WVARA Field Day 1996
Disaster at HF Station #3

[Setup photo: folded mast]

Disaster Strikes...

Things started out flawlessly, everything going according to plan. For about three hours... then disaster struck.

We underestimated what the mountain ridgetop breeze was capable of. Mike AB6CW and Steve KO6NZ were setting up the mast with the beam antenna for HF Station #3. As they extended the mast up, attached to the back of KO6NZ's VW bus, the wind-loading on the antenna was too much and it folded, with the antenna striking the ground in front of the vehicle.

Everyone ran from all over the site to see it. This seemed to dash our hopes of achieving what we had planned for this Field Day. Mike and Steve removed the antenna from the broken mast. It looked OK, except for needing an element to be bent back in place. After a few moments for denial about the whole situation, an idea came to mind...


[Setup photo: new mast]

HF Station #3 Recovers

One of the advantages of starting on Friday was having time to resolve problems. Mike and Steve drove down from the mountain to South San Jose (about 30 minutes away by car even though it was just on the other side of the next ridge) and bought another mast at Radio Shack.

Before 6PM on Friday, they were back at the site getting the new mast ready. This picture is the only one we got because everyone was holding a guy line while the mast was raised again. The effects of the wind loading was more than obvious to those holding the ones on the upwind side. This time the mast was successfully deployed and secured.

The photo shows Steve KO6NZ on his VW bus preparing the mast and antenna for deployment and Mike AB6CW untangling the guy wires before handing them out to everyone.

[Setup photo: flags]

Flags Fly at HF Station #3

The new mast at HF Station #3 served as the site's flagpole. (Actually, Charlie has a real flagpole by the house but Mike and Steve had been planning to fly a flag on their mast anyway since it's the first thing you see when you drive up to the site.) With lights aimed up at it during the night, it made quite a view with both the US and ARRL flags extended in the wind.