Field Day - 2009

Don/VE3MNE and Bill/VE3CLQ arrived at the site at 0900 on Friday morning and were greeted with the site of several very large willow limbs broken off and hanging dangerously over the lawn. These were removed after George/VE3SIQ arrived at 1100. We had to use a rope from the limbs to Don's van to pull them down, and then cut them up to move with a chain saw. After lunch we started erecting antennas, starting with a pair of phased 40m verticals. We also put up an all band doublet that in the end had to be cut up and reconfigured, as it did not work at all as advertised. The doublet was changed to a 10-15 fan dipole, and was up in the trees about 60 feet. We had our usual 80-40-20 fan dipole orientated East-West, as well as a 20-15-10 fan dipole orientated North-South.

The SFI for the weekend hovered between 67 and 68, which is pretty poor considering last month it was up to 75. George/VE3SIQ operated the 20 metre SSB station and had a good solid contact with Japan and Alaska, and Bill/VE3CLQ operated the 20 metre SSB station, using a phased vertical, had a "40 over" contact with a UK station, followed immediately with a contact with EE1E in Spain.

Martin/VA3AKY and Danielle/VA3TBZ worked the 10 metre and 15 metre station and, while it was hard going on those two bands, they still managed to get 47 contacts. Not bad for a pair of newly licensed hams with no HF experience. Carl/VE3DNR also got his feet wet on the 20 metre station and did very well.

Ron/VE3GO operated our sole CW station and made contacts on several bands. Unfortunately, Ron was plagued with radios that had filters too wide for CW operation and an antenna that didn't work. We sorted things out and Ron made a good number of contacts in the end.

Roy/VE3VJF showed up bright and early on Saturday and right away got to work cooking the onions. It was nice to see Dave/VE3DZE there on both days (along with his XYL on Sunday). Dave operated the 20 metre station for a while.

Anthony/VA3ASZ and his grandson Austin spent most of Saturday with us. Austin spent 3 hours as a logger on the 20 metre station for George, and did very well. Hopefully we'll see him with a licence soon.

Thanks to all those who came out to visit, it was nice to see you all, and we hope the newly licensed hams that came out to see us went away with new knowledge of HF operations and antennas. I know there were many, many questions asked about our antennas and radios. It's nice to see people interested in HF operation, and asking questions.

One again a very large Thank You must go to Don/VE3MNE for allowing us to use his Hay Bay property and for acting as the master chef.... yet again....