Field Day

Now, I've never been much of a contester, and I'll never have enough of a station to be a 'Big Gun', but I do enjoy it when I do contest, and with the big station upgrade, I can actually play a bit more.

This weekend was Field Day, which was the first contest I ever played in, with WA2GUG and gang (they now contest under WW2FD)

This year, I was running at home for the first time in a long time (last year I went to W2IRT's place). I ran class 1E (One transmitter, on Emergency Power)

I think I did OK, but when I went to switch over to 80m at around 10pm, I found my 80m antenna would NOT tune, which totally killed the hours between midnight and 6:30am or so, to the point I shut the radio off around 1:30am, and went to bed till 5:45ish (BTW, the antenna tuned FINE post contest - don't ask me)

That said, if you remove the W2IRT score from the Hudson class 1E database (Pete's in Germany), I had an effort that still should bring me a 2nd place, if the scores are the same as last year (1228 QSO points, plus the bulletin, plus 10 battery powered QSOs, plus solar power recharge, plus the 50 points for submitting online - If I do the math off the top of my head right, that's 1578 points - but I have to check the rule book)

(Edit - I eventually found the problem - after Field Day 2012!  Turns out that the barrel connector between the feed line and the riser to the 80m antenna had a thermal intermittent!  Not from RF, but from the daily change in temps.)

Some more new ones

Had some fun on the radio this weekend. There are advantages to having aluminum up in the air

I worked East Kiribati and India for all time new ones. I also got South Cook Islands on 20m and FJ/O1ST on 15m for band fills (That brings my band totals to 3 on FJ/O1ST - 10, 15 and 20 - all SSB)

On my list of chores - record my files for Field Day, and get RTTY and PSK31 working, and work on re-learning my CW

Didn't do Field Day

Missed Field Day for the 3rd year in a row.

Sheet rocking on Friday ran LATE - but we got started late, so I didn't get the 1st coat of tape up. Ended up doing that on Saturday AM, then had to spend the rest of the early afternoon running to Home Depot, and the local appliance place(AC in the den died last summer - time to replace it)

Sunday I went "Upstate" - aka the Kingston Area (West Hurley and Lamontville). The Ashokan was going over the spillway and the woods were WET. Nice party for Jane's graduation, and it was GOOD to see everyone. The last time I saw most of them was just over a year ago at Dad's Funeral. I normally get up there 4-5 times a year, but the last couple of years have been crazy. I hope to get up there (and to PA to visit with John and Lyn) a LOT more now that things have calmed down a bit in my life

Field Day 2009

I was really really hoping to make it to Field Day this year, but last Friday I received an invite to a friend's Daughter's High School Graduation. This is one I will NOT miss. I hope to get to play some on Saturday, after putting a 2nd coat of taping compound on the spare bedroom ceiling at Mom and Dad's place

Look for KG2V as either a 1D or 1E (depends on how I feel) from NLI section (probably 1D)

WAS and New Mexico

Well, one of my big goals for FD didn't happen AGAIN this year. The ONLY state I have NOT worked - EVER, is New Mexico.

I often hear stations working New Mexico, but I've NEVER even heard a station out of New Mexico

The only other state I don't have confirmed is CT - Mostly because I still have not sent out the card from LAST Field Day

Field Day

This year, Field day has not been so much fun. I've got some health issues, so I'm running class 1D with my lousy antennas. On top of that, I went to bed early. I figure my health is a heck of a lot more important than Field Day.

I probably should be on the air right now, but the way I feel, probably better off relaxing

Field Day Result

I Never posted how I did on Field Day. As I predicted, I came in forst for class 1E in the NLI section. That turned out to be trivial, as I was the ONLY class 1E in NLI.

I did come in 4th in the Hudson Division for class 1E. Definately have to get the QSO count up. I had 203, where the winning effort (WA2EQF) had 561!. I guess the sleep and off hours killed me. That's the big problem with a 1 man effort