02/09/2006 | KW2O (West Sayville, New York) -- Local amateur radio (ham) operators will set up two temporary short-wave radio stations at the Long Island Maritime Museum (www.limaritime.org) as part of a nationwide test of emergency communications on Saturday and Sunday, June 25th and 26th. Members of the Order of Boiled Owls Amateur Radio Club (www.obony.org) will be among thousands of ham operators across the country who will be forsaking the comforts of home to participate in Field Day, an annual emergency communications preparedness exercise sponsored by ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio (www.arrl.org).

The Order of Boiled Owls is a contest and DX club with only fifteen members. But we are pretty serious about contests and Field Day. See our web site at http://obony.org

The Long Island Maritime Museum is located south of Montauk Highway 27-A in West Sayville, adjacent to the County Golf Course, on West Avenue. The museum is a right turn onto West Street off Montauk Highway as you head east. It is worth a visit if you are visiting the area. Its right on the Great South Bay and there are a number of old boats in and out of the water. The museum has some interesting exhibits. I cant say enough positive things about the staff. They really went out of their way to accommodate Amateur Radio so that we could operate in a large air-conditioned room. Some might say it was sissy Field Day but they wont be any of the Owls.

We had thirteen operators and a number of guests show up at various points during Field Day 2005. We were top 2A commercial once again and came within 150 points of being the top 2 station in the section. We lost that position to K2EC Eastern Amateur Radio Society which operated from Heather Hills near Montauk Point on Long Island. We were very close to downtown Sayville and many great restaurant, diners and delis so we gave the cook the weekend off. Every once and a while someone made a quick food run and then we ate outside at one of the many picnic tables or at the six meter station we had set up under a gazebo.

The operators were N2FF, W2AX, K2AW, N2GA, K2DO, KS2G, W2LK, W2YK, K2LE, K2SX, and guest operators W2GD, K2RED, and WM2V, a former Owl.

We set up Friday afternoon. We used only wires but we did have a wire 40 meter beam thanks to W2GD, a special guest this year. All the antennas were supported by trees and or military surplus masts.

A BIG THANKS to museum director, Elizabeth (Betty) Arink - and her very cooperative staff for making us very comfortable and in fact going out of their way for us. Should you want to visit there is a map and directions on their website at http://www.limaritime.org/land_dir.html

Long Island Maritime Museum
86 West Avenue - P.O. Box 186
West Sayville, New York 11796
631-HISTORY Fax: 631-854-4979
E-mail: limaritime@verizon.net

MUSEUM HOURS: Monday Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Sunday - 12:00 Noon - 4:00 p.m.

Contact the museum: Dial: 631- HISTORY Fax: 631- 854-4979 E-mail: limaritime@verizon.com
Website: www.limaritime.org

We it was all over we had totaled 1307 QSO's for 4,544 points.

Once we took everything down we went to a resturant right on the water only two blooks away and had a great seafood meal. Owls do like to eat! -- N2FF