Here it is a full year since last year's field day. I can tell it's almost time because of the weather. We've had scorching heat and high humidity for several weeks. Perfect weather for field day. YUK!!!!! Did you ever wonder who decided that the fourth weekend in June was a good time for such an event. It must be those W1's up north. The snow is melted by now and the weather is perfect. One trip to South Texas and they would change their minds. I guess we could have Amateur Radio's biggest event in the fall on our own. It would probably wind up being Amateur Radios smallest.

Ready or not it's time for all us grown men and women to put on our cool clothes and run around in the fields of Fritsche Park and play with our toys and maybe pick a few flowers.

Field Day with NARS has a rich tradition, starting over 10 years ago in parking lots and motor homes. In keeping with the club's traditions we have managed over the years to get a lot of people involved in ham radio and the social side of field day. This is a family event as well as its primary purpose of practicing emergency communications in the field. Many newcomers may not know the importance ham radio plays in the time of emergency needs. Over the years hams have gone into devastated areas and set up emergency communications. When no one else could get through, the hams could. That is what field day is all about.

Another facet of FD is the contest. Who can make the most contacts in a 24 hour period? There are more ham radio operators on the air in the US on FD weekend than during any other period of time. There are literally thousands upon thousands of clubs and groups on the air that weekend. The QRM is incredible. Large, medium, and small size clubs get involved. Many just get together in a small group at the city park. They all have a ball. While on vacation last year, I heard a group on a 2 meter repeater, in a small Kentucky town planning for field day. Before they decided who was going to bring a radio and an antenna, they made sure that they had plenty of fried chicken, chocolate cake, watermelons and ice cream.

We at NARS try and have the best of all worlds. We will have BBQ on Saturday night at 6:00 pm, for a small nominal fee. Many come out just for the eats and to visit for a while. If we are lucky Hank KK5WK will have a few choice watermelons. Since we send press releases to all the media, this is a public event. Two years ago Channel 11 did part of their 5 O'clock news show live from the FD site. We expect as many as a hundred or so visitors during the weekend.

A big part of our effort is put on the contest. Over the years we have placed in the top ten nationally. Our best effort was last year when we placed 4th. We had about 40 people that operated on one of our seven stations. They included: HF SSB, HF CW, Novice, 6 meters, 2 meters, Packet and Satellite. We will erect 3 towers with three element tri-band beams, a four element 10 meter beam, several wire dipoles for 75 and 40 meters, and a tower and beam for 6 meters along with various antennas for the other stations. We get our power from a large diesel generator that will run non-stop from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon when we shut down.

In keeping with the growing world of technology we will be operating with some of the latest and high tech radios. The Phone station will be operating ICOM's new super rig, the IC 775, courtesy Keith WD5DXL.

We do all our logging by computer and this year we are adding a new wrinkle. We are building a local area network to monitor the progress of all the stations via the network. This will give us more efficient means of deciding which bands the stations need to be operating on as well as the QSO rate. This, I think, will be of great interest to the visitors, being able to see all the stations on-line at the same time from one central computer.

Fritsche Park is about a 200 acre park. It is unimproved with no hook ups. You are allowed to camp but it is considered primitive. Porta-potties will be provided by BFI for your convenience. You can tent camp or bring your motor home or trailer, or stay up all night like some of us fools.

There are really only two major rules. Violating either of them will get us evicted from the park. Since this is a county park there is NO ALCOHOL allowed. This rule is strictly enforced. An officer comes by often and checks. The other rule is, stay out of the Fritsche family cemetery. It is behind a chain link fence and is OFF LIMITS.

One rule that I forgot to mention: bring PLENTY of WATER. It will be very hot and you will need a lot of water. For that matter, bring what you will need to drink and eat except for the Saturday evening BBQ.

We will be meeting at the Valley Ranch BBQ on 249 at Spring Cypress Road for lunch at 11:00 am on Friday before going out to the field day site. If you plan to help out with setup, plan to be at the park by 12:00, or after the crew finishes with lunch shortly thereafter. Join us if you can.

I will be making up the night time and early morning operating list for the phone station Saturday afternoon. Let me know then what hours you can operate. Station managers include: Madison AB5TV, novice; OJ WA1YIA, CW; Paul N5NXS, packet; Herb KF9RX, 6 meters; and Walter KK5LO, satellite. We will need operators for the 2 meter talk-in station also. Contact any of these people on the hours you would like to operate. They will also be making operating lists. Brad WD5GNI and Byron KC5QDX are taking care of the computers and the associated local area network. The contest runs from 1:00 pm Saturday until 1:00 pm Sunday.

Have a great field day!