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Plans are well under way for our club's participation in the annual amateur radio Field Day weekend. Field Day activities will begin Friday afternoon June 21 and end at noon on Sunday June 23.
Our Operations Director, Greg Lane K7SDW, has arranged for us to hold Field Day at Byrd Hill in Newbury Park. This will be our third year at this excellent site.
Directions [see Map]. To get to Byrd Hill, take the Ventura Freeway (Highway 101) to the Ventu Park Road exit. Go south (toward the coastal mountains) on Ventu Park to Lynn Road. Turn right on Lynn Road (west) to La Cam Road. You will pass East Kelly Rd. and Mapleleaf Ave. before getting to La Cam. If you pass Whitegate Rd, you have gone too far. Going west on Lynn Road from Ventu Park, turn left on La Cam Road. It is a small road that may not be marked well. As you go up La Cam, you will come to stone pillars with a metal gate. The gate will be open for Field Day. Go through the gate and up the hill. The road is paved all the way and rather steep. At the top of the hill the road ends and there are several dirt pads for future home sites. There will be house trailers on some of the pads. However, there are three unused pads, two on the right and one up the hill to the left, which Mr. Byrd has allowed us to use for Field Day.
Byrd Hill is a beautiful place for Field Day. Byrd Hill overlooks all of Conejo Valley to the north, Hidden Valley to the south, and you can see the Pacific Ocean and off shore islands to the west. The sunsets over the ocean are great from up there as are the lights of Thousand Oaks at night. Sometimes in the early morning, around sunrise, Conejo Valley is covered in fog while it is crystal clear up on top of Byrd Hill. If that occurs, the view is awesome, a bright blue sky, Conejo Valley down below a sea of white clouds, and the mountain tops to the north and the west protruding through the clouds like islands in an ocean.
We will begin setting up antennas, tents and equipment, including the CVARC Comm Van and Trailer, Friday afternoon and continuing into Friday evening. SSB, CW, and digital stations will be set up on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters. We will also have stations set up on 6 and 2 meters. A few people may stay on the hill Friday night, although most will return home for a good night's sleep. The Field Day contest actually begins at 11AM Saturday and runs for 24 hours until 11AM Sunday. During that time we will work as many other Field Day sites around the country and in various parts of the world as is possible. Many of our stations will work all 50 states, and often Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and perhaps Europe.
On Saturday evening we will have a catered BBQ Chicken and Tri-tip dinner, which is great. You need to sign up for dinner with our Social Director, Jonathan Becker KC6QOQ, beforehand so that Jonathan knows how many dinners to order. The cost for dinner is $11.50 per person. Our CVARC general meeting on Thursday June 13 is a good time to sign up with Jonathan. Our general meeting is also a good time for any of you who want to be operators during Field Day to sign up with Greg K7SDW, if you have not already done so. Greg will be coordinating the Field Day operation activities and has provided an overview of the Field Day operation procedures in this newsletter to help get everyone up to speed.
Visitors are encouraged to come up to the CVARC Field Day site and join in on the activities. We had a number of visitors last year who had great fun talking over our radios with people from around the country. Some had so much fun on Saturday evening, that they were back first thing on Sunday morning to continue in the fun.
So if you have not already done so, mark the weekend of June 21 on your calendar and come on up to Byrd Hill and join in the CVARC Field Day Activities.
73 Ken, KJ6RZ
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Just in case you don't attend the June CVARC meeting, here are a few items about the upcoming Field Day event on June 22 and 23. Come out and have fun with us again!
The Field Day rules are published in the May issue of QST and are available at the www.arrl.org web site. The CVARC members and any other hams wishing to participate in our Field Day activity need this basic information.
If you participate at a field day site as an operator, then do not contact that FD station, for score, on your way up or on your return home. Each FD site is required to list those participating at the FD site. Your contact with a site at which you participate is not counted in the point score. Calling the FD site to coordinate with the FD Operations Chairman, to find directions to the site, or other information that is not related to the FD exchange format is permitted.
The Field Day Operations Chairman helps obtain and direct the "band captains" in establishing the layout of the stations being set up for the event. The need for participants in the set up and tear down is very important for the safety of each of us. Therefore, if you are going to participate in a band that will require the raising of an antenna mast and the securing of that mast with rope and ground stakes, please be there, if you can, for not only your band set up, but for the others as well. We all try to help one another and learn in the process what to avoid for the next year.
Be sure to let the band captain know what hours you will be able to operate. If you want to operate on more than one band, prepare your schedule with each of the band captains so that they can expect you.
Be sure the right equipment is available and checked out before the event. The membership operates all rigs at 5 watts or less. This is true for all modes of operation.
The CVARC log sheet is to assist the operator in the recording of the station contacted (call sign) to the dupe sheet. The dupe sheet is the official entry for each station that is sent to the ARRL along with the summary sheet and other required reports.
When helping with the log or dupe sheet, be sure the call sign is printed clearly on the dupe sheet where it belongs. It should be clearly entered in the log sheet so that if someone else takes over the function of transferring the call signs to the dupe sheet they will be able to read it.
The bands we operate are to allow you and your helpers to tune up your listening and reporting skills. It is hard enough to stay awake for 18 hours, let alone 24, so having enough operators for "shift" changes really helps out.
A typical exchange for Field Day (FD) is as follows: CQ FD de AA6CV AA6CV AA6CV K
The above is typical for all modes. Keep it short when calling CQ and listen a lot and attempt to give another station a call when you can hear him, especially if he is answering stations in the same "call district."
I will go over this again at the club meeting and answer any questions. I hope you can attend, as I hope to show one or two short videos about FD that will give you an appreciation of the effort and pleasure in this annual event.
See you at the CVARC meeting June 13th.
73 de Greg K7SDW
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Too Late For The Print Edition RESULTS OF THE CVARC VE SESSION HELD ON SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2002
From Jeff Reinhardt AA6JR,
CVARC VE Coordinator
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THE LOILERS RETIRE
ROGER LOILER, N6WNE, one of the longest term members of CVARC and the Editor/Publisher of the CVARC Newsletter and website, has informed the club that he is to retire with his wife, Sandy, to a bayside community west of here. We all wish them well.
At this point I have been appointed to again carry on the duties of the Editor/Publisher until the membership can elect a replacement. Please send all input to me at
CVARCnews@earthlink.net
73 de Mike Pershing KD6IJF
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