Field Day '99

Another Field Day has come and gone. RARS fielded two seperate efforts this year, under the club call W4DW and special event call W4D.  While participation appeared to be slightly down from last year, everyone had a great time.

This year's effort revived a plan that has often been used in the past, fielding two operations -- one operation for the masses, and a second for those no-nonsense, serious competitors in the group. In recent years, the club has been able to satisfy both groups, to be highly competitive (primarily CW) and a social, fun event for all, but it was not to be this year.  When it became evident that we would not be able to field three CW stations (20, 40 and 80 meters) and be competitive, it was time to revive the old idea of two operations.  Thus, the CW team, under W4D, operated a very competitive 1-Alpha operation.

The main group participated as W4DW, 5-Alpha, North Carolina, with stations on 10, 15, 20, 40 and 80 meter SSB.  The 80 meter and 15 meter phone stations also spent some time on various bands working CW. The 80 meter station also worked some bands using digital mode. Notably absent this year were the Novice-Tech station and the VHF/UHF station.   Looks like we need to cultivate some more new hams for next year?

Thanks to everyone that participated, to those who helped set up and tear down, all the volunteer chefs, those that provided equipment, all of the operators, and all of the band captains and planners, and to Bill Pond, N0WP, our RARS Field Day Chairman.

A special thanks to our hosts, Jim (N4CAE) and Beth (KF4QMR) Carroll for allowing us to invade their farm for the third consecutive year! Jim does a lot of work to prepare the site for us each year!

Field Day Graphical Summary
If you're interested in contact trends over time, you can visit the RARS Field Day Graphical Summary that Mike, WA4BPJ has created and placed on his website.  Thanks for putting in the effort, Mike.

Field Day 99 Commemorative Pins Are Ordered.
The ARRL, for the first time, is offering commemorative pins to participants for a fee of $5.00. The pins look like the graphic above and may well become a collectors item.  Jeff Wittich, AC4ZO, the RARS Secretary has placed an order for pins on behalf of those who contacted him and placed an order. (ARRL has required that pins be ordered in groups.)

Currently, our pins appear to be in the backorder group. It appears that the ARRL vastly underestimated the demand for these pins.  Below is an email response to Jeff's inquiry on the status of our pins.

Jeff:

We have distributed pins which were in hand before Field Day.  We ordered 3200 more two weeks ago and the manufacturer has given me a September 3 delivery date.  We will mail our the orders we have on that date.

Thanks and 73

Dan Henderson, N1ND
Contest Branch Manager, ARRL


The (unofficial) Results!

W4D - 1A - 4,292 points
998 QSOs - All CW (27 on 10Mtrs, 93 on 15M, 371 on 20M, 425 on 40M, 82 on 80M)
300 bonus points ( media publicity, message to SM, 100 for Emergency power)

W4DW - 5A - 5,092 points
1,904 total QSOs
137 CW QSOs (71 on 15M, 42 on 20M, 24 on 80M)
55 Digital QSOs (5 on 15M, 46 on 20M, 4 on 40M)
1,712 Phone QSOs (4 on 2M, 148 on 10M, 117 on 15M, 469 on 20M, 726 on 40M,
                              248 on 80M)
900 Bonus points ( media publicity, message to SM, NTS traffic relay, ARRL message, 500 for Emergency power)
 
 

Field Day 99 Photos
News & Observer Article

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Page updated: 2:30 pm, 20 August 1999 ET
Page author: kf4rdp@arrl.net
Copyright © 1999, Raleigh Amateur Radio Society, Inc. All Rights Reserved.