A large group of club members and guests met this past weekend in Piney Point to participate in the 2021 SMCARA Field Day. I think I can speak for everyone that attended that we had a great FD! Many thanks to John, AC3FE for offering up his property and his home for us to use. We had a nice size field to set up in that included a great view of the water and even better, an almost constant breeze. We had excellent weather all weekend with a lot of sun and no rain, a little hot but hey, what is FD without heat.
And a big thank you to Rachel, KF7AWC for taking care of the food. We had a great lunch and dinner on Saturday and nice breakfast with coffee on Sunday. Her chicken Saturday night was much better than the usual burgers and dogs, thanks Rachel! Pete, KA3UMY put in a big effort the couple weeks before FD getting the trailer ready, checking out and packing up all the club radios, and letting us borrow tables and chairs from the museum.
Jim, KB1YZ was a big help with his trailer and his mast. The mast was the perfect anchor for the 40/80M dipole that was strung between a tree and the mast. Jon, N3AK provided his truck with a lift gate which was much better for loading and unloading the generators and the grills, a nice thing for us old folks 🙂
A big thanks to Tony, N5TB for getting the three logging computers setup and running at the FD site. We logged through the night at both operating stations with no issues. And Chris, KB2SKP operated the whole event on FT8 and voice and put the trailer to good use. I gave Chris a little SWR exercise by hooking up his radio to a coax with no antenna, he successfully troubleshot and resolved my mistake!
For the event, we operated 2A with both stations running on generator power for the entire time we were up. We were on the air at the start at 1400 Saturday and pulled chocks around 1200 on Sunday. We logged a total of 193 contacts for the event (2 CW, 158 SSB, & 33 digital) not too bad! I know I’m probably forgetting to thank some people but a big thanks to everyone that showed up and helped out!
The main bonus for FD this year was getting back together and the social aspect of it. I know all of us missed that aspect of it last year, operating from home just wasn’t the same. We had a good crowd Saturday evening for Rachel’s great dinner and a lot of good conversation. Overall an excellent event that we all thoroughly enjoyed, now let’s start planning for Winter Field Day!
73, Rob – N2OMC
