Monday, June 24, 2013

SEKARC Big Brutus Field Day 2013

The SEKARC Field Day event was fun, hot, and educational for us newbies and overall a great experience that will be a big help in planning for Field Day 2014. Loren KDØRTX, and myself KDØSEG camped over the weekend and while we did not operate 24 hours straight it was fun! Like I mentioned before, our plan was to be laid back without the pressure of worrying about points or slamming in contacts. I made about 20 phone contacts and about 10 psk31 contacts. We used KDØSEG - 1B KS as our identifier.

Beautiful spot, plenty of strong country winds to go along with the heat so if you were in the shade you were ok. Pleasant evenings with the sound of a pack of coyotes having a good time under the glorious full moon and they were running pretty close to us at one point. It is amazing how different the night sounds are at night, away from the city.

Frank NØIGZ arrived bright and early on the 22nd and we set up his 6 meter beam antenna about 10 feet off the ground. He heard some early activity as clubs were setting up their Field Day equipment but sadly that was about it before his battery ran out before sunset. But I hope he still had a great time. Jack WDØCFH stopped by for a face to face QSO so it was nice to get a chance to meet a ham that was a friend of my Dad, Charles KAØEGE. Casey KDØFRL and his son stopped by as well as Larry NØMST and we all had a great visit and swapped some radio and truck stories. Joe WØMQY was there most of the day Saturday on QRP working mostly 40 meters and I know he had some success. The 20m vertical I made performed greatly. We set up Friday night, fired up the radio and my first contact was a psk31 QSO to Argentina using about 25 watts, the fishing pole with one 18 gauge speaker wire up and 4 radials on the ground! Total cost of my antenna, about $30. How sweet is that?

This will help us going in to planning for 2014, we can talk about it more at the meeting this Saturday 9am at Hardee's so come on by. Thanks for those that made it out and we are anxious to plan our next activity. Foxhunt? Mini Field Day? Maybe we can kick around an idea of setting something up during Little Balkins Days? Anyone have any thoughts? See you Saturday !

Here is a slide show from the weekend events !

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Field Day 2013 at Big Brutus

Yes we are having a Field Day for 2013. Our Field Day will be held on location at the Big Brutus site in Cherokee County KS.

We will have one pop-up camper on location and if you would like to bring RV or camper, be sure and make your reservations through the Big Brutus office. It is $15 a night and they have 30 amp hookups and water! Everyone is welcome to participate even if it is just to stop by for a hello and for you to make a couple of contacts. Bring your gear, relax and have fun!

As a heads up, I will add that this will not be a high pressure, high contact count, points, points, points kind of event for us. It will be a chance to participate in a Field Day ( a first for some of us ), and a chance to just get out there, set up a remote location and GET ON THE AIR. You can find more information on the Big Brutus location by clicking on the photo below. You can GOTA, visit a local tourist spot and hopefully have a great time.

If you have any questions or would like additional information please email the club at sekarc.net@gmail.com and we will either get you the info or find someone that can. Thanks again and we hope to see you ALL out there.

What is Field Day? CLICK HERE !!

SEKARC Field Day 2013
 
Big Brutus June 22nd and 23rd
 
Click below for Big Brutus location information!



Saturday, June 1, 2013