[HCARC] Winter Field Day

Mon Jan 26 18:22:09 EST 2015

"
I THINK YOU NEED TO COMPLETELY RETHINK TRYING TO MAKE A CONTEST STATION OUT 
OF THE RED CROSS STATION. The antenna situation is limited due to the 
location.  We can hardly set other towers on neighboring properties, etc.
It is primarily meant to support the R.C. with local and regional contacts"

I might accept "WE NEED TO RETHINK" making a contest station out of the Red 
Cross.  Last I checked it was not GARY (although sometimes it feels that 
way) holding Field Day at the RC - I do believe it is the HCARC trying to 
hold Field Day at the RC.  As for erecting antennas on or towers on 
neighboring properties, I do believe that the parking lots behind the RC 
belong to the city and putting up the club tower on a weekend when there are 
no others using it is hardly a problem.  If it is a problem then maybe we 
rethink supporting RC at all.  The club trailer tower does absolutely no 
harm to anything.  The same goes for the trees in the parking lot.  BTW, IF 
ANYONE CARES TO VOLUNTEER FOR THE JOB OF FIELD DAY COORDINATOR THE JOB IS 
YOURS WITH MY BLESSINGS.  LAST YEAR I FOUND SO FEW PEOPLE WHO CARED TO 
PARTICIPATE THAT I HAVE 40 POUNDS OF FROZEN BRISKET BBQ IN MY FREEZER LEFT 
OVER FROM FIELD DAY.  WHO WOULD THINK THAT IN TEXAS ONE CAN'T AT LEAST FIND 
PEOPLE TO COME AND PARTAKE OF FREE BBQ - BUT ALAS THAT SEEMS TO BE THE MODUS 
OPERANDI  OF HCARC THESE DAYS.  HARVEY - PLEASE REMEMBER THE RECENT 
ELECTIONS OF CLUB OFFICERS - YOU ARE THE TREASURER BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE WOULD 
STEP UP AND TAKE THE JOB.

Lastly, if there is a problem with the Kenwood it is not a commonly known 
problem.  And if you read what I wrote I didn't say Kenwood radios are bad 
radios, just that I find them hard to use, and if they are your choice of 
radio to run, then by all means show up at Field Day or Winter Field Day and 
help get it on the air.  As for me I was there this past weekend at approx 6 
am and it was well past noon before the first QSO was completed..   I have 
been a club officer for 3 years and this is the first I have ever heard of 
such a problem with the Kenwood.  Regardless of which radio we use though, 
the biggest problem we have with the station (in my opinion) is that all of 
the daytime bands (20/15/10) are concentrated on one and only one antenna, 
therefore regardless of the number of radios, only one has an antenna.  I 
find it amazing that in a club with all the antenna expertise we have that 
no one can come up with a workable antenna situation.

Gary J
N5BAA

-----Original Message----- 
From: Harvey N. Vordenbaum
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 1:33 PM
To: 'Gary J - N5BAA' ; hcarc at mailman.qth.net
Subject: RE: [HCARC] Winter Field Day

-----Original Message-----
From: HCARC [mailto:hcarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Gary J - 
N5BAA
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2015 4:20 PM
To: hcarc at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [HCARC] Winter Field Day

Those that came for Winter Field Day yesterday had a good day – at least 
once we figured out how to get the station radios to transmit.  That said – 
I confirmed I really love Elecrafts and Yaesu’s, am ambivalent about Icoms, 
and confirmed I HATE Kenwoods.

  I GUESS IT DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU ARE USED TO.  THE TS-570 AT THE CLUB HAS A 
HANDICAP BECAUSE THE INTERNAL BACKUP BATTERY DOES NOT LAST FOR SOME REASON. 
I  HAVE REPLACED IT AT LEAST ONCE.  THUS SETTINGS YOU MAY PUT IN ARE NOT 
HELD, INCLUDING MEMORY CHANNELS.
I AM NORE FAMILIAR WITH KENWOOD HF RADIOS THAN OTHERS.
AFTER SETTING UP THE IC-746 WE GOT FROM HOLLIS WALKER, I AM CONVINCED THAT I 
WOULD NOT BUY AN ICOM.  THEY ARE JUST NOT INTUITIVE TO PROGRAM OR SET UP. 
AND THAT REMINDS ME OF AN ICOM IC-W2A HT I HAVE  HAD FOR ABOUT 30 YEARS.  I 
STILL CANNOT PROGRAM MANY SETTINGS IN IT WITHOUT GETTING THE MANUAL OUT.  I 
HAVE A YEASU FT-470 2M/.7M HT WHICH I HAVE HAD 35+ YEARS AND IT IS MUCH 
EASIER TO PROGRAM.

Larry Altman and I got several good hours of Mic time, almost all calling CQ 
and running calls (we had about 110 QSO’s in 3 hours.  Tony Moore got some 
good logging time, some Mic time (he was shy calling CQ) and some valuable 
training time from Gale Heise on the finer points of using receiving 
functions on Tony’s Yaesu FT-450AT.  Terry H showed up later for moral 
support.  Robert Russell got some good CW time calling CQ.

Lessons learned were that we still need to do something with the antennas 
and operating stations at the club IF we plan to operate contests, emergency 
conditions from there.  We are still hamstrung with daytime operations 
(20,15,10)  being confined to one antenna thus one radio and one operator. 
The antenna problem is so bad that even with the station Icom 746 on 40m and 
the Kenwood on 15 meter CW, there was significant bleed over / splatter (?) 
from the 15m CW onto the 40 m SSB via the 40m antenna.  We need to figure 
out if having the club tower trailer there with a beam antenna would allow 
one station to work another band with the beam antenna having the club 
antenna situated off the side of the beam antenna.  Another idea and 
question would be can two beams maybe 250-300 feet apart operate side by 
side without interference??  I have a set of band pass filters we can use. 
One way or another, something has to improve before next Field Day.

I THINK YOU NEED TO COMPLETELY RETHINK TRYING TO MAKE A CONTEST STATION OUT 
OF THE RED CROSS STATION. The antenna situation is limited due to the 
location.  We can hardly set other towers on neighboring properties, etc.
It is primarily meant to support the R.C. with local and regional contacts.
73, HARVEY

73,

Gary J
N5BAA
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