Field Day 1999


We had a such great time at Field Day last year ('98) in the mountains of western Maryland that we did it again this year! We were once again in the Green Ridge State Forest (site 57D). What's Field Day?

We operated as K1RA with the following people:
    Andy K1RA,
    Chris N3XRV,
    Jon KD3FG,
    Ken N3FZX, &
    Patty KB3CTO
K1RA

We were 2A with an Icom 706, an Icom 735, and an Alinco DX-70T for the novice/tech station. We also dabbled with satellite operations and 6m a bit. We used wire antennas (a couple G5RV's, a 10m dipole, a really nice 80m full-wave wire loop, and a homebrew wire beam).

This year, it was HOT HOT HOT with some humidity thrown in! The gnats almost drove us nuts!

Thanks to Patty for taking many pictures with my camera. (I am actually in some pictures this year!)

PortaPotty ready!

All the amenities of home

The potty and shower gave some comfort in our primitive campsite.
Very refreshing!

"I hear myself through the satellite!"

Ken makes a contact through AO-27 Saturday morning. He is using a 2m/440 (VHF/UHF) handheld transceiver with an Arrow dual-band satellite antenna. The setup works!
N3FZX portable satellite station
Up pretty high

Get those antennas up!

(left) Ken and I help raise the 80m full-wave loop. (right) Andy throws a soda bottle into a tree to get a wire over a high branch.
Andy throws
Knot demonstration

The antennas take shape

(left) Ken shows how to tie a real knot. (right) The loop feedpoint gets soldered onto some 450 ohm ladder line.
Attaching feedline

The 20m beam goes up

Chris, Andy, and I work on getting the 20 meter beam in the air. (I must confess to being dissapointed with the beam's performance compared to the full-wave loop. The 280 ft loop just performed so much better!)
Working on the 20m beam
K1RA Ready to go!

Man your stations!

Andy slides into an operating tent while Ken works other Novice/Techs.
N/T+ Station
SSB operations

On the air!

Here I am operating 15m SSB on Saturday afternoon. I had to time my calls to be able to eat grapes while operating!

Solar operations

Ken, Andy, & Chris attempt to make 5 contacts using solar power on VHF FM. They made 3 and we picked up 2 on HF with a QRP rig (Sierra).
Solar operations
CW night operations

Early evening CW operating

I operated on 40m CW Saturday evening. The band was hopping!

What a view!

Andy took a few shots and melded them together to make this nice pararamic view.
View from the ridge
The K1RA FD Operators

The Gang

Here we all are -- still smiling after 24 hours of Field Day! (Not to mention the heat and gnats!)


See more pictures on Andy's site

The Score:

BAND   CW QSO  CW QSO PTS   SSB QSO  SSB QSO PTS
160        0       0             0       0
 80      124     496           100     200
80N        0       0             0       0
 40      265    1060           121     242
40N        3      12             0       0
 20       53     212            65     130
 15       50     200            52     104
15N        0       0             0       0
 10        6      24            20      40
10N        0       0             9      18
  6        0       0            27      54
  2        0       0             2       4
222        0       0             0       0
432        0       0             0       0
1.2        0       0             0       0
SAT        1       4             0       0
PKT        0       0             0       0
--------------------------------------------
               502 CW + 396 SSB  = 898 Total QSO

BONUS:

100% Emergency power for 2a		200 pts
Green Ridge Park, MD P.R.		100 pts

Satellite QSO				100 pts
6-26-99 SAT CW 2339z K4CPO  3A TN 

5 Natural Power QSOs (100% solar)	100 pts
6-26-99 144 FM 2056z W3ACH  3A WPA
6-26-99 144 FM 2058z W4IM   2A VA
6-27-99 20  CW 1745z K5OT   1D NTX
6-27-99 20  CW 1747z N5XM   2A AR
6-27-99 20  CW 1752z W4WY   2A GA

SCORE BREAKDOWN:

(502 * 2 [CW QSO PTS] + 396 * 1 [SSB QSO PTS]) * 2 [<100w POWER MULTIPLIER] + 500 BONUS 

= 3,300 TOTAL CLAIMED SCORE