Winter Field Day 2019

Summary:

Winter Field Day is the January counterpart to the ARRL’s Field Day typically held in June. The intent, for most of the country, is to set up a field station and communicate during less-than-ideal conditions, including high winds, snow, rain and ice.

In Arizona – the harshness of the climate is not really a problem, in fact the winters are a very nice time of the year. For us, the ARRL field day is the real challenge as it will be over 100 degrees, although the extreme heat and humidity of the monsoon season doesn’t really stick around until July to September.

Nonetheless, an excuse to go out and have some fun is an excuse to go out and have some fun. Owen tagged along and helped set up and was interested to look at all the pictures of the big ‘rocket ship’ that used to stand where we were situated.

Location:

We operated from one of the former Titan II ICBM sites in our area. It doesn’t look like much now, but in it’s heyday this site would’ve been heavily guarded as it was one of the silos prepped with the US’s nuclear arsenal. It’s my understanding that sometime in the late 80’s all Titan II silos were decommissioned; the control bunker and tunnels still exist underground, although they are (usually) rendered inaccessible. A handful of sites have been excavated, or can otherwise be crawled into to this day, however they are generally on private property.

Today; the only remaining Titan II site kept in its original condition is 571-7; also known as the Titan Missile Museum.

Photos: