Field Day 2009
It’s not too early to begin planning for Field Day June 26, 27, and 28. I’ll be looking for participants to organize, set-up, and operate.
From the April 2009 issue of The Repeater.
Summer also means Field Day. At the last meeting a signup sheet was circulated, but I believe there are more interested amateurs who haven’t had an opportunity to get on the list to setup and/or operate Field Day June 26-28. Let me know of your interest if you can’t sign-up at a meeting. If interest is lacking the club simply won’t participate (and several will miss out on a fun time.)
From the May 2009 issue of The Repeater.
RVARC Field Day 2009
From the September 2009 issue of The Repeater.
Club station W7OEK enjoyed a successful Field Day at a site above the Lost Creek fish hatchery offered by George Fuller, N7BFX. There was lots of participation and QSOs reported elsewhere in this newsletter. Although there were many contributors to the event I’m especially appreciative of Mike, WB6FFC, for providing most of the towers and antennas, and generator, and to Tom, N5EG, for coordinating things. Having 6 meters and PSK31 stations sure added interest.
The RVARC held field day this year near Lost Creek Lake. The site was near the home of George Fuller, who graciously allowed us the use of several acres.
We set up starting Friday afternoon when Mike Bach arrived with the generator, trailer, crank up towers, and several antennas. We had a 5-element 20M yagi on the 40 foot crank-up tower, a TH6DX tribander on the 30-foot tower that uses a Hazer to raise the antenna, and a 40M/80M pair of dipoles on a 40 foot tilt up stackable aluminum mast.
Murphy went missing in action Friday as all the antennas were on-frequency, the rotators worked, and the generator was up and running by about 9:30 PM.
Mike Bach and Dave Basden brought their RV’s, Ed Vaughn brought a tent, a spare generator, and a 6 meter rig.
We started up Saturday morning at 11 AM, with good conditions on 20 and 40 meters. The bands were open for mostly west-coast QSOs throughout the afternoon. 6 meters had a good opening starting about 7 PM Saturday evening, and Ed worked a number of stations in the Midwest and South Texas. Several further east were heard.
Dave started out on 20M CW, with generally slow conditions but a good run of KH6’s until we realized that the TH6DX antenna was pointed west rather than east. After turning the antenna around Dave got a lot faster working the CW contacts.
Bud was primarily on 40m CW, with some jaunts to other bands, and a break to copy the W1AW Field Day message, which is worth 100 points.
We had barbequed hamburgers for dinner Saturday night. Thanks to Herb bringing his portable propane grill which worked out great.
Starting about 8 PM, 20 meters opened up well to the entire US, and the QSO run rate jumped up quite a bit.
Don setup a PSK31 station with 80m and 40M dipoles and operated mostly during the dinner hour when others were taking a dinner break. He made a good run of digital QSO’s before packing up before sundown. There’s a lot of good lessons to be learned with new software, a laptop computer, and interfacing to the rig. At one point Don noted low power output, and we measured about 85 volts AC at his radio. Suspecting the power cords, we measured the voltage at the generator, and it was only about 88 volts. Mike adjusted the governor on the generator and we were back in business.
One of the fuel cans turned out to be contaminated, so the generator got gummed up Saturday evening and put us off the air until Mike got the fuel system get cleaned out and a new fuel tank put online. That necessitated a gas run to the all-night service station in Shady Cove, where the attendant said he hadn’t seen 5 gallon steel Jerry-cans in a long time!
Quite a number of the club members stayed over night Saturday, in RV’s tents, and their personal vehicles. Being up in the hills, it cooled off quite a bit after about 1 AM, and those sleeping bags and extra wool blankets were quickly put to use.
One of our new club members, Nathan, who had just received his license (KF7DNY) attended his first Field Day. During the day he got to see several us show how to hold and run a frequency in a contest. Then several of us then played control operator while Nathan took over, and he made a real good run of QSO’s on 20m phone.
Overall, we had 16 RVARC club members attend Field Day, and 11 of them stayed at the site over night on Saturday.
Our ARRL Assistant SEC, Dan Bissell, W7WVF dropped by the site Saturday, and we had a good eyeball with him for several hours. Dan is from Bandon and apparently the multiple layers of jackets and sweaters he was wearing were not needed at our site during the day. He quickly shed most of the excess! Dan took a couple of pictures and sent them to me after Field Day, a couple of them are printed in this newsletter.
The entire event was organized starting after the June club meeting, when George volunteered the location and Mike volunteered to bring all the critical RF and AC pieces. It was necessary to organize the event using an email list, so that’s a good reason to make sure you have a valid email on file with the club (we have a couple of members with bounced email addresses that we can’t find a valid replacement for). I was traveling most of the month of June, and arrived back in Oregon the day before Field Day. So we did all the organization while on the road, and email was the only practical way to do it. A side effect is that we now have a great list of items needed for Field Day (or any emergency), and which club member might be able to bring it.
Don Bennett brought his camera and captured a few photons from the event. Dave has loaded them on the RVARC club website, so if you weren’t able to attend you can see what all the fuss was about. Or if you did attend, you can see if Don caught you in one of your better moments.
Overall the club made:
- 246 CW contacts,
- 17 Digital contacts,
- 560 Phone contacts,
for a claimed score of 2172 points. To that we added 470 Bonus points for a total claimed score of 2642 in class 3A.
ARRL Field Day 2009 Results
From the December 2009 issue of The Repeater.
The ARRL has published the 2009 Field Day results. For members, the database is online at the ARRL website and can be queried. We placed tenth in Oregon overall (out of 52 entries), and 2nd in class 3A (out of 5 entries). 3A is the three-transmitter, club entry classification.
Our score is a pretty good outcome from the club’s effort, especially considering it was organized completely during the month of June! Thanks especially to Mike Bach, who came up with many of the critical items at the last minute.
| # | Call | Score | Category | QSOs | Power Mult | GOTA Call | Section | Participants | Club |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | N7MQ | 4,078 | 3A | 1,290 | 2 | OR | 10 | DX SIG of Valley RC of OR | |
| 2 | W7OEK | 2,642 | 3A | 823 | 2 | OR | 16 | Rogue Valley ARC | |
| 3 | KC7TLY | 1,124 | 3A | 183 | 2 | KB7WDR | OR | 60 | Umpqua Valley ARC |
| 4 | W7PXL | 1,094 | 3A | 64 | 2 | OR | 23 | Valley RC of Oregon | |
| 5 | N7CM | 792 | 3A | 133 | 2 | OR | 3 |
Class 3A—Oregon (5 entrants)
