07/12/2005 | KP4ES The PUERTO RICO AMATEUR RADIO LEAGUE (PRARL) returned to the grounds of the Bacardi corporation in the city of Catano. Did again 2A PR.



Operators were NP3A, WP4F, WP4DX, NP4A, NP3OD, N1TKK, KP4NNC, NP4CQ, NP4D, WP4NK, Jose Saavedra, who was this year's organizer and yours truly! We also had visitors touring the site.



Equipment used were the FT-1000 and ICOM-810 and multiband vertical antennas plus verticals for 15,20 and 40 meters built by Diego, NP4D. Logging program was N1MM. Also used 2 power generators and lots of chicken burgers.



Do "magic" things happen during setup? The site was mounted by 11am and 20 minutes later decided to check the bands; 20 was the most active and heard a pileup in 14.260. "Mmmm. . . it must be an IOTA" I thought. . . it was CY9SS! Gave it a shot and after my 3rd call he responded back!; said my callsign/P, and to think it was hard for me to work it back at home, a new country for me, a minute later NP4A did also work it and even made a schedule for Sunday morning.



Bands: after 3pm 15 meters was pretty alive so I decided to call, the thing is I spent nearly 2 hours calling and made 120 plus contacts ina row, something that I have never done before. Remember working Ramon-XE1KK and Fred-K3ZO. Besides Mexico I worked Uruguay, Netherland Antilles and Aruba who were working Field Day, other countries are getting more involved.



New state for me to work on Field Day was Wyoming and worked two in a row. (Still want Alaska!); did get to work at least one from Hawaii. Later came 20 meters and during the night 40 but I left that to Hector-N1TKK, Francisco-NP3OD and Mario-KP4NNC, 10 meters was dead, I mean DEAD, even thou I called for 20 minutes.



Then my friend Jose-KP4JRS came for visit and worked 15 for a while. Did I say we had a Murphy case: the filter for 15 meters was missing so when the phone operation stopped, said to the CW team to begin and Danny-WP4F took the reins.



We did demos with APRS, copied the W1AW bulletin Sunday morning, have the visit of our Section Manager Victor Madera-KP4PQ as well as other ham fellows and having 5 eyeball QSO's with fellows who I've talked to but never met in person; and as always attending the visitors for which NP3OD did a great job.



And since KP4DX/W6 didn't show up on HF, Manuel-WP4GX, called him via IRLP and we spoke to him. . . he could not cause his equipment was down; yes I know VoIP is not for any points but as I said, interesting things can happen of the regular Field Day activities.



We ended operations at 1:30pm and wer we all out by 3pm, maybe the CW team did it again, but what the heck, had fun speaking to others and sharing stories with fellow hams. Received the conmmemorative FD 2005 pin from PRARL president Eric-NP3A! (Nice gesture).



For more photos and story go to: http://prarl.org/fd2005.htm



Also want to congratulate Nestor-WP4BL, who that same Saturday made the upgrade to General and could speak to him on 15 meters to experience his new priviledges. Now he'll enjoy HF!-"Felicitaciones"-



Thanks for Bacardi Corporation for lending thier site again!



Last, but not least, remember that June 21 was Take you HT to Work Day? At least I did my part, and showed off my hobby to a newcomer, Kristy Figueroa, she was more impressed when I said that I spoke to the ISS. Also want to congratulate Francisco-NP3OD who did a setup with Echolink in the University where he works for doing this activity, and even appeared mentioned in the ARRL website on the results of it. Who's in for next year? -- WP3GW