Field Day 2010

The Quinte Amateur Radio Club and Prince Edward Radio Club again joined forces this year for Field Day activities. VE3RL ran as a 2A (Two Alpha) operation, utilizing generator power. Again this year my own involvement was limited to just a few hours on the Saturday evening. I managed to operate about an hour on 6 meters (with some modest results!) and another on 80 meters, which was red hot into the late night hours.

Again this year the field day site was, well...a field located on the property of Eric VA3EP near Lake on the Mountain, Prince Edward County, Ontario. A pair of utility trailers and a converted camper housed the stations.

A portion of the antenna farm at VE3RL's field day operation. Crushcraft R7 vertical in the foreground, tri-band yagi, 6 & 2 meter antennas beside the trailer.

The old camper trailer now convereted for field day use as the 6 & 2 meter station. Atop the tower a square omni-directional antenna for 6 as well as a 6m dipole, and 2m vertical.

Yours truly getting ready for a crack at 6 meters.

An impromptu 'round table' around the square table of the 6-meter trailer. Topics of conversation: amateur radio, mosquitoes (note the electric zapper in the foreground...an essential field day accessory!) and......cell phones! Pictured L-R, Eric VA3EP, Mitchell VE3OCC, Dave VE3UGT and Ian VE3EP.

Eric VA3EP, whose property the field day site was located upon, manning the 6-meter station. A few good openings produced some decent results on the 'magic band'.

The gennies that kept VE3RL powered for the duration of the event.

The 'mess tent', gathering spot and 2-meter station for talk-ins. Kevin VA3THB won many rave reviews for his fish fry! Pictured L-R Dave VE3UGT, Ian VE3EP, Art VE3SQG, Mitchell VE3OCC and Bill VA3WOW.

Al VE3FZ and Tim VE3UO burnin' up 80 meters

You may find this difficult to see, especially if you're not looking at a LCD monitor. The yagi radiating its RF into the night sky with a misty moon in the background. Oddly it was pointing North-West. Maybe the 20 meter crew was working some KL7's!

Field Day 2009

Over the 21 years that I've been a ham, one of my favourite activities has always been Field Day. Nothing seems to speak to the spirit of amateur radio better than a group of hams cooperating together to set up temporary stations in simulated emergency conditions. Then spend 24 hours with friends doing a little operating, a little socializing and enjoying some fine Field Day cuisine. Years back, I was the Field Day Manager for a club I was involved with and thoroughly enjoyed seeing things come together. In recent years my level of involvement has been limited by family and sometimes work concerns. This year, Murphy's Law again kicked in as an out-of-town family gathering meant I wasn't able to take part except for a few hours on the Saturday evening. None-the-less it was a blast and I'm doing my best to keep the calendar clear for next year.

Following are some images of the Field Day set up for VE3RL. For the past several years, local Field Day activities have been a cooperative effort between the Quinte Amateur Radio Club and the Prince Edward Radio Club.

In the past, the Field Day sites have been in various locations including a cabin at a conservation area, an old school house and last year in very comfortable digs at the administration building for the local conservation authority. This year the guys thought...hey, let's have "Field Day" in an actual field...what a concept! The land is owned by Eric VA3EP and located in a quiet spot of Prince Edward County near Picton, Ontario.

Brian VA3BRW was manning the digital station, primarily on RTTY. He was comfy in his modern and cosy camper trailer.
A bit of a fuzzy shot, but a close up of the neatly arranged digital operating station.

The 40-80 position was in a tent. Mike VE3OX owns the nice Vibroplex and was planning on running CW through the night. He was taking a break after a swarm of mosquitos invaded the tent.

The 20-15-10 station was located in a trailer previously used to transport racing motorcycles.

Inside the 20m trailer. Al VE3FZ on the mic with Bob VA3ACE logging.

All the essentials for Field Day operating...a computer for logging, HF Rig (Kenwood TS-2000 in this case) and an electronic mosquito zapper....oh and a bowl for the cherry pits.

The youngest operator at Field Day was Alex VA3UGT. He made a few contacts on 6m SSB with Eric looking on and Elmering.

The V/UHF station was housed in an old camper that Eric bought from a junk yard. It's now a nice little shack on wheels! Every ham needs one of these. The antennas included a square-shaped omni-directional 6-meter antenna, a small yagi for 2m and an omni vertical for 2 & 440. Looks there was also a dipole or windom for HF.

Yours truly on 6 meters, with Lee VA3LHM doing some manual logging. We had a good little run going for awhile as the band opened up nice towards the American west coast. Earlier in the day, Puerto Rico was worked on 6.

Eric had a pretty elaborate power supply system worked out for this station. If the generator quit, there would be no interruption of power.

The VHF station itself consisted of a Yaesu FT-857 for 6 & 2 meters SSB, while an FT-90 was standing by for any 2m FM activity.

The tri-bander raduating radio magic into the night.