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2017 Results |
2018 Results |
The Amateur Radio Relay League states that the objective of field day is: "to work as many stations as possible on any and all amateur bands (excluding the 60, 30, 17, and 12-meter bands) and to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions."
For NORAC club members taking part in this event, it is a great way to practice with the club's portable HF, VHF and UHF gear. Events like this keep our members' skills sharp and equipment readied so that in the case of a real emergency situation we are ready to provide assistance where need be.
This year's field day event officially started on Friday, June 22, 2018 at 5 PM Pacific time with the setup of the club's portable station. The location was Armstrong, British Columbia, in the field behind the home of Ralph VA7NU.
Aaren VA7AEJ was first on site and got the master plan ready for station assembly. Ralph (and Shannon), Bob VE7EZI, Rick VA7EM, Doug VE7VZ, Murray VE7MH, Bud VE7KBK, David VA7SZ, Phil VE7PAZ (and his 2 oldest sons), Jane VE7WWJ and Mike VE7KPZ took direction from Aaren and had Cranky, the club's affectionately-named mobile crank-up antenna tower, assembled and ready to go well before dark.
It was great to see so many newbies and elmers working together to get the station set up as quickly as possible. With a bit of testing to confirm all gear was in working order, most of the team left for home while Ralph, Shannon, Aaren, Jane and Mike stayed on site overnight; Ralph and Shannon in their house, Aaren in his 5th wheel trailer and Jane and Mike in their Unimog camper.
The next morning a lot of vehicles rolled in. It was an impressive turnout of club members, their families and also other HAMs from the Okanagan area.
At 11 AM Pacific it was a go for operating and the contacts started pouring in. Lorne VE7LWK had given Denny VE7ASY a ride to the event so that we would have our best working CW. Ralph was also a machine on CW and scored a lot of CW contacts. Various others (too many to list) worked phone contacts as well as assisted with logging.
In the background, radio-related stories were shared, Bob facilitated some interactive radio education for Phil's aspiring radio-operator sons and the swap & shop table was filled with all kinds of good gear. Brad VE7WBM hosted some demos on C4FM/WiresX with his FTM-400XDR and Aaren demoed his Buddipole. Rick showed his FT-991 which Mike tested out in an attempt to find a unicorn contact on simplex VHF USB.
At a break in operating, Mike swapped in his personal generator for the club's generator so that an oil change on the club's generator could be performed. Once complete, the club's generator went back into service for the rest of the event.
As the club joined the field day event as a class 1A station, it was only allowed one operator and one logger at a time. Given the impressive turnout, the club will now consider a switch to a class 2A station for next year which will allow for a second operator and logger.
At around 5 PM on Saturday, it was time for the big dinner. The station went quiet for an hour as everyone QSYed over to Ralph and Shannon's QTH to feast on a prime rib roast, expertly cooked by Ralph. A wide variety of pot luck sides and desserts rounded out the meal.
After dinner it was back to working the station, guitars around the campfire, third-party/guest/GOTA operators (Phil's sons) on VHF FM, etc. Many stayed until after dark and the station was kept working until around midnight.
Sunday morning offered Aaren a chance to score some last-minute phone contacts and he was quite successful in his efforts. Bob ran the weekly Sunday 10 AM NORAC net on VE7RSS from the field day site. And then the field day event was done, concluding at 11 AM Pacific on Sunday.
On site to assist with the teardown were Aaren, Ralph, Shannon, Bob, Rick, Murray, Bud, Jane and Mike. The cleanup was quick as everyone worked very well together. Some stayed for lunch as there were a few leftovers from the dinner of the night previous.
NORAC would like to thank everyone who helped out in so many ways, but our biggest thanks go to Ralph and Shannon (and Luna their fostered dog) for being such great hosts for the 3-day event.
73,
Mike VE7KPZ
NORAC Vice President
Ps: find the pictures from the event here and David's wonderful time-lapse video of the "Cranky" setup here.