ALL of my antenna system is portable. It is erected for every contest and taken down afterwards. Sometimes an 80m doublet is in the air; sometimes it’s a 6m Moxon; sometimes nothing. And, in the case of this weekend I had a Alpha Delta DX-EE 40-10m dipole, an 80m doublet, and the Moxon all up. The Moxon was up about 20′ on a 30′ fiberglass mast, with the top of the mast supporting the center of the inverted-V doublet.

Now on to my summary…

I started at 1812z on 10m CW. The band was very open. Lots of CW to be had. I spent nearly four hours working everything I could hear on 10m, both CW and SSB. At 2158z i went to 6m and we had propogation to New England. It was awesome. I was working W1/W2 stations left and right. W0/W4/W5 stations were answering my CQs while I was pointed towards NE. Worked some VE stations. At 0005z I switched to 10m and worked some more CW. At 0028z I went to 15m and worked some CW. 0139z I went to 40m and operated some CW. 0202z it was back to 6m for some more phone activity, this time out West. Worked some W0, W6 and W7 stations. 0240z I worked a few 15m CW on my way to 40m CW and then 80m CW.

80m was extremely noisy. There weren’t nearly the number of stations heard that I was expecting. I’m sure some of that had to do with the great conditions on the upper bands, but some of that just had to do with the very high noise level from the storms passing through OH/Wv/PA. I’m sure there were many stations on 80m that I just could hear thanks to the noise. At 0430z I went back to 40m CW for a short period. Then it was time to stop for the evening.

Had some actual “paid” work to take care of for a few hours, and then had to wind down. Eventually got to sleep only to wake up 3 hours later by the alarm clock.

At 1140z I jumped on 80m CW and then shortly thereafter switched to 40m CW, where I remained until 1341z. At that point I jumped on 15m CW for an hour. At 1438z I jumped on 6m, and it wasn’t nearly as open as it was Saturday evening. Worked mostly phone again with a smattering of CW. At 1524z I jumped on 10m and worked CW for about 25 minutes.

At that point I had enough. My back was killing me. I was suffering from lack of sleep. I got up out of the chair and could barely function. I wanted to continue on working 10/6m as it opened to different areas, but I wasn’t sure it was going to and my body was screaming for me to stop. So I ended things at 15:49, with a little over 2 hours of the “24-hour period” left.

In the end I managed 586 Qs, most of them being CW. There was plenty of CW on the lower bands. 6m activity was predominantly SSB. I had some nice runs on 6m SSB and it was a blast. 97 Qs were with 1D stations for which I got no credit. But that doesn’t bother me at all — they are all in my log and I had a great time working them. Had it not been for 6m, I would not have had nearly as much fun.

I was glad to work many stations on many bands on both CW and SSB. Thanks to everyone who worked me. Also thanks to the ARRL for such an awesome event. I only wish I had operated FD all 20 years that I’ve had my license.

ARRL Field Day
June 25-26, 2011
Call: AA8IA
Operator(s): AA8IA
Station: AA8IA

Class: 1D LP
QTH: EN90QL-Ohio
Operating Time (hrs): 14:12

Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
—————————-
160:
80: 24
40: 93 9
20: 48
15: 87 5
10: 84 39
6: 14 86
2:
222:
432:
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
—————————-
Total: 350 139 0 Total Score = 1,678

Club: Mad River Radio Club

97 additional Qs with 1D stations. Thanks to ALL who worked me!

6m had some activity, but it didn’t appear to be nearly as “open” to Ohio as it was during the June VHF contest. Or, maybe less people were prepared/planning to operate on 6m.

10m was alright, but not spectacular. In the past month I have seen much better openings on 10m.

15m was just awesome from my perspective. I made a lot of contacts on 15m/20m CW and more SSB contacts on 15m than I have made at any other time since I obtained my ticket in 1991. 15m is my fav band, when it’s open.

I didn’t even attempt to make a digital contact. Dummy me. Although, there were so many CW stations that I wouldn’t have wanted to give up the time on CW to play on the digital modes.

My summary is below…

ARRL Field Day

Call: AA8IA
Operator(s): AA8IA
Station: AA8IA

Class: 1D LP
QTH: Toronto Ohio
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
—————————-
80: 22 2
40: 64
20: 97 8
15: 73 45
10: 26 18
—————————-
Total: 282 73 0 Total Score = 1,274

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

More fun than I’ve had in a long time. I’m beat…no stamina whatsoever.
Great conditions from my perspective. Thanks to all the stations that worked
me!

I just made a few contacts because I happened to hear a few stations on, and of course i turned in my log so that those I worked can benefit from any points they’d get from me.