Our site for Field Day 2000 featured both open spaces and trees. Here is a view of the site. We put up canopies next to the 40 meter antenna mast and the 20 meter antenna mast. Since Lake Fairfax Park is a daylight operation, we ran daylight hours only. However, there was a lot of discussion about reserving spots in the campgrounds at the park for 2001...and working a 24 hour shift. We had a new ham...and new NOVA-QRP member on hand. This was Vic, KG4HTT, who has had his license "about a month." He helped with logging...and even got on the air, first with an SMK-1 kit he had built (no luck with that low-powered wonder in the Field Day QRM) and later with the Field Day Site's Elmer Radio on 40 meters. He used a hand key and did just fine. His code speed and copying abilities improved immensely as the Field Day festival on the air continued. Al, WB4JJJ, ate up lots of the operating time on 40 meters, hogging all but a few minutes of time that was quickly utilized by others. The WB4JJJ shack supplied the masts, canopies, and the 40 meter setup, and even a backup GM-20 for Sunday operations on 20 meters. This is the third year in a row for the WB4JJJ Field Day setup, and by all calculations, will work pretty well once again in 2001. We'd like a better antenna for 20 meters (after all, the Gusher is fed by RG-174 which is pretty lossy on even a good day) and a 40 meter doublet fed by balanced line is in the works for 40 meters. WB4JJJ is shown hard at work at left, assisted by logger Vic, KG4HTT. Vic is the young one. This station on Sunday was running hot and heavy as propagation kicked in. Note the sign leaning up against the center post of the canopy. We actually had visitors to the site on Sunday and they read our signs (we get extra points for signs). Bill, K4AHK, again brought and hooked up his fabulous solar panel and charged his battery, which also gave us alternative power points. A bunch of other radios showed up, including the Sierra, SMK-1, and GM-20, mentioned earlier, plus an NC-40A and a DSW-40. None of the radios ran 5 watts during the exercise. Lowest power, aside from the SMK-1, was the Elmer Radio, which, burdened by the battery draining NoGaPig, only put out about 1.8 watts. As luck would have it, this was the radio that had the most contacts made on it. We were spared many of the common Field Day problems...most everything worked as planned. Of course, 10 meter propagation just wasn't there for much of the event, and we managed to get Jake, N4UY to operate the 40 meter station when 10 died. Below right you'll see Jake running contacts at the 40 meter station site. He is a premier contester and DXer...and works stuff that the rest of us only imagine we hear. Maybe it's all that RG8-U feedline. NOVA-QRP even had its own walking wounded at its Field Day exercises...Mike, N4NMR, cracked his elbow awhile back, and he showed up at Field Day with his code sending arm firmly gripped in the jaws of a metal brace. While the rest of us tweaked our rigs or tuned our antennas, N4NMR used a special wrench to take some of the pressure off his splint. He gets the "Field Day 2000 Bearing Up Under Pain" award. Needless to say, Mike furnished lots of moral support (and brainpower on setting up the masts and canopies), but didn't attempt to get on the air. You can check out his brace below, left. On Sunday, we added a coupla more NOVA-QRP members to the faithful band at field Day. We welcomed the code sending capabilities of Ruth, KU4WH, and the code copying abilities of Jim, WD4OJY. They made lots of contacts and helped the much wearied on-site crew break down the masts, canopies and the rest of the setup. We all had a great time, and emerged pretty much unscathed, except for K4AHK's bug bites and N4NMR's splinted elbow. Naturally, we are all doing a buncha post mortems, which include the determination to come up with a better antenna for 20 meters...possibly an extended zepp hung as an inverted vee...and of course some new radios. We'd really like to get our operation up to a full five watts on at least 4 bands. And maybe the younger, hardier sorts will opt for an overnight stay in the campgrounds so that we can make this a full 24 hour effort. One thing for sure is that NOVA-QRP will be in the field once again when Field Day 2001 rolls around. Bigger, better, and more assured. Maybe even some SSB activity, to boot. See you on the air!!!