Field Day is Comming!

[SteeevO]

I was thinking maybe we can get a holf of the San Bernardino NF to see if we can do field day at squints ranch which is east of lake silverwood. it's up on a hill top has plenty of room up there.. i don't know what the land is used foe but it's worth a shot.

If this happens I REALLY wanna build a GIANT wire beam for 80M suspended from the trees....

[kd6ddm]

I have always enjoyed the camping out combined with Field Day. Over the years I have seen some inovative was of putting up wire antennas. Such as one year the B.O.M.B. sqaud used helium ballons with a 100 foot lentgh of wire. Another year one of the guys brought a potato gun, that we shot fishing line and pulled the wire through the trees. I think Famcomm has a location already and it sounds to be really cool. More information to come soon.

KD6DDM

[Brucek]

I totally agree with DDM. No point in not enjoying an evening under the stars as long as we're there. Everyone could bring individual food or pot luck items. We can make a cooking and camp fire for everyone's use. Silverwood is an excellent spot for it and I know a fun little 4x trail that has bypasses for the rocky sections that could be available for alternative entertainment. I heard of someone calling these events "antennas in the ........" Woods, trees, whatever so as to not be confused with a repeater system sponsered "field day".

[OLLIE]

There are a few good trails near that there Silverwood lake. My first "Antennas in the..." Wheelin' and RagChew... Can't think of a lot of things I'd rather do.

[SteeevO]

Even Suspending a massive antenna with balloons would be cool too.... how tall you think we could go? think we could load 160 at night with a setup slike that?

[David]

This is a great idea. Someone that knows the area should take the lead and we can get it organized.

David
KZ6N

[FJ-Piper]

Antenna floating from helium baloons can be very problematic and unpredictable.

1. Winds, often present at high altitudes could have some impact on the direction and slope of the wire.

2. static electricity will build up on the wire due to wind and needs to be continually discharged through some sort of bleeding circuit.

3. The results may not be that good either as this is essentially a vertical polarized antenna and most other ham stations will be running beams or dipoles on field day which are horizontally polarized.


I have had a great deal of success in past field days running almost a full 500' spool of #12 THHN Stranded supported from a tree on one end and the other end to a 30' telescopic antenna mast that bolted to a bike rack on my old 4-Runner.

Just my .02

[hmfigueroa]

Did anyone ever take up the banner on Field Day?

I havent't heard anything, it would be nice but, man I have been way too busy these last few weeks to plan anything.

[KB6SRT]

Hey! Did you get to do Field Day 2008? Not me. Too much on the proverbial plate. But to make up for it next year, we'd like to do something for Fam-Comm and OAUSA together so we can really be creative. Sometimes simpler is better (KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid rule) applies when you are starting off for the first time together. I have been Field Day Chairman for several groups and I have seen some real incredible teamwork and the annual event has turned into a tradition for some groups, just because they all worked well and helped eachother out.

2009 could be one of those years for us if you all want to start by taking inventory of what sort of radios you have for field day and which antennas you can drag out and setup there. Then the power source and tables, chairs, tents to operate from. Then, How will food be handled? Will there be a dedicated team just for food (excellent idea) and of course the set-up and tear-down crews. Because if you've ever participated in a field day event, you KNOW that at the end of it all, the LAST thing you want to do is tear down your station. At least not by yourself. Plum tired and groggy!

So, you see all these elements come together under team leaders that are committed to seeing it all happen just like the plan (or darn close to it). If we have a handful of offroad enthusiasts that want to try field day, I can guaranty you 1 thing, you will have the time of your life doing it out in the wilderness as a group. From all the research I have done, I don't know of an offroad group that does field day (that I know of). What do ya' say we be one of the first- or the biggest? Let's shoot for 2009! I'd love to be part of that!

[toms]

Hey Mark,
I did Field Day and made 20 contacts on 20 meters. I had my son N8MS who is an Extra sitting next to me. I participated with my son's club - Blossomland Amateur radio Association. Their web site is http://www.blossomlandara.org/. I was visiting my son for a week leading up to the July 4th celebration. He lives in south west Michigan. The club set up their field day on a farm in Watervliet, Berrien County, Michigan - EN62. The club call sign is W8MAI. They set up 4 towers with all kinds of antennas, also ran an 80 meter loop on the towers and set up 2 dipoles (40 m and 80m). Their class is 2A. They had one station dedicated to code and another working HF on the club call sign. They also had a GOTA station.
I worked about an hour from 9pm to 10 pm Eastern time. In the first 50 minutes we were flipping the dial and responding to strong stations. I made 10 contacts. Then we heard K6RH Rolling Hills, CA calling CQ. Since they are in my back yard our here I stayed with them until I made the contact. And just as soon as we made the contact, K6RH decided to go to supper so we grabbed the frequency and started calling CQ. I make the second 10 contacts in less then 10 minutes. My hour was up so I turned it over.
The club had a pot luck Saturday night and I noticed a few tents set up. Most of the radios were in trailers. The GOTA station was just under a tent fly. They ran the whole thing off a Navy surplus generator that must have been from WWII. It looked like it was driven by a 4 cylinder Automobile engine matched up to a 5KVA generator. They were charging a battery with solar panels for use later to power a radio to make contacts.
They said they were not "gaming" but they sure didn't miss any opportunities to add extra points!

I had a lot of fun.