[HCRA] FD 2003

[Daniel Sullivan]

Hello Everyone,

I understand from N1SR you guys had a great field day with plenty of fun and 
excitement. I want to congratulate you new hams who got on the air. 
Outstanding job!

Just to let ya know K4HTA, the Vienna Wireless Society, did 3a down here and 
had some excitement. Putting up a tri-band yagi 50ft in the air on 1/2" 
tubing (thin wall at that) is always fun and exciting. (I never knew tubing 
could bend so much without snapping!) We got about 1507 QSO's on CW and 
Phone combined on everything from 70cm thru 80m. That gave us a total of 
around 12000 points over all without the bonuses added in. We ran one 40m CW 
dedicated station (end fed dipole @ 65'), one 20m SSB dedicated station 
(tri-band yagi @ 30') and 1 catch-all station (G5RV inverted V apex @ 50'). 
We experimented with battery power(yet operated A because the other two 
stations were generator powered) on the catch-all station. We ran 2 older 
laptops, 3 big HF/VHF/UHF rigs and 2 FM only mobile  rigs off a total of 4 
batteries (two batteries in line at any given time). If anyone wants details 
on running battery powered I can get them. (If I recall the catch-all HF 
station ran full bore all weekend while sharing that battery with the two 
laptops. We went about 12 hours or so before it started to dump. I believe 
it was one of those big Deep Cycle Marine units but I would have to double 
check that.)

For anyone who wants to see some pictures of another FD click:  
http://www.pbase.com/k4xy/fd2003

This is the article about some Hams in MD which made the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48982-2003Jun29.html


Again sounds like you folks had a great field day and I hope to hear you 
guys on the air down here one of these days.

Congrats!

Dan Sullivan, AA1TE/4
ex-N1LYJ, M0CDR

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