| Fletch Seagroves, N1MEO
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| Fletch Seagroves, N1MEO
|
It almost didn’t seem like Field Day this
year. Where was the rain? The thunder?
The flash of lightning? It was absolutely
gorgeous this year, from Friday morning till
Sunday night. Just look at the picture of
tower 3 at the start of teardown on Sunday.
A few puffy white clouds and lots of blue
sky. You can even see the smoke curling off
the 2 meter packet antenna as it cools down
after setting a new club record for the mode.
This year saw new club records for Phone
stations on 40, 20, and 2 meters, and 10
GHz, giving us a new high QSO count for
phone. On CW new club records were set
on satellite and packet. For a station by
station list of the QSO counts, see the summary.
Things are looking good for taking first
place a third year in a row. This year’s
score is higher than last year’s winning
score. If you want to speculate what that
means, feel free! This year’s score, 22,080, is
the highest ever for our club!
Three out of four of the major new records
(40m SSB ,20m SSB, and packet) were
located at tower three. Another new record
for the club. Tower 3 boasted an impressive
100 feet of Rohn 25, stacked 40 meter
beams, and stacked 20 meter beams. The
packet antenna was 110 feet about the
ground! With that plus some excellent
operators, it’s not so surprising that records
were set. Needless to say, next year the CW
folks on tower one are going to want a
hundred foot tower too.
With almost 100 people involved this year it’s impossible to thank everyone by name, but each and every person played a part in making this a successful event.
Two people have to be thanked individually, though. Buzz KA1OMJ, thanks again for allowing us to use your property. And to Jim N1NH, thanks once more for the use of the “Number One New Hampshire” call.
Our remote contingent is growing. Four club members made the trek back for the weekend. Don, W1GUU, has been doing it the longest. This year however, Chris, K1SI came up from Delaware, Gene, N1NR was up from Pennsylvania. And David, N1QFD was up for the second time from Pennsylvania also. Vic, W2PW (Ex K1JUL) couldn’t make it, nor could Dot, KA1LDS, and Bill, WB1BRE, Burden.
As always, there is some lost or found equipment. Sometimes, there is even lost and found equipment. If you have either lost or found equipment, please let me know. I’ll try to be the clearinghouse to make sure it gets back to the appropriate owner.
On the not so great side, we did not actually get all 29 transmitters on the air. We only managed 27. Still a new club record! And it gives us something to shoot for next year. Now is the time to start putting together that microwave rig you’ve been thinking about. If you’re wondering what bands we could use, how about 3.3, 5.7, 24, 47, 75, 120, 142, and of course, 241 GHz?
This will probably the last field day we have at Buzz’s place. We are going to need a new location for next year. Start thinking now, Field Day 1998 is only 11 months from now. 73, and see you at next year’s Planning meetings!