Field Day 2006 June 23, 24 & 25

WØCQC took top honors in the 2A-Battery Class during the 2006 ARRL Field Day with a total score of 13,160 points and 1,286 QSOs!! - Read more about our ARRL standing near the bottom of this page...

Rampart Range, Colorado

Not only was CQC's Field Day effort fantastic fun but it turned out to be a smashing success as well! There were some early indications that things would work out great as Vince, KIØRB "scouted" out the potential Rampart Range location from his airplane just a half dozen days earlier. From there it was "smooth sailing" with plenty of space and elbow room for all of our campers, operating positions, and antenna farm. All photos were taken by your humble webmaster, WBØJNR, except for the one of him sitting at the VHF station and the group shot:

Click Here for a pdf on our ARRL Field Day entry form...

Click Here for ABØCD's pdf on our "YourHub" Field Day exposure...

Vince, Al, Frank, Paul, Tim, & Dick - Photo by Mrs. Ivan

WØCQC - Running 2A at 5 watts (Club station running on independent power) We earned QRP, CW, and solar multipliers. Our primary rigs were two Elecraft "K2" transcievers with some of the "big name," traditional equipment being used on VHF, UHF and our GOTA station. Everything was powered by battery with some batteries charged by solar. We're also very proud of our antenna trailer as Vince put a lot of effort into upgrading it to handling the steep and bumpy road up to Rampart Range. As far as the photograpy goes, my camera has a tough time dealing with the blue light, created by the tent fabric, but I posted 'em anyway... - WBØJNR

KRØU on CW	KBØOIJ on 50 MHz	KCØHSV on HF	KØFRP on CW	KF7MD on CW
KØFEI antenna launch!	Dick and Scott	WØHEP (CQC #1) on CW	Basic electronics	WBØJNR on 6 meters
GOTA - Get on the Air!	15 Meters CW	Jim and Tim	KBØOIJ on 50 MHz	Lots of batteries!
KF7MD on CW	KF7MD deep in thought...	Power distribution	"The" tent...	Rich and Vince
Vince, Scott and Dick	20 Meters CW	CQC Welcome Banner	"The" tent...	KRØU on VHF
WBØJNR (Self-portrait)	20 Meter monobander	Our beloved trailer!	VHF/UHF Antennas	6 Meter antenna up close...

The road to success!

Some Description: (Provided by Al Dawkins, KØFRP, a few hours after Field Day)

80/20/10 stn
 
dipole 80m 4 el mono 50 ft 20m 3 el at 20 ft on 10m
K2 running 5 w and a pentium 200 old laptop using CT-10 windows version of logging software.. the laptop is run off of an inverter from 12v batteries.
80     71
20    610
10    6  10m was open I heard 8-10 bescons but nobody there.
 
687 Q's
 
40/15m stn
Dipole on 40m at 50 ft a 4 el mono at 50ft on 15m
K2 running 5w    and a IBM laptop using CT-10 windows version of logging software.
The interface would not work so the internal memory keyer in the K2 and a paddle served the purpose.
 
40 m 372 
15m 153
 
total  525
 
uhf VHF and UHF 
 
6m was open very but not wide open 5 min sperts
 
6m 51
144 2
 
total 53 q's
 
GOTA had some problems with radios, BNo output power on a *!& and No audio on a K2.
It was tough for the inactive hams and the newbe techs
 
40m  9 
20m 4
 
Using a 40m folded dipole at 25 ft  into a tuner. But they had fun trying to figure out what was wrong.
 
Total 13 q's
 
 
 
2A battery 1212  and free q from vhf and Gota of 66
for a grand total of 1279 q's 

Total score is yet to be determined due to bonus points.
 
Remember FD is not a Contest 
 
Al K0FRP back to hot humid SC Tuesday

Last stop - Sedalia, Colorado!

Additional Description: (Provided by Tim Groat KRØU)

Roger,

Here's some equipment details for the VHF station.

The transceiver is a Yaseu FT-726, running 5W on 50, 144, and 432MHz. The 
antennas are home-brew yagis for each band, with an 8 foot boom for 50 MHz 
and 6 foot booms for the higher bands. The 50 and 432MHz antennas are "NBS" 
designs, while the 144MHz antenna is adapted from the "packet yagi" example 
included with YO. The antennas were up only 15 to 18 feet on army surplus 
mast sections, but that's more than enough from the Rampart Range ridge 
line. The logging computer is an ancient 486-50 laptop, running CT version 
10 and DOS version 6. This system is very battery friendly, working 
directly from 12VDC and using little power--but the 50MHz clock requires 
liberal use of ferrite to keep the 6M receiver happy.

The key (shown in the "basic electronics" photo) is a CTE "flame-proof" 
key, complete with the tall navy knob. It's showing its age cosmetically, 
but still is a pleasure to send with.

Also, attached is a group photo (with the re-loaded trailer in the 
background). Photo credit goes to Frank's YF; she was kind enough to manage 
all the cameras so everybody could be in the pictures!

72,
--Tim (KR0U)

CQC Field Day Participants: Paul Beckett - KF7MD Al Dawkins - KØFRP Tim Groat - KRØU Vince Kumagai - KIØRB Dick Schneider - ABØCD Rich High - WØHEP Scott Garcia - KCØHSV Jim Oleson - KBØOIJ Frank Ivan - KØFEI Roger J. Wendell - WBØJNR

Here's an email that Al sent the gang, via QRP-L, at Friday's start-up: Colorado QRP Club is ready to Roll. New site 500 feet higher at 8534 ft as the GPS says. We lost our trusted old site to the trail bikers. It's just north of Devils Head on Rampart Range Road. 2A VHF/UHF and a GOTA. 4 el on 15 and 20m on separate 50 ft crankups are up as of 4 pm Friday. Dipoles on 40/80m Vince KI0RB had springs installed on the tower trailer so its a smooth ride up the hill. CQ FD de W0CQC Al K0FRP home for the weekend.

This was the Colorado QRP Club's first Field Day effort as an affiliated club with the ARRL (American Radio Relay League). The ARRL is what keeps Field Day, and Ham Radio in general, the great fun it is!

Return to the CQC Photo Gallery Index
Return to our main Field Day page

Return to CQC Home Page