How was your 2022 Field Day?

[K3MRI]

Had a good time? Bands were good? How was the food? The weather? Everyone went home safe and without too many cuts and bruises? As important, lots of QSOs?

I'll start by saying that ours was very good. All went well. I think everyone had a great time, the weather I must say was awesome for us; it was a little less hot than we feared and the rain came, literally, ten minutes before we had finished tearing down, so just in time to cool us off. All were safe, except for one tiny nose cut on, of all people, our safety officer (oops). And yes, as visible in the photo, we concluded the day with our traditional ice cream outing.

How about you?

[VE3NN]

4 hours ago, K3MRI said:

Had a good time? Bands were good? How was the food? The weather? Everyone went home safe and without too many cuts and bruises? As important, lots of QSOs?

I'll start by saying that ours was very good. All went well. I think everyone had a great time, the weather I must say was awesome for us; it was a little less hot than we feared and the rain came, literally, ten minutes before we had finished tearing down, so just in time to cool us off. All were safe, except for one tiny nose cut on, of all people, our safety officer (oops). And yes, as visible in the photo, we concluded the day with our traditional ice cream outing.

How about you?

Did Not Participate this year, not even at home.

[K3MRI]

28 minutes ago, VE3NN said:

Did Not Participate this year, not even at home.

I’m sure it’s no consolation, but I was fortunate enough to connect with several VE3s this weekend. I actually almost got a VE8, but ultimately I couldn’t pull him in.

Hopefully you can participate next year!

[WA2WMR]

Had a great time from my usual location. Made 101 or 102 contacts CW/QRP. Only hitch was with my radio controlled clock. It was set to recognize daylight saving time so some time around 2AM Sunday it reset itself and all of my times for Sunday were off by an hour.

[K3MRI]

1 hour ago, WA2WMR said:

Had a great time from my usual location. Made 101 or 102 contacts CW/QRP. Only hitch was with my radio controlled clock. It was set to recognize daylight saving time so some time around 2AM Sunday it reset itself and all of my times for Sunday were off by an hour.

Two questions for you.

How will the time affect the log?

Also, how was the dog 😉 Let you work?

[KD9TGU]

This was my first Field Day.

It was a good time. Made some contacts, food was good.

The most important thing was getting to know the members of the club. Was able to spend time talking with them, learning from them.

All in All I am looking forward to Winter Field Day.

[K3MRI]

1 hour ago, KD9TGU said:

This was my first Field Day.

It was a good time. Made some contacts, food was good.

The most important thing was getting to know the members of the club. Was able to spend time talking with them, learning from them.

All in All I am looking forward to Winter Field Day.

Hey Bob, that's fantastic! I agree, FD is a great time to meet or regroup with fellow operators. Ours was nice too!!

Which club were you with?

[WA2WMR]

7 hours ago, K3MRI said:

Two questions for you.

How will the time affect the log?

Also, how was the dog 😉 Let you work?

No problem. Just subtracted one hour from the times.

Actually, the dog is a mamma's boy. On Saturday morning I took him for a walk and my wife took him for his afternoon walk. On Sunday, she took him for his morning walk and I took him in the afternoon after all the fun was over. The rest of the time he stayed in the house with her.

 

[KD9TGU]

14 hours ago, K3MRI said:

Hey Bob, that's fantastic! I agree, FD is a great time to meet or regroup with fellow operators. Ours was nice too!!

Which club were you with?

I am with the Michiana Amateur Radio Club. 

[K3MRI]

6 minutes ago, KD9TGU said:

I am with the Michiana Amateur Radio Club. 

A club after my own heart... A TUBE as a logo!! Love it!! I grew up in very cold weather, I think part of me loved amateur radio as much as I did because the rx and tx kept me warm ♨️

[KD9TGU]

For me the love of it comes from my Dad and I doing AM DX during those cold winter nights, then progressing to SWL.

Now it is the ability to have my own station and make contacts with a simple wire antenna.

To me that is a little magical.

 

73

Bob

[K3MRI]

3 hours ago, KD9TGU said:

Now it is the ability to have my own station and make contacts with a simple wire antenna.
To me that is a little magical.

I AGREE! Don't get me wrong, having that magnificent 40 M Yagi on a 60-foot tower is amazing, but stringing up my 80m wire doublet and having an NVIS QSO with my buddies followed by a 40M or 20M DX with Malta and then Melbourne, now that's MAGIC! I am a wire fanatic!!

[WA2WMR]

23 hours ago, KD9TGU said:

Now it is the ability to have my own station and make contacts with a simple wire antenna.

To me that is a little magical.

Absolutely. That red wire in the picture is a 100 ft end fed that goes out about 60 ft to the top of an MFJ fiberglass mast (I think 17ft) and then makes a 90 degree right turn to a tree. The wire is tied off to one of the branches. There is a 17 ft counterpoise stretched across the deck to the left. I didn't make contacts witn Melbourne or Malta, but I did make about 100 contacts up and down the east coast and well into the Midwest.

I started out tuning up and down the band on 15 meters. There weren't too many stations I was not able to make contact with any of them. I moved to 20 and did the same, answering any station calling CQ. I was making contacts every couple of minutes. After a while I moved to 40 and repeated for the rest of the day except when I went back to 20. Went back to 40 after a while and continued until late in the evening. Switched over to 80 and made 2 contacts with a Yaesu 817. I don't like that radio. I needed a lawn mower battery to power it (last time I tried using it with that blue battery in the picture, the battery died before the end of FD.) Also, compared to the Elecraft K1 in the picture, it's a horroble CW rig, even with the Collins mechanical filter. Went back to 40 after the 2 contacts and continued until about midnight. Picked up again at 8:00 next morning and continued to about 11. 

[KD9TGU]

We were lucky to have enough operators from the club to run 3A for the whole 24 hours. I was on the air for two hours and then a 4 hour break. It was great. Only got 90 minutes of sleep, but I would not trade sleep for the experience and the opportunity to really get to know the other club members (I have only been with the club since November 2021).

We ran off a generator and that worked well. 

We did have to go off the air for a couple of hours due to a rather intense electrical storm. We were able to hook the antennas back up and continued making contacts.

We had 4 antennas up. A Delta Loop, EFHW, An OCF Dipole, and a NVIS. That worked out well.

 

All in All a good day.

[K3MRI]

Very nice...

My claim to fame this year was running the 2AM to 4AM phone shift AND on Saturday, at one point I hit a 100/hour rate, which I think is acceptable?

[K3MRI]

Love this guy... If you like Iowa, farms and tractors, you'll enjoy. Just over three minutes viewing.

 

[K4JST]

FD with WAARC (Williamsburg Area ARC).  2A VA K4RC.  Final participation count was over 100 members and guests.  Murphy put in an appearance taking out the GOTA Flex station first and my K3S.  Brought in replacements for both, but lost some operating time! 
 

Turned up two  new CW contesters from the club after several years of decline (SK and relocations) so that was good and unexpected.

Food committee did a wonderful job through out.  Social  was perhaps as enjoyable as operating.  

FD five years ago is what got me back into the hobby (after 25 plus years away).

73 de Dr. Gil Frey K4JST

[K3MRI]

1 hour ago, K4JST said:

FD with WAARC (Williamsburg Area ARC).  2A VA K4RC.  Final participation count was over 100 members and guests.  Murphy put in an appearance taking out the GOTA Flex station first and my K3S.  Brought in replacements for both, but lost some operating time! 
Turned up two  new CW contesters from the club after several years of decline (SK and relocations) so that was good and unexpected. Food committee did a wonderful job through out.  Social  was perhaps as enjoyable as operating.  
FD five years ago is what got me back into the hobby (after 25 plus years away). 73 de Dr. Gil Frey K4JST

So sorry about Murphy. Did he pay for the K3S repairs 😵 As for the CW contesters, that's excellent news... points matter and they know it!!

Glad about the food, of course! I won't throw our cook under the bus this year, but maybe just his foot. Food this year was not our best; I think next year I'll commandeer food duties!!