Commander David Ellis, Michael, Mickey and Jim, putting up Mickey’s end fed. Thank you to Commander Ellis for giving us access over the weekend.Steve F. was helping secure the far end of Mickey’s end fed. The bleachers for the high school athletic field are so convenient for this.Ron and Mickey doing PSK31, digital. Each week the club hosts a digital net on Thursday at 7:00 PM CST (01:00 UTC) for Digital Net at 1900 CDT on 3578 kHz (PSK-31, +1500 Hz offset, USB). A great way to try out digital! The computer behind Ron on the left is our contact logging server.Students Gabriel and Dakota with Trent doing SSB on 20 Meters.The ARRL has a Field Day Locator app on their website (www.arrl.org). The youtubers found us that way on the weekend.Mike and Kaitlyn, youtubers, stopped by to check out our Field Day activities. They found us using the map at the ARRL above.
Mike and Kaitlyn have a YouTube channel called Ham Radio Tube. They posted their video from the day. The Bastrop Field Day coverage is at minute 6:15 on the video: Ham Radio Tube We greatly thank them for stopping by and for the very well-done video of our day!
Bill and Roger, one of our VEs, during the youtube video. Bill is usually behind the camera, so he doesn’t get his picture in many of the events. Thanks to the youtuber, Mike, he got in this event coverage.Kelly and Joan were working SSB with Kelly’s Xiegu G90 and his ICOM 7100 in the rear of the building using his vertical (next pic)Rear vertical. Kelly’s Chameleon Milwhip with 8-ft extender, fed by a Chameleon Hybrid Micro transformer, supported by a surveyor’s tripod.Jim, Kelly, Joan and Michael using Rig Expert to check the SWR on Mickey’s endfed antenna.As a club we have offered ham license testing over the years. Last year was the end of using paper tests. Now the ARRL requires all tests and VEs to use computers at their website for Exams. So, the VEs had some learning to do. During field day these 3 VEs, Lynn, Robert and Dwight were setting up the new way to observe Exams.And also, during the day on Saturday, we gave our first Exam to Hidey who passed the Technician level on the computer with the VEs observing. Congratulations to Hidey for being our first Exam taker in the new system!Kelly’s wife, Diane, stopped by with Tulip to see the happenings. Tulip is a very sweet dog!On Sunday Steve B. stopped by with his Vibroplex keyer. In a little over an hour, he made 20 CW contacts on 15 Meters. Watching him work the key and communicate with the world was amazing! By comparison we only made about five SSB contacts over the weekend. Note: The club hosts a CW net every Thursday at 8:30 PM CST (02:30 UTC) for CW Practice Net. on 3545 mhzThe Bastrop High School “Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps” building was our venue for the weekend.
This year our antenna placement and band activity could have been better. Over the period the Field Day contest was active we made just under 50 contacts. Vertical antennas need greater separation than we could give them. Next year might be end feds and maybe dipoles all the way. It was, however, a lot of fun and we welcome new members to join us and enjoy future good times with us!
