The ARRL Field Day for the BVARA, W3SGJ this year almost didn’t happen.  A date mix-up that was discovered about a week before the event almost caused us to cancel the event.  With some quick phone calls and emails, we were able to secure Shelter 4 instead of Shelter 1 for the entire weekend of activities.  The reason for the availability was due to an unrelated issue that required the power to the shelter to be shut down since before the season began.  Shortly before Friday afternoon, Duquesne Light restored the power and the park maintenance staff was in cleanup mode of all of the picnic tables and general site cleanup activities when we first arrived.  Our two extra generators would not be needed.

The weather on Friday through Monday was the best weather conditions that I have experienced in over 10 years of continuous Field Day operation. Temperatures were in the mid to upper 70s during the day with low humidity and into the upper 40s or low 50s at night with blue skies the entire weekend.  Gentle breezes during the daylight hours added to our wonderful weather conditions.

Flexibility was the best word to describe our activities.  At the last minute we added an 80-meter station and antenna with power provided by one of our two inverter power generators.  A new ‘kite’ antenna that was described in the July 2019 issue of QST Magazine was quickly modeled with EZNEC 6.0 and then constructed just days before the big event.  It’s performance on 20 meters enabled many sections to be added to our log.  Jack’s 40-meter vertical kept us all busy almost the whole time of operation.  With an all-ICOM lineup of transceivers and Russian band-pass filters from DX Engineering, inter-station interference was never detected.  The N3FJP software and the high-power wireless hotspot and server with UPS backup worked flawlessly.

Many visitors including hams and non-hams stopped by.  So did David J. Losier, our District Attorney for Beaver County.  With seven different operators logging in as needed, others helped with either logging activities, encouragement, or with donuts and beverages to sustain activities.

As is always the case, we learned some new lessons, we enabled and encouraged people to try the equipment and new antennas, and had a great time as a result.

Rich – K3SOM