Field Day 2011
Under the Big Top

Looking for ways  to put a spark back into Field Day, this year we tried putting it all under
one roof. In effect we created a five ring circus under one really big tent courtesy of the
Barnstable County Sheriff's department. This was a really big  tent complete with windows
and doors and the only trick was moving the antennas far enough apart so as not to interfere
with each other. Separating the antennas was not much of a trick, we do have a 500 foot radius
to play with and it's "only" coax. Most of the coax used was LMR 400 which has a fairly low
loss characteristic even at 10 meters. VHF and UHF could be put close to the tent so there's one
problem solved! Audio noise inside the tent was a different story and it meant that people had
to get used to operating with headphones. Occasionally someone forgot and pulled that phone
jack out of the radio but for the most part it worked well.

The County Fairground Site has been famous for monster sized bugs and mosquitoes after dark,
especially after a very wet Spring. We secured 5 screened tents big enough to hold each station
and that took care of the bug problem.

See more FD 2011 pictures