Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team FYBO Report
After much anticipation, the "Freeze Your B___ Off" contest has
come and gone.
The SE Ohio Radio Adventure Team, consisting of Eric McFadden WD8RIF,
Mike Hansgen AA8EB, and John McCutcheon N8XWO, along with guest
Len Touth KG8SF, operated from the Athens County Fairground Kiwanis
Shelter.
First I should mention that Thursday and Friday were spring-time
balmy--gentle breezes and temperatures in the upper 60s. (Can this
e February?) Today, however, found Mother Nature delivering strong,
gusty winds, temps hovering about 35 degrees, and spitting snow.
Mike and I arrived at the site about 10am local time. I had previously
purchased a 20' x 40' piece of 4-mil plastic sheeting and had cut it
into five 8' x 20' pieces, for it was our plan to wrap the open picnic
shelter with plastic. Mike and I fought the wind for the better part of
an hour, having the wind tear the plastic from the staples almost as
fast as we could insert them. Finally, Mike had to drive to the hardware
store to buy a roll of Duct tape, which we used to reinforce the
staple points. We were able, finally, to erect the plastic walls, and
they served admirably as wind breaks.
Mike and I then installed the 80/40m fan dipole from our Field Day
arsenal, tying one end to the halyard of the flag pole, and the other
end to a line thrown into a tree. We also threw a line into the tree to
support the end of my W3EDP antenna. (I wanted to try it "in the field",
in preparation for a trip to France later this year.)
We set up my QRP+ station and Mike's Scout station on the picnic tables, and
set the lab-grade digital thermometer on the table. Len arrived, and
set up his S&S TAC-1 and LDG QRP Tuner. I hooked up the W3EDP antenna and
tuned it to 20m. Len took the 80/40m feedline. Mike waited patiently for
an antenna. (Later, he installed the 20m delta loop from the FD arsenal
when as-yet-unlicensed Tom Witherspoon arrived to see how crazy QRPers can
be.) We decided that we'd operate indepently with our own calls. Mike
and I quickly discovered that even QRP rigs can't operate on the same band.
Len showed the rest of us how it's done as he quickly generated pile-ups on
40m. By the time he left about 4pm, he'd accumulated 33 QSOs. I found
20m to be pretty slow going, and worked 11 QSOs before retiring to allow
Mike to use the band. Mike worked 6 QSOs in very short order using my
QRP+. (He'd somehow managed to turn the sidetone all the way down in his Scout
and couldn't fit the screwdriver in to turn it back up.) Sometime during
the course of all this we fired up two kerosene heaters, which managed
to keep the drafty plastic-wrapped shelter about 42 degrees, some four
degrees warmer than the outside--but a lot less windy!
We decided to drop the antennas before darkness hit, so shortly after
Len left we took down the antennas, took down all the plastic, and
even removed the several hundred staples.
Lessons:
We learned that a winter Field Day can be fun.
We learned that even 42 degrees without wind can be cold, and 38 degrees
with gusty wind can be VERY cold.
We learned to unwind a bit of string from the spool before throwing the
weight into the tree. (In the far future, small children will look into the
tree and wonder how the spool of string got there.)
We gained a deep and personal appreciation for how sailing ships can
be moved by the wind, as two of us wrestled to staple plastic to the shelter
posts.
We learned that headphones are a useful but not perfect in allowing
us to hear CW over the slap of the wind-driven plastic.
We learned how terribly useful a memory keyer can be when hands are
cold.
And we learned that we aren't crazy enough to stay out until midnight
playing radio when it's 42 degrees in the shelter. (I have a sincere
respect for those of you who braved real cold for more than the six hours
we stayed out.)
Same time next year???
72,
Eric
--W. Eric McFadden WD8RIF Athens OH wmcfadde@ace.cs.ohiou.edu http://ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu/~mcfadden
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