SCARS Post- Field Day Newsletter, June 29, 2015

What is Field Day – Epilogue: First Pass . . .
N5OP Field Day Remote . . .
Officers, and odd-links . . .
Upcoming Hamfests within 250 miles _…_._

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What is Field Day – Epilogue: First Pass

Field Day 2015 has come and gone, and while I do not have an accurate numeric tally, I can tell you some ballpark numbers: [Note: The Immediate Past-President will correct my numbers as required!]

SCARS Members who signed-in sometime during the weekend: almost 60
Non-SCARS Amateurs who signed-in: over 20
Non-Amateurs who either came on-purpose or just happened by: over 20
Band conditions: Uniformly unpredictable
Digital contacts made (vast majority were CW): about 300
Phone contacts made: about 300
Fun Quotient: Very High

There are so very many people to thank for making this year’s event successful that I know I’ll miss some, but let me single-out a few:
SCARS Secretary and Field Day Coordinator,  Chris Pape, KE5JZN
Moore Emergency Manager, Gayland Kitch – WX5MOR
Norman Emergency Manager, David Grizzle – KD5ZLG
Oklahoma State Department of Health
President Phil and Rhlonda (KF5OZR), Norman Emergency Management, for keeping us fed
Immediate Past-President Bill for accosting everyone and making them sign-in

Here are some pictures and sources (if I know them).

[as always, click images to make BIGGER!]

The OSDH crew and SCARS folks get ready to unload and setup the wonderfully Air Conditioned “Western Shelter”
(Gayland Kitch)

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Here is what the Western Shelter looked like once assembled
(Loren Shirk)

Someone “vandalized” the Reaves Park restrooms, so Norman EM, David, arranged for these!
(David Grizzle)

6 Meter and Phone positions in the west-end of the shelter
(Gayland Kitch)

Harold and Rodney holding forth at the Phone position
(Gayland Kitch)

Six Meter Action
(Gayland Kitch)

Some Old Man talking with a Young Amateur and Young Potential Amateur about GOTA station How-To-Do-It
(Gayland Kitch)

A few of the gathered many for Supper Saturday evening
(David Grizzle)

Rhlonda at the grill
(David Grizzle)

Some of the Sunday Tear-Down Crew
(Gayland Kitch)

It was a great Field Day. I hope to have more pictures for next week’s newsletter.

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N5OP Field Day Remote

N5OP, Kim, is in Hays, Kansas working a Field Project for NSSL/OU, and OF COURSE he took his portable gear with him so that he could work from his temporary quarters in Hays! Here’s his email with pictures below:

I couldn’t participate in SCARS FD for a second year in a row. But, I played a bit it from my apartment In Hays, KS, from the PECAN field project. My rates were pretty poor mainly because I think my antenna is not up to SCARS standards. I managed 225 CW QSOs during mainly hunt and pounce. Later in the night, I could hold a frequency but the rate was poor. I kept looking for W5NOR on 40 m CW (the best propagation to that area from here) but never heard you. I snagged 3 or 4 OK stations, but none were SCARS 😦

Antenna is a 60-70 ft random wire from a 2nd story apartment window (magnet wire, so it’s stretching and getting longer by the day) and counterpoise all fed through a 9:1 UN-UN and a tuner; rig is my TS-930S. The set up seems to work better than I expected. Something like ~20 DX stations from here so far, mainly on 20 m at night.

I attached some pictures in case anyone is interested.

His Station setup:

Feedline exit under window (doesn’t everyone use a towel for this?):

Antenna feedpoint:

Long wire antenna:

Kim’s experience just reinforces the mantra that you do NOT need a kilowatt and a 5 element beam at 200 feet to make contacts. Throw a wire out of the window and Get On The Air!

Thanks, Kim!

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For those who have not yet found the officers on the webpage, here is the list:

President: Phil Sinnett, KD5UGO
President-Elect-VP: Harold Black, W5IFN
Treasurer: Doug Forsyth, WX5DF
Secretary: Chris Pape, KE5JZN
Past President: Bill Lockett, AE5F
Director at Large: Bill Baker, WG5T (appointment)
Trustee: Peter Laws, N5UWY (appointment)
Assistant Trustee: Gary Skaggs, WB5ULK  (appointment)

Also, some of you have asked about the site I use personally to track real-time lightning data. That site can be found here:
http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime

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Upcoming Hamfests within 250 miles

Link below lists all the ARRL-related hamfests within a 250 mile drive of Norman for about the next 5 months. Lots of good ones close to Norman.

http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/search/page:1/Location.zip:73072/Location.area:250.rpt?format=html

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As always…Nets, Links, Other Stuff in the link at the top AND in the sidebar. Have a great week!

73 de Gary, WB5ULK …_._