Some say there are three certainties in life; Death, Taxes and Jock White Field Day. February came around yet again and the team cobbled the gear together for the weekend exercise.
Due to a SAREX we were one down on the number of AREC vans available, so we chose to have both stations in under canvas; well, it is a FIELD day after all.
Antennas were the usual dipoles on 80 m and 40 m, but this year we hoisted the 80 m antenna up a little higher on a cherry picker. We also tried an 80 m turnstile and evaluated its performance on the northern and southern circuits. I think we could see a slight improvement when talking to our ZL4 friends. Also the 80 m dipole was moved away from the corner of the field where in previous years we experienced mysterious impedance tuning problems.
Lastly, we dragged ourselves into the 21st century and used computer logging instead of quill and parchment, with the obvious advantages in the post field day score processing.
For once the Christchurch weather was not stunning. Even a little rain fell on the Sunday morning, causing the 40 m station equipment to suffer a stream of drips from the roof. However, it could not stop the stream of contacts, and propagation to the North Island continued to be better than average (rain enhancement?). By stealing their best operator, I am sure we have beaten ZL2QF this year!
A good weekend was had by the team, Richard ZL4FZ, Wayne ZL2AYB , Andy ZL3KKW, Andrew ZL3AJT, Rob ZL3RX, Rory ZL3HB, Geoff ZL3PX and myself ZL3KB.
Author Kelvin ZL3KB
