----- Forwarded message from Fred H. Tuck -----
>From wd4kti@juno.com Mon Jun 9 20:17:25 1997
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To: Pschleck@oasis.novia.net
Subject: Upcoming B-29 Special Event
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From: wd4kti@juno.com (Fred H. Tuck)
Date: Mon, 09 Jun 1997 21:14:33 EDT
Dear Paul:
I cannot tell you how excited I was to hear that there will be another
special event operation from
Fi-Fi! It was a great pleasure to share our adventure with others thru
the article in QST but to think that you will get to have the same
experience we did...well you are in for an exciting time to say the
least.
With the shortage of time between now and the event your advanced
publicity is going to be of the short notice kind. I would suggest a
"Special Event" packet message sent to ALLUS as the most practical on
short notice to get the message out to the ham population.
As for coordination with the FAA, we had a leg up in that department in
the Jim WA4MVI who is the local head of the FAA at the airport is a club
member so that was not a problem....the only other thing we did was to
limit our UHF/VHF operation to less than 50 watts, and use direcitonal
antenna, none of which were ever pointed in the direction of the
tower...HI....We also kept our antenna heights to less than 35 feet above
ground.
Our HF operation was limited to the 100 watts put out by the transceiver
in use, and we used an all direction Cushcraft R5 vertical antenna.
All operation was powered from 12 volt, 73 amp-hour gel cells supplied by
KD4SFF, this solved the problem of how to get power inside the aircraft.
On HF SSB the batteries lasted the entire day with no problem.
The antenna "farm" was located off the paved area in a grassy area
adjacent to the static display of the aircraft. All antennae were
securely attached to a framework made of "uni-strut". This turned out to
be a very good choice since it gave us a very stable platform for the
antennae. You are probably aware of how much prop blast you can get near
a runway! Not to mention the terrific thunderstorms we had! The
antennae farm was located about 150 feet from the aircraft..when we
operated from the rear of the aircraft the coax ran out the rear hatch
and over to the antenna. When we operated from the front radio operator
position the coax was routed down the main hatch located under the flight
deck.
As for general operation, since you are likely to cause a "pile up" when
you announce your operation, I would suggest operation using two
operators at a time. ONe for the actual contact and the other to help
with logging and picking out callsigns. We assigned sequential numbers
to each QSO to make the QSL process a little easier. A third person who
can hand out literature and answer questions is invaluable.
It is hard to anticipate the questions you will get from the public.
Some folks will equate the operation with "CB Radio" and others will be
quite aware of Ham Radio. Most will be happy if you explain that you are
contacting other ham radio operators around the world, who are most
anxious to talk with you and get a "....confirmed radio contact from the
last flying B-29..." and that some of the people you will be contacting
may have been crewmen, pilots, engineers, mechanics, etc on the B-29
during WWII.
Anticipating questions from the media is even more difficult than those
from the public. I used to work in commercial television and worked
closely with the news department. Some of the dumbest questions in the
world come from our " Broadcast Journalist"! From our experience they
tended to focus on the aircraft themselves and the history behind them,
we were merely an event that happen to be occurring at the same time.
Which is as it should be, the aircraft themselves are the main story.
I would suggest that you appoint someone spokesperson for the group.
This individual should be fairly knowledgeable about the operation and
the club, and aware of the activites which will take place over the
event. A little background about the aircraft comes in handy but this
can be gained from some of the pamphlets available from the CAF.j
Some other notes worth mentioning, TAKE LOTS OF PHOTOS! We took a lot,
but wish we had more. One or two people with video cameras is a big
asset also. Have plenty of hand out literature available. A short one
page sheet summarizing the special event operation and the club activites
may just be the spark that interest someone in ham radio, and it may not
happen until weeks later when they finally sit down and read it!
If the weather is as hot as when we had our operation I would suggest you
bring plenty of cold drinks, dress lightly and see if you can rig up some
fans. That rear position gets mighty hot back there! You just don't get
a lot of air through the crawl tube! We took turns operating and had the
VHF/UHF operation set up outside, so we could swap positions and still
operate.
When you do get on the air, run the event at the pace you dictate. We
dictated a very leisurely pace and had several nice QSO's with folks who
had many fond memories of the B-29, B-24, and B-25. One I remember
involved a ham who was a gunner on a B-25 and he was absolutely delighted
when I described the B-25 "Yellow Rose" sitting off the right wing of
Fi-Fi. I'm sure that this and other conversations really teed off some
of the IN/OUT GET ME MY QSL crowd, but we did not hear any complaints. I
think once it became clear that we were working everyone we could, but
not forcing them into the IN/OUT Next QSO routine everyone waited their
turn. I must warn you that it gets real difficult to pull out callsigns
after the word spreads that you are on the air. We could not believe the
stations calling. That is where that second operator comes in handy.
Again, Paul, congrats on setting up another special event on board Fi-Fi.
I hope the ol' gal is as kind to you folks as she was to us. The
weekend we operated on board has got to be truly one of the most
rewarding experiences I have had as an Amateur. After all, how many
folks can put on their resume that the were a radio operator aboard a
B-29 Super Fortress!
73 and I hope some of this is usefull. Any questions or anything else,
send me an e-mail to either address below. And good luck with the event.
Please e-mail your expected HF operation frequencies so we can be sure
and work you!
Al is also replying so some of this material will be duplicate, I am
sure.
73
Fred Tuck
WD4KTI@Juno.com - home address
Ftuck@Clemson.edu - work address
----- End of forwarded message from Fred H. Tuck -----
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