back to 2023.06.24 Summer Field Day Antique Acres

4 event summary:


NIRAA/W0MG Summer Field Day 2023

This year we rented the Antique Acres building for the weekend. The price was pretty good for what was
offered, including a single large open hall with many available tables and chairs, a kitchenette with fridge,
commercial power, excellent lighting, large adjacent parking lot, AC, windows that could open to lead out
coax and power, and flush toilets. It wasn't quite the "roughing it" that I'd like to see for such an exercise,
but it turned out to be a nice comfort given the ordeal we were going to experience.

The site also had a variety of good locations to set up antennas, including nice flat clear terriain, and the
area was very electrically quiet so we had a nice low noise floor on HF. The building also had a large east
and west side that was free of shadow for solar.

Scattered rain had been in the forecast for all weekend, though it was simply overcast on Saturday morning.
I arrived very early to unpack and start getting the solar set up. I'd just finished constructing some new
lightweight aluminum channel frames to attach the flexible solar panels to, so we could easily tilt them to
collect more solar power. This was expected to be essental given the rain and overcast that was forecast for
the entire event.

But for all the perks this location had to offer, it seems that the weather conspired against us to cause as
much trouble as possible. While I was scrambling to assemble the solar frames, Al and Mark were rushing to
get antennas in the air before the first of the rain hit. I barely got the frames assembled and lifted up before
it started to pour. I was actually able to eek a little power out of the panels during the showers, although
we'd just started so the batteries weren't demanding much charge.

But that wouldn't last for long. The forecasts soon changed to severe thunderstorms with expected hail and
tornadoes. The rain stopped suddenly around 4pm as the wind picked up. "That's a squall line!" as we ran
outside to quickly unhook the solar frames and bring them in. These frames are 4ft x 8ft and only weight
about 6 pounds so wind is a serious problem. Despite scrambling a half a dozen people to rush out to bring in
the panels, it was a close shave. We managed to wrangle the panels inside just as the winds were gusting
around 60mph right at the side of the building. As I was rushing a frame in the door, I got hit by a wind gust
that about took me off my feet. I collided with Taryn (who was struggling to keep the door open) and managed
to give my ankle a light sprain as I got spun around. So that left me hobbling a bit the rest of the event.

After a few hours of severe thunderstorms, we took the panels back out and were able to collect a modest bit
of power for the batteries before sundown. We had to rush to bring the panels back in again as another squall
hit and threatened to fly our solar panels to Kansas. They had to stay in till morning though since we had
more thunderstorms forecast for the early AM. Despite the chaotic weather, radio conditions remained okay for
most of the event. We did suffer some antenna damage due to the winds, which had to wait till morning to try
to repair. The big ol Super Tuner got a workout, as it was the only tuner that could bring our longwire to
resonance on the open bands, enabling us to get slow but consistent contacts on 20 with FT8 while Doug and
Curt worked a lot of CW on the surviving 40m dipole.

All night long was a mix of rain, wind. tornado watches and warnings (nothing close by) along with frequent
bouts of intense lighting where we had to unhook coaxes for awhile to let the storms pass. The ONLY thing
we didn't see was hail. Severe thunderstorms like this usually produce hail and tornadoes, and there were
reports on the weather radio of tornadoes on the ground nearby along with quarter and half-dollar size hail.
None of that showed up here thankfully.

Our batteries had been heavily discharged due to a combination of not getting much help from solar on Saturday
plus the digital had really chewed throug batteries quickly overnight. So the solar panels went back out on
the other side of the building at first-light to keep the radios on. In addition to three FLA, we had three
LiFePO4 batteries, including Al's 400AH monster, which really saved the day as all the lead acids and one
lithium were already depleted by morning. I did manage to get a bit of a charge back into the FLAs before the
event ended, despite the continuous heavy overcast and rain on Sunday. As if to taunt the solar panels, the last
45 minutes of the event were suddenly clear and sunny. BECAUSE OF COURSE IT WAS.

I think everyone can agree this was the worst weather of the year, and by far the worst weather for Field Day
anyone here has ever experienced. As much as I would have preferred to use an open-air shelter for the event,
I think we were extremely fortunate to have selected a fully-enclosed building this year. There was simply no
warning for the severe weather we had to work through, and we all would have been pretty miserable if we
weren't so well-protected from the severe weather.




last updated 12/08/2023 at 12:11:29 by make_www_index.command version 2023.12.07.B