07/19/2005 | K8PI K8PI Field Day Report

Field day for the Dial Radio Club and the Butler County VHF Association was another tremendous success. In spite of the heat and humidity, we had a good crowd in attendance. This was the second year for our two clubs to combine in the field day effort.

We had the heat followed by a severe thunderstorm right in the middle of our Saturday family picnic, followed by more heat. We again located in Smith Park in Middletown, Ohio. If it wasnt for the large shop fans that KF8PD brought, we would have melted in the heat.

The setup on Friday went well, and we only had a few antennas to fix up on Saturday. We had two 20-15-10 meter tribanders mounted on two portable military surplus towers. We also had numerous dipoles strung in the trees. Our 40 meter phone station had a 28 extension ladder (with club flag on top) loaded up on 40 meters as well as a full wave horizontal loop at about 50. That really made it easy to adjust to the changing conditions on 40.

This year we had NO glitches with the logging. Our only operating trouble was the ability of the phone operators to stay up all night. The two phone stations combined for a total of 647 contacts.

The CW station was an example of how to plan. This year operators were able to keep the station running all 24 hours. They finished with a total of 740 contacts in the log.

It was interesting to note that we worked all states and 78 ARRL sections. We never did find Manitoba or Puerto Rico. But that didnt matter, it wasnt sweepstakes! 40 meters was our bread and butter band, we had 718 contacts on 40.

We did make several attempts at working some of the satellites. We experienced a desense problem with the station that we were never able to resolve. We just could not hear ourselves on the downlink of VO-52 or FO-29.

We had many visitors to the site and there were some that are now interested in getting their license. -- W8EH