[Fourlanders] W4NH 2011 Field Day report

[Bob Lear]

The Fourlanders decided to do Field Day as a group this year and set up 
portable at the W4ZST QTH.  The NGARC members were also invited to 
participate since this would be in Dahlonega and the NGARC had not done 
FD for the past several years.

It was nice setting up portable, but not having to go on the road.  We 
used the Operating Trailer "Great White" set up in the driveway and used 
the Tower Trailers and a long wire dipole strung up in the trees for the 
antennas.  We decided to do Class 3A - commercial.  Commercial power 
just seemed so much nicer than having to listen to a generator banging 
away for 24 hours.  We of course could have been on generator power 
quite easily with the set-up we had.  Are these signs of getting lazy or 
just getting older and wiser?

With class 3A we were also able to have a 6m station in the mix, so 
there were 4 transmitters and 4 antennas.  Two HF stations for either 
phone or CW, one on a tri-band (10/15/20 meter, Mosley Classic 33) beam, 
and one on the long wire dipole antenna (130 ft center fed with ladder 
line).  Another HF station was for digital modes, running mostly PSK-31 
the entire time and operated on a tri-band vertical antenna (an old 
Cushcraft R-3).  The 6m station had one of the Fourlanders five element 
6m beams up at 30'.  We didn't put up an omni this time and the ops said 
that it might have been very useful since we had such a good band 
opening on 6m.  We really had very little inter-station interference 
even with the antennas fairly close together.

The HF stations were an Elecraft K3, brought by Tom K4TJD, a Yaesu 
FT-1000MP from the W4ZST station, and Kos N4NIA brought his K3 for the 
digital station.  Ivan K4VJM supplied his Yaesu FT-920 for the 6m 
station.  The logging computers were supplied from the W4ZST shack along 
with Kos' laptop for digital.  We used WriteLog for the logging program 
and had a few network problems early on, but things settled down for the 
remainder of the contest.

Thanks to Kos for the flawless digital station and showing so many of 
the visitors how to work lots of stations on PSK.  He was running in Ham 
Radio Deluxe with DM 780 and it is pretty impressive.

Tom K4TJD brought his pop-up camper and he and Kos N4NIA stayed there on 
Friday and Saturday nights.  Ivan K4VJM stayed in the house with Bob on 
Friday and they were joined by Jim W4KXY on Saturday night.

Besides the operators mentioned who were band captains and did the 
setting up, we had a great number of visitors, some who operated, some 
who listened and some who just observed.  I think it was a good 
experience all around and useful to some of the newer hams who showed up 
to see what was going on.

Jim W4KXY, Jeff W0ONR and Ryan W4RLW are other Fourlanders who operated 
along with Chris W4ONT and Mary W4MWP.  Very special thanks to Chris and 
Mary for supplying the excellent BBQ pork and smoked italian sausages we 
had for dinner on Saturday night.  That food was originally for the VHF 
contest 2 weeks earlier, but as most of you know, Jeff feeds us so much 
on the mountain, we were unable to even slip the BBQ in for a tasting 
there.  I froze it and saved it for FD and it was excellent.  We had 
buns for both along with slaw and potato salad and I don't think anyone 
went hungry on Saturday evening and there was a good crowd there too. 
Thank you again, Chris and Mary.

We had breakfast for the overnighters on Saturday and Sunday mornings. 
W4ZST cooked eggs and bacon on Saturday and Jeff cooked Pancakes and 
Sausage for Sunday morning.  As usual for a Fourlanders function, there 
was plenty of food and none left over!  Except, Thanks to whoever left 
the Rooster's 'Tater soup in the fridge.  I had it for supper on Sunday 
night and it hit the spot.

Folks from the NGARC club who came at various times and observed and/or 
operated were Diana KB4SNU, Mike KF4ZFP, Dan KJ4JZP, Joe KJ4JBG, Andrew 
AK4EU, Shawn KJ4MLS, Russ KJ4WIS, Bob W4DXW, Rob WB4GKI and Ruedi 
KJ4NUP.  We were also visited by Randy WA4ZBO, a friend of Jim's from 
their Ga Tech radio club days, who is interested in the Fourlanders 
contesting activities.

Now for the contest details you've been waiting for.

Band		Q's	Points
40 phone 	68	68
20 phone	115	115
20 CW		107	214
20 digital	35	70
15 phone	193	193
15 CW		6	12
15 digital	138	276
10 phone	10	10
10 CW		10	20
10 digital	51	102
6 phone		182	182
6 CW		7	14
TOTALS:		922	1276

I think this is a pretty good showing for the group.  It compares with 
the number of Q's we make on the mountain top for a VHF contest and we 
did have a good time doing it.  I'm not sure if there are other points 
that we may get, but I'll see when I get into sending the entry in to 
ARRL after I review and double check the logs.  I don't have our older 
W4QQ logs handy to compare for FD, but I think this is a good outing for us.

A reminder that the Fourlanders will also do the CQ WW VHF contest (6 
and 2 meters only) at the W4ZST QTH on July 16th and 17th.  We will also 
have the annual business meeting with election of officers, etc. before 
the contest starts on July 16th.

Thanks to everyone who participated in any capacity with us for this 
Field Day and I hope everyone went away with some new knowledge and 
memories of a good time playing with Ham Radio.

73, Bob W4ZST