[HCARC] Field Day CW Station

[galeheise at windstream.net]

To All-

  Since my interest is CW I attended the recent Field Day Coordination meeting.  I’d like to thank Frank Edwards for chairing it and members John Canfield, Larry Altman, Lew King, Warren Setnan, Jerry Migely and Gary Johnson.

  Here’s an update regarding the upcoming Field Day CW station.

  John Canfield has committed his Kenwood TS-590S for the CW station.

  It has several features including a roofing filter with DSP filtering.  This is a great enhancement for CW operation.

  Jerry Migely is providing his computer/ rig interface to facilitate CW keying from N1MM.

  The station will be set up with the following options:

  1.  Keying from N1MM macros.
  2.  Keying from an external Heathkit keyer/ paddle combination.
  3.  Bring your own paddle and key utilizing the internal TS-590S keyer.  (1/4” 3 conductor plug Tip–Dot then Dash then Ground wiring).

  From a scoring standpoint, CW and Digital contacts are worth two points and SSB 1 point per contact.

  Understand the Digital Station will utilize the Hex Beam.

  So, the purpose of this email is to determine the level of interest by club members to operate either the CW station or SSB station.  Lew King has expressed his interest in operating CW.

  If, as a club, we have serious interest in operating CW then it follows we would like to have a directional antenna.  However, if there is little CW interest and most of the members want to operate SSB then we either need to have another directional antenna for CW or give the SSB station priority with the directional antenna and accept a non-directional antenna for CW.

  I’m not an official member of the Field Day Committee, just trying to sort out what is best for the club taking into account CW operators.

  If you can provide feedback as to your interest in operating CW or SSB it will be much appreciated.  Larry Altman has been tasked with scheduling operators and he can utilize the information as well.

  So do you want to operate SSB, CW or both.  Appreciate your feedback.

Gale
KM4DR