Field Day 2003
My very first Field Day was very exciting! My Uncle, Bill wv7g, who is an extra, and I set up on top of Mt. Graham in a campground site, the name has slipped my mind, anyway we set up a qrp SSB station with a Slick ft-857!. We use my Uncles call, wv7g for a faster contact, for it is very sort and easy to say when you are not falling asleep at two in the morning as you call cq. We were a 1b battery AZ station and made most all our contacts to the east, as you can see from out log at the bottom. I myself had a great time running the radio, and getting experience on Hf before I get the General. I like the HF and hearing a station come back with your call when there is over ten other stations calling him. I think I will not be a full fledge ssb contester, but I do have a very big interest in the cw stuff. I will probably like the ssb stuff when there is not so much people pounding right on top of each other. It makes it difficult to hear what the person is saying when someone tunes up right on top of them! Anyway I don't want to complain, because I am fairly sure most of them could not hear the other guy. When my uncle, Bill and I got the Mt. We started looking at the places we picked out the weekend before, and soon came to our senses and notice that it would not work with the types of antennas we where going to use. After driving all over the Mt. we found a perfect spot. We did not even have to pay to camp. We walked around the spot, by now it was around 11:00pm, as we scanned the site we both notice, about the same time, that there was bugs all over us! We where getting eaten alive. And that is a understatement! So we decided to move on. We ended up camping in a "public" camping site, so we could put up a sign an get the extra 100 points. We set up and finished that around 3:00am. We when to bed with the dreams of cqs in our heads! Hi hi. When I got up, I had no idea what I was getting myself into by helping Bill set up the 10-20 three element beam! We set that thing up for the first time out in the field not knowing what to do. We eventually got it up 20ft on steel poles! Boy it was heavy. Bill was pushing on the mass and I was pulling on a rope attached at the top of the mass. When we got it up we stared at a while. Then I heard OH NO!!. I instantly said what! Bill told me that we had it pointed in the opposite direction we wanted it! The antenna had three guide ropes holding it to the ground, so Bill and I decided to play marry go guide ropes. Bill was going to hold it in place as I move some guide wires so we could turn that thing to the northeast like we wanted it! I will skip the next part. All I will say is that we got it turned around, but we have a very close encounter with a aluminum antenna swaying and almost overpowering Bill. Now we come to a funny part, two guys tying rocks on to a fishing pole to set up a random wire! I first tried with my PSE Compound bow. May I say that if you want to string a antenna with a compound bow you will need very heavy fishing line!. I was using 20 pound test, and tuned the bow down to 15 or so and I lost the arrow. Now we come back to the fishing pole, I tried several times and could not get it as high as we wanted it. So gave the controls to Bill who showed me up, and got it quite high in about 7 tries. Now we where in business. The log can tell the rest of this story!
2003 Field Day Log
Call Class Sec Time Bnd Mode
w8zpf 2a oh 21:43 20 ssb
kd4k 3f ga 21:44 20 ssb
wr4f 2b ky 22:06 20 ssb
k4scc 2a al 22:11 20 ssb
wa0fya 2a mo 22:16 20 ssb
w8qly 8a oh 22:20 20 ssb
w4dv 2a ga 23:15 20 ssb
w1jaa 1e sc 23:35 20 ssb
w4p? 2a nfl 23:40 20 ssb
w4cue 4a al 23:43 20 ssb
n8gq 2d mi 23:52 20 ssb
n8kzg 1b mi 23:56 20 ssb
w8yek 2a oh :03 20 ssb
w4uot 3a tn :06 20 ssb
kt4fd 1d ga :23 20 ssb
w8kx 3a mi :27 20 ssb
n4wnl 2a al :36 20 ssb
na4k 2a tn :37 20 ssb
kd9gy 1e il :43 20 ssb
k9tp 1e il :44 20 ssb
k5pn 1a ms :49 20 ssb
n2bj 2e il 1:37 20 ssd
w4atd 2a al 2:04 20 ssb
kb9ti 4a il 3:46 20 ssb
N0bg 1a nd 3:55 20 ssb
k9lzj 1d id 4:04 20 ssb
w0jh 2a mn 4:07 20 ssb
w4yk 2a nc 4:16 20 ssb
n9zd 2f il 4:19 20 ssb
k8pi 3a oh 4:55 20 ssb
nj4m 3a wcf 5:32 20 ssb
va3xl 2a on 6:28 20 ssb
af2aa 6a nny 6:14 20 ssb
k3ytl 5a epa 13:24 20 ssb
k8df 3a wv 13:51 20 ssb
ve5nn 3a sk 14:25 20 ssb
All contacts were made with a ft-857 with 5w. The call we used was wv7g. We logged with my laptop computer using N3fjp's field day log program. It worked great! Thanks for those who served as contacts. Bill and I enjoyed kicking back and talking on the radio out in the country. Plus it was great for us to get out of the 105 degree weather in Tucson!
Ft. Tuthill 2003!
This
was my very 1st ft. tuthill. I went up with my uncle, wv7g bill. We
got up there late afternoon Thursday. the drive was not all that long
compared to others that drove in for California an New Mexico!. it
took all of five hours, and surprisingly I did not sleep
through one bit driving up. When we got every thing out of the truck
and made the tent up, in the QRP scQRPions camp site. We started to
talk to Bob and Berdie Hightower (sorry if I spelt that wrong) they
are QRP scQRPions Leaders, Organizer and the nieces people you can
meet. As the day turned into night we hit the hay. I did not sleep on
bit, for I was day dreaming about great prices on tube rigs and
meeting the fellow QRP scQRpion members. When Bill got up around
4:30am, I was up all night. He then noticed that we forgot a lighter
to make coffee! So that morning it was very slow for Bill. After no
coffee we walked into the selling area around 5:30. Before the gates
were open. One gate was open for venders to get in, so we kinda
walked in. Around 6:00am Bob showed up with
the tents things to
sell stuff under. We helped set that up, and met some more qrp guys.
I finally got to meet Doug Hendricks! I built one of his Norcal keyer
kit and thought it was a great little full featured keyer. I had to
show it to him. I even made little paddles out of a Gatorade bottle
cap and resistors. (you will see, I am witting an article for Doug on
them) Later on that day I walked around the vender areas and kept and
eye out for a good hf rig. I soon found a TS-520. my uncle has
one, and from what I hear and what I have seen they are great rigs. I
asked the guy how much? And I hear a low price of $200!!! He also had
a FT-101 for $150. I looked them both over and decided that the
ts-520 would be a better buy, because he had the external speaker,
power cords, original mic, and the manual. The ts-520 works great
too. Well it did pass the smoke test so far, but I have not
transmitted with it yet. Bill WV7G will test the transmitter for me
some time soon I guess. Anyway the guy said it had not a thing wrong
with it so it should work. When I got the radio put away, a storm
came in around 3:00pm. It was a big one!!! Lots of rain with
lightning and wind!!!
We has three big hits of heavy rain that
were about 20 min. long and 10min. apart. The last big one had hale!!
The hale was not very big, but it did hurt hitting my legs when the
wind pushed it along. Most of the group tried to hold the tent down ,
because of the wind. The funny thing was , it was made out of steel
and lighting is hitting pretty darn close! Anyway the storm was bad
and we came out alive but I have never been so wet!! I could not put
my shoes on until the last day, because they were soaked. Lucky I
brought sandals too. Saturday morning we had a great big breakfast,
put on by the group. Everything you wanted for breakfast was there.
We ate and headed off to the venders I did manage to spend some
money, that day on a norcal kit, called the tenna dipper. I let Doug
use my Norcal keyer kit as a model.
Doug, later on thought it was
such a good model that he bought it off me! He also gave me a
miniboots on Friday. What a nice guy, let me tell you if you have not
met him, you should. He is full of wisdom, and Doug is always willing
to help out with anything. He also puts together some great kits.
That day, Saturday, I took my general test. Element 2 and 3. I only
passed the written, but the code I will try again in two week or so.
I can't wait to start using my TS-520. I believe it will be used on
cw more the ssb. I think cw is pretty neat. Later on it that day, I
bought some more stuff, I bought so many things I can't remember what
day I got them! That night the group had a Bring your own meet
dinner! it was great. Bill, wv7g; and I, kd7snx had some kind of
steak. We talked with the other group members. I must say there is
some really nice guys out there. When it just started to get dark,
the group had it raffle. I did not win anything, but I did not
mind,
because I got several things at great deals. My uncle won some kind
of kit that switches between a transmitter and a receiver. I forgot
what it was called Anyway, it is a nice addition to his qrp kits. I
got in bed late that night, I did sleep this time. When I woke up to
the smell of coffee and breakfast, I remembered that we where going
home today. I ate then ran off to the venders again to see if there
was and last minutes deal. There where auctioning junk, but I did not
want anything up there, well because it was all junk! We got all
packed and sat down to eat lunch before we headed off.
Gale sat
with us eating his lunch. After that we got to talking with: Dave,
Phil, Gale and Doug. It was good to have a nice long chat before we
left. On the way home I slept 1/3 of the way or so. When Bill saw my
eyes go down he
would swerve the car, and my head would hit the
window! I am still trying to get him back for that! All in all
Tuthill 2003 was the best hamfest I had every gone to, despite the
rain and lack of people.
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