Field Day 2007
June 22, 23 & 24

Despite an attack by aluminum thieves, WØCQC racks up a fine Field Day score.

Losing the elements for its beams to some dastardly aluminum thieves didn’t seem to deter the Colorado QRP Club’s Rampart Range Field day team this year. They still managed to capture the highly competitive 2A category and finish 11th overall, among 2331 teams entering logs in the 2007 ARRL Field Day Event. The Rampart Range team, operating under club call sign WØCQC, scored 13,595 points while operating in the 2A Battery class at 5 watts. Logs showed 1,351 QSOs for the annual 24-hour event – the most popular activity in ham radio. WØCQC was the top QRP station operating. The 10 stations that finished ahead of WØCQC were operating at higher power levels. The 2A category is the most popular, and most competitive, class in Field Day, with 518 logs entered. Of those, only 21 2A teams operated at QRP levels under battery power. The Rampart Range team had to improvise when the club’s Field Day trailer arrived at the operating site missing all the elements for its beam antennas. Some scofflaws had stripped the trailer of the aluminum elements. Not to be deterred, WØCQC operatives shot the trees full of wires and ran up a score good enough to win the 2A class and place just one notch outside of the top ten field day teams overall. The Rampart Range site is located on Rampart Range Road southwest of Denver.

The club’s rekindled Aloha site, located down on the plains at Cherry Creek State Park in the southeast Denver metro area and operating under the callsign of ABØCD, had WØCQC’s back this year, posting a score of 1,715 points with 124 QSOs, good enough not to finish last in the 2A class, but well down the log from the competitive site up on Rampart Range. The Aloha site put a number of kids and non-hams on the air during its Field Day run, in a non-competitive atmosphere – the objective of the Aloha Field Day site.

Field Day scores were recently posted on the member-only section of the ARRL’s website. Results will be published in the December issue of QST. [Webmaster Note: CQC's scores were, indeed, posted on pages 82 and 85 of the December 07 edition of QST...]

Congrats to the Colorado QRP Club’s impressive run in Field Day 2007!

--ABØCD 11/05/2007

Tim Groat (KRØU)

As is our custom (and tradition!) the Colorado QRP Club normally runs two Field Day stations - usually separated by many miles of terrain inbetween. Our "competitive" site is normally positioned atop the ridge to Rampart Range, about 30 miles southwest of Denver. The other site, which Dick fondly christened the "Aloha" site many years ago, is a bit more casual and is located in a state park or other area where there are a few more camping amenities. Members and non-members alike are encouraged to visit and participate at either location - this page should give you a glimpse of what life was like at both during our '07 effort!

callsign: WØCQC

Our empty trailer...

The year of aluminum - NOT!! Much to our surprise, and profound disappointment, we learned that some "entrepreneurs" decided to "recycle" much of our antenna farm's aluminum. For the past couple years Marshall has been very gracious in allowing us to store our antennas, and the trailer, at his business' parking lot southeast of Denver. Although the trailer load was looking a little light this year, when we left Denver, we didn't realize there were missing pieces until we started to assemble things at our traditional Rampart Range site. Once onsite we discovered our two tri-banders were gone as were the elements from our 20 meter beam and the boom for 15 meters! So, in the true spirit of amateur radio, and Field Day, we went on with what we had - piecing together wire antennas (3 element delta loop up 40 feet) and our 15 meter elements on the 20 meter boom...

This year our Rampart Range location was again located adjacent the Flat Rock overlook. We
were at about 8,300 feet with the following GPS coordinates from the center of our compound:
N 39° 19.502' - W 105° 05.143'
(Please note this waypoint is provided for fun and can't be relied on for accuracy!)

Getting there...	8,300 Feet up!	CQC Motocross!	Noisy neighbors...	RFI neighbors...
Larry Agabekov (N2WW)	Al Dawkins (KØFRP)	Al Dawkins (KØFRP)	K2 & keyer	K2 & computer
Logging software	Frank (KØFEI) "Armstrong" rotor!	2 & 6 meter beams	Frank (KØFEI) and Paul (KF7MD)	Paul Beckett (KF7MD)
What's left of the 'farm	Battery and inverter	Cooking, heating, and lighting!	Looking up	Tim Groat (KRØU)
Al & the Palm Radio Mini Paddle	Roger J. Wendell (WBØJNR)	Lord of the Flies	20 Meter CW	15 Meter CW
Larry Agabekov (N2WW)	Frank, John, Al and a K2...	Power distribution	KF7MD stolen plates	Tower crank
Make-shift beam	Ladder	VHF (KØFNS reading July QST)	Roughing it	Larry Agabekov (N2WW) at DX central
3 Element wire "Delta" up 40 feet	Al Dawkins (KØFRP)	Parallel parking	Wire antennas	Beam and wire antennas

great job Roger.
Competitive site 1289 Q's CW QRP, No SSB 80/40/20/15/10. lots of Beepy tones. 
Paul KF7MD, Larry  N2WW, Tim KR0U, Al K0FRP

VHF UHF 57 Q's K0FEI, KR0U, KF7MD SSB CW. 1346 total Q's.
13375 points before bonus's
Last year 1286 q'S WITH GOTA
A true FD where we made it happen even though our super 20m yagi vanished.
Al K0FRP

A huge "Tnx" to the world's most important radio station, KGNU (and DJ John Penman), for their repeated broadcasts of CQC's Field Day Public Service Announcement!

callsign: ABØCD

This year the casual portion of CQC's Field Day effort took place inside the "Cherokee" loop group camping area of Colorado's Cherry Creek State Park. As is our tradition, the Aloha operation is pretty much informal and encourages everyone to participate (as you can see by these pix!). So, we hope you'll not only join us for next year's operation but help us plan and coordinate it as well - all of it promises to be tons of fun!! Oh, if you ever have trouble finding the main east entrance to Cherry Creek State Park (near where we were all camping) you can try this Waypoint although there's no guarantee as to its accuracy: N 36° 36.964' - W 121° 54.024' P.S. Click on this "Aloha" logo, at left, for an idea about the site's annual dress code requirement!

Dick gets arrested!	Darrin Schneider and Ed Milner	Emily Milner & Scott (KCØHSV)	Conrad & his dad, Scott (KCØHSV)	Vince Kumagai (KIØRB)
Alexander & his father, Bill Herbert	Vince (KIØRB) & a battery	John (KA3RDZ) and Sean	Inverted V	Gap Titan DX vertical
Scott and Ed	Ed and Dick	Scott and Ed	Dick Schneider (ABØCD)	VHF Beam
Ed, Dick and Scott	Ed Milner (WA4OHW)	Ed Milner (WA4OHW)	Vince Kumagai (KIØRB)	Dick Schneider (ABØCD)
Power distribution	Power source	Hardware	Gap Titan DX vertical	Charlene and Bill watch Alexander Herbert
Alexander Herbert	Alexander Herbert & Scott Garcia	Beam	Emily Milner and her fans!	Conrad, Emily and Scott (KCØHSV)
Emily with Conrad & Scott Garcia	Emily with Conrad & Scott Garcia	Moon Beam (do you see the moon?)	Conrad Garcia works the world!	Beam

Your humble webmaster lost track of some of the participants'
names so CQC president Pete Inskeep (NO2D) came to the resuce
with this note a few hours after Field Day had ended on June 24th:

Hi, Roger,
You are quick!  Very nice pics for both sites.  I can help with some of the names for the Aloha site.  

In the first VHF pic, 5th row, center pic, Alexander Herbert watches as his father, Bill Herbert, makes 
his first ever ham radio contact.

2nd VHF pic, 5th row, right side, Charlene (Ed's better half) and Bill Herbert watch Alexander Herbert 
call cq.

Last row, first pic on left.  Conrad Garcia, Scott's son, watches Emily, Ed and Charlene's oldest daughter, 
call CQ under Scott's watchful eye.  2nd thru 4th pics in last row is the same crew with positions changed.  

Last row, last pic, Dick's (AB0CD) grandson, Darrell (not sure of spelling) is being coached by Ed.

I am also attaching two pictures I took at the Aloha site.  One is of crouching tiger and the second is of 
flaming pink panther.  Only you can guess whom they might be!

Pete, no2d.

The Colorado QRP Club remains an affiliated club with the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) and is pleased as punch that they continue coordinating Field Day each year!!

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