Month: January 2022

Folks, Winter Field Day is just around the corner. www.winterfieldday.com has all the information, we’ll be doing what we can setting up a bit Friday evening the 28^th at the Fairgrounds.  We should have at least two HF setups, several different HF antennas, the communications trailer and a couple of us are camping out for the event.

You may have some memory of last year’s Winter Field Day, we landed a vacation rental, brought way too much stuff, and I cooked way too much food.  While it was a great time, it takes a fair amount of time and effort to plan and put that together.  This year it won’t be that deluxe, but it will still be functional.

For me, I plan on setting up the buddiepole portable HF antenna, so if anyone wants to learn about that, try adjusting and tuning, etc. this should be a good time for that.  We’ll have a dipole of some type up for the HF rig in the trailer, and another one of my projects is a trapped fan dipole that I need to raise up to 30’ or so, make some measurements, lower it down and adjust wire lengths, then repeater over and over until I get it tuned.  I plan on spending a fair amount of time working on some projects in the trailer, perhaps doing some firmware upgrades on some of the upcoming AREDN hardware hoping to appear on Otter Crest, etc.  I’ll bring some portable satellite setup since there is a good bonus if we can make a satellite contact.

My goal is provide a platform for those who wish to come out and participate, while trying to get some of the many ham radio projects complete.  What gets done and how much depends a lot on the weather, it will likely be raining off and on which makes some of the projects and working outside a bit more challenging.  As Matthew and I proved last year, there will be a fire to sit around in the evening regardless of the weather.

Please let me know if you are interested in attending and participating, and roughly when that would be so we can plan a bit.  I’ll have more details out but I expect to be onsite around 4pm on Friday afternoon, setting up a bit, and then decamping around noon or so on Sunday.

I’ve not planned meals or anything fancy (though I do intend to eat), I am willing to do something Saturday evening for food if we have a small group and interest.  We may be testing out some of the food delivery options in Newport or simply making a food run sometimes rather than cooking on site.

As it was last year, you can participate at home with your callsign and if we submit records for all that marked Lincoln County ACS we get the credit for it.  ACS and the Club are working together to provide this opportunity for everyone interested.

More to come!

73

Daron N7HQR