FIELD DAY FUN Mother Nature managed to delay wheat harvest AND provide some sunspots (but also a few flares). On balance the Trojan ARC 1999 Field Day was a big success. All hands enjoyed the new logging package WriteLog which the club purchased, and the Ethernet LAN used between the two main stations and the Novice station. Also new this year were complete dipoles (with baluns) for 40 and 80 meters, and the county EP generator. Surprisingly, the 4600 watt generator was as quiet as the Honda we’ve used in the past. Even though it is 5 years old, we took it from 2.6 to 26.6 hours total run-time. K0FJ’s TS830, K0BJ’s TS50 and KB0LGX’s TS820 made up the all-Kenwood rig complement. During slack time we managed to troubleshoot and repair intermittent RF output on the 830, and a flaky digital display on the 820 – good Field Day work!

We were a little short-handed this year. KB0MBT KB0LGX N0TES and a Goodland Vo Tech student about ready to test manned the Novice station as KB0LGX, and broke the 100 QSO barrier. Gregg Gerry and Dave also worked the other 2 stations, as did K0FJ K0BJ KG0PI K0MXU KB0WPY. N0XNJ and N0OXP did a lot of cooking for the gang too. N0XNK and N0XNO didn’t operate but helped with setup and teardown. Interstation interference was down from previous years, possibly due to using the cut dipoles.

One strategic mistake was not getting a dedicated 6M radio set up. We never monitored, and it sounds as though E-skip had the band humming lots of the time. We also had a 45 minute intermission about 3AM when the wind was threatening enough to drop the crank-up tower.

The wx intermission had us discouraged about cracking the 1000 QSO barrier, which prior to that had seemed within grasp. But with a couple healthy Sunday morning runs, we bagged 1024 (an exact 1K in computer parlance).

QSOs: CW PHONE RTTY

160m: 0 0 0

80m: 13 2 0

40m: 110 107 0

20m: 197 145 3

15m: 52 287 0

10m: 4 104 0

6m 0 0 0

CW QSOs 376 x 2 = 754

PHONE QSOs 645 x 1 = 647

RTTY QSOs 003 x 2 = 006

Total QSO points 1407

claimed score (less bonus pts) 2814

Anticipated total score 3314

500 bonus for 100% Emergency Power, Media Publicity, Location in a public place, Information booth, Message to SM. This is better than in immediate past years, and we think possibly our 2^nd best effort ever. Sunspots do wonders! SHARC in Scott/Garden City had about 500 Qs, and the NOMADs at Beecher Island beat us by 8 QSO points + 200 bonus points, although we topped their 990 QSO total. The main thing is, everyone had a lot of fun!

2M PACKET NEWS Lots is happening on the packet front. Butch WA0VJR has decommissioned the CLBY node at KLBY tv, although the antenna and feedline will remain in place for now. Jim K0JJV, Mr. Packet of nwKS, has agreed to let his 2m rig continue to do node service, and it’s doing so now at Barton’s tower south of town. A chipset is being burned and the node will be operated by Mike K0FJ. Mike is also now contemplating setting up a bbs at his house, and is getting assistance from Butch, Jim JJV, and Gregg KB0MBT. There should be news on this project at the club meeting.

440 REPEATER OPTIONS Our current 440 repeater needs some work before being put on the air. NWS Goodland has made an offer to supply a 440 system, largely to be used for wx spotting. It would remain NWS property and we would be liable for most upkeep. There are numerous pros and cons to this idea which will be discussed at the meeting. Part of the mix is trying to determine likely usage factors for a 70cm system. Please come and share your thoughts.

BANDSCAN BT Mike K0FJ has enjoyed updating his station to using WriteLog for contest and general logging. The Windows-based system is pretty comprehensive and has many attractive features, some of which were enjoyed by the folks operating Field Day. BT Jake KB0ZIA reports having a great time at his first Field Day with the NOMADs, running the 10M ssb station with another Tech to 200 Qs. Jake recently got an IC736, and has been given 100’ of Rohn 25 for the taking down – some guys have a charmed life! Congrats Jake. There’s nothing quite like your first Field Day. BT Jon KB0MBS is leaving for KSU sometime in the next 6 weeks. Part of the stuff going down to the trailer is a Yaesu Milspec 2M rig, which Jon plans to use keeping tabs on the W0QQQ college club gang and the local Manhattan club. BTW the MAARS club had about 600 Qs in FD. They continue to be active in the balloon-launch arena as described recently in QST. BT Thanks to Scott KB0WPY for loaning his 3el 6M beam to the club for Field Day. It went unused as things turned out. While his daughter was between games in a baseball tourney in Colby, Scott logged some FD QSOs. Goodland took 4^th in the games, losing to Colby in the consolation, whose team includes K0BJ’s grand niece. Scott and Matt KB0WPY have been having good luck with 6 Meters. BT Shawn KC0CVS likes his job in Lawrence and is sporting a 6M MFJ rig with which he’s knocked off some good E skip DX. He hopes to make the Kansas State ARRL convention in Salina August 22. BT Congratulations to the all-ham KSU Sunrayce team, who took 9^th of 29 in the recently completed Washington DC to Orlando 9-day race. The group fought some unexpected problems with 440 Mhz packet telemetry interference to 2m voice, as well as ambient noise. Two other problems were bigger though – a collision with a revvin’ grandma just after starting on Day 3 cost 1 demolished solar cell and an hours’ wasted waiting time; that alone could have given KSU 7^th place overall. But the heavy skies and rain that followed virtually the entire race did no favors to the ‘speed teams’ – KSU, Rose-Hulman, Missouri U and others. KSU finished 1^st for the day twice, including the final day when they crossed the line at EPCOT Center first, in spite of starting in 20^th place that day! What a thrill that must have been for the Wildcats. The next race will be June 2001.

The Trojan Amateur Radio Club is a general interest educational and public service ham club. We maintain a 2M FM repeater and a station at the NWS in Goodland. Dues are $10/annually, payable to Mike Albers K0FJ, 140 E. Cherry, Colby KS 67701. Material from the Trojan Harmonic may be freely copied; attribution is appreciated. News and free email subscription requests to KØBJ, PO Box DX, Colby KS 67701 or bfrahm@colby.ixks.com