Another Field Come and Gone... Is it 2010 Yet?

That's right Ham fans, another Field Day has come and gone. How did you all do during Field Day? What do you find was the highlight of the day? Well I have to say that the highlights are our day was the opportunity to actually operate during Field Day. You see, last year on field day we were on vacation down in Florida. Needless to say, on Field Day we were on the road headed to New Orleans to see my folks and family and the only radio at my disposal was a Yaesu FT-90r. I had the radio tuned most of the time to 146.520 or 146.550. From time to time I would hear a brief QSO and then it was gone.

Of course, don't forget that we did have our own personal field day prior to going on vacation. 2 weeks before vacation we did go up to the field and set up all the stuff and made a few contacts. That was actually one of the first times I made any HF contacts.

Fast forward to Field Day 2009. This year we brought up the following for our operating situation:
- Yaesu FT-450
- LDG 200AT Pro Auto Tuner
- Power Supply
- Lenovo Net Book for computer logging with N3FJP's Field Day contest log, which we then exported seemlessly into our ACLog.
- A 1800 HP Gas Generator
- ZS6BKV Multi Band Dipole

I think that covers the equipment. Of course we brought snacks, fans, and a percolator for coffee.

Once we arrived and had some hot dogs that we picked up from a convenience store we got to looking around and found that one of the ropes we left up there for the antenna had gone missing. This rope by the way was a bit in the edge of the woods and out of site. The other rope is in plain view so we wondered why they only took the one. Well we assume it must have been hunters. Anyway, we got another rope up in a tree for the operation. This was just a temporary fix. We didn't have the sling shot or a fishing pole so we resorted to tying the rope to a bottle of Gatorade.
It wasn't much longer and we had the equipment set up and we were ready to call CQ. I spent a couple of hours calling and ended up with a total of 60 contacts. Robin (AJ4IJ) worked for just a little bit. She was pretty wore out from running around during the day getting supplies for the evening and getting things ready to go. Ashby (KJ4EGJ) towards the end of our evening finally decided to work some stations and ended up with 16 contacts. I was so proud. Mom (KF4SSI) and Dad (KU4ME) didn't work any. Dad was pretty tired from working on the Jeep all weekend as was I. That's right, we did get the Jeep in running condition. She still needs some work but at least she isn't spewing radiator fluid anymore.
As a final note, Robin had found earlier on QRZ'd that the QSO Radio Show was broadcasting on the air for Field Day and were taking calls from Field Day stations all over the world. Well it was around Midnight when Robin and Dad got the big idea about calling in and handed the phone to me. So I took the cell phone and made the call. I gave them my information and it wasn't long after that they called us back and I was on the air speaking with Ted Randall (WB8PUM) about our setup and our Ham Family. As a matter of fact on Ted Randall's site he has a streaming rebroadcast of the show.
So this year's Field Day was considered a success. We got setup in short order and in total made 82 contacts between us. As I know it, Dad worked some stations the next day but at this time I forget how many he made.

That's all I got for now. Stay tuned as I plan on posting on my contest experience and results over the first year of my Ham life and The First Annual 470 ARG 4th of July QSO Party special event. Until then, 73 and Good DX to all.

Tim - AJ4JD

P.S. You can get another view point on our Field Day adventure over at Robin's Blog.

Our Trusty Side Kick Enjoying Field Day

Robin Enjoying Field Day

Mom (KF4SSI) and Dad (KU4ME) having a blast

The Rope Raiser

Me (AJ4JD) calling CQ

The Net Book with the Beacon of Light
that provided us with Internet access

The Station setup

Ashby (KJ4EGJ) at the helm

Field Day Update and West Virginia QSO Party

Well folks, if you haven't heard then I'll just say this, field day is looking a bit bleak at this time. If you've read the XYL's blog then you know all about it. Otherwise, here it is in a nutshell. Our Jeep is broke and we have no other way of getting up to our beloved field we visit for outdoor ops as well as astronomy operations. It's up on a ridge and requires 4 wheel drive to get up there. With that being the case field day may end up in the back yard or from the comfort of indoors with the fridge around the corner and a bathroom within 4 steps of the shack. Regardless, we will work field day.

On another note, I worked the West Virginia QSO Party for a bit last week. You see, West Virigina, has been one of those elusive states that I have yet to get confirmed for WAS. Well last night I checked my LOTW account and low and behold, I've now got WV confirmed. I only have 3 states left for WAS via LOTW (South Carolina, Nebraska, and Maine). So if you here or see me on the bands and your from either of those states, and have LOTW, please, by all means, give me a call.

Well that's all I've got for now. It's time to get ready to go to that 4 letter word that begins with a 'W'.

73 to all and good DX,
Tim - AJ4JD

Museum Ship Weekend and the Upcoming Field Day

This past weekend was the Museum Ship weekend. I hope everyone got a chance to work the ships. I think that this event is one of my favorites when it comes to special "Get on the Air" events. This event is sponsored by the Battleship New Jersey Radio Station (NJ2BB). There were 85 different ships operating on the bands from Saturday June 6th - Sunday June 7th.

I was able to make contact with about 10 of them. Which was pretty cool as I made contact with some ships I hadn't contacted before (i.e. USS North Carolina, USS Indianapolis, and more). If you made contact with at least 15 ships, then you earned yourself a certificate. All you have to do is mail in your log information. The Battleship New Jersey Radio Station website linked above has all the info on that.

The next big event coming up is Field Day. June 27th - 28th. If you don't know about Field Day, then your either new, or you've been living under a rock, Hi Hi. Anyway this is one of the biggest events of the year. Operators from all over will be out in the field, mobile, or even in the comfort of their home QTH making contacts all over the bands. For more information about Field Day check out the Field Day link above.

We will be up in our Aunt Betty's field operating on the 27th. We plan to be running the Yaesu FT-450 that we went in half with Dad(KU4ME) on. We will have that hooked to the LDG AT200 Pro auto tuner and a ZS6BKV multiband dipole as well as a G5RV antenna, both homebrewed. You can check those out in previous posts of our out in the field experiences: HF in the Field With New Homebrew G5RV and Our Early Field Day.

Anyway, if you are on the air for field day, listen for us and feel free to make contact. Catch you down the log.

73 and good DX,
Tim - AJ4JD

Our Early Field Day

I know, I promised to post sooner than this but I have a very good excuse for waiting this long. I have been studying/cramming all week for my Extra exam. The great news is that all the cramming paid off. I went to the Knoxville Hamfest yesterday with the HAM family and took my Extra exam and passes. That's right I'm now an Extra Class. No more testing for me. Woo Hoo.

Anyway, to the good stuff. As you may or may not know, we decided to do field day early due to the fact we were going to be on vacation during field day. Our Aunt Betty has a huge hayfield up on a ridge behind her house. She lets us use the field to do our astronomy stuff and now our radio stuff too. At the very top of the field the elevation is right around 1400ft. There's nothing up there but hay and trees. There's no electrical or cable lines or anything like that to get in the way.

The view from atop the hayfield

So, on June 14th we got all of our gear packed in the jeep and on our way we went. I was quite surprised that we made it out of here on time, we were actually a few minutes early on our departure (I think that's a record or something). We were up in the field in no time and setting up.

The Field Shack

KJ4DLD in a tangled mess

Field Day Power

KU4ME takes aim.

KJ4EGJ ready for the Antenna to go skyward

We finally got everything setup thanks to the hard work of all of us. If it hadn't been for Robin staying up in the field when I went down to get the rest of the gang, we might have taken longer in getting set up. By the time we got back up there she had the shack set up and the alot of other things. The only thing we had left was to get the antenna up run the power to the generator, get everything squared away, and tune up the radio.

The Ugly Choke

The Antenna at the Feedpoint

KU4ME and KJ4DLD Tune up the radio and Antenna

Tune Up Complete

With the tuning having been completed, it was time to get on the radio and start making contacts. It appeared that the only success we were going to have was on 20 meters. We were actually quite surprised as to how long 20 meters held up. We checked around the other bands that we could tune to but nothing else was really happening so 20 meters it was. We had a blast, we contacted stations in Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, Texas, Hawaii, right here in Tennessee, and Robin even made contact with a station in Australia. One of the stations in Hawaii was the USS Missouri Amateur Radio club station on board the USS Missouri. That was a real neat contact. Anyway we talked well up to 12:30 to 1:00 in the morning before the band finally died out. Mom and Ashby made some contacts on 2 meters with their handy talkies and dad sat around helping us operate the HF rig. All in all we had a wonderful and most enjoyable time. We didn't get home until well after 3:00 in the morning and were beat.

Now for the rest of the pictures.

KJ4EGJ on the HT

KF4SSI Sittin' Pretty

AJ4IJ and KU4ME operational

AJ4IJ Working 20 Meters

Clover aka b3ene

Well that was our field day.

73 de KJ4DLD
Tim

Early Field Day Update

Well everyone, sorry I haven't updated in a few days. However, I promise to have something good this weekend. Right now we are just having our normal night owl QSO on the 145.470 repeater. It's about a nightly ritual now that lasts well until 2:30 am or more. If your ever in the area tune in a drop in.
Tomorrow we are going up to the field to have our early field day. We had to postpone last weekend due to weather and the fact that the field hadn't been cut. However, tomorrow we are going to take our home brewed ZS6BKV multi-band HF antenna. We will definitely be taking plenty of pictures so be sure to check back soon. We will be operating on Dad's (KU4ME) ICom 756 Pro HF Rig.
Well I don't have much more to say at the moment. I will let this rest for the moment and I will update after our adventures tomorrow.

73 de KJ4DLD
Tim