Field Day 2009 went off wonderfully this year! We had a LOT more people attending, due in no small part to all the new hams that we have had licensed in the past year.
We operated as 4A (four-alpha), which means up to four stations on the air at any given time, not including the GOTA station. I had my station set up this year for the first time at Field Day, operating the 160M, 75M and 40M bands primarily, though the 160M band was just dead…I did hear what I could recognize as ‘CQ Field Day’ calls, but I couldn’t get the call signs out of the S9+ noise floor! 75M was noisy as well, but we had a little better luck getting contacts there. The antennas I was using were all mine, with the exception of the 160M antennas (we were using 2…one was a dipole built by W0WKP, the other was a vertical built by KC0GXY). The 75/80M dipole was the first element of a fan dipole project I started a few years ago but never got put up before, and the 40M dipole was something I cut and added to the 80M dipole, though I think the two wires weren’t playing nicely together. Have to keep them separate! The fan dipole was mounted to a donated bucket lift which acted as an antenna tower. That put the feedpoint over 40 feet in the air!

I also got to put up my portable antenna mast project, though I didn’t get to hang any antennas from it since I was too close to the CW and GOTA stations for the other bands I would have wanted to put up, plus the other stations were already running on 20M anyway.

The picture above is a shot of my station taken somewhere around 1:45am. I loved the contrast of the high-tech equipment with the low-tech lamp.

I’ve been gearing up for Field Day for a few months now…building antennas, a mast, and a deep-cycle battery system.  I’ll be operating with the Lincoln Amateur Radio Club’s K0KKV station again this year…but this year I’ll be running my own rig on 160 Meters, plus other bands during the day.  We plan to be running as a 4A station this year, which means 4 stations operating full-time.  We’ll also be running a GOTA (Get On The Air) station, which will be available to non-licensed people as well as new Hams who don’t have their HF privileges yet.  You can find us on the ARRL Field Day Site Locator. Just enter K0KKV in the “Location or Call Sign” box above the map. I’m looking forward to another fun event!

73 de N0XLT

Regardless of who you voted for, one thing you have to acknowledge is that we have just witnessed history in the making:  Barack Obama is the first African-American President-Elect EVER.

This is something that not that long ago might have been considered impossible…and we were there to see it happen.

http://www.wprecipes.com/

Field Day is tomorrow!

I’ve been working on getting things together for Field Day. I’ve got the logging stations configured, and will get the final settings made either later tonight or tomorrow morning at the site. I’m getting ready to start loading the van, but I think I’ll make a quick run out to Wal-Mart first to pick up a tent, and maybe a camp cot. I’m debating on whether to take my Mac system along or not…not sure if I’ll have the time to mess around with it. I *am* planning on taking an additional Windows system along to try and get a packet station running. Not sure if it will work out as nicely as I want, but we’ll see! (I still need to build a cable for my Icom IC-27 to connect to my PK-232MBX)

No matter what, though, Field Day promises to be a fun time!

Knightsabre (N0XLT)

As some who know me are aware, I have been working on getting ready for Field Day, which is coming up this weekend. Seems like time gets away from you so quickly, and then you end up scrambling to get things done! Fortunately, the work I need to get done isn’t difficult, and things seem to be working out relatively well. I’ve gotten three logging computers set up, and am working on a backup or two, just in case. I should be able to get everything together and tested before Saturday, in any case!
The Lincoln Amateur Radio Club will be operating from the Lincoln VA Hospital again this year, at 600 South 70th Street in Lincoln, NE. We look forward to seeing you there!

Knightsabre
(a.k.a. Warren Werner, N0XLT)