The predicted heat that didn't disappoint and an ill-timed shower of the garden variety that shut down the regular CW station made good and sure Field Day 2024 had a down side. But on a positive note, visitor logs with plenty of names on them were proof that the annual event at Ensor Park and Museum one, fulfilled some sort of a need, and two, certainly brought people together over a 24-hour period.
"I thought we did well. I thought we had more people there," President George McCarville, WBØCNK, remarked during the club's monthly business meeting the morning of July 13. "I enjoyed all the company. I thought we did a good job on the socializing."
George went on to report that the club "had a lot of visitors" June 22 and 23 and indicated that he was appreciative of "people coming out" to the eight-acre historic site to either serve as operators or loggers at one of the radio stations, function in a critical support role, or simply observe a group of hams in action as they attempted to make as many contacts as possible using portable equipment in simulating emergency conditions.
"It was a good Field Day," George concluded, quickly adding, "Bless the visitors who came out and endured the hot weather."
George teamed up with Vice President Larry Hall, KDØRIU, to oversee Field Day operations on behalf of the club. Stating the obvious perhaps, Larry said, "It (Saturday the 22nd) was a hot day," when George gave him the opportunity to make a comment or two about Field Day, but he did proceed to report that "the equipment all seemed to be mostly working."
According to information that was provided to me earlier this month by club member Jim Andera, KØNK, between the visitor log positioned near the club trailer and the visitor log that had been placed on the information table on the front porch at the Ensor home, 51 names were recorded. Roughly half of those names were the names of club members, while the rest were the names of visitors, many of whom, it is believed, were experiencing their "first Field Day adventure." The visitors included a public official and eight "relatively new hams" who live somewhere within the 0 District as evidenced by their call signs, which typically began with the letters "K" and "F" and the number "0".
The visitors also included about a half a dozen youngsters, according to Jim, who said "the key item of interest to them was literally a key - a straight key, that is." Hooked up to a Code Practice Oscillator (CPO), the straight key afforded these potential hams the chance to "try their hand at sending Morse code." The presence of the CPO was complemented by brochures about amateur radio that could be found on another information table as well as "educational sketches depicting VHF/UHF repeater communications and ionospheric propagation on HF."
Jim reported that many new hams and the "occasional ham-wanna-be" were able to get on the air by way of the GOTA station that was set up on the front porch for that very purpose. But when the aforementioned CW station had to be sidelined after getting rained on, he went on to relate, the GOTA station was converted to "a CW as SSB-voice station." We had 7 GOTA station contacts by 2 operators.
Jim also reported that one of the club's newest members, Eric Dziadosz, KFØQIS, managed to rack up more than 154 contacts "Saturday evening into Sunday morning" while operating the SSB station. As a result, he noted, Eric was officially introduced to "the joys and frustrations of HF operation in a contest setting."
Finally, Jim further reported that the digital station in the trailer also performed double duty by serving as a CW station during the "wee hours" Sunday morning.
Jim said the club employed two end-fed verticals, a 40-meter end-fed wire, a fan dipole and a loop approximately 450 feet in length as HF antennas to create the "skyhooks" the stations needed in order to be able to operate. He also mentioned the use of the club's two HF transceivers and the recently-acquired tower trailer. The tower supported a three-element six-meter beam at a height of 50 feet, a beam that permitted the club's hams to "squeeze out" more than 60 contacts on the six-meter band despite the fact that this band "never really opened up" like everyone hoped it would.
According to Jim, although amateur radio operators elsewhere were being told over the air that the club's operation at Ensor was a Class 3A operation, it was technically a Class 2A operation because the club was never able to put three transmitters on the air at the same time. Even so, he related, the stations that were up and running, one of which was a solar-powered QRP station, were well supported by members of the club. That solar-powered station, by the way, was responsible for more than 10 contacts and was operated by Howard Cripe, NØAZ.
Field Day Results (KS0KS)
Contacts by Band
Results Summary
- Total Points: 636
- ARRL Sections: 76
- States/Provinces : 55
- Countries (Including US) : 8
- Preliminary Total Score: 2,694
Bonus Points
Operator Contacts
Those interested in taking a look back at Field Day 2024 are encouraged to either check out the Trail Bytes section on https://sftarc.org or leave the website to visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32ZopPGgOXc.
The video you will see one way or the other was produced by club member Tom Apalenek, WA2IVD, whose YouTube channel is called Ham Radio A2Z.
In addition, pictures from Field Day 2024 can be viewed on this website by first clicking on the "About Us" link and then clicking on the "Picture Album" link.
And last but not least, the first day of Field Day (Saturday the 22nd) just happened to be the 125th anniversary of the birth of amateur radio pioneer Marshall Ensor, W9BSP.