06/26/2006 | K3CAL This year was my first field day and I have to say WOW!

Our club was fortunate enough to be able to use a small area of field on top of a bluff on a 350 acre farm in our County. We had our local Red Cross "Hambulance" as well as the DC rep for the ARRL stop by to pay us a visit on Saturday.

We had passing storms and showers the entire weekend so we ended up unplugging a few times for fear of a lightning strike. We had a few close calls, but avoided disaster.

We ran 3 laptops for logging reasons. They were networked together and kept a running total of the stations worked as well as our score. The program also told us if we had worked that station previously. Thanks to Shawn (N3AE) for taking care of this for us.

For antenna's we ended up having:
1 - cushcraft multi beam on top of a Army AB-577 48ft mast - (http://www.qsl.net/k4mg/MilitaryMastBig/MilitaryMastBig.htm)
4 - dipoles
1 - homebrew 2 meter antenna (doubles as flag pole)
1 - Arrow II Dual band yagi
(Multiple vehicle antennas capable of many bands)

We ran almost every band including a satellite station as well as an APRS beacon and digipeater station, and had good success on almost all of the bands. We ran completely off of generators batteries and solar panels. Everyone had a great time and I can't wait until next year!

For more pictures see the below link.
http://www.thelenharrs.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=thumbnails&album=14
-- KB3NDS