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Amateur Radio BGMRC Club Communications Facilities Activities Other Information 
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What is Field Day? It is the biggest party for all Amateur Radio
Operators in the US. It last full 48 hours. Here is a little
of what happen at this years Field Day and some pictures to go along with
it.
Day 1 This years Field Day started at 2:00pm local time on a Friday.
And you know the race has begun because that old rusted out red color
pickup of Eddie's, K4UN has pulled onto the scene with the tower in
tow. FYI if you see the old rusted out red color pickup, please
notify Eddie. He has seamed to have missed placed it. At this point the
race has begun. We have 24 hours to setup our stations. We
found a place that is at a high elevation, has a place were we can hang antennas
from trees or light post, and is in a public area. We get
bonus points if it is in a public area. Then we start erecting all
sorts of towers and antennas, tents and trailers. We pull out the
generators and batteries. That's right, that is all we have for
power is generators and batteries. You see Field Day is when all the
Amateur's get together to make as many contact with each other only once
on each band. Can you imagine everyone in the US talking at the same time?
It is a mad house. Then as the contest day goes on and you have
worked all the strong signals you can this is when it gets a little
harder. You see now you have to listen really hard to get the next
contact with all the other Amateurs trying to talk to one another, because
you have worked all of them already. You see this is what you can
expect in an emergency, and that is really what this is all about.
How well we as a group work together to be on the air as soon as possible
to start communicating. And once we do get on the air with bad
conditions can we pull out the week signals and get the help that we
need. Back to the first days tasks. We spend some time putting
the Ham Shack together. About 6:00pm we pack up and go home except
those that are staying the night to watch the equipment and finish putting
up their tents and trailers. Day 2 It is Saturday moring and we wake up bright eyed and bush tail and show
up early to complete setting up the site. Then about 1:30pm local time. We
crank up the generators, and turn on the radios. Talk to a few
places around the US. Yes! We have a good signal getting out.
Our hard work has paid off. We tune up and down the bands and you
hear a few Amateur rag chewing. Then someone turns one of the radios to
WWV to get the official time. The bands are still pretty quiet. Then
it happen. WWV tell us it is 2:00pm local time, and then all you
hear is CQ contest CQ contest CQ contest this is Kilowatt 4 Sierra Echo
X-ray K4SEX Over. As you release the PTT on the Microphone you hear
hundreds of people trying to contact you. You work a few hours and
pass it on to someone else to take the helm with a big smile on your
face. Team work is just as important here as it was when we were
setting up. We had groups of 2 and as many as 7 trying to getting
that contact call sign. We worked stations all over the US and the
world. Then about 4:00pm the YL's show up. Without them Field day
would be in trouble because you see they bring the food. We tend to
forget about the important stuff when we get together. We really appreciate
all that they do to come out and help us. This year we had a big
fish fry. It was so good. You have to check out the pictures
below. This was an opportunity for all of us to chat with our
families and introduce them to the people in the Amateur community, and
talk about other thing besides Amateur Radio. Did I tell you that we
are open to the public? Oh that the best part. This year we recruited
2 Amateurs. One received his license that day and one was a Amateur
that had been around a while but wanted to get back into the swing of
things. Well back to the story. The YL's head home and
it is just us Amateurs sitting around the picnic tables rag chewing while
we wait our turn to get on the radios. It is a lot of laughs.
The next thing you know it is Sunday 2:00pm and the party is over.
We take down everything in just a few hours that took us 24 hours to put
up. We say our goodbye's as we head off home. Talking about
how great it was and what we will do differently next year. Another party
over and 363 more days until Field day. Field Day for 2004 will be June 26 and 27. So mark your
calendars. SETUP GENERATOR OPERATIONS RADIO RAG CHEW COOKING |
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