2012 Field Day | Beach Boys ARC

The Beach Boys ARC new field day record (1,269 Qs) was not possible without the guidance, generosity, and experience of two local ham radio operators. They are at the legacy level of the hobby where their knowledge and wisdom is transferring metaphorically from one's desk top computer to a mobile device including tablet. John and Bill, instead of containerizing or silo decades of experience, have open sourced their successes, triumphs, and lessons learned as legacy participants in ham radio's future.

Photograph one is Bill, N6WS with Brian, KG6WIK at the tower loaned to us by 'Mr. Infrastructure', Emerito, N6ETO. Photograph two is John, W6SL with his tractor which pulled the tower to its vertical position. Photograph three is N6WS beginning to calibrate transceivers-to-wireless network in addition to setting up N1MM Contest Logger. Lastly, photograph four is our gracious host who shaped our 3rd Annual field day effort into a resounding success, W6SL.

Mentorship Is Powerful
The key, in my opinion, to ham radio's longevity is mentorship and transference of knowledge, experience, and wisdom. The shack door to our future are ham radio operator's like John, W6SL and Bill, N6WS whose combined efforts made possible the excitement, thrill, and successes during our 3rd Annual field day effort.

Masters Make It Look Easy
John, W6SL is an accomplished DXer and Bill, N6WS is an accomplished contester. The Beach Boys ARC demonstrated the feasibility of setting up a portable station capable of handling emergency traffic, if required, in a suburban setting. I'm grateful that John allowed us to launch a signal from his property while providing 'big picture' guidance throughout the exercise.

Bill, N6WS was patient with me as I pummeled him with question after question. I'm the kind-of-operator who is not a natural at the hobby. I can't look at a piece of wire and now its resonant frequency, velocity factor, or impedance. We are fortunate to have a stellar resource like N6WS in our community. He ensured the technology behind our effort worked, when it did not, Bill troubleshot and resolved.


Behind The Scenes
Likewise, two other ham radio operators weren't able to attend this year and they are legacy participants, Chas, W6UM and Dick, W6TK. The Five Cities ham radio community and Beach Boys ARC is fortunate to have additionally accomplished DXers and contesters.


Mentorship is powerful while masters make it look easy. Our legacy participant's SL, WS, UM, and TK are ensuring ham radio's future for today and tomorrow.


73 from the shackadelic near the beach.