[OKDXA] FD 2008

[Jerry Chouinard]

A brief rain at Skiatook lake near the beginning of FD but it lasted only
a few minutes. No wind and/or lightning so operating went right on.
The balance of the weekend was near perfect and a fan wasn't even needed
on Sunday as temperatures started out in the mid sixties and didn't
top 85 until well after FD was over!  I can recall Texas Field Days when
the low never got under 90 but that could have been because the
rigs were tube jobs in those days!

20 meters didn't really stay open past midnight this year like last
so 40 and 80 had to carry more of a load.  We did however start
out on 15 with quite a few Qs.  Last year none on 15 or 10.
Fairly early Sunday several contacts were made on 10 meters.
Nice to put those in the log.  I believe we worked every ARRL section
except VE4, VE8, AK and PR.  Most sections were worked multiple
times including the Dakotas!

1,430 or so contacts which is about 25 less than last year.
Just CW and SSB no digital work plus 10 - 80 as we didn't have
anything set up for 6.  23.5 hours on the air whereas last year I
believe we managed only 20 hours so we had to work a bit harder
this year for the contacts.

Quite early on we were told - "There are a bunch of Oklahoma
stations on" plus we logged maybe a dozen or so ourselves so
looks like fun was had by many here in OK.  Alan, what was the
call of the Hattiesburg station?  Worked quite a few MS stations.
I'm sure you will recognize some or maybe all of them. Here are
the calls for fun:

K5MDX
W5PFC
WM5AK
K5DGK
W5TCR
KE5EXK
W5OBM
WA5WRC
W5FQ
WV5V
W5SGL
KD5EJG
N5EBS

We worked some of them both modes multiple bands.

Our set up was ( or as they say nowadays for some reason )
Our working conditions were - TS850 AL811 and a 130 foot ladder
line fed wire up 40' .  Battery on the TS850 and a Honda generator
on the amp so we were class 1A with no power multiplier.

K5YAA operator at K5YAC 2008 FD