Vintage AM Station at Field Day

[kb3ouk]

I made 7 of my contacts on 75, 2 on 40, 2 on 20, and 1 on 15. All SSB, i called in AM on 75 and 40, had Bud,  WD8BIL come back on 40 but he was so weak I couldn't hear anything else.

[W1DAN]

Folks:

Peter W1ZZZ brought his Heath DX60 transmitter, HG10 VFO and Johnson Matchbox to our radio club's Field Day Saturday. However, last week in preparation for the event, I fired up my Collins 75S1 and there is some problem with the front-end...no signals, so I tried my HRO-5. Tuned up all the four coil sets and discovered the BFO died in the process, so we used my Icom R75. Really wanted a total vintage setup at the Wellesley Amateur Radio Society W1TKZ FD site in Needham, MA, but did not feel like lugging my HRO-60.

The best part was when we ran the whole setup off a solar panel and worked a CW station on the beach in Markham, Ontario! First time I experience the slow chirp of an HG-10.

After a tasty rib dinner with all the fixin's, Peter and I worked a few AM'ers on 75m. More fun than using the club's FT847.

See photo.

73,
Dan
W1DAN

[Steve - K4HX]

Got on early this morning on 40 meter slop bucket for 1.5 hours or so. Made 231 contacts, 39 states (including Alaska) and 8 provinces. In the middle of all the mess, VK7ZE calls in. He was as loud as the stateside stations!

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Did mostly 15 and 20 meters for about 3.5 hours Saturday afternoon with roughly about 425 contacts. Went back for the 2 to 6 AM shift Sunday morning and worked mostly 40 and 20, and a little 80. Don't know what the count was for that but the logger was steaming. Used a FT-2000 on Saturday and a Icom IC-9100 on Sunday. Nice 100 watt class rigs. Inverted vees for 80 and 40 and 3 element unnamed tri-bander for 10, 15, and 20 on a 30 foot aluminum tower.

[kb3ouk]

I must not be a serious contester then, because I was on almost 3 hours and made a total of 12 contacts.

[K5UJ]

I worked Jack W9GT on Saturday on 3885--he was running the John Meck 6V6 rig getting around 35 watts with it from the Ft. Wayne QTH signing W9E I think, and he had quite a few AM stations to work.   That pre-1950 John Meck rig sure sounded good.  Also surprisingly strong signal.  I listened to him work Norm W7IUC and others.

[The Slab Bacon]

What turned me against field day (and most other corntests) (besides the rude operating) was a club that I used to belong to. They were really big on (winning) field day.

The last time I operated with them they pissed me off beyond words! ! ! !
We were set up in a local state park with phone stations for 40m (24 hr) 80 / 20m (20 day, 80 night) 15 / 10m, and all vhf combined. and 2 CW stations one on 40, and 1 on 80 / 20m.

Myself and my buddy Rick worked the 80 20m phone station for 20 of the 24 hours non stop!. After 20 hours of calling CQ, no sleep, and little food for 2 days, both of our voices sounded like bags of broken glass and rocks! We were both piss-beat and spent! I reached over and killed the rig at around 11:00 AM. We just couldn't go on any more.

.......

[W9GT]

I'm very sorry to hear (see) this posting becoming a debate on the pros and cons of Field Day!  Anyway, we had a wonderful time this weekend running W9TE from the IPFW Campus grounds in Fort Wayne.  We made lots of contacts in spite of the so-so conditions on many bands. 

The vintage station was a big hit and we had a blast!  Worked about 65 contacts or so with that rig...no big total, but largely a laid-back style of operating and just a fun time.  One of the guys checked into an AM net with the rig on Sunday and worked about 10 stations. 

The overall operation was really great with the leading contact producer being 40 M SSB, with 934 contacts.  We even had a weather balloon up 100+ feet for 160 M.

I will add some pics of the vintage station in a following post.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[W9GT]

Pictures of Vintage AM Station at W9TE  Field Day  2012:

[W9GT]

More Pictures of Vintage AM Station at W9TE  Field Day  2012:

[W9GT]

More Pictures of Vintage AM Station at W9TE  Field Day  2012:

[W9GT]

More Pictures of W9TE  Field Day  (IPFW Campus - Fort Wayne, IN) 2012:

[W9GT]

More Pictures of W9TE  Field Day  2012.  In case you were wondering....the VW was just a gag.  The truck in the background was actually used to raise the tower 

[W9GT]

MP3 of the vintage station courtesy of Dave, W9AD (I was using my call before the FD event started).

[W3GMS]

Folks:

Peter W1ZZZ brought his Heath DX60 transmitter, HG10 VFO and Johnson Matchbox to our radio club's Field Day Saturday. However, last week in preparation for the event, I fired up my Collins 75S1 and there is some problem with the front-end...no signals, so I tried my HRO-5. Tuned up all the four coil sets and discovered the BFO died in the process, so we used my Icom R75. Really wanted a total vintage setup at the Wellesley Amateur Radio Society W1TKZ FD site in Needham, MA, but did not feel like lugging my HRO-60.

The best part was when we ran the whole setup off a solar panel and worked a CW station on the beach in Markham, Ontario! First time I experience the slow chirp of an HG-10.

After a tasty rib dinner with all the fixin's, Peter and I worked a few AM'ers on 75m. More fun than using the club's FT847.

See photo.

73,
Dan
W1DAN

Great fun Dan!  Yes, the DX-60 was my first real transmitter.  Its a shame you had problems with the National gear but I am sure you will be all set to have it operational should you do it again next year.  I have found if you leave the HG-10 in the spot position while transmitting the note is very clean.  I never remember mine chirping in any position when I used it in 1966. 

Thanks for sharing the FB pictures.

Joe, W3GMS

[W3GMS]

I'm very sorry to hear (see) this posting becoming a debate on the pros and cons of Field Day!  Anyway, we had a wonderful time this weekend running W9TE from the IPFW Campus grounds in Fort Wayne.  We made lots of contacts in spite of the so-so conditions on many bands. 

The vintage station was a big hit and we had a blast!  Worked about 65 contacts or so with that rig...no big total, but largely a laid-back style of operating and just a fun time.  One of the guys checked into an AM net with the rig on Sunday and worked about 10 stations. 

The overall operation was really great with the leading contact producer being 40 M SSB, with 934 contacts.  We even had a weather balloon up 100+ feet for 160 M.

I will add some pics of the vintage station in a following post.

73,  Jack, W9GT

Jack,

Glad you had a great time and many thanks for the great pictures of your vintage FD operation.  I sure have not seen many transmitters like you were using.  Even though you did not mention CW, I am curious if you plugged a key into the old rig and worked some CW. 

Don't concern yourself with some of comments that others have made over FD.  I understood from your original post that you were not taking a survey over FD. 

73,
Joe W3GMS 

[K9PNP]

Nice pictures, Jack.

Love the 160 M verticle.  May have to suggest that down here next year.

[K7EDL]

Nice pictures and in my opinion a great way to share AM.
Lincolns saying about pleasing all of the people all the time really fits in this hobby.  There appears to be a large group of very vocal very negative people. I figure they're just miserable people and they have to live with themselves which is their own worse punishment. 

Its a big hobby, big enough for everyone. Like field day, don't like field day OK what ever floats your boat.

73

Eric

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I must not be a serious contester then, because I was on almost 3 hours and made a total of 12 contacts.

Field Day and many other contests, are about the transmitted/received "exchange" (for Field Day:class and section). There's generally no other discussion. I find it fun to see how many contacts I can make in some defined period of time. If you can grab a frequency, you let the contacts come to you.

Field Day club activities are always fun because it can bring out seasoned and newly minted club members to work together. The newly minted may have never experienced the operating in the wild, running on generator power, throwing up multiple antennas in record time, the stress and the utter chaos that prevails on many of the ham bands over the weekend with most only running 100 watts or less.

Obviously, if you're a laid-back kind of amateur or have to ponder every word or phase before you utter it, contesting in any form is probably not for you. And the 60, 30, 17, and 12 meter bands are always contest free for those who want to get away from it all.

[kb3ouk]

I tried the "sit on one frequency and call my head off and let the contacts come to me" aproach, it didn't work. Between what seemed like crappy band conditions here and antenna issues on 40, 20, and 15 meters (randomwire that seemed to favor southern stations, when most of what i could hear was west of here), I did the best I could. I honestly think if I do field day again next year, I'm gonna get a special event call just to speed up the exchange a little, I can't remember how many times I had to repeat my call because somebody would screw up on it, even with phoenetics. I actually had the most luck on 75 meters, even though there was hardly anyone on there.

[K7EDL]

I tried the "sit on one frequency and call my head off and let the contacts come to me" aproach, it didn't work. Between what seemed like crappy band conditions here and antenna issues on 40, 20, and 15 meters (randomwire that seemed to favor southern stations, when most of what i could hear was west of here), I did the best I could. I honestly think if I do field day again next year, I'm gonna get a special event call just to speed up the exchange a little, I can't remember how many times I had to repeat my call because somebody would screw up on it, even with phoenetics. I actually had the most luck on 75 meters, even though there was hardly anyone on there.

This is the only reason I changed my call from KD7QDU, it was tough to understand even under the best of times. I have a lot less problems with my new call

73
Eric

[W9GT]

A few more pics.  Thanks everyone for the great comments and support. Maybe we will do this again next year.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[Steve - K4HX]

Great photos and audio Jack! Makes me want to set up a portable station for next year. Thanks for sharing.

[Knightt150]

Jack: Thanks loads for the field day pictures, just looking at them has made my morning, so far it has not been a very good one.

John W9BFO

[ke7trp]

What a cool setup.  Its to bad we cant do Field day in AZ where I live.  I always think of taking a trip for field day.  Maybe next year.

C