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Winter Field Day 2023 It's finally here! The first event of the new year has finally come to pass! We've been waiting almost six months for this, and we were not disappointed. Like last year, we took advantage of our friends at the Wilder fire station and were allowed to use thier public conference room. We encountered a few hiccups along the way, as is usually the case when we haven't set up a group contest station in awhile, but it all worked out. |
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^^ The calm before the storm. John, KD7HGS, sets up the mini desktop PC that we use for a server. |
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^^ Gear is brought in and stations set up. |
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^^ Antennas are assembled (not so easy putting together a 27 foot antenna in a 34 foot room!)... |
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^^ ...and taken outside to be put in place. This created some issues, as the grassy areas were off-limits this year, and we had to set up all the antennas on the concrete and asphalt pads. This would come back to bite us later. |
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^^ Several hours into the contest, our server decided it didn't want to play anymore. It took a lot of patience and head scratching before John, KD7HGS and Tony, KI7MTZ (our IT specialist) figured out that the problem was a bad router and got it replaced. Good thing, too, because Our old friend Jim, W7TF, was on a roll with the straight key... |
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^^ Jim, W7TF, warming up to Bob, W7RLS's radio setup and the 1944 J-38 straight key he had hooked up. Once he got comfortable, he took off. Bob acted as the contact logger for Jim and couldn't keep up. This man absolutely RIPS with a straight key or keyer! |
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^^ A couple of hours and about 90 contacts later, Jim has mercy on the rest of us and switches to 20 meter phone. |
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^^ Time for supper! This year Deb, KE7TMF, and John, KD7HGS, made us a can cooker dinner. All the main ingredients steamed together in steel faux milk cans. |
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^^ In spite of antenna and server issues, we did all right. We didn't manage to work all states, but we were darned close! What's up with Montana, anyway? They are right next door and we didn't hear anything from them all day. In any event, please join us next time for contesting, dinner, and a good time. Heck, we might even manage a contact with Montana. Who knows... 73! |
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