FIELD DAY HUGE SUCCESS
The EBRC 1977 Field Day must be put down in the records as a successful event, and credit is due to the team effort organized by Jin Gale, WA6FDX, F/D chairman. Set-up was at the south end of Port of Richmond Terminal Warhouse No. 3 on Harbor Way. Use of this property was granted by the Port of Richmond by Capt. Tom Eddy, Director, to whom we express our appreciation for this cooperation.
Les Bodin, W6JKY, had the 5 KW generator in top shape and it perfomed faultlessly except for one premature gas shortage about an hour before F/D closing. A quick trip for gas and we were back in business.
Two other lower powered generators were tested and held in stand-by, thanks to Jim Gale, WA6FDX and Joe Lee, WB6DOB. Operations were hot and heavy on 80, 40, 20, and 15. Top scorer by a wide margin was Paul Zeppa, WA6VJH, who brought down his portable three element beam and Heath 101 transceiver. Sunday AM early he put up a short vertical on the embankment next to the harbor channel, and threw a coil of wire into the salt water for ground. First contact was with RUSSIA! Numerous other asian contacts followed. Paul's main operation was on 20 M, and he had some good assistance from John Nelson, K6PJ and John Polese, WA6QIN. Action was divided between phone and CW with Paul's excellent operating ability paying off handsomely in the jungle of high speed CW on 20. Tally is not complete at this writing but his contacts filled several pages, and were in 'the hundreds'. Our thanks to Paul and crew for this great boost to our score and he will be more than welcome at future EBRC F/Days.
Lyman Wiltshire, WB6SMY, though limited in time he could be present was active from his camper, and Jim Gale in his camper, parked next to Lyman's shared time on the HW-16, with some additional help from John Polese, WA6QIN, and John Chapman, WN6AYT.
Carl Clark, WA6KTL, set up his ATLAS in Jim Gale's camper and exercised his newly acquired General Class license, working both 40 and 80.
Ted Culliver, WA6CRG, operated his Heath 107 from his car, first trying 40 on a long wire, but then changed to a vertical mounted to the cyclone fence, using the fence for ground, which worked pretty well, a wire counter-poise about two hundred feet long! This probably helped a lot in his very good number of contacts.
'Lew' Lewellen, WA6JSO, hauled down Steve Dodge's trailer and parked it near the fence, also used by Steve for 'ground', then Lew gave a big hand on setting up various antennas and rigs, and then stayed active on '2-meters' from his pick-up, giving a good work-out to his new ICOM 245.
Steve Dodge, K6ZR, had a busy show going from his trailor, using his National Receiver and Viking Ranger on CW only. Heavy mutual interference was encountered by those working '40' so Steve concentrated on '80', which was pretty lively during the night, but slow during daylight hours as expected. But this made for good experience and practice for some of the newer 'ops' and a good hand was offered by Editor, Jonathan Hymer, WB6FJC, and Ravi Narasimhan, tech student. Frank Taylor's, WA6VBV, long wire tuner, a 'Unique' worked great tuning the long wire which Robt Woodworth ran to the flagpole on the warehouse building for Steve. Robert also gave a big hand with the generator 'gassing' during the night hours, and helped in other ways with antenna set ups, and break out after closing.
Joe Lee, WB6DOB, ran a good show from his camper, mainly on '40' which was an active band at all hours of the day and night.
The mutual interference from overloading each others receivers, and from key clicks was probably the greatest operating difficulty. Before next year we should do some serious work toward eliminating this source of trouble. With good filtering we should be able to operate within 25 to 35 KHz of each other without too much trouble. Think how close the antennas are to each other on a Navy ship, with half a dozen KW rigs in the same room!
We were delighted to have a visit from official ARRL organization in the person of Earl Appleby, W6ITH, who was out making as many F/D site visits as possible. Earl is SEM, for our East Bay District. He has promised to come to an early club meeting. Thanks for this interest, Earl, and we'll be pleased indeed to have you attend one of our meetings soon.
A very good number of other club members were able to be present during part of the F/D period including Dave Bacom, WA6TPJ, Pat Griffin, WA6SCW, Ilene Gale, WA6IBT, Tony Hirth, WB6QGJ, Frank Taylor, WA6VBV, Chris Baldo, WB6OGE, Betty Baldo, WB6WNZ, Don Larnach, W6SY, Anna Nicholson, WN6DDR, Jake Adams, WB6RFF, Jim Hudon, WB6NTH, Bill Read, Peter Annas, Mike Thorn, Jack and Mrs. Joyce-awaiting license from FCC, Mrs. Tony Hirth and Mrs. Steve Dodge.
All in all, this had to be one of the best Field Days ever for EBRC with record participation and attendance. Old timers and 'new timers' alike report having a good time, and after all, that's the name of the game. See you all next year!