Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club
Field Day 2002

The SBARC Field Day Team operating under the K6TZ callsign did an outstanding job this year. All stations had more contacts than previous years. We earned almost all of the bonus point categories. The combination of increased contacts, GOTA station, and bonus points brought the final club score over the 10,000 mark !

The Field Day scores in past years are on an upward trend. The scores for each year are:

Even more important than the score is the fact that we had many club members participate for the first time in Field Day.

It all started around noon on Friday, June 21, at Eling's Park Hill. Bruce Wilson, KF6RAI, brought the tables and chairs in his truck. Jug, WA6MBZ, brought coolers for the drinks and food. Dick Johnson, W6DNN, brought the generator up to the hill with assistance from Jack, WA6DQK. Sig, W6LGK, brought the SBARC Van. Al Soenke, WA6VNN, brought the antenna trailer. We now had everything we needed to set up the field day stations. This year, the club operated in the 3A category with a power of 150 watts or less. The designation of 3A means three HF stations. We also had a VHF and a GOTA station.

Steve Long, AC6T, assembled the two Force 12 antennas for the CW and Phone stations. Rod Fritz WB9KMO, Steve Hammer KG6ENA, Joe Kelley KG6BSM, Ken Mueller KG6JMJ, Desi Olivera K6HGB, Paul Sheffield W6VLM, Andrey Shytov KG6HGF, Bill Tefft KG6DHK, and Darryl Widman KF6DI completed the assembly of other stations.

Some of The Gang June 2002	The Site June 2002	Set Up June 2002
Antenna June 2002	Generator June 2002	CW Tent June 2002

We started operating at 11:00 Saturday morning. Steve Merchant, K6AW, started the CW Station. Ken Mueller and Stephan Landfried began making phone contacts on the GOTA station. Paul and Tom operated the Digital Station. We experienced some interference between stations, but a band change in some stations reduced the noise level.

The CW operators were Steve Long and Steve Merchant during the day with Jug, WA6MBZ, holding the night shift.

The Phone station included Dennis, WB6OBB, Kip, K1KIP, Ken KG6JMJ, Dave KC6VML, and Steve KG6ENA.

The GOTA Station was run by Darryl and the GOTA operators. Darryl did a super job organizing and recruiting operators for this station. See the GOTA Station report for a list GOTA operators.

Dick Johnson ran the 6M VHF Station.

Paul, W6VLM, and Tom, N6YX, ran the Digital Station. You knew when you were near the digital station - the warbling sounds of PSK31 filled the air.

GOTA Tent June 2002

GOTA Darryl June 2002

6 Meters June 2002

Bonus points were an important concern this year. We attempted most bonus point categories this year.

Rod Fritz, WB9KMO, set up Amateur Television and Slow-Scan Television demonstrations. Rod had a great display of ATV. The Field Day team checked the activity in the ATV tent when they had a spare moment.

Steve Hammer, KG6ENA, attempted to make a contact via an amateur satellite. Other stations going through the satellite could be heard, but we were not able to make a contact. At 10:45 Sunday morning, the International Space Station started its pass over Santa Barbara. Steve called CQ to N1ISS. N1ISS replied with a Russian voice. N1ISS responded to Steve's question. It appears that we made contact, but we still need to verify that the ISS logged our call.

We also got bonus points for National Traffic System Message Handling. Special thanks to Jack, WA6DQK, for processing the messages. Other bonus point categories included emergency power, media publicity, W1AW Bulletin, Alternate Power, and site visitation.

Phone Station June 2002	Satellite June 2002	ATV Tent June 2002
ATV Antenna June 2002	ATV Tent June 2002	ATV Tent June 2002

The Alternate Power Demonstration had some tense moments. The requirement for this bonus category is to make five contacts using wind or solar power. We used a solar panel from Rod. Bruce, KF6RAI, soldered connections to it. The plan was to use it to run Paul's FT-817 QRP transceiver. With an hour left to go in the contest, Paul set it up in the GOTA station. Unfortunately, we were getting interference from the CW station. Paul then moved to the Digital Station. With less than thirty minutes to go, Paul attempted a contact. All the other stations were buzzing along at thirty words per minute - a bit faster than Paul copies. With 12 minutes to go, I ran to the CW Station and asked Steve Long if he could make some QRP contacts. Back at the Digital Station with Steve Long as the operator, we now had eight minutes. Steve said "Five contacts in eight minutes ? It can't be done." Steve made the first contact then another. The next two contacts were duplicates. We got another contact with two minutes to go. We were excited about the next contact, but it was another duplicate. Steve did some more tuning and got the fourth contact with a minute remaining. Finally, Steve got the fifth contact with a whole 20 seconds to spare!

Food is an important part of an event that lasts the weekend. Lorraine, KG6HGE, brought in food to feed the troops. Everyone was well fed with pizza on Friday, sub sandwiches for Saturday and Sunday lunch, and fried chicken for Saturday dinner. We also had lots of ice-cold soda and water.

Special thanks to Bob Levinson, K6CZD, for returning the van. Unfortunately, George Richardson, our past Field Day Chairman, was not able to attend this year.

Field Day was a good test of our equipment and operating skills. We gained a lot of valuable knowledge and operating experience.

How did SBARC break the 10,000 point barrier? Thinking back on this event, maybe it was more contacts, maybe it was the GOTA station, maybe it was the additional bonus points. These categories all helped, but I think that the real reason for the success was the Club Spirit! Throughout the Field Day weekend, it was obvious that the club was out to do some serious contesting. It seems that we have a number of new contest operators that would love to do it again. It will be interesting to see what happens next year.