Field Day with the UofT Amateur Radio Club
Posted on Jul 03, 2005
Nicole and I spent the weekend at the University of Toronto Amateur Radio Club's field day event, held at Hart House farm in Caledon Hills.
Field Day is an international amateur radio contest where radio users world wide set up there radios and try to make as many contacts as they can. The actual conversation you partake in is very short and transactional. Something like: Me: "CQ Field Day CQ Field Day, This is Victor Echo 3 Uniform Oscar Tango" Them: "Roger That VE3, this is VE3DXE" Me: "Copy that VE3DXE, we are 4A in Ontario" Them: "copy 4A in ontario, I am 1D in Ontario" Me: "Confirmed 1D in Ontario, Good luck in the contest" Them: "Happy Field Day" The contest results are tabulated so that teams get points for the number of contacts they make IF the other party also submits the same contact information. In addition to your call sign (ours was VE3UOT), parties exchange a class code (ours was 4A) which tells information about how many radios they are operating and what class they are in, and their location (State/Province code). In total, our team made 324 contacts, crushing the club's previous record of 120. In addition to the radios, we also brought up two of Nicole's telescopes. One was a massive 11.5 inch scope that beautifully imaged jupiter and it's moons. We also got to see a few different nebulas, globular clusters and (perhaps the highlight of the evening) mercury, venus AND saturn within one 80x20 binocular field of view. Hart House farm is a great property atop the escarpment. In addition to our more nerdy endeavours, we also enjoyed exploring some interesting rock formations, including one fantastic crevice which you could climb down nearly 20 feet into. After climbing around for a while, we decided to cool off with a swim in a nearby, spring-fed pond. Thanks to everyone who helped plan this weekend - everyone appreciates your hard work! blog comments powered by Disqus |
|