Field Day 2024 Report

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“CQ FD” was once again the call in the wild as the club returned to Lost Eden for Field Day 2024. As this year marks the return to Lost Eden for the 8th time; we are so grateful for the generosity of Mike Toone for providing us with our recurring home for FD.

The site has seen some important improvements this year with better roads, a 2000-gallon water tank, and of course, the erection of a 65-foot tower for a cell repeater and a club VHF repeater.

So now that FD 2024 is in the logs, it’s time once again to reflect on this year’s event that brings together thousands of amateur radio operators all over North America. This 24-hour event displays what is one of the tenets of Ham Radio: Be prepared to help in what ever way we can to maintain communication when there is no other means. As would be in the case of a real deployment of our resources in an emergency, we prepare and exercise.

I always seem to return to my observation of this annual pilgrimage to places not normally associated with amateur radio as an adventure.
And an adventure it was, because every year something happens to disrupt the best-made plans. Fire restrictions are our usual concern and we monitor conditions and weather predictions right up to Thursday when the advance team heads up the hill. We were happy to see that storm predictions were correct and we were ready. It rained on and off every day, and only once was there a need to shut down the operation due to lightning.

Thursday afternoon saw the casual setup of the site and deployment of the road signs. Friday morning Steve arrived with the truck and the main canopies, and the two club primary HF stations were set up. As usual, the talk-in station on 147.50 simplex was also ready to go.

Antennas were a rotatable dipole on 20m and a 40m wire dipole all put up high in the trees with KB7KWK’s air-powered launcher. Another full-time station was Brian, W7JET with the usual high wire CCD dipole which is an unusual design that always comes through for the CW powerhouse station. Jeff, K2DFE provided an end-fed multi-band long wire that was not quite as high as we wanted, but it worked just fine. Many attempts and some time was spent having fun with the launcher!

We had several participants join in the fun with their own setups. This is encouraged as there is no better opportunity and location to experiment with home-brew antennas and radios. Hercel, KJ7WHS had fun with his new radio and Chris, WG7B had the smallest QRP radio into a long wire antenna.

K7K was now on the air again as “Four Alpha, Alpha Zulu”, four stations operating class Alpha from Arizona, all running on Solar, Battery, and Generator power. We always reserve K7K as a special event callsign, It’s certainly better than WB7TJD for contesting.

We had 22 members sign in, which is fewer than most years. This may well have been because of the weather forecasts.

Saturday at 11am brought the beginning of the 24-hour marathon of radio madness and fun! The bands this year were very favorable for making lots of contacts. All stations were busy with the usual club members and there were many opportunities for new hams to get air time. The CW station was without Charlie, NJ7V, Brian’s usual partner; however Todd, W5MTN was there to pick up the slack. The 20m and 40m stations were operated with efficiency which resulted in giving the CW guys a good run for points scored. CW is always the winner with the most contacts.

Two of our crucial members of the club Field Operations Committee were not able to attend. Dan, KC7MSU, my fellow FD organizer and campsite IT network master and Charlie, NJ7V our other CW “fist” and primary contact with the owner. Thanks to both for their dedicated work.

Another activity that had many participants moving around the 30-acre site was a Fox Hunt. Thanks to Chip, KK7GWX, for building and programming the Fox. This had so many of us looking for a miniature transmitter that always seemed to stop its transmit cycle just as you think you are on the right track. Everyone agreed that this should be included every year. Brian, KF7DPC was the winner of a new dual-band HT.

Eve, W7EVE held down the 20m station for quite a while. She also helped a couple new members make their first HF contacts. The ladies also got together and showed us how to rack up some numbers.

The Saturday get-together for lunch saw the stations shut down to Zero watts while we gathered for conversation, and a chance to just take in the beauty of Lost Eden.

The two raffle prizes were drawn using our traditional playing cards for tickets. Thanks to all who helped with that and for the money placed in the donation box. It really helps with the expenses.

There is an ongoing nighttime ritual that pits Steve, KB7KWK against JD, KF7VOX each year. They go long into the wee hours, catching up with like-minded hams who want to avoid the daytime cacophony of the SSB stations. This year, Steve was assisted by Hercel, KJ7WHS. Meanwhile Douglas, W7ADD joined Team JD. The two teams competed to see who was the king of the Late Night Rangers!

Big thanks go out to the club members who came out to the storage unit to load the truck and again to unload on Sunday. You all saved the day.

Our club has become casually known as “The Friendliest ARC in the Southwest,” as witnessed by our growing membership, now over 230 members. It seems that during introductions at each club meeting we hear, “I just got my license” followed by applause from everyone in the room. This will become an official slogan for us going forward.

So… How did we do this year? 1264 Contacts for a preliminary score of 3706. A final report will be available next month. This is a very good score for us, as we don’t often exceed 1000 contacts!

Here are our QSO totals by band and mode:

Field Day 2024 QSO totals by band and mode.

I guess it’s time to start planning for next year!

Superstition ARC Repeaters

147.120 (+) 162.2 Hz (Analog Only)
449.600 (-) 100.0 Hz (Analog Only)
448.275 (-) 100.0 Hz (Fusion)
WB7TJD-R EchoLink
Allstar link 52987

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