought his toothbrush but he forgot his toothpaste (can your believe that?). Then we noted also that Bob, who is a lover of fine wines, brought a couple of bottles of chardenay, had forgotten to bring a wine opener. Fortunately Gary had foreseen these possibilities and had the big tube of toothpaste and a winebottle cork puller along with him. We should have brought either a gross of mousetraps and several pounds of cheese or else a colony of cats. The mice were everywhere. You could see several of the little critters scooting around anywhere you looked. They even came into our operating tent and one operator actually had one crawling across the back of his neck during the night. Everyone agreed that the next Field Day operation that we try to get involved in, we have to have a laptop computer and computer logging. That will solve the problem of trying to decipher the handwriting of the log pages. We are already planning for a site for 2003 Field Day, most likely it will be a state or county park but hopefully one with cabins which will be a little bit more comfortable for us.

All of us of the Kona Hawaii DX Club want to thank every station that contacted us on all the bands and we especially want to thank Henry for the wonderful Friday night meal. Additional thanks to John, KH7T, and Jake, N6XIV, for joining our operation and all the help they provided which contributed greatly to our sucess.

73 and ALOHA from KH6DXC, Kona Hawaii Six DX Club, on the Big Island of Hawaii -- KH6GMP