These are a selection of about 40 photos taken. [ See Gordon, VA7XG for more }
The end of the first day, Friday June 27th saw two antennas rigged to trees and two mounted on the remarkable climbable, extendible tower (aka ladder). Tree rigging was simplified by efforts the previous week, of deadeye Dick (aka Frank) and his slingshot.
With a G5RV, a three band yagi, a delta loop and a 40/80 metre inverted “V”,we were well equipped to saturate the airwaves (including the humans, miniature horses, chickens and sundry other animals) with RF of all descriptions (the real but seldom discussed purpose of FD) Three operating positions were set up in the spacious and comfortable hay barn/dance hall on the Reedel Ranch with enough batteries to power Parksville for a week and a networked computer logging program only recently discarded by NASA.
Promptly at 11:00 am (18:00 Z), all stations began to operate. We responded in three modes- digital, CW and SSB to the fairly limited number of CQs that current propagation allowed and soon had amassed a reasonable number of contacts.
Twenty metres remained open for most of the day with 40 not bad in the early evening as might be expected. Lawrence’s red eyes attested to the fact that the 80 metre band yielded contacts well into the wee small hours of the morning- in fact Roger and he passed each other as Lawrence retired and Roger walked to his station for the early morning shift around 5:00am. Erecting the Club shelter was an event worthy of mention in that it provided much needed comic relief. Swinging pipes narrowly missed unprotected heads (Lawrence, obviously more cognizant of industrial hazards and no doubt more aware of the skill level of the team, wore a hard hat). When we proudly viewed the final product it became apparent that the tent didn’t look quite as the manufacturer had intended- the structure was now curved, boomerang style- a vast improvement in aesthetics but not too functional. No one listened to Ben as he made a plea to look at the instructions. “What for?” chorused the group. There have been several offers for film rights for the event (for the Comedy Channel). What made it all worthwhile though was the fact that absolutely nobody- except the erection crew- stepped inside the structure during the entire Field Day event! A fourth antenna, an all band vertical was mounted on the roof of the Reedel barn- best ground plane this side Yankee Stadium- in an attempt to reduce the cross band interference inevitable during multistation events (vertical vs horizontal polarization)- with some success. < Food was served to all in attendance at noon on Friday and again on Saturday and featured gourmet burgers and dogs. Such was the culinary experience and the dispatch with which it was executed that Norm, Al and apprentice Doug have agreed to do something similar at all future club meetings (as part of the program no doubt). Norm reports that there were 15/22/14 in attendance on the respective three days. Cost of food and drink services about $125- a bargain! Care to buy my groceries for me Norm? If success is to be gauged by preparation, participation, willingness to take on tasks and dispense with them in a professional manner and the amount of just plain fun, then this Field Day was right up there with the best of them. For next year we will explore methods of reducing intra-site interference (filters, attenuating stubs, etc) Richard and I wish to thank all who operated stations and attended the event and especially those who “volunteered” to head up the various preparatory stages- antennas Frank, technical supervision Lawrence and Richard, food Norm and Al, scheduling Doug, equipment Roger, photography Ben, signs and maps Ted, logging and submission of results Len. Special thanks to Richard for hosting the event and to his family for suffering the invasion. The site provided great accommodation and the hospitality was flawless! Thanks to those who made suggestions for a different, unique field day- your ideas paid off in spades. Len will advise members of our actual score in due course but it will certainly exceed the previous year’s by a considerable margin.
Created 1 Jul 2003 for the Mid Island Radio Association by Frank Gibbons - VE7DSN
Revised 16 Jul 2005 by Frank Gibbons VE7DSN