[GCARC] Field Day Results - please check

[Jim Wright]

Good morning GCARC!

Our Field day 2019 scores are in!
Our "unofficial" score data, with required evidence for bonus points has
now been tabulated, and will be on its way electronically to the ARRL
shortly.

So, how did we do?
MUCH better than expected!

This past weekend was Field Day weekend, which turned out to be a beautiful
pair of sunny days, with the public relations bonus of a wine festival with
music going on out at the fairgrounds concurrently on Saturday!

Massive kudos to the 42+ participants counted that came out to participate
in field day this year. From just visiting, to helping with setup, to food
prep, to public relations and public info table, to the challenges of 24
hours operating, and bonus points chasing, to tear down, and scores
collection, yes, every field day has its challenges, but that's part of the
adventure of trying to operate this event portable in the field under less
than ideal operating conditions. In the end, it was a great weather
weekend, and your club did quite well, and had lots of fun while doing it
at the same time!

Your club operated as "6A" this year, meaning we were set up portable in
the fields around our clubhouse using "off the grid" power with ability to
have 6 radios transmitting on the air simultaneously across multiple bands
and in multiple modes at up to 150 watts each, enabling a power multiplier
on our overall score of 2x.

Additionally, Jon WB2MNF's team had a dedicated station set up for making a
Satellite QSO, and Herb KT2Y's team had another radio set up exclusively
for making at least five VHF contacts using alternative solar power for
bonus points credits, as permitted by the field day rules.  Both of these
stations were successful in achieving their bonus point objectives, which,
in addition to other bonus point opportunities we capitalized on, including
100% emergency power, media publicity, set up in public place, information
booth, NTS message to SEC, site visited by served agency representative,
social media bonus, safety officer bonus, and electronic scores submission,
combined to net us over 1500 bonus points for our club this year!  Not bad!

As for operating, there were reports that the lower bands had a very high
noise floor during the daylight hours, making copy difficult.  But our team
kept after it!

Showing great adaptability, Tony WA2FZB's CW ops team on 80 meters adjusted
their strategy, and ventured up to try 15 meters, which turned out to be
open! This resulted in lots more contacts on that band, compared to last
year, and close to 600 total CW contacts from just this one station.  An
amazing effort!

On 40 phone, run rates jumped way up, starting around sunset, and things
became real fun.  I was monitoring Vinnie N4NYY's frequency and could hear
the excitement in his voice as he worked the pile-up, one after another, at
one time jubilantly blurting out "I can hear!".

Jim KA2OSV's team had similar experience on 80 meters, and in friendly
competition, after duplicates removed, was able to beat out the 40 meter
SSB (Phone) team's QSO score by the smallest of margins (a mere 18 contacts
better!) .

Mark KK2L's log showed some flexibility too, changing tactics to log a few
digital contacts, in addition to SSB contacts, to try and up our overall
points score. This is despite reports of Murphy having paid his primary
antenna a visit earlier in the day (you know him, from Murphy's law fame) -
"I don't want talk about it".

On Sheldon K2MEN's 40 CW team, goings were a bit rough too, you can see in
the log, but even with a minimally staffed "night crew", the total QSO
count was still impressive, at over 500. Way to go!

But when it comes to raw QSO power on one band in one mode, hat's off to
the 20 meter CW team of Merrill Brown (WK2G) and Willie (WA2DUV).  This
team managed to top last year's already impressive total of 836 contacts,
by scoring over 900 QSOs on 20 CW this year! WOW!  Awesome given the
conditions! Way to go you two!

Some other fun facts:
We had contacts to 49 of the 50 states, including a half dozen contacts to
Hawaii, and one to Alaska.  The only state missing from our combined log
was Nevada.  Really?
As in previous years, states where we had over 100 each included OH, PA,
VA, FL, NY, NC, IL, and TX.
Internationally, we had contacts with Canada, US Virgin Islands, Federal
Republic of Germany, Puerto Rico, Italy, Mexico, and Serbia.

So, what's the grand total?
How did this year compare with 2017, a year when we also operated as 6A?
You'll just have to come out to the July club meeting to find out!

Way to go GCARC!