HF CW Field Day 2004
The HF CW operators, loggers and gaffers. (Click for
larger photo)
The Field Day site near Aultmore, with generator in
foreground, mobile tower, operating van at rear right,
and "hospitality" van at left. (Click for
larger photo)
Bill GM3KHH mans the key while Geoff MM5AHO snatches
a bite between logging contacts. (Click for larger photo)
Don GM3NCS puts his trusty Vibroplex bug key to good
use. (Click for larger photo)
Photos by Jim MM0SMD and Matt MM1EUI |
On the weekend of 5-6 June 2004, MFARS took part in National
Field Day (CW) - our first CW event for some years. We operated
for the whole period in the open category from a portable
location near Aultmore, a few miles south of Buckie and close
to the home of Geoff MM5AHO.
Our main operators were Bill GM3KHH and Don GM3NCS (both
well into retirement, and both ex-merchant navy/services operators)
with support from a number of club members, who did logging,
station setup, brewed the tea and coffee and topped up the
generator.
Our portable station consisted of the station caravan, mobile
antenna tower and Bill's "hospitality" caravan (with
stove, toilet and space for a snooze). All this was set up
on the edge of forestry commission land on a hill near Aultmore,
with good takeoff to the south and east. We had easy road
access to the site and enough level ground to set up the antenna
tower and caravans and park several cars - no tents and boggy
fields this time!
On the tower, we had a tri-band beam for 20/15/10m and dipoles
for 160/80/40m, all fed from a Yaesu FT920. The generator
was set up a short distance from the vans to reduce noise.
The only major hitch was the failure of the antenna rotator,
which we only discovered after setting everything
up, leaving our tri-band yagi (20/15/10m) stuck beaming south.
Most of our contacts were on the lower bands for which we
had dipoles (160/80/40m) oriented approximately north-south,
although we managed a reasonable score on 20m. We found out
afterwards that the rotator cable was damaged at the rotator
end connector. We've since changed to a different arrangement
which is more rugged and easier to set up.
Bill and Don took it in turns to operate throughout, with
a few stints from others, while Geoff MM5AHO, Jim MM0SMD and
others handled the logging. Other club members stopped by
during the day, and there were extra hands to help set up
and pack up.
Fortunately the weather was warm and dry, although overcast,
and band conditions were reasonable. In all, we managed 424
confirmed QSOs, scoring 1697 points, which put us at 17th
place in the open section. Now, if only the rotator had been
working...
This appears to be a good site for portable operation, as
far as accessibility and privacy are concerned, so we plan
to be back for other field day events.
Back to Past Events
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