Another Field Day is in the books. This year, as in past years, I operated with the Boschveldt QRP Club. The Boschveldt QRP Club is a small, informal group of QRPers who share a love of portable QRP operating. Basically, we get together twice each year. In January, we converge on a cabin in the Delaware Water Gap. In June, of course, we get together for Field Day.
Our Field Day site was a group tenting site in French Creek State Park near Elverson, Pennsylvania. Our Field Day crew consisted of Ed WA3WSJ, Glen NK1N, Ed K3YTR, Ron WA8YIH and me. After arriving on Friday afternoon and setting up our tents, we headed into town for dinner. After that, we set up a few antennas and it was soon time to get a campfire going.
After breakfast on Saturday, we finished setting up the radio equipment. After a lunch of cheddar-stuffed bratwursts cooked over a fire, we drove over to visit with members of the Pottstown Amateur Radio Club (PARC) who were operating from another site in the park. We got back to our site in time for the start of Field Day.
Once again, we operated class 4AB (QRP) using our club callsign, W3BQC. I ran a CW station on 40 and 80 meters. NK1N operated CW on 20 meters and SSB on 40 meters. WA8YIH operated SSB on 20 meters and up, while WA3WSJ ran CW on 15 meters and up. K3YTR operated 6 and 2 meters SSB.
Now I have to point out that the Boschveldt QRPers run a very informal Field Day. In fact, we probably spend as much time socializing as we spend operating. When the sun goes down, things come to a halt. We gather around the campfire to relax and just enjoy being outdoors. One of our traditions is roasting marshmallow Peeps® over the campfire.
This year we had a large group of Boy Scouts camped across the road from us. A few of them stopped by Saturday night for a ham radio demonstration by WA8YIH.
Our logs haven’t been consolidated yet but I’m guessing we had something like 300 contacts between the five of us. Although band conditions weren’t all that great, the weather was a lot better than the rain we had last year.
I always enjoy getting together with the Boschveldt guys for Field Day. We’ve already started planning our January trip.
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 