Our High Plains Field Day
June 26, 27 & 28 2009

Each year, the Colorado QRP Club runs two Field Day efforts. Our Aloha site (the set of photos beneath the palm tree, below), is a casual experience that's more into operator participation than scores and points. Our competitive site is a bit more serious but has its fun moments too. This year our competitive effort was held at the QTH of KT5E and his family way out east of Denver. Our Aloha effort took place at Chatfield Reservoir State Park, southwest of Denver, under the guidance of ABØCD. The Colorado QRP Club greatly appreciates the efforts of all those who donated land, tents, radio equipment, antennas, food, soda, labor and operating skills to our 2009 Field Day operations!

Competitive Site (Most of the competitive site's photos were taken by KT5E)

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55	56	57	58	59	60
61	62	63	64	65	66

Click Here to hear KGNU's radio announcement about our 2009 Field Day effort!

Competitive site comments by KT5E, KØFEI, and KF7MD Page 71 of the December 2009 QST lists WØCQC (+KØFEI) as 2nd place in 2A Battery with 1,420 QSOs, using less than 5 Watts output, 7 participants, and 14,435 total points.

Subject: Field Day/KT5E comments

It was a good year and I am working on score summaries tonight. My comments:

1. We had 3 more operators this year which was key to keeping the rigs on the air. Mike KØMF and Ryan NØOJ both helped keep things running and give all balance. We had both rigs on 100% of the time during the midnight to 6:00am time. That was certainly key in making the most of the Moxon (nice job AL!) and 80 meters. Vince KIØRB helped make GOTA very successful this year (more below).
2. The site played well and the bands were quiet. We had absolutely no RF interference from internal or external sources. Mike, K6AER gave us band pass filters for each of the bands. This in effect gave us all brick wall protection. We attracted more visitors this year and 3 more that helped for setup. This was done with very little advertising. The paved roads up to the field day grass may have helped a bit!
3. We did it it this year with one less antenna - the GOTA HF tribander. Since we had 5 independent HF antennas the GOTA could take any of the 2 HF antennas not in use by the run stations. There was no need for the other tribander. Relative to GOTA, Frank and Vince pulled off lots of points - bonus and other running GOTA. It was very successful!
4. Let's not forget 80 meters. We had a record setting 122 qsos on this band alone. KØMF made 81 of these so kudos to Mike for his early evening start on 80meters.
5. Time to plan on more gain for 10 meters. The Eskip was working but we needed another 3-4db to be heard for running on 10mssb. It is sad that very few stations went to 10mcw where we would have been ok. I may personally take on this project.
6. We are truly at the bottom of the cycle. 15meters was practically forced open by all the stations. 20 meters was not much different. A few sun spots will really help this. The next few years should get progressively better.
7. Jim n Nicks Barbeque was great on Friday night but with a bit more planning I think we could handle this ourselves. Friday night should include nice feed for all that help with setup.
8. Weather was fantastic....I did warn everyone prior that the wind is non stop. What was cool at night made the daytime operating very pleasant.

I will be taking a look at pics tonight and posting soon.

73,

Jay - KT5E

On 6/29/09 11:41 AM, "Frank Ivan" wrote:

To follow up a little more.

• The site at Jay's KT5E was a real winner. Level grass field, no dust, porta-potty, no ATV's (well except for Jay's with a winch that made raising and lowering the big ugly tower a pleasure). The storms just moved around us, no rain. We did take a break setting up when the wind was blowing 50 mph but we already had the big tower up and it got a wind test. We used the lucky screen tent for the main stations and it came through again. It was a bit chilly at night, but Mike KØMF and AL KØFRP took it in stride.
• The new addition to the Field Day antenna collection this year was the 40 meter Maxon on the 100 foot crank up tower. You could see this monster 3 miles away (and hear it all over the country). We set a new QSO record for 40 meters.
• We had some ARRL dignitaries including the section manager stop by. They said we were finally close enough to be included in their rounds.
• We had a number of visitors, a couple of which may become club members including one of Jay's friends that can do CW at 45 wpm. We did miss one opportunity for some bonus points, next year we will have Jay's daughters each make a contact on GOTA. Now if we can get Marshall's dog can teach Jay's dog Jazzy code over the year...

All told it looks like the Rampart Range magic extends to Elizabeth.

Jay, Thank you and your family for hosting us. We may have come down from the range but this was a step up in comfort and certainly no compromise as a radio site.

Paul/KF7MD

ALOHA submission by Dick Schneider, ABØCD: Aloha Field Day Entry Form Bonus Point documentation Aloha Log

QSOs: We logged a total of 197 QSOs. 119 on CW and 78 on PHONE. We had 
11 dupes, all on PHONE.

SCORE: Our total claimed score was 2,450 points:
-119 CW Qs x 2 = 238 Q pts
-78 PHONE Qs x 1 = 78 Q pts
-TOTAL Q pts = 238 x 5 (QRP power multiplier) = 1,580
-Bonus pts claims = 870
-TOTAL CLAIMED SCORE: 1,570 + 870 = 2,450

 PARTICIPATION: We had at least 18 participants, probably more, but we 
weren't keeping tight records.

CLASS: 3A BATTERY

RIGS:

HF -- K2, K3, FT817, FT450, HOMEBREW 20M CW XCVR (we only ran 3 at one time)
VHF/UHF -- FT 817

ANTENNA FARM:

HOMEBREW MULTI-BAND DOUBLET, INVERTED V (80-10)
HOMEBREW TEEPEE "V" (40/20)
HOMEBREW VERTICAL (20)
MOSLEY 2-ELEMENT TRI-BANDER YAGI (20-15-10)
CUSHCRAFT TRI-BANDER YAGI (6-2-70CM)

OVERNIGHTERS:

RV - JIM POPE, KGØPP
RV - KEVIN SCHNEIDER & FAMILY
TENT - DICK SCHNEIDER, ABØCD
TENT - SCOTT GARCIA, KCØHSV, & FAMILY
TENT - PETE INSKEEP, NO2D, & FAMILY

SITE:

CHATFIELD SATE PARK
    -WEST DENVER METRO AREA
    -GROUP CAMPSITE LOOP "G"

67	68	69	70	71
72	73	74	75	76
77	78	79	80	81
82	83	84

Aloha Site Page 73 of the December 2009 QST lists ABØCD as 7th place in 3A Battery with 197 QSOs, using less than 5 Watts output, 17 participants, and 2,450 total points.

On Jun 29, 2009, at 7:24 AM, Dick Schneider (ABØCD) wrote:

Well, besides having a good time at the Aloha site we managed to put 206 Q's into the log book: 87 on sideband and 119 on CW.

10 meters        SSB: 12        CW: 2
15 meters        SSB: 11        CW: 31
20 meters        SSB: 64        CW: 34
40 meters        SSB: 0         CW: 52

72 Dick ABØCD..

Great job. The WX cooperated. Not too hot, no hail. Kevin Schneider
(ABØCD's offspring), thinking about entering the Ham ranks, discovered
he lives 2 doors down from Pete's daughter and son-in-law. For 2010,
we'll go for even cushier digs at Cherry Creek SP.

WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED FOR FIELD DAY?? Bring your Fun!!!

Support your local ARRL-affiliated Amateur Radio club!

CQC Field Day Archives, Links and Results:

Main Field Day information page 2009 High Plains Field Day 2008 Year of the Noise! 2007 Year of Aluminum Loss... 2006 2005 2004 Year of the rain! 2003 Stats 2002 The year of fire! 2001 3rd overall in the nation! 2000 Great band conditions 1999 The KØNA group gives us their Rampart Range location 1998 Lots of pix 1997 Antenna Layout 1994 Doug (WØAH, CQC #039), Amber, and Roger (KBØJFH, CQC #047)

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