THE CW TENT:
Who said CW's dead, just because we are operating from a funeral home tent?


Well, here are the Western Union Operators.  Who said CW's dead just because its main operation is in a Funeral Home tent at this field day?  Actually, CW contacts were made at all the locations, including one on six meters at the main shelter.  Thanks to Don, KN4M, for getting the table and the tent and having it set up out in the field where all the antennas would fit well.  It is amazing that it didn't blow away during the night when the winds really kicked up.   Thanks to Tim, KU4YY, for the great canvas surplus floor that just fit and kept all the varmits off.  

Johnny, K4FDK, is responsible for this setup, with a great portable dipole setup that you can see just to the right of the tent, consisting of an aluminum/pvc telescoping homebrew mast, which held the coax cables for each band through the center, and out to eyelets on the top pvc pieces, where the dipoles also helped to serve as guys to hold the whole thing up.  Dipoles are attached for 80, 40, and 20 meters, with the forty meter dipole doing double duty on 15 meters.


 
Here's part of the CW crew, with the main man, Johnny, K4FDK, at the right at the controls of the Kenwood and the computer.  At the left is John, K4EEN, and in the middle, John, K4AVX.  The computer logging using a program new to this field day group was easy after a few minutes of practice, and the programmable keyer made contacts easy.  The Kenwood dredged them out of the many, many layers, and we were even able to hold a frequency for about an hour once and call CQ to get the other ops who were mostly hunt and pouncers.
In the distance at the top is the main shelter, with food, refreshments, 5000 twinkies, and all that.  Quite a hike at 2 AM.



More pictures of the CW Tent soon.....

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Revised July 14, 2000.