Field Day 2010 - Day 2 - Moscow, ID

My day started at 0400 PST on Sunday. I promised to work 0400 through station close and site break-down and clean-up with the Palouse Hills Amateur Radio Club.

We were very fortunate to get the use of the county sheriff's emergency services trailer, which had some amateur radio gear already installed in it.

As it turns out, this particular emergency trailer (see photo below) had never been used until this Field day!

In a way it was fortunate as we uncovered several wiring and grounding issues that we addressed.

This worked out to be a great operating station and was able to accommodate several two-man operating positions throughout Field Day.

In addition, the trailer came with a nice crank-up tower which we put to good use to support some of our antennas. Nice.

One thing is for sure, we are now ready for true emergency operations since we now have first-hand experience with this unit. Next time (or I guess I should say the FIRST time) there is an emergency we'll be prepared should our assistance be needed to support emergency operations.

This next photo is a look at the tents that were set up for those
hardy souls who stayed overnight at our site. As it turned out, 80 meters really heated up and, at one point the guys cranked out over 100 QSOs in a hour! FB!

The only downside was sleeping on the ground, ah well, all for a good cause, right?

Next day W7NGI made cooked up some amazing pancakes and bacon to get things off to a solid start. Thanks, Ken! And he did it all on a classic Coleman propane camp cookstove.

Someone also brought in some ripe cherries (no doubt from Washington) which made a nice finish to breakfast.

...still not sure what that huge jar of pickles was all about, however...


Here's a shot of the combination breakfast and break tent set-up that was set up.

That's KI6DER, PHARC President, taking a break between sessions. BTW, if you ever need coax, he's your man.



Next, we've got a look inside the "shack:






That's KK7VO notching another contact in the early morning hours. I believe her dog Daisy (just out of view in this shot) was logging for her.  : - )

In the next shot, we've got Joe and Ken burning up the band on 40 meter phone. Ken's got logging duty while Joe's in the hot seat.

We worked many states from Alaska and Hawaii to Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Massachusetts and more.

We were able to work phone, PSK-31 and, after a fashion and thanks to KE6DWM, we were able to notch a few CW contacts as well, though not how I had anticipated. He was able to get us set up to run CW through his PSK interface to a Yaesu rig. Worked great. Couldn't use my key since the Yaesu has a mini jack and I had a 1/4 inch jack on my key.


The next photo shows one of the other operating positions we had set up

We also had a GOTA position set up, which was great since we had folks from as far away as Alaska (well kind of) stop by to visit.

In addition KE6DWM's XYL took and passed her Technician license during Field Day. Congratulations!!

Do we get extra points for that?  : -)


On top of that, she stuck around and made a bunch of contacts at the GOTA position.

Can her General class be far behind?

In this next photo we've got a shot of one of the "towers" we erected for our antennas. KK7VO had a 80-10m antenna attached with a nice loading coil near the center.

Although this shot only appears to show a single guy wire, there were two others that kept this pole in place.

It did a good job for us supporting, I believe, 3-4 antennas.

We wrapped things up at noon PST having racked up more overall points than our 2009 Field Day performance, not to mention all visitors we had.

All in all it was, for me, a great Field Day experience.

I'm really hoping that for Field Day 2011, I'm ready with a full, self-contained QRP CW operating position, complete with antenna.

I was the only one in PHARC able to copy code at this year's field day, so my QSOs got us a few extra points.

That's all for now.


I'll say 73 and look to see you all at Field Day 2011!


N7RCS

Field Day 2010 - Day 1 - Viola, ID

We had a fabulous weekend for Field Day 2010. Temperatures in North Idaho were in 70-80F with bright blue, clear skies and nary a raindrop in sight.  Woohoo!

Since I belong to 2 clubs in the Moscow-Pullman area I decided to participate with both clubs this Field Day. So on Saturday I joined my fellow hams in the Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories radio club (K7SEL).

We set up shop at N7CE in Viola, ID. Great location with lots of room to spread out, set up an antenna farm, rigs and other assorted Field Day gear. I arrived at about 0830 PST to get things started.

Here are Joseph and Ron getting a station and logging terminal set up set up in N7CE's "shack":

Feed lines run in through the wood insert in the window on the left. Battery power was on the floor, right below the laptop.

We operated phone, CW, and PSK-31 on Saturday and did a credible job, once some minor battery charging issues were resolved.

Got the chance to help set up antennas, rigs, feedlines and more. Really enjoyed it.

Here are a few more photos of set up and operating at N7CE:







Here is one operating position just about ready to go. Just had to run feed lines in from outside.

As for antennas, we had quite a range.

Below you'll see a nifty telescoping fibreglass pole we made into a 40 meter vertical. Light winds made it a cinch to set up and guy and it did a credible job for us, though not quite as good as the ladder line-fed dipole that was rigged up.

Here's the fibreglass vertical, ready to go, complete with pink safety strips to avoid "clotheslining" problems. Note the amazing view out beyond.

We had a small crew throughout the day on Saturday. We typically had a two-man team running on 40 and 20m. One operator and one logger. 

We would alternate between phone and CW when we rotated operators and loggers. 

We had one visitor to the station, see below, so we had an opportunity to show a non-ham what ham radio is all about and how the Field Day worked.

In the next photo, N7CE takes time to explain what all the fun is about to our visitor, Prasad. 

N7CE also had an opportunity to QSO with his brother who I believe was in New Mexico. 

At about 1700 PST I had to head home at attend to things on the homefront.

Just before I left we took some time to get the 6 meter antenna up for the night crew. 

The next photo shows the 6-meter antenna before we got her raised up. 

 Here's the 6 meter antenna after we got it mounted and ready for action.

Had some great chow, thanks to N7CE and his friend.

This was my first real Field Day experience since I began in ham radio back in the 1960s. I had been to a couple of Field Days but had never actually participated like I did here.  What a blast!

Then I headed home to Moscow to get ready for my 0400 PST wake-up call and rendezvous with fellow Palouse Hills Amateur Radio Club members at the Latah County Fair Grounds just east of beautiful Moscow, ID.

Luckily for me, the fair grounds are in walking distance from my QTH.

For details of my Sunday Field Day adventures read the next post. 

73!

N7RCS over and out.