The Mountain Repeater Association: Newsletter

MRA Newsletter Online

January/February 1999

Field Day '98!

By Ed, KB6THO

Picture this. It's a little after midnight and you are sitting outside enjoying a nice breeze after a hot June day. Looking around from up atop the hill you see the shimmering lights of the San Fernando Valley stretching out to the western horizon, and the looming darkness of the San Gabriel mountains to the north. It has been a "working" day, but now you are enjoying the stillness around you. 80 meters is good now, but it is after midnight.... is anyone still out there? Your partner calls CQ again, again, again.

Suddenly a response! "Kilo Six Victor Echo, this is Whiskey Six Echo Alpha Golf. Copy Two Alpha Sacramento Valley, QSL?" Ohyea! And so it starts... San Joaquin Valley, Western Washington, Oregon, all parts of Texas, British Columbia, even Eastern Pennsylvania! The band has opened again and we are at it fast and furious. Thank goodness for the laptop to log this on!

So why would an otherwise sensible person elect to spend a weekend in the heat on top of a hill? Sure, it's Field Day, but there is more to it than contesting. It is the fun and excitement of setting up a station under adverse conditions, having a whole bunch of time to "play radio", and spending the weekend with friends. Friends and members of the MRA had a chance to do just this over the weekend of June 27-28 during the annual ARRL Field Day contest.

The MRA worked Field Day from a unique site, Mt McGroarty in Tujunga. Known locally as "The Cross", our site offers a couple of features just perfect for setting up a radio site in the field. A 30 foot concrete cross dominates the eastern plateau of the site, while 500 feet to the west and about 20 feet higher is another plateau offering a concrete slab, old telephone pole, and a couple of trees. The remains of a foundation speak of a residence long abandoned. With several good anchor points, wire antennas are decidedly in the gameplan.

Our "Advance Party" ascended Mt. McGroarty Friday. Several MRA members were able to make it up to the site Friday evening for an impromptu BBQ. While waiting for the chicken to cook, Brian, KE6NDM was able to work a station in Sitka, AK. This QSO got us in the mood for the following morning.

Saturday morning came and a flurry of activity with it. Ed, KD6OBB, enjoyed such success with his G5RV last Field Day that we decided to put it up in the same spot this year. It was again a good choice, bringing in 200 some odd contacts!

The big antenna of the day was of course the longwire. The Ad Hoc Longwire Committee set out to the east end of the site with a 1000 foot reel of wire and some mason line to put up "The Mother Of All Antennas". After anchoring the east end, spooling off wire, working it thru the notch of a baby sycamore, anchoring the west end on the old telephone pole, we had about 500 feet of longwire in the air. Who would be the lucky rig to energize this antenna? The TS-440? IC-706? No, in keeping with a nostalgic spirit, we elected to match the longwire with a vintage Swan transceiver.

20 meters always seems to be a good band. Field Day was no exception! After a little on-the spot soldering the Swan was set with a mic and headphones. One by one the contacts came in... west coast, east coast, midwest, and of course Texas. Lots of hams in Texas it seems. Elliott, W7EB had said we would see a lot of contacts on 20 meters. He was right as "A Lot" translated into 264 contacts! Through their dilligence Elliott and Jim, KF6QLE brought in the lion's share of that 264.

You don't really think about how many contacts 664 is until you go through them. While most of the other bands can be logged by hand, 20, 40 and 80 meters are best logged with a computer. Ed, KD6OBB was smart and brought his laptop to log 40 and 80 meters. And to make sure he could use it under the searing California sun, Ed provided a unique enclosure...yes, it's in that box! Next year there will be a "Laptop-In-A-Box" for 20 as well! Thanks go to Jay, KE6ONV for sorting the 20 meter contacts with Excel.

So how did the MRA do? Way better than last year to be certain! Our team brought in a total of 664 contacts covering the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, 2 and 1.25 meter bands. Most of these were on 20, 40 and 80 meters, of course, though we did rather well for the time we spent on the other bands.

The rules for Field Day allow for "bonus points" for such things as running off of emergency or "natural" power, media publicity, message handling, satellite QSOs, etc. We will see some "bonus points" added to our score for our solar powered station, generators, and media publicity. "So what's the total?" 1856. "And last year?" 944. Yup, way better! "And next year?" More points, of course! We are looking to add digital and satellite QSOs to our efforts in 1999.

Sometime after 1am I call it quits and head for a bit of sleep. Only a bit, as I'm up again at first light, 0500. I see Elliott in the early morning light, still fresh and ready to have at it. "I need some help with the computer logging..." and off we go! I watch the sun rise as I sip coffee and we work 80 and 40 until the bands die out. Time to stop? No way! We just move back to the 20 meter station on the long wire. "QRZed Field Day from Kilo Six Victor Echo!"

MRA Newsletter
Send comments and mail to:

kb6tho@mraradio.org or
KB6THO @ K6VE.#SCA.CA.USA.NOAM