[HCRA] Field Day 2006

[Jim Mullen]

Hi everyone,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone of you that helped
make Field Day a great success again this year. Whether you came out to the
park and participated, stayed home and worked us from there or just offered
your moral and financial support through the HCRA it all combined to make it
work once again.

The big 'what if' this year was the weather. From an early week forecast of
a nice weekend to a short term forecast of flooding conditions it sure went
down hill fast. I guess both the rain and propagation gods felt sorry for us
this year. The rain for the most part held off, dampening the set-up but
stopping just before the event started and didn't return until after 4:00 PM
on Sunday. That was a welcome respite from a potential drenching!

Propagation wise the bands were very good. The lower bands performed well
and there were openings on 10 and 15 meters until after midnight. Maybe
there is some credence to the idea that all those transmitters 'charge up'
the ionosphere. Whatever the reason all the stations did well and had fun
for the entire 24 hours.

Once again we had great news coverage by the Republican. A very nice article
on the front page of the 'Regional' section of the Sunday paper, including a
nice action shot of K1YO and WN1E hard at work erecting an antenna. A nice
article for amateur radio and our club thanks KB1JVF and D.L. from the
Republican for their hard work.

Eric did a fine job keeping all the parts of FD functioning all the while
coaching the GOTA station. We had fine food served up by Rich, KB1NOX with
help from Cathy. Bob, K1YO and Dave, WN1E put a lot of extra work into setup
and tear down this year. With AA1YW away with work and family until late
Saturday these two really stepped up and made putting up those towers look
easy. N1SR worked his usual magic with station and antenna placement that
resulted in little, if any, intra-station interference. KD1UU took lots of
pictures, expect to see them on the web site very soon. And of course the
operators did an excellent job putting those fine stations to work. Over
2000 contacts were made across the country by the time the event ended
Sunday afternoon.

All in all, despite the loss of some regulars because of other commitments
everything ticked away like a finely oiled machine. Everything that went up
came down without a problem, there were lots of smiling faces, visitors
(both non-hams and hams alike) got to see and participate if they wanted to
and everyone had a fantastic time. We had some youngsters participate in the
pedestrian foxhunt cooked up by Luke and Steve as well as SSTV, ATV and R/C
helicopter flying to round it all out.

Mark your calendars now for next year. The dates for 2007 will be: June
22nd, 23rd and 24th.

Oh, and besides all the fun preliminary results put the score just over 9000
points. Not bad for a bunch of amateurs!

'73 and thanks once again for your support and participation in our hobby
and our club - we couldn't do it without you.

Jim, KK1W