[NLRS] (no subject)

Mon Jul 12 13:34:20 EDT 2004

N9TTX Field Day 2004

	Two "vetrans", two "newbies", part-time ops/coaches,
four portable towers, scrounged coax, a good
generator, lots of aluminum, wire, and steel, and
plenty of enthusiasm makes for a successful Field
Day…and the weather wasn't bad either!  The N9TTX
setup crew consisting of Myself (N9TTX), Darrell
(K9AIH - ex KB9LVK), and Christian (KC9FVT) arrived at
the field at 6 am Saturday and proceeded to assemble
the yagis and to erect the towers.  Everything went
together well, and while Darrell and I were getting
the third tower in the air, Chris went to get Mary
(KC9FVS) to help put up the portable carport
op-station.  Once everything was in the air, and guyed
down (including the carport), we did an on-air test
with the local church (the owners of the field we were
using), to make sure we had no public address system
interference.  The test went well, with no
interference across any of the bands (160 meters
through 1296 Mhz minus the 902 Mhz band) we were
running. Darrell and I had participated in Field Days
before, while Chris and Mary had never done so before,
so we were not sure how smooth things were going to
go.  The planning and on-site organization helped, as
we got on the air between 18:00 and 18:30 hours.  

	The stations consisted of a Yaesu FT-101ZD, a Kenwood
TS-2000, and an Icom 730 for multi-band HF.  We had a
Ranger 2950DX and small amp for a dedicated 10 meter
station.  The power supply for the amp could only
deliver enough juice to drive it to just shy of 150
watts...which was OK as this kept us in the low power
class.  The VHF station consisted of a Yaesu FT-736R
for the 144, 222, 432, and 1296 Mhz bands.  We aslo
ran a Ranger 5054DX for the 50 Mhz band.  For
antennas, the "farm" consited of an A-3, an A-4S for
triband work.  An Antron-99 for the 10 meter station, 
homebrew 160 meter dipole and vertical antennas, a
homebrew 40 meter dipole, and a G5RV for HF work.  For
VHF, the antennas consisted of homebrew for 50 and 144
Mhz (3 and 14 element respectively), a 25 element K1FO
on 432, a 10 element doppler antenna on 222, and a 35
element M2 antenna on 1296.  

	The Field Day shirts came in, and we donned the gear
and looked the part for the weekend.  All in all,
everything seemed to work well, and no problems were
had...other than a few antennas being too close to one
another, hence bleedthrough onto the other stations at
our site.  Mary was a bit gun shy at first, but Steve
(KA9OMY) stopped up and coached her on what to listen
for, and gave her tips on contacting.  Afterward, she
was jumping into any chair available to make contacts
after she got used to operating.  Justin (K9MU)
stopped out for a bit of part time work, and "made an
opening" on 10 meters.  He had a QSO rate of 300 Q's
an hour on SSB at one point in time...ouch!  Darrell
was pulling in stations on the TS-2000 that the other
rigs could not hear, Chris was contantly battling the
10 meter and 20 meter signals blasting through his
headphones while he was running the Icom on 15, so he
played solitaire for a bit on his computer as well as
running around being our photographer with the digital
camera.  I ran the low bands on the 101ZD, as well as
code on all bands.  When Justin came out with his Icom
746 and ran code and phone on the HF bands while I
switched to one of the VHF stations and ran that,
which worked out well, as six opened up during this
time.  Darrell and I worked around the clock, while
Chris and Mary left in the early morning hours.  Both
of them came back on Sunday morning and we finished
the day out.  Randy (KB9POI) also came out and did
some contesting Sunday also.  It only started raining
right at contest end, so we sat in the carport and
talked about the contest until it stopped.  While
teardown was happening, the sky cleared, and we had
another very nice day...unfortunately we all were
tired, so after the homesteads were reached we all
slept.  We learned a lot, made more contacts than the
previous year, had a more organized setup, and we had
fun.  And that is all that really counts isn't it? 
See you all next year.  

                  Dave…N9TTX

Operators/helpers:

David           N9TTX
Darrell         K9AIH
Chris           KC9FVT
Mary            KC9FVS
Justin          K9MU
Randy           KB9POI
Steve           KA9OMC

Preliminary score prior to ARRL judging:

Band          CW            Phone            Total
160      	   1		   1		   2
75/80	      	 38		 25		 63
40		 67		 96	          163
20		 38  	          111	          149
15		   0		 73		 73
10		   0	          101	          101
6		   1		 35		 36
2		   2		   8  		 10
1.25 		   1		   1	  	   2
70cm		   1		   6		   7
23cm		   0		   1		   1

totals: 	149		458		607
qso points:                                           
   756
power multiplier:                                     
    2
bonus points claimed:                              800

grand total:                                          
  2312

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