Field Day 2025

Once again the Plattsmouth Amateur Radio Club held annual Field-Day operations at Young Park in Murray Nebraska. Thanks to the people of Murray, the Council and Mayor for hosting us.

Setup began around 9AM Saturday morning. This year a new club member, Justin, brought his trailer, but this is no ordinary trailer. It was a decommissioned military SkyWatch ® tower trailer! The Skywatch has a 7KW generator and a hydraulic lift system. In the picture above, on the right side of the trailer you can see the guard shack. Inside is a seat, and a 360 degree view, plus all the controls for the raising and lowering of the shack, the two search/spot lights, and the heating and A/C! Yes...it has air conditioning!

We didn't use it as an operating position....this year...  We hung a G5RV from the guard shack.

On the left side of the trailer, Justin mounted a pneumatic telescopic mast from a TV news van. You can find amazing stuff at the local scrapyard! On the mast we mounted a 20-foot vertical. The mast raises to 35 feet, so at the tip we were 55 feet above ground. The shack raises to 25 feet. The trailer has four outriggers and the tongue jack for stability and originally spec'd at 60MPH wind survivability/stability WITH A MAN INSIDE! I dunno about you, but...I might be a little nervous up there in that kind of breeze!

Of course we had food! We went simple this year and did cold-cut sandwiches, chips, etc. Best part about the food is the company anyway.

  

Above you can see the tower and mast in their fully extended glory.

We set up two operating positions under a pop-up canopy. The goal was to have a voice and a CW station. Using N3FJP's fine software between a few connected laptops, it would tell us if we were close to the other Op's band and could stay away from each other, minimizing interference. After the event began, there was some difficulty at the voice station and eventually it was shut down leaving us with just one radio, so we shared and alternated between CW and Voice modes.

We operated from our single position all night long, working 43 states including Hawaii, and several DX stations as well. I heard later of a club that did 2000! Don't know how many stations they had, but wow.

We had been concerned about weather and continually got updated reports from our cell phones on probabilities for rain, as well as timing. Earlier in the activity we expected possible thunderstorms around four, but as time passed, the time for storms moved back more and more, until the forecast said noon would be the time for rain, and the winds wouldn't be above 11mph. Sounds great.

As the sky began to lighten in the east and the birds began to sing, about 5AM, we decided to tidy up a bit and talk about how long we were going to operate. The second station had been put away in a vehicle, so we began to put away everything else related to that. We lowered the guard tower to put away the G5RV, and that was when I saw it. A black shelf cloud appeared ominously in the northwest. I commented to John "That looks threatening!" After rolling up the G5RV I looked again, and that black shelf cloud was nearly upon us! We hurried to get the remaining radio and all the laptops put away out of the weather as the wind picked up and the first drops fell on us. Before we knew it, it was a driving downpour, soaking us to the bone and giving quite a chill as well. Happily, the only damage was to my pop-up tent. It was taco'd around a tree trunk.

With everything secured, we sat in our cars waiting for the storm to pass, trying to warm up and maybe dry out just a little. I was very glad that I brought extra clothes to change into. Once it was clear to come out, we hooked up the trailer and decided that we would not get everything out again, but we'd just call it good and head for home, a warm shower, and a nap! 

Despite the weather, we still had fun. We learned some lessons for next year, and proved we could reach others in all directions, which is kinda the main point. 

I'll leave you with this picture of the moon rising through the middle of Derek's magnetic loop. Pretty, isn't it?