July 19, 2025
Figure 1: Antennas don't work, but the sunset was pretty.
This year’s field day was an adventure. Great times were had by all but I could not have created
more technical difficulties if I had been trying for the record.
Let’s back up. After last year’s field day, fueled by excitement and more than a little hubris, I
volunteered to build and captain a VHF/UHF station this year. I’d seen some early success building
rotators and antennas for satellite operations. With nearly a year of prep time I knew I could build
an amazing station.
July 12, 2024
Sunrise over the bay from my campsite.
Somehow I’ve avoided operating on Field Day for the seven years I’ve been licensed. Life always
found a way to keep me busy on the fourth full weekend of June. This year I finally made it out,
joining PAARA at
Bedwell Bayfront Park.
I’ll admit that I skimmed the announcement so I wasn’t expecting super-stations run out of the back
of U-Haul vans or to be operating from a part of the park normally inaccessible to vehicles.
I had a great time on Saturday operating from the
P3 Orion preserved at the
Moffett Field Museum. In honor of their 91st birthday the
museum has opened up their P3 Orion for visitors (and brought out a few other special exhibits I
won’t spoil for you). With the help of Mike “The Noisy Kid” Gitschel (K6QFO), CW stations are
operating in both the museum and the aircraft.
