Field Day 2009 Report for Martin County, Florida MCARA

Martin County

Amateur Radio Association

Field Day 2009 was a success for Martin County, Florida

Field Day 2009 was a great success, over 50 Amateurs actively participated in the event. Several new sign ups for the Amateur Radio Technician License classes, many dozens of visitors spoken with about Amateur radio, and several made use of the GOTA station.

Note: Morse Code is no longer required to get your FCC Amateur Radio License- but we do encourage learning it. The entry level Technician Class license offers enhanced privileges on HF using CW, or Morse code.

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This year we ran Class 2A, with two stations on emergency power only, and an additional Get On The Air or “GOTA” station. We had over 500 contacts (QSO's) and found some good DX (distant contacts) on 6 meters thanks to Ben N4BG bringing his new 6M beam which we mounted on the tower.

Our clubs were lucky to have several benefactors this year- the State of Florida Forestry Service allowed us to borrow their mobile 80 ft tower and generator unit- it is actually a mobile repeater unit for fighting forest fires. We may be allowed to borrow it again next year, provided there are not any active fire emergencies. Our thanks go to the guys at the Hobe Sound Fire Department for helping us with Field Day.

Our Stations this year:

ARES-1 ICOM IC-756 PRO II and an automatic tuner provided by N3QU Frank using a G5RV style antenna provided by John, W6JTB
ARES-2 Elecraft K3 provided by K4PJD Pete using a Mosley TA-33H Beam provided by W4DAS Doug up about 35 feet on the Forestry Service Tower.
ARES-3 Kenwood TS-2000X provided by Gus, NU4L using a G5RV provided by Robert KJ4CWJ on HF, and using a beam provided by Ben N4BG on 6 meters

Logging computers were provided by Martin County ARES using N3FJP Field Day logger to track our QSO's and band operations.

Power was provided by the State of Florida Forestry Service, with two Solar powered backup generator units provided by TheGreenOutlet.net, and two extra RV mounted generator sets capable of running our entire outfit. Our thanks to Stephanie, Richard, and the entire Green Outlet team.

Food was provided by KJ4FHT Jan and Pete K4PJD- along with others bringing side dishes. Jan and Amy KI4RHM cooked up a mess of burgers and dogs- nobody went hungry!

We learned a lot about setting up HF stations and also had educational activities such as how to install PL-259 UHF connectors taught by Gus, NU4L

We owe a special thank you to the Martin County Department of Parks and Recreation for donating us the use of Pavilion 3 at Sandsprit park. We really appreciate their help.

On behalf of the Martin County Amateur Radio Association and MC ARES we offer our thanks to all who participated in the ARRL Field Day, volunteering their time and equipment for the event. It was a team effort amongst all the members of MCARA, MC ARES, and all the people who attended and assisted. This shows we should have a high level of readiness in case of a real emergency such as a hurricane or man-made disaster.