Field Day 2008
You’re invited! Operators, prospective hams, visitors, even kibitzers. Field Day is a fun-filled ham radio event that’s a time to operate portable radio equipment in the great outdoors. Our ability too communicate under harsh conditions Has led officials to proclaim Amateur Radio Week. New operators can get experience and meet the members of our club.
I no longer climb tall trees to hang dipoles but still enjoy exchanging dots and dashes over the air with others up in the mountains or at the sea shore.
Come out to our club set up in the new subdivision on Spring Street near Donohue-Frohnmeyer Park. Berkeley leads to the site. Set-up is scheduled on Friday, June 27th and operation starts at 11AM on the 28th. Suddenly the ham bands will fill with signals. Hear southern drawl, mid-western twang and fast and slow CW coming from backpackers in the snow.
There are about 8 ARRL Field Day shirts of various sized still available, $13.00 each. Nobody is making money from this (except ARRL!) so we appreciate the folks who have stepped forward to buy these eye-catching shirts!
From the June 2008 issue of The Repeater.
Summer Activities
What did you do in amateur radio this summer? Yes. The HF bands have been poor lately since this is the sunspot minimum. Field Day, the last weekend of June, saw lots of activity. Our club had a nice setup on Berkeley Way, near the park on Spring Street with a nice shelter-tent, tri-band beam on a tower, 80-meter dipole and a 40-meter lazy quagi.
Lots of contacts were logged on 40 CW by Bud, W7LNG, 20 CW by Dave, W7OQ, 20-SSB by Herb, W7MMI, and several other operators. Operation came to a stop when the generator quit and the sudden wind blew the shelter across the street, tangling in a pickup truck. We hurriedly grabbed the gear, log papers, and stuffed all in nearby cars and pickups to avoid it getting wet in the sudden downpour.
Thanks to all who helped clean up the mess, brought the food, repaired the generator, etc.
Bud, W7LNG
We had a rather unusual Field Day and lots of hot weather. The RVARC managed to rack up 476 points in spite of a lack of operators and an unexpected weather event that severely curtailed our efforts.
From the September 2008 issue of The Repeater.
It was quite a year, and if you have the December issue of QST, check the middle of page 75 to see how we ranked in the Field Day Standings. Not too bad, in spite of the fact that at least two log pages of 20 m SSB contacts were lost in the sudden storm.
I pulled the table below from the 2008 Field Day database, looking at all 3A, Low Power (150W), Oregon station entries. We can see that our club president, Don did a terrific job of finding a lot of bonus points!
| # | Call | Score | Category | QSOs | Power Mult | Section | Participants | Club |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | W7OTV | 3,810 | 3A | 789 | 2 | OR | 86 | |
| 2 | W7DTV | 1,692 | 3A | 663 | 2 | OR | 15 | Skyline Tower ARC |
| 3 | W7OEK | 1,226 | 3A | 149 | 2 | OR | 14 | Rogue Valley ARC |
| 4 | W7GRA | 628 | 3A | 14 | 2 | OR | 6 | Grande Ronde Radio Amateurs Assn |
From the December 2008 issue of The Repeater.
