Overview of WVARA Field Day 1996

On this page:

Introduction - Field Day 1996
Setup Day - June 21, 1996
Field Day in Progress - 11AM June 22 - 11AM June 23, 1996
- HF Station #1 - At the Top of the Site
- HF Station #2
- HF Station #3
  4/5/6/VHF/Novice still to be added...

Introduction - Field Day 1996

The site is at the property of our fellow WVARA members Charlie Norman AB6VS and Bobbie Norman KC6QBF. Each year they generously let the WVARA hold Field Day at their ideal location on top of a ridge at over 3500 feet in elevation in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near the peak of Loma Prieta.

Field Day 1996 was the 24-hour period from June 22 11:00 AM PDT to June 23 11:00 AM PDT. (Always the 4th weekend in June.) WVARA Field Day setup began on the afternoon prior to Field Day, as allowed by the rules.

This page focuses on Field Day 1996. Directions to the site can be found at the main WVARA Field Day Page.

Here are maps of the site:
75dpi GIF (707x553 22K)
60dpi GIF (564x441 16K, less detail)

This was a monumental effort for West Valley. It's a club with annual membership around 200 and a variety of interests. The members knew that it's more than just a repeater club, but it was getting harder to hold events like Field Day.

In recent years, our Field Day sites had dwindled to half-baked "two-alpha" because of declining participation. (Field Day category 2A is for club stations on generator power with two HF transmitters. 2A is far and away the category with the most entrants.) In this year's determination to end the downhill slide, the club members rallied to the cause and exceeded the organizers' wildest expectations. The plans started in January for a solid 2A. Then WVARA members Mike AB6CW and Steve KO6NZ agreed to merge their annual 1A Field Day station with the club's, making it 3A. The combination bumped up the creditility of the operation enough that other members rapidly volunteered to bring in their equipment. We had to halt the growth of the plans at 6A and started designating further transmitters as "hot spares". (It could have gone to 8A or 9A. Most Amateur Radio clubs would love to have such "problems.")

No doubt this year we changed the club's reputation. And word is getting around the valley (Silicon Valley) about it. Now our Field Day is a big event.

Setup Day - June 21, 1996

People Arrive, Setup Begins

The rules allow for setup of equipment to begin 24 hours before Field Day starts. So that was Friday, June 21 at 11AM Pacific Daylight Time. Mike Polkinghorn KD6PUD, the self-proclaimed "site dictator" (a.k.a. site planning coordinator), had done what most of us hoped to and arrived at the site a little before 11AM. In order to make sure to follow them, we had all already agreed that it was proper interpretation of the rules that prior to 11AM you could arrive and drop things on the ground outside your vehicle. But nothing could be assembled or positioned for assembly before then. This photo, taken a little after 11AM, shows the group starting to arrive.

In the background on the left is Mike KD6PUD's Bronco II, where its roof-rack full of antennas is being unloaded onto the concrete pad at the lookout tower frame. In the center is Ian KO6YQ's Bronco, being unloaded with lots of miscellaneous equipment at the location that was already planned to become the KO6YQ/AB6XS HF Station #4. On the right is Les N6UTR's pickup truck. Not shown off the side of the photo is the club's tower trailer attached to Les's truck.

The goal was to have all the stations on the air by Friday 6PM to allow a safety margin in case of problems.

Field Day in Progress - 11AM June 22 - 11AM June 23, 1996

Overview of WVARA Field Day 1996

Introduction - Field Day 1996

Setup Day - June 21, 1996

People Arrive, Setup Begins

Disaster Strikes at HF Station #3

Raising the Tower

The Saturday Morning 10:45 Pep Talk

Field Day in Progress - 11AM June 22 - 11AM June 23, 1996

HF Station #1 - At the Top of the Site

HF Station #2

HF Station #3