Outdoor Adventure USA

Our Field Day / Summer Fest was a success. The net this week will be a recap of the event and a chance for any other Field Day contesters to let us know about your event. Here's your chance to share your successes, clever ideas, and comments regarding Field Day.

Field Day is sponsored by the ARRL (the National Association for Amateur Radio) and is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. Each year tens of thousands of amateurs gather with their clubs, friends or simply by themselves to operate.

The event is not a fully adjudicated contest, which explains much of its popularity. It is a time where many aspects of Amateur Radio come together to highlight its many roles. While some treat it as a contest, most groups use the opportunity to practice their emergency response capabilities. It is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate Amateur Radio to local elected community leaders, key individuals with the organizations that Amateur Radio might serve in an emergency, as well as the general public. For many clubs, ARRL Field Day is one of the highlights of their annual calendar.

Additionally, Field Day is an opportunity to develop an interest in Amateur radio by encouraging both hams and non Hams to get on the air to make contacts and actually experience the unique communication capabilities of Amateur Radio.

Posted below are some pictures of the OAUSA Field Day. We would like to see how others participated as well.

On Saturday evening we held our pot luck dinner. I would say no one left hungry when we have Dutch ovens at work.
This was actually breakfast Sunday morning made in the Dutch Oven.

Field Day, for us, is much more than the competition of making contacts, although that is important. It is a chance to get away from the daily grind and spend 3 days in the high mountains with friends.

At 7,500 feet, the weather was at least 20-30 degrees cooler than the valleys and deserts below. As we usually do, we checked the weather reports a day or two before the beginning of the trip and all looked well. In an unusual twist, the weather man was wrong!! During the evening of the 24 hours of Field Day, we received on and off rain which was enough on at least three occasions, for us to shut down the radios until it stopped. Fortunately, we were able to protect the radios and other electronic gear under the waterproof pop-up.

Food, as usual, was was top drawer. Friday evening was Beef Stroganoff, Saturday evening was Lasagna and breakfast included a huge pan of Cinnabons. Bruce managed to put his solar oven into duty for a great batch of brownies. Eric offered up a huge Dutch oven of fresh baked cornbread with ham. Every dinner was started with a great selection of appetizers and fine wines.

Actual Field Day competition was not difficult, especially at 7,500 feet. We managed to make a lot of contacts and introduce some new members to the world of HF and VHF.

Field Day Operations

VHF SSB Operations HF Operations VHF Shack Camp was comfortable. We lacked none of the comforts of home including showers and well equipped kitchens.

Camp

KK6CTT Internet Net check-in please.

I spent my Field Day 2015 co-located with the Riverside County Amateur Radio Association (RCARA) and the Riverside FD CERT group at Martha Mclean Park, Anza Narrows, Riverside, CA. KK6CTX, Marlene from the RCARA club exhausted a lot of Ham power writing letters and inviting dignitaries to the event. She did an awesome job of bringing things together. Behind every successful event there has to be a leader and Marlene was that pivotal entity. Here are couple of the items on the front end that really showed the tireless efforts of our FD 2015 Leader:

1. Letter from Mayor of Riverside "Rusty Bailey."
2. Nice announcement in the Press Enterprise.

More to follow.

Phase two of the operation required a small security detail, classes, radio/antenna setup, power systems, computers all the things that come together (at the last minute of course). Items of note from my perspective:

1. Riverside CERT had a class that addressed "emergency radio use." From cell phones to over the horizon communications. The good, the bad and the ugly.
2. Honeyville Farms was onsite and provided samples of their dehydrated food and had a nice display of their wares.
3. I fielded my VHF/UHF communication field box for the first time and enjoyed bringing out a lot of other items for emergency preparedness display.
4. RCARA/contesters had a lot of folks stop in and ask questions about radios and communication.
5. The Boy Scouts work on their communication merit badge.
6. Cooked a little something using the two Dutch oven setup.

All in all, it was a great event and I wouldn't mind doing this more than once a year!

Announcements of upcoming events in the SOCAL area:

-Appleseed Project (Burro Canyon): http://appleseedinfo.org/search-states- ... event=3483
-Youth Safari Day (Raahauge's, Corona): http://youthsafariday.com/
-DFW formally known as DFG Official Hunter Safety Education Course: http://www.hunter-ed.com/california/
-Resident course to complete safety course requirements: http://www.turners.com/info/training-courses

I encourage everyone to look at these events and others like it; coach, teach and mentor a new or potential outdoor person this year!

KevinS (KD0VHD)sent us some pictures of his Field Day operation at Kenosha Pass, Colorado, elevation 10,100' . Very nice set-up Kevin. Thanks for letting us know about your Field Day!!!

Hi Dave,

Greg Watkins here, I am trying to figure out how to introduce myself on the new members page. Also seen someone said they signed up for the borrego fest do you do that on the web site?

Gdubya wrote:Hi Dave,

Greg Watkins here, I am trying to figure out how to introduce myself on the new members page. Also seen someone said they signed up for the borrego fest do you do that on the web site?

Greg -

Welcome to OAUSA, Greg !!!

You can start a new thread at http://oausa.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=122

BorregoFest sign-ups will be available on this forum (usually through the home page to make access easier) closer to the event date - so keep a look out for it.

The 2015 OAUSA Summerfest / Field Day has come to an end - and it was, for me, a fantastic weekend with a great group of people.

While we usually have a larger turn-out, and a few trail runs, this year was more of a focus on Amateur radio and the national Field Day event. The location was a beautiful spot in the Los Padres National Forest, at about 7500 feet - great views, and hopefully, great radio propagation. We set up 4 stations, but due to weather issues, and a definite issue with propagation on some bands, we ended up focusing on one band for most of the 24 hour contest period. The temperatures stayed mild, but we did manage to get rained on several times over those 24 hours, and that led to many instances of scrambling to cover a lot of expensive, water-sensitive equipment - all while trying to maintain radio communications with the rest of the U and Canada - no easy task, but definitely an adventure. Special thanks to Eric Augustine, and Hector Figueroa, who manned the radios with me through some of the more challenging times

Add to this Dutch Oven dinner on Saturday night, wine-tasting, great conversations, and stunning views of the mountains and the stars, and it added up to another OAUSA weekend to remember.