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ZL1WAL
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Field Day came and went before anyone could bat an eye. A lot of credit goes to Gwynne, ZL1AAR who without his
notes and forethought, it would have been difficult. I stepped up at the beginning of February to help with FD after
Gwynne had broken a leg. (I guess he took the old saying a bit too seriously, Hi Hi). Gwynne happily handed his notes
over and the pre-planning began.
A site survey took place on Saturday, 18 February at 10:00 AM with Wallace ZL1WAL, Ray ZL1AJR, James ZL1KNI,
Japie ZL1JNN, and Wes ZL3TE present. We discussed station locations, antennas, which ones to use, where to place
them, how to mount them, etc. Quite a bit was accomplished by the time I had to depart a few hours later. The rest of
the team stayed until 4:00 PM.
Saturday, 25 February arrives, and a group converged on the operating site to put everything into motion. The set up
team of Wallace ZL1WAL, Giovanni ZL1BRA, Japie ZL1JJN, James ZL1KNI, Ray ZL1AJR, Paul ZL1AJY, Ian
ZL2ATD and Wes ZL3TE all went to work. Tents went up, generator placed, AC Mains run to tents, and stations
started to be assembled. It was all working to plan. Selwyn ZL1BRC and Steve ZL2FS stopped by for a while to observe
and provide input, which is always appreciated.
The 80 M team had the usual suspects, Ray ZL1AJR, Ian ZL2ATD, Japie ZL1JJN, and Andrei ZL1TM., while over on
40 M, James ZL1KNI, Wallace ZL1WAL and Wes ZL3TE kept things going, with guest appearances by Ray ZL1AJR
and Japie ZL1JJN, sneaking in a few SSB Sessions. I suspect they were checking up on us.
Both stations were very close in the number of contacts each made on SSB and CW. There are more Branch / Home
stations on 80 M than on 40 M, and fewer stations operating CW this year. The antennas chosen worked very well, and
were able to maintain consistent communications with all areas throughout the weekend. 80 M seemed to fall a little
short in some areas, but we will hopefully address that next year.
Without giving too much away to the competition, we went with simple wire antennas, some that our HF Guru Selwyn
ZL1BRC had made. He gave excellent advice about them. Rigs used were TS-870D on 80 CW: FT-1000MP on 80
SSB; IC-756 Pro II on 40M SSB; and FT-1000MP on 40 M CW. Computer logging was used to aid compile the results.
But, we could not have maintained our on-air presence without the support of Steve, ZL1FS and Christine, who kept the
troops fed and watered.
After the festivities were done and the last station logged, it all came down. Oddly enough, it comes down easier than
going up. The tear down crew consisted of the same set up crew with Andrei, ZL1TM, rounding out the lot.
Everything is now in the hands of Gwynne, ZL1AAR to submit our logs. Initial results look good, VERY GOOD, so a
Big Thanks to everyone involved. Let�s start looking towards next year�s Jock White Field Day on 23 / 24 Feb, 2013.
de Wes, W3SE / ZL3TE
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