[SMCARA] FIELD DAY wrapup

Mon Jun 30 10:12:49 EDT 2014

Second that!  While we didn't have as many participants this year, I think our "Fun Meter" was still off scale high!  

The pot luck Saturday evening again proved that no one goes away hungry from a SMCARA pot luck! Thanks to all that contributed and to the FD committee (Other than Ren, the coordinator, we really just count on everyone to help - and it works!) for their efforts.

The new beam, donated by Don WA3EQL was magnificent and really low in the VSWR department.  Thanks to Rob, K3RWR for assembling the monster.  Now if we had some propagation on Ten and Fifteen meters it would have been perfect. Note to new hams:  You can't beat a plain vanilla dipole for "contacts per dollar" and you can get the material at Lowes!( Well, maybe not coax and connectors!)

My fun point was when I stumbled home around 1230am and decided to work K3NHK and give them a 1D contact.  I texted Grant, N4PGG to set up a sked on 7221 and he texted back something about working an EA7 and PAC.  Fortunately  we got synched and the QSO was in the log!  I thought we hams were all about communicating?  Confusion has been known to set in after working field day for 12+ hours, I guess!  Grant may have the only Australia FD QSO on record! Certainly a SMCARA Outdoor Record, anyway!

Thanks to Dave Willenborg, N3UX, and Jim, KB1YZ, for "pounding brass" for the event!  Always nice to exercise that mode, especially those who are adept at the mode.  I managed to get my CW up to the point of getting my license and it has been all downhill since then!  Might have had something to do with the stern (ornery?) FCC examiner down on Veasey Street in NYC where I sat for my first exam!  

Trivia:  The NYC FCC office was located in South Manhattan and was razed to make room for the WTC twin towers. The CW exam was a bear!  You needed to copy 100% for any one minute out of a 5 minute run!  I missed it by one character on the first try. 16 year old nerves, I guess!

Thanks, to Ray, KB3FWW, for networking the logging computers, they worked great!  We had one logging fumble, but the edit function in the software allowed us to fix it with no impact.  The latest version of FQJ is really nice!

 It was also nice to have Johnny bring the CAP Cadets!  They not only help, but some actually showed interest in the hobby.  All good!

Last, but not least, big thanks to the XYLs for supporting our "strange hobby",  called Ham Radio!

73, Tom/W4OKW

-----Original Message-----
From: SMCARA [mailto:smcara-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Daniel Metcalf
Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2014 8:55 PM
To: smcara at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [SMCARA] FIELD DAY wrapup

I would like to take a moment to thank all who stepped up and assisted in the success of our annual Field Day Event. There are so many to thank I don't want to name names for fear of forgetting someone. Please take this moment (without hurting yourself) to pat yourselves on the back for an awesome and successful Field Day.

Operations ended I believe at 09:00 this morning actually I think Jim
(KB1YZ) was still working CW wile we were taking down the gear and I think I saw the count for number of contacts to be over 400. Thanks to all who kept the RF flowing Day and Night!

Congratulations to those who took and passed their exams either for a new license or your upgrades.  You all did well and I would like to thank Eric
(N3UH) for helping us help others progress in this hobby by holding the exam session.

Lastly while it is still fresh in our minds if there was something you liked and think we should keep or if you have a suggestion as to how we can improve in something  you didn't like so much please let us know!

Now get some rest! For tomorrow we flip the switch to focus on the Tailgate Fest!

--
Dan Metcalf -- KB3UUN
c. 301 769 1111
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