{"id":3836,"date":"2015-06-28T07:32:22","date_gmt":"2015-06-28T13:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramblindan.org\/?p=3836"},"modified":"2015-06-29T15:12:58","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T21:12:58","slug":"p-a-r-k-field-day-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/?p=3836","title":{"rendered":"P.A.R.K. Field Day 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"160<\/a>

This is the center of a 160 meter dipole using an auto tuner at the center<\/p><\/div>\n

Two fellow Amateur Radio Operators, James – KW5CW, “Fuzi: Dave – KG5IBQ and myself\u00a0– W5EHS visited the Plano Amateur Radio Klub<\/a> (PARK) Field Day event. It was located in Russel Creek Park in Plano, Texas.<\/p>\n

I was once very active in this group, but work demands let me slack off active membership for about the last decade. I was publisher for the newsletter for several years at that time and created the first digital format. But that was long ago. Now it was time to see how this long time favorite end of June event and contest was being run by the P.A.R.K.\u00a0today.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0“Field Day”\u00a0is a radio operating event sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL).<\/a> The idea is to set up operations in outdoor locations and contact as many other groups as possible doing the same thing throughout the USA. No commercial power is permitted so most use gas generators. There are many other ways to get power such as batteries, solar, wind and whatever else the Ham Operator can think up.<\/p>\n

James and I have been doing this for well over 40 years and for Fuzi it was\u00a0his first time. He qualified for a license just a few weeks ago. Way to go Fuz!<\/p>\n

It was interesting to note that along with a bunch of us “old men” (Every operator is referred to as an OM (old man)) there were quite a few \u00a0young folks on site. You will notice they were gathered around the digital operating position.<\/p>\n

The operating didn’t seem to be as intense as in years past but the fun factor was still there. The club was operating as class 5A which means they had five transmitters on the air at the same time from this location. So follow the captions under the pictures. The pictures will expand when you click on them<\/p>\n\n\t\t