Field Day 2021

[ad4mg]

Field Day is here (June 26-27). I am going to try to find a local group and see about running some CW on 40 or 80, if time permits.

It sure would be nice if you guys and gals offered some info and maybe photos on your Field Day 2021 activities!

[WZ7U]

Nothing special here, put up a fan dipole for the lulz and running 1E inside for the duration of the regional record heat. Azimuth N through SE is a challenge for any signals not on a steep path in so I don't expect much for score in the non-contest contest.

[KG4CGC]

Ah crap I wish I prepared for this.

[W3WN]

I was out at W3D for setup and a good bit of yesterday evening. Had a great time with the gang, even though I didn't end up operating at all.

For good reason... others, especially some who aren't all that active, were QRV and having a blast. So no problem.

Now... when I was back in the evening, there was a guest who stopped by, running 40 SSB like he's been doing contests for 30 years.

Meet Max KO4EZO

He's 11.

He, his younger sister, and his mom were visiting his grandfather (whose call I can't remember offhand), one of the few remaining members of the old (now defunct) South Hills Brasspounders & Modulators. Gramps took them out to our FD because one of our members is Larry K3VX, also a Brasspounder.

Max kept stopping and apologizing for hogging the rig. Are you kidding? We kept telling him not to worry about it (we were 4A, actually could have been 6A if we'd had more antennas up), just have fun. And he did!

Needless to say, Max in action is the cover photo for this month's newsletter! (And in case anyone wonders, yes, I asked his mom for permission, and got it)

[KC9ECI]

Camped on Goose Island south of La Crosse, WI. Took a radio and a couple antennas and never set anything up or even made a single Q. Couple of the other guys I hang with made a few. It rained like hell, the campsite was flooded. I did a couple pork tenderloins on the smoker and sat under the canopy and enjoyed a variety of adult beverages.

[N8YX]

The area 10M crowd set up a 2A + GOTA station at a member's woods property. He bought a run-down house with garage and close to 30 acres, fixed up the house to be a usable FD site and everyone had at it. I helped rig antennas then headed out to set my operation up.

That was a patio tabletop-sited IC-703+ running off battery power. Antenna was a dipole fed from RG-174 - the setup is part of a Cubic Astro Diplomat package and the wires, coax, insulators et al pack up rather small. I managed to get the entire station into a Targus laptop PC carrying case, which fit snugly into the trunk of my Concours 14.

Give the fact I couldn't get the antenna very high in the air, QSOs were limited. Still happy to work TX and FL running 5w PEP into a marginal aerial.

[W3WN]

Just published my club’s July newsletter, with lots of FD pictures.

Give our webmaster a day or three to post it on the n3sh.org website. Or get me an e-mail and I’ll send you the PDF (it’s about 6 MB in size)