CQ Field Day, KU6S

CQ Field Day, CQ Field Day. Kilo-Uniform-Six-Sierra, Kilo-Uniform-Six-Sierra, Field Day.

These were my first few phrases over the 20m band as soon as the clock struck 11:00am, Saturday. The other 3 tents came to life as well as each laid claim over the already crowded airwaves to listen for stations calling in across North America. It was the official start of Field Day 2013. I will spare all the gory details. It was a 24-hour event so I don't think anyone would want to read about it. But I will share with you some highlights of the day.

I was the captain of the 20m station, and I was the first SSB operator for the day. About 15 minutes or so into the hour, I noticed someone at the right corner of my eye snapping photos of me as I called CQ. Since I had my hands full calling stations, listening out for them, and logging their callsigns and exchanges on the laptop, I didn't have time to glance over to see who it was. After a while, this person called my attention and introduced himself. He was a photographer for some local paper, whose name I hardly understood. I was oblivious to what was going on because I was focused on the task at hand. A couple of days later, I saw my picture in the Oakland Tribune (print) and Mercury News (online), including a short video where a club member of mine, Bernhard, was interviewed right inside the 20m tent, with me, in action, in the background. It was quite interesting.

Aside from the usual HF (3.8 MHz, 7 MHz, 14 MHz, 21 MHz, & 28 MHz), VHF (144 MHz & 54 MHz), and UHF (440 MHz) bands, we also operated a satellite station. Like last year, this station had always drawn the biggest crowd because of the unique contacts it had made with the International Space Station (ISS). The only time we were able to make contact with ISS was when the satellite orbited our side of the earth -- literally across the horizon from where we were. Now that was just fascinating.

During the day, we had a couple of distinguished guests. They included Fremont's fire chief and the vice mayor. Based on the rules of Field Day, our club gets 100 points for each of these visits. A few Boy Scouts, some members of the local 4-H club, and guests of other hams also paid us a visit. Each one tried their hand at establishing a contact (a two-way communication) with another station. At the end of the contact, each guest operator was given a certificate acknowledging the contact they've made during the event.

At around 1pm, we all took a break and had lunch. We broke tradition by having a BBQ lunch, instead of the usual potluck dinner. In past years, we would have dinner at around 5pm. We noticed that the wind would pick up around that time and the temperature would dip. It was just an unpleasant experience. Imagine trying to hold down your paper plate while you ate, especially if there was less food on it to hold it down. With this new BBQ lunch, it wasn't windy and the temperature was just perfect.

As the day went by, the number of visitors dwindled, including the operators. By night fall, there was just enough operators and back ups at each station to keep things humming. Dinner was provided for those who were around at that time. After about 9pm, my son, James (he was there in the late afternoon) and I went home to pick up some stuff we needed, as we planned on spending the night at the park that evening. Before we headed back, we took a little detour for a late night grub.

James headed to his tent, while I proceeded to the 20m tent. I prepared my chair, which I planned to sleep on, and placed it at one side of the tent. Operators came and went till about past 2am Sunday morning. I was half asleep, so I knew who was operating. Unfortunately for them, they had to bear with my snoring whenever I dozed off. I guess they were just too kind to complain or tell me about it.

I had wanted to operate as much as I could. Since I was the 20m captain, I had to make sure we had enough operators to keep the station running all the time. If there was no one else operating, then I would step in. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we had more than enough operators. The band condition on 20m (14 MHz) was not as great as we expected or had been in past years. Normally, the 20m band would be open and full of activity for most of the 24 hours, but it wasn't the case this year.

At around 3 in the morning, I rose and tried to get on the air. I scanned the band, and no one was out there. No CQs. No nothing. So I went back to sleep. The next thing I knew, I heard people talking outside the tent and the surrounding background was getting brighter. It was 6am. After a while, Bernhard came in and operate CW (morse code). He made a number of contacts, but the band continued to be bad.

Later in the morning, one of the club members brought coffee. Then,  a run was made for some McDonald's breakfast. It was the perfect nourishment to operate the remaining hours, and prepare for tear down after. More on that later.