Well, Field Day 2023 for BARC is now past! What a blast! Many thanks are in order for all the individuals that helped make it a success. Too many to name but you know who you are. Without these individuals, we could not have this good of a field day and have the fun and challenges of FD. The best moment for me was getting a very young man on the air and having him make his first contact. A great thanks to the wonderful ham operator in Connecticut that was so patient and helping out the young man next to me make his first contact. We were all whooping it up in celebration after it was made. That was just the start.
Time line
The Start: Friday night: I had moved the BARC trailer to Oakwood school and set it up for Bernie (WA4MOK) to be able to erect the tower the next day.
Saturday: 6am:
Having done emergency surgery Friday night, I needed to see the post op patients first at 7:30am at the office. They were doing well! Ran home, changed and grabbed the equipment, computers, radios, network cables and all other items needed and threw them into the ARES trailer. Moved the trailer to Oakwood and set it up. Un-installed the radios out of the trailer and set up three stations in the room with all the “trimmings” of radios: power supplies, ground straps, ethernet cables and routers, computers with the special software, and RF cables with band pass filters to cut the cross talk or RFI.
Outside, a group was working on setting up the 10/15/20 meter beam on the tower with a rotator, 40 & 80 meter dipole. Also a 20 meter vertical was placed near by. It was warm and sunny as the rains had passed. Others were setting up the dining tables and chairs for dinner in the hallway. A great buffet was being assembled there slowly throughout the day. An information table was assembled by Mark (KG4GVJ) as well as a sign in form for visitors.
Visitors included Mr Price (ARRL), and many people new to the hobby and old ones returning to see the activity. A retired VOA employee and his family stopped by and had a good time talking about the technology and the issues of the day. TV station WNCT’s Abigail Velez came to interview BARC President Beth (KN4FZB) as well as myself. She took many pictures and videos to be included in their 2.5 minute long report at 6 & 11 o’clock news. Link to the video at WNCT.com here.
Saturday 2:00pm: The start of the FD communications, we still had issues with feed lines, high SWR and software changes that users wanted to make. Finally all that got straightened out and we started to talk. The three modes were digital using FT8, CW and of course phone mode. All stations were on different bands and had band pass filters on their output. This meant that each radio was on a separate band and mode and the band pass filters would help keep out cross talk between radios.
Saturday 6:00pm: Dinner time! Our master griller Jorge started the flames and got down to grilling hot dogs and hamburgers. Others brought baked beans, chicken salad and other great dishes. Desserts consisted of blueberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream, key lime pie and many other dishes. No one left the table hungry. Ran home to feed the dog and record the 6pm news. Came back and restarted the generator with a full tank of fuel. By 9pm I was tired and went home to rest, shower and get set for the next day.
Sunday 4:30am: Woke up and fed the dog. Came to the FD site and found Doug (K4ROK) working the frequencies with Terry (K4ZYD). Others had worked the quiet hours and made contacts. Microwaved an egg casserole “Strada” to feed the troops and keep them going. The CW station on 40 meters was not busy so I sat down and set up the computer to use FlDigi to decode CW. You could click on the decoded call sign and it would enter it into the entry window of the logging software N1MM. If you then clicked on the class and section that the other station sent, it was entered in the right fields in the logger. Once you confirmed the QSO, hitting “enter” would record the QSO in the log. The radio was set up with multiple macros that would send perfect CW out as a response to the other stations responses. I did not need to use the keyer at all. I recorded about 40 CW QSOs in about an hour and a half when I can barely copy 10 words a minute. The speeds operators were sending was in the range of 15-31 wpm, way above my capability but with the right tools I could communicate. Some would say these tools are “crutches” and should not be used, I would say by the end of an hour and a half, I was starting to recognize phrases and other bits and pieces of the code by ear at high speed. I am still learning and have to crawl first.
Sunday 2pm: The take down started a little earlier as the crew was tired. Took apart the three stations and re-installed them into the ARES trailer and dragged it home. Returned and helped take down the tower and pack the second trailer and dragged it home. Ok now I am tired and took a 3 hour nap in the AC!
Many thanks to all the volunteer crew that helped make the 2023 Field Day a roaring success! too many to mention but here are a few that stood out: our President Beth KN4FZB and her husband (Grill Meister) and kids (clean up crew), our VP Judy W3JUU, Mark KG4GVJ (Ham Chatter Editor), Bernie WA4MOK for the coordination and antenna work, Phillip KQ4IGY who climbed the tower and put the beam on top, Terry K4ZYD who climbed the tower and took it down, Gary KN4JKM who was the man everywhere helping out where needed and finally all the XYL’s and others that brought a wonderful dinner with the trimmings. I am sorry If I did not mention your name as I was in the communication room with my head buried into boxes setting up the stations. Your valuable help is much appreciated and vital to the success of the Field Day. Remember, this is a volunteer organization and it will only flourish if we all pitch in. THANK YOU!!!
After all this is ARRL’s Year of the Volunteer!
Thank You, Peter N4PVH
More photos of FD, I will post more as I get them:
Brightleaf Amateur Radio Club 