Mi-Wuk Bound

I am linking up with my dad, KD6EUG, for this year’s Field Day. He has a cabin up in the California Sierra’s in Mi-Wuk Village, located just above Sonora. Our planning for this event has been ongoing for some time. There are really own a few days left and I am trying to lay out all the remaining tasks to accomplish in order to set conditions for a super Field Day experience.

Phase I: Planning and preparation. We’re in this phase now.

Phase II: Travel to California. My love of a good roadtrip has inspired me to drive from Kansas to California for Field Day.

Phase III: Field Day setup. We are going to setup a station that will become permanent up at the cabin. I will operate another station that I am going to setup outside.

Phase IV: Field Day. Have fun! This will be the first Field Day that my dad and I have operated together.

Phase V: Clean up and station tweaks. We will spend the Monday after Field Day cleaning up and making any necessary adjustments to the cabin’s station.

For planning and preparation I need to:
– Make a packing list. There is a lot of “stuff” I need to haul out to California and once we are up at the cabin in the Sierra’s it will be a little difficult to make a run to RadioShack (let alone the Ham Radio Outlet in Sunnyvale).
– Cabin station equipment. I believe I have all the pieces and parts that will make up the cabin station. What I need to do is lay out everything and do a test run. One of the station components includes a laptop. Not only will the laptop running logging software, it will also run all the digital modes. I anticipate setting up the laptop will take a lot of time.
– eARSIB. I need to complete my renovation of the eARSIB. Parts wise the only thing I am missing is a shipment from Mouser which should arrive soon. Minus those parts, I need to finish putting everything together and testing it. This includes interfacing the eARSIB with another laptop (my laptop). All this will take some time.
– Items left to purchase. There isn’t much left to get. A pop-up shelter and a 12v marine battery… a quick trip to Walmart should solve all this.
– Roadtrip plan. I have my route generally planned but I need to make my reservations for my overnight stays enroute to California (… and the return trip).

Come Monday, I hope to get most of the planning and prep tasks complete.