Field Day June 25 and 26
From The WB7TJD Wiki
ARRL Field Day June 25 and 26, 2011 WB7TJD 4A AZ Here is the latest video from Field Day, shot by Jeff, K2DFE:
Contents |
Field Day outcome
We had a blast! (Not really -- it was just a tripped ground-fault interrupt breaker!) See, Larry fired up on 80 meters and the power went off. Jerry heard a ZAP sound from under the door step or thereabouts inside the motor home, and the 120 volts was dead. The generator was running but there was no voltage. So come morning we found where the breaker was located and that resolved everything.
Before the power went off at the motor home, Larry was over at Jeff's station, where he had been working SSB on 40 meters. Larry brought over the paddle and hooked it to Jeff's IC-7000, which has a built-in keyer. The keyer, however was set for 20 words per minute and there was no apparent way to adjust that speed, or if there was, it wasn't labeled as such a control. So we elected to use the paddle as a straight key.
Jeff was impressed at how much less noise was on the band down in the CW spectrum, and did some logging as Larry called out the call signs and reports. What usually happens when Larry is doing his own logging, is a call sign comes in in response to a CQ, the exchaqnge is made and sometimes when Larry has a chance to write it in the log, what was that call again??? that station is long gone.
Meanwhile, back at the motor home, Jerry was working 20, and he had bogs crawling all over everything and flying everywhere. It was then that Larry returned and gave Jerry a relief, and with all the bugs and insects buzzing around his table, Jerry decided to call it a night, and then was when Larry went on 80 and kicked off the power.
Next morning, we found the cause of all the bugs around the table -- Duke, Jerry's and Ellen's pet, had left a dogpile under the table!
Temperatures from 81 degrees to 50 overnight, really a cool place to hang out and experiment on the radio.
Everyone there was equipped with Anderson PowerPoles for power supply hookups except for me, and I have ordered a set of PowerPole connectors to fix that issue. The "Power Werx" site provides more information on these connectors.
The club provided the hot dogs and hamburgers, and the weather was great. Jerry, K7AZJ, and Ellen, Judy,K7JLF and Tony, K7AJF, Jeff, K2DFE and his family, and Larry, WB7C spent the weekend, while Dick, K2LCT came up and set up a 6-meter beam and worked a bunch on the Magic Band. Larry ran a bunch of CW, but but having his station set up alongside of Jerry, K7AZJ, tended to interfere with Jerry's reception, so we wound up taking shifts, and when Dick arrived with a fifth transmitter, our taking shifts kept us within the 4A category.
Larry will be better prepared with a decent antenna to throw up next year, say, an inverted vee or dipole, maybe a sloper.
Larry had supposed that we were going to be using the Mount Ord 147.36 repeater on the way up, and indeed, Jerry put on the Mount Ord repeater. Larry called Jeff on Jerry's radio all the way up there, and we never heard Jeff. Jeff called Larry all the way up and never heard Larry. As it turns out, Jerry's radio says "ORD" in the frequency display instead of frequency, and we were on the 146.92 Mt Ord.
Scientific Experiment (Don't try this at home!)
Larry brought upm a bottle of mouthwash, last opened at 1500 feet above sea level. For some reason, there was some air that wanted out at 7000 feet, then for some reason, again at 1500 feet there was some air that wanted in! There is indeed less air pressure a mile higher above sea level!
A word about the DIRECTIONS for consideration next year
For a Google map and driving directions from your place, go to maps.google.com and enter this search term:
N34 26 22 W111 23 10
Directions
On State Route 87, from Bush Highway, it is just over 81 miles, with 30 miles to go at the north end of Payson. Just about 2.5 miles past Zane Grey Highway (260) which goes off left, we arrive at milepost 281, and just after it is the FR 300 off to the right. We are in the pine forests at 7000 feet.
We propose to be in this area next year, conditions permitting.
Some video from the event
Jeff, K2DFE shot some video during Field Day and that will be posted once I receive it and have the time to upload it. That video will appear here.
Pictures before the event
This part was written up before the event took place.
Jerry sent up some pictures, and the first two show up as signs on FR 300 pointing to 218A and on 218A pointing to Milk Ranch Point Road.
Jeff, K2DFE shot this video of the area, as well!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVEcD79a_iE
PBS NewsHour OnLine Coverage of Field Day
See this ham radio coverage on pbs.org.
Sidebar: "Strategize"
Hmm. Sidebar note, I used the word "strategize" in an earlier version of this page, and found that my spell checker does not know the word "strategize." Google shows the Dictionary.com definition as:
strat·e·gize/ˈstratəˌjīz/
Verb: Devise a strategy or strategies.
And, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why you cannot just depend on your computer to think for you in school. You must know your stuff and be able to think independently of the information found on your computer. That computer is only as smart as the dummy who wrote the software!
PLEASE contact the Web Site Admin
found on Our Contact Page.
Your help is greatly appreciated!