6 Meters and Field Day Weekend

As I mentioned in my previous post, 6-Meters was not very cooperative during Field Day this year. Last year at the ARCS Field Day, we worked over 100 stations on 6-Meters on Sunday Morning, including approximately 70 in an hour. This year was just about the polar opposite.

Last evening, while catching up on email from the weekend and generally just recovering from Field Day, a friend from Florida mentioned in an IM that he was getting some possible low band DX from Canada. That was about the only thing radio related that could have piqued my interest at the time, so I hooked up the triband vertical and fired up the FT-897D. Sure enough, now that Field Day was over, 6-Meters was open. What else could you expect! During a QSO with Mike, WD8OST I found that we weren't the only ones to have no luck on 6 during Field Day; apparently not very many others did either.

The opening last night was a pretty good to the north. Prior to calling the CARS Sunday Night Net, I worked the following stations:

VE2RA - Quebec
VE1GBD - Nova Scotia
K2LTS - New York
N8OC - Michigan
WD8OST - Michigan
W0VB - Minnesota
VE2NRG - Quebec

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Field Day 2009

This year, I operated Field Day from the Coastal Amateur Radio Society Field Day and from home. I intended to operate from the Amateur Radio Club of Savannah Field Day, but never got around to operating after I got there. I talked with one of my "elmers," Ed Woodson, NC5S who I hadn't seen in probably a year and Stacy Aaron, WA4IDS for a couple of hours.

Unfortunately, 6 Meters didn't open up very much or very well while I was at the radios during Field Day. HF propagation didn't seem to be all that good either.

At CARS, I operated some some 20-Meters and 40-Meters during the "Midnight Shift" but mostly worked some 15-Meters Saturday afternoon. On both bands, most of the propagation seemed to favor the northeast, although I did work a few stations in Texas and Louisiana on 15 Meters.

For the first time (mostly because this is the first Field Day I've had HF privileges) I worked Field Day from home as a 1E station. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I missed the beginning of field day this year and wasn't able to start until late afternoon. A couple of hours before going over to the CARS Field Day was my 1E operating time. 6-Meter and 80-Meter propagation was very poor at the time with no contacts on either band. 10-Meters was also poor, but I did make one contact on that band. 20, 40, and 15-Meters were decent and most of my contacts were made there:

10-Meters
W1UR - 2A NH

20-Meters
K5ENS - 1D LA
W4AVA - 3A VA
W3AO - 20A MDC (National Press Radio Club)
W2EA - 6A SNJ
KB8UHN - 1E OH
K1R - 5A NH
WA3COM - 4A PA

15-Meters
KW2O - 2A NLI
K1BKE - 4A NH
W1AW - 3F CT (ARRL HQ Station)
W1TJL - 1E CT
VE3WE - 8A ON

40-Meters
W6SAI - 1E AL
W4TRC - 2A TN
K4F - 2A NFL
W4V - 3D AL
W4UD - 3A TN
KJ4LEL - 2D AL
W4DW - 7A NC
K4BFT - 4A AL
N4UED - 1E NC
W2CB - 3A SFL
W4LX - 4A SFL

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Bryan County TRS Frequencies

Yesterday, I noticed that someone had submitted talkgroup information to Radio Reference on the Bryan County TRS. Unfortunately, I cannot hear this system very well at home, so I don't have much info on it yet; that someone else is monitoring the system and sending in updates is wonderful. One thing, however, that I didn't see in the Radio Reference Database Entry was frequency information other than the 851.1125 control channel.

This morning I went to a location where I could hear the system well and heard 3 of the 4 submitted talkgroups and made a list of the frequencies I heard in use:

851.1125 - Control Channel (9600 baud)
852.375
852.625
853.1375

Note: for those that want to monitor this system, you need a newer trunktracking scanner that does both digital voice and can track a 9600 baud control channel. Older analog only trunktracking scanners will not work with this system.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

B-52 Works Fort Stewart

http://www.wtoc.com/Global/story.asp?S=10596964

I put out a Twitter post earlier today about a B-52 working Fort Stewart. The link above is to WTOC's news story about the exercise it took part in today with the 1st BCT of the 3rd ID. The B-52 was CASINO 01, and worked with ADVANCE (JTAC) to drop its bombs.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Coast Guard Rescue Near Darien

http://www.wtoc.com/Global/story.asp?S=10594245

In another update on something I sent a Twitter post out about last night, this story is about the Rescue that RESCUE 6565 worked with Coast Guard Station Brunswick last night. Most of the mission, unfortunately, was out of my listening range.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Tronox Titanium Tetrachloride Leak

http://www.wtoc.com/Global/story.asp?S=10592265

This is a WTOC story on the HazMat Incident I sent a Twitter update out about late last night. Numerous Savannah Fire units responded and they used Fireground 1 (TG 36976) and Fireground 3 (TG 37040). CEMA units also responded using TG 12496, which was a digital talkgroup.

Apparently, Savannah Fire's boat, MARINE 1, does not monitor Marine VHF while on the river. During the incident, a ship passed through the vapor cloud and was trying to contact the "small boat with red emergency lights" on Marine VHF Ch. 16 and Ch. 13 with no apparent answer. It is surprising that MARINE 1 would not be monitoring at least one of those channels.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Current LifeStar One Helicopter

I posted about LifeStar using N350GR back on 09 June. While out and about today, I dropped by the airport and took a photo of it. I'm still not sure if this is a temporary use aircraft or if N117LS is gone. All I do know is that they have been using this AS-350 for the last month or so.

It has also been intersting to note that a good bit of radio maintenance and radio testing has been going while they've been using N350GR.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT

kf4lmt@comcast.net