On Saturday, June 27 seven hearty hams turned up at 8 AM to setup our operation at Desert Vista Community Center. Canopy tents were erected, antennas were put up (including a G5RV Mini in the trees), radios were mounted & made ready.
By contest start time at 11 AM we were ready to operate on HF Voice, HF Digital and VHF Digital. However, the bands were acting like a wet sock – absorbing and killing most of our attempts at making contacts. I spent a frustrating 3.5 hours trying to make contacts on the FT8 HF Digital mode to no avail.
In the end as temperatures approached 109 degrees, Ken (W7BES) made 6 contacts on HF Voice and we were able to claim 300-500 bonus points (depending on the acceptability of our documentation).
Next year, we’d like to operate from an indoor location and perhaps monitor the propagation to determine if there is a better time of day to operate in.
Participants included:
K5LX, Fred
KC5CJ, Paul
W7BES, Ken
WB7EHN, Bob
K7RKO, Paul
N7GET, Robert
W6MW, Mark
We’d love to add your call to our next operation on the fourth full weekend in June!
73 de Mark!
W6MW
Field Day Photo Gallery
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