Oakville Amateur Radio Club

The O.A.R.C. FD 2008 Report March 18, 200803-20-2008 06:50PM

SITE UPDATE The Region of Halton has granted us permission for the use of the upper north parking lot. The building is located just north of the Q.E.W. on the east side of Bronte St. Directions and site maps outlining the suggested stations setup and locations will be made available on the web site shortly. THE NUMBERS The March/April issue of The Canadian Amateur has the 2007 Field Day results. Of note was that O.A.R.C. placed 2nd in the 2A category in Canada. Interesting enough, the station that beat us only had 523 more contacts then us yet had a whopping 3140 more points! Discounting the bonus points, which were probably similar, I would surmise the difference was do to their having more cw/digital contacts at double the point count versus phone contacts. Here are the numbers as reported: VE3ZI - 1787 contacts 8108 points Sudbury ARC GOTA STN- VE3SNA VE3HB - 1264 contacts 4968 points Oakville ARC GOTA STN- VE3OGP VE7NSR - 1017 contacts 4516 points North Shore ARC GOTA STN- VE7CTV I would say we have a new goal to shoot for this year. FD RULES CHANGES Thanks to Russ, VE3JUZ, for reminding me of the rule changes for this year’s field day. The GOTA station is now allowed to operate in the VHF bands. This does not affect the VHF bonus station for 2A and up categories. Who can operate the GOTA has changed slightly, but this should not be a problem for us. Also in the bonus area, the “Demonstration Bonus” has been replaced with an “Educational Activity Bonus”. How we will approach this has yet to be determined. EQUIPMENT Last year actual radio gear was not a problem and I hope that to be the case again. However we did have a need for tents or shelters (free standing preferred), fans, table lights, chairs etc. We were able to gather what we needed, but if you have something you think we can use please let me know as soon as possible so that I can plan ahead. PERSONEL We have had people sign up for FD already and I am currently making up the list of jobs and activities that will be needed to be done. While “Field Day” is for the entire weekend you don’t have to be there all the time. For instance, you may want to help with the set up then come back and operate or log at a later time, ( just make sure to call on the repeater for a Timmies run before coming back!). If you want to do something in particular or aren’t sure of what is needed please contact me at gdavis@interhop.net Include “FD” in the subject line. George Davis, VE3OGP, Field Day Coordinator