Field Day... It's Fun!
Welcome to Amateur Radio Field Day
By: John Agrelius, K7HG
Kenwood Amateur Radio Club - W6DJY
Kern River Valley Amateur Radio Club - W6LI
Sierra Amateur Radio Club - WA6YBN
High Desert DX Association - W6EFB
Over the years I've participated in plenty of Field Day events and they've all been fun. In 1996 Field Day took place in the High Sierras, just above Kernville at the Shirley Meadows Ski Resort. Four clubs joined together for the event, the Kenwood ARC from Long Beach, the Kern River Valley ARC from Lake Isabella, the Sierra ARC from Ridgecrest and the High Desert DX Association from the High Mojave Desert. We all used the Kenwood club callsign, WD6DJY and operated 5 transmitters, so we identified as WD6DJY, 5A, SJV (San Joaquin Valley). There were 58 Ham Radio Operators from the four clubs and various other places for this years event. We had 9 Extras, 8 Advanced, 12 Generals, 8 Technician Plus and 21 Technicians. There were antennas all over the place... we had a long wire (over 2,000 ft. long!) for 80 and 160 meters... monobanders for 40, 20, 10, 6 and 2 meters... a tribander for 10-15-20 meters and a 2 meter/70 cm. satellite array. We had people operating from tents, motorhomes, vans, campers and anywhere else they could sit down. It was great... there must have been at least 100 people up there on Saturday. There was plenty of food and drink to go around and we even had a big tri-tip BBQ Saturday for dinner. Lots of people were kept busy operating around the clock. I guess being up above 7,000 feet is band opener. Anyway, I don't know how many total contacts we all made but it was one busy Field Day.
This is a view of the Field Day site. You can see the 5 element 20 meter beam in the foreground on the tower and the 2 element 40 meter monster on the left. There's also a 7 element 6 meter beam just behind the tower. As you can see, we had quite an antenna farm. The tent and van in the foreground on the left was used for 20 meters. The big motorhome you can see just behind the tent was used for 40 meters. In the middle of the picture, just below that big red roof is where JR and I were camping... We operated 10 meters. We also had 6 meters, 2 meters and 70 cm. in our tent. On the right, you can see a van with a canopy attached... that's the 80 & 160 meter site.
