I had a few tasks to carry out for my club, Newport County Radio Club, during Field Day 2024, which was hazy, hot, and humid (sounds familiar).
I was charged with making a satellite contact, something I had not done since 2020. I spent two weeks before ensuring that I had calibrated all the satellites that were still in the air (and bemoning all the ones that were no longer available – CAS-x, XW-x, etc.). My station is shown in the photo below (IC-9700, laptop running SATPC32, and a 3×11 Arrow antenna on a photo tripod).
The first available pass was for RS-44, and would be at the point of closest approach right at 1400 EDT. With only about 8 minutes to make a contact at that point, I was pretty confident, but imagine my disappointment when I could barely hear any singlas on the satellite and couldn’t hear my downlink at all. After that failed pass, I did some quick checking and discovered that the VHF and UHF coax cables had been attached to the wrong beam. EEK!
There was a pass of AO-73 about a half hour later, and I had no trouble making 3 SSB contacts on it (I gave up trying CW as there were no responses other than folks going up and down the band to find themselves sending endless dots and dashes). A couple of hours later there was a pass of AO-7, and I quickly made a SSB contact on that bird, just to pay homage to the little satellite that still does, 50 years later!
Another task was to pass a section manager message from our site at Glen Park (Portsmouth RI) through a VHF link to my home gateway (WB4SON-10 on 145.050 MHz). Despite the 21 mile path and some terrain between the two locations, it was an easy S9+++ connection with a full speed data link. This message was also part of the Winlink Thursday drill for the week before and after Field Day.
As I wrapped up the AO-7 contact, I felt a burst of cool air on my back, a 180 degree change of wind direction. I suspected there was a downdraft nearby, so I quickly took my equipment apart, stuffed it in my car, and headed home. A few minutes after I left, the skies opened with a deluge of rain. I felt sorry for my buddies in various tents still at the site.
When I got home, I copied the W1AW CW bulletin.
My final task was to work the CW station for the final 2.5 hours of the contest on Sunday. This year I decided to run Search/Pounce, and enjoyed contacts on 10, 15 and 20 meters.
As always, lots of fun
