The Mountain ARC Joint 2005 Field Day

The Mountain Amateur Radio Club gathered at the Yosemite High School grounds on Friday, June 24th to set up for Field Day. We had twelve members helping to do the set up, and they were: Chuck W6HYY, Tom WB6GXQ, Ken KK66XO, Jeff KF6CNV, Hank KC1TF, Alan W6LSU, John WA6LTO, Jerry WA6ONA, Dick W6RFR, Sam KG6KEA, Bob KC6EZE, and Scott K6IX. This year the set up included a tri band beam (Thanks to Hank Lane KC1TF & Jerry WA6ONA), and a G5RV antenna for the Phone station (Thanks to Chuck W6HYY testing and adding the choke), and a dipole antenna from Jeff for the Digital Station. Also, the HF GOTA station and the information booth were set up at Jerry WA6ONA’s motor home. The GO Box was setup for simplex traffic on 2 meters.

The setup team this year was really efficient, and everything was completed in about three hours. The ten tables and forty chairs were again provided by Gary KG6CDY. John WA6NCA temporarily stored the tables & chairs for us and delivered them to the site (Thanks John). Sam KG6KEA was our Robin Hood this year, and was successful in getting the antennas high up in the trees. Our road direction signs to the Field Day site were in pretty bad shape, so we had six new 3 foot by 3 foot signs printed up (thanks to the generosity of Pacific Colors in Pleasanton), and made large heavy duty stands to hold them (thanks to Jerry WA6ONA’s carpentry skills). Jerry also had a 10ft by 2ft Banner printed for the information booth that can also be used for display at any club activity. These signs look very professional and should last for many years to come. After setup those members who were camping at the site, had a large pizza delivered for Dinner.

Saturday morning the small overnight crew started work about 6 AM. We had muffins and rolls for breakfast (thanks to John WA6LTO & Del KE6RVD). The rest of the morning was spent on testing & tweaking equipment for the stations, and placement of the directional road signs. Field Day started with a bang at 11:00 (1800 UTC), and we were off and running. This year we managed to staff all shifts for the twenty-four hours of operation with fourteen operators. In the recent years the midnight to 6 AM shifts have been incomplete. The operators and loggers for (Station B), CW & Digital were: Jeff KF6CNV, Scott K6IX, and John WA6LTO. The operators/loggers for (Station A), Phone were: Jonathan K6JJO & Bruce K6BWO, Alan W6LSU & Sam KG6KEA, Alan W6LSU & Clariss KG6PBF, Ken KK6XO & Bob KC6EZE, Mike KF6KDA & Michelle, Jeff KF6CNV & Michelle, Dick W6RFR, John WA6LTO & Jerry WA6ONA, and Dan KD6OJD & Dave WA6ZIS.

There was another new improvement along with the beam antenna this year, it was a station using 100% natural power (renewable energy source) which was powered by solar, and we made the required QSOs for our 100 bonus points. Sam KG6KEA and Alan W6LSU were the operators. Also BIG thanks to Don W6WWT for helping with the solar panel.

We had thirteen people present for lunch to enjoy the HUGE subway sandwiches, and refreshments. The afternoon dinner/picnic was just wonderful, and thirty-six people put on some extra pounds (thanks to John WA6LTO and Del KE6RVD). Also helping out with serving dinner were Lupe Thompson, Clariss KG6PBF, Ellie K6MZE, and Marge Nobles. After Dinner we had a raffle drawing which was quite successful, except for Chuck W6HYY’s relatives who won most of the prizes. We made $82 on the raffle, and $23 in donations to the club from the For Sale table.

Field Day ended 24 hours after the start at 1100 hours Sunday morning. We had twelve people, (some quite tired), for teardown and they were: Alan W6LSU, John WA6LTO, Jerry WA6ONA, Chuck W6HYY, Tom WB6GXQ, Hank KC1TF, Scott K6IX, Jeff KF6CNV, Bob KC6EZE, Dan KD6OJD, Dave WA6ZIS, and Dick W6RFR. John WA6LTO took the chairs and tables in his truck to deliver to Gary, KG6CDY. Teardown was much faster than set up, and was completed in one hour!!!

I would like to congratulate everyone who participated in Field Day 2005, which I thought was quite successful. Our numbers were a little better than last year, and we moved forward with having a beam antenna again and a solar powered station. We even tried to make a satellite contact with the help of Mike KF6KDA. But we failed finding out a bit late that the downlink was moved to 2.4 GHZ. Next year we will be prepared.

Dick W6RFR, MARC Field Day 2005 Chairman.