Cedar Hill Field Day 2007

Field Day

Cedar Hill, 2007

Field Day is an annual ham radio exercise designed to test emergency preparedness nationwide. In most cases the stations are set up and operated by teams of ham operators (usually ham radio clubs) out in a city park, campground, or some other open field (hence the name), using generator power and antennas that have been put up less than 24 hours before the event. It is a 24 hour nationwide contest to see who can accumulate the most points, by contacting the greatest number of stations in the greatest number of regions around the U.S. and Canada. It is also a demonstration of the ability of amateur radio operators to exchange information even in the event of a complete state-wide (or nationwide) telephone and internet outage. Fortunately this is just a drill.

It looks like a lot of fun for about the first 30 minutes, but I don't know if I'd like to sit out there all afternoon or all night. In order to enjoy Field Day, you have to really like being outdoors and being on the radio.

When Debbie and I visited this site at Valley Ridge Park, which was set up by the Southwest Dallas County Amateur Radio Club (SWDARC), we found it to be very educational. While Debbie and I both have ham radio licenses, neither of us has been on the air in several years. Certainly no time in this century. It was amazing to see the "power tools" being used on the amateur radio bands these days. The receivers and transmitters available today are far more effective than the equipment available 20 years ago, and light years ahead of the "boat anchors" that seemed so great back in the 1960's.

On the down side, I must say that at first it was disappointing to see the CW operators using computers to send and receive 90 percent of the Morse Code traffic, but that seems to be the trend. No doubt all these old timers could communicate in CW with a straight key and a pencil, but after about an hour it would get really tiresome, so I can't really blame them for letting the computers take care of the monotonous chores.

Enough commentary, let's see the pictures. (Click to enlarge, of course.)

NE5DL is the operator in the foreground, judging by the name tag.

NE5DL was one of several operators in the CW tent.

This appears to be KE5HGQ, according to his name tag.

About 75 yards to the west of the CW tent, there was another tent with the GOTA (Get On The Air) station. It's a station set aside for new or otherwise inactive hams to (re)discover the fun of ham radio.

The operation was being supervised by David, N5UV (on the left).

All I could really tell from my perspective was that they were operating on 14.070 MHz with some sort of digital mode. I'm fairly sure it was PSK31, although there was no audible sound from the receiver.

Again, it helps to have the latest power tools if you're going to compete with a hundred other stations for a tiny slice of the 20-meter band. Unlike the Morse code, however, this digital mode is a language that only a computer could "read." There's still quite a bit of skill involved in hunting down the weak signals, but in the end it really is just one computer talking to another.

There was a Boy Scout troop in attendance, learning about the basics of amateur radio. The class had just taken a break when these pictures were taken.

Apparently it was Troop 524.

This is KB5NJD. John and I met several months ago at an SBE meeting, so he recognized me the moment I arrived at the Field Day site.

John is a talented engineer who is quite enthusiastic about ham radio.

I didn't catch this gentleman's name, but he seemed like a friendly fellow. In this picture he looks like he has a terrible headache, but really he was just concentrating on weak signals in an ocean of background noise on 7.005 MHz.

Another couple of ham operators put a magnetic-mount VHF antenna on top of the park pavilion for the best possible range.

It wasn't easy, but the operation was successful and nobody had to do any climbing.

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