Sunday, June 29, 2014

Field Day 2014 Report



This year's field day activities varied quite a bit from the original plan.  I had planned on playing radio with a couple of other HAMS at a local park, utilizing my trailer, and a couple of our ten-tec radios.  Due to some issues with the park space, we were forced to scrap those plans.  Without any place to put the camper, we joined up with the local ARC group's Field day at the Johnson County Emergency Operations Center.



Field Day had to take a delayed start for me, as I had some baseball league trophies to hand out, and a couple of pies to take in the face.  See below.






N9AWM taking a pie in the face!

The kids had a great season, and for the first time in a few years, we actually had some great weather on closing day!  The kids had a great time getting to pie me in the face, jump in bounce houses, as well as having their faces painted and caricatures drawn.



But once that was over, it was time to head down to the EOC.  My dad (KB9BVN) and I were elected the chef's for the event, so a quick run to the store was in order.  We picked up enough hot dogs and chips to feed a small army of field day amateur radio operators.



With gas grill in hand, and all the provisions, we made way to the WA9RDF station setup at the Johnson County Emergency Operations Center located at the Sheriff's department.    The group had 4 stations up and running on the air, setting us up as a "4F Indiana" exchange.  On the air we had had a TenTec Scout, an Icom 710 and 718, and a Yaesu 857.  Throughout the night and next day we had close to 30 amateur radio operators as well as other visitors to our station.  All together I believe we landed close to 250 or so QSOs, and I think I logged about 25 of them myself.  It was a great time this year, and the first time that I had ever done field day with the club.




My daughter getting some air time on field day.



Here one of my kiddos got a chance to warm up the microphone.  Not only did she bring in a couple of Field Day QSOs, she had a great time, and now wants to get her Ham license just like her mom and dad!



My wife also got a chance to work out on her first ARRL Field Day event, and got a real taste of high stakes contesting!  Since passing her ham exam, she's had several repeater based VHF QSOs, but has really enjoyed listening to HF with me on my QTH radio, a Ten Tec Jupiter.  Upon putting the cans on during field day, she was blown away by the number of concurrent QSOs. ARRL Field Day 2014 will go down in my log as one of my favorite, as the whole family was involved, and got a chance to make several QSOs during the contest period.  Special thanks to the Midstate Amateur Radio Club for having such a fine station available to its members.



73s de N9AWM

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