07/12/2006 | N3DUE The South Carroll Amateur Radio Group, an ad-hoc group of amateurs who get together just for Field Day, held a 3E FD as N3DUE in Woodbine, MD, about 25 miles west of Baltimore, MD. The participants have varied over the years but the goals have remained the same have fun, enjoy camaraderie and achieve a decent score. Oh yes, I might add, try to not repeat the previous years mistakes (always find new ones)!

One of the lessons learned: we were consistently ignoring that FD was a good place to perform antenna experimentation but enthusiasm for the New wanes quickly when contacts are not achieved. That in mind, this years antennas were pre-assembled and tested to ensure that they would play well. This was part of the strategy of operating 3E, as we had operated 2A in the past almost exclusively. This class allows contacts with all classes and the additional luxury of not requiring all of the antennas to be installed within 24 hours of the start.

Antennas were: an 80M dipole (CW), an 80-40M fan dipole (SSB and CW), 2-parasitic verticals on 20M, a multi-band trapped vertical for 20M and higher, and 2-phased verticals for 40M. Radios were 2 IC706MKIIG (CW, SSB and PSK31) and an IC756ProIII (SSB) with an Elecraft KX1 performing the natural power QSOs with a solar-charged battery. All radios were hooked to an APC-1000 UPS powered by a Honda EU2000i generator, keeping the stations on the air during refueling for as long 30+ minutes.

Weather played a part in the dinner break on Saturday, giving us a needed 30 minute chow time. It rained hard later in the evening which added a little rain static to already noisy bands. All antennas were well secured, so the rain was a minor inconvenience that was needed by the environment more than we needed the QSOs.

Contacts were plentiful and we were on the air for the entire 24 hour period, even if not all stations were on the air continuously. The total QSOs were the highest we have ever achieved, with the phone stations posting > 500 and the CW station around 700. We ran digital (PSK31) for the first time and it made a small but important contribution, deserving more attention in the future.

We used four laptop computers running WinXP and RedHat Linux wired to a dedicated hub running Alan Bioccas (WB6ZQZ) fdlog software, the same software (improved) that we used last year. Alan had improved the software, written in Python, and we made local modifications so that it would send CW from the keyboard through an MM-3 Morsematic keyer. This software made the logging error-free and the generation of the required ARRL documentation after FD a three minute operation. Our compliments to Alan on his software and assistance.

Ideas are already bouncing around about how to make FD even better next year, so look for us in 2007. This years participants were Aileen N3YAC, Matt KI4OUC, Forrest WA3FAE and Alan N3DUE. -- WA3FAE