Radio W4KAZ

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Field Day and The K3NG HomeBrew Rain Fly

With Field Day right around the corner the K3NG Home Brew Field Day Tarp Canopy seemed timely. I don’t have(i.e. “will not have”) a google account, so I couldn’t post comments to K3NG’s post. But it’s cool enough to bookmark permanently. Literally. Putting shade on the tent keeps the operating position much cooler.

My initial reaction was that K3NG’s cover would be subject to water pooling. As I kept reading, I saw that he noticed that too. Back in the swamps as a WB5, we used a similar strategery for shade and rain. Rather than risk poking holes in the tarps with center supports, our solution was to make the front posts about 18 inches longer than the rear posts. The slope was sufficient even in a heavy rain.

Our own posts were cut from pine saplings liberated from one of the club member’s farm.

With the front facing north, that also helps throw the shade a bit lower on the tents below the cover. It works pretty well at shedding rain too. Lots of chances for rain on Field Day when you are only 20 miles off the Gulf of Mexico. Ick.

O’course, it rained about three inches here at the NC KazShack Tuesday morning. My front yard becomes a small stream in these conditions, with water flowing over the driveway, down across the yard and over my neighbor’s driveway too. So much for the landscaping. Landscape timbers, mulch, even the grass – whoosh.

I sure hope the wx dries out before FD. Ugh.

Anyway, I like the rain fly solution. Kinda’ labor intensive, but worth the effort if there are enough warm bodies on hand to help throw it up.

1 comment to Field Day and The K3NG HomeBrew Rain Fly

  • Hi Keith,

    Thanks for the mention here on your blog! That’s a good idea to have some poles taller than others to make a slanted roof. I had the two 10′ studs on hand as I was going to attempt to put them on the sides at the front and back to make a double-slanted roof (like an inverted V). I didn’t have a chance to try it, and the poking them up in the center was out of necessity during the rainstorm, but it worked so well that I decided to do that permanently. The plastic coffee cans on top should keep them from poking through.

    On an aside, I was unaware I had my bog set to require a Google account. I’ve opened it up to anonymous and non-Google account holders. (I kept moderation in place for obvious reasons.)

    Thanks again for stopping by my blog. I hope we have good weather for Field Day, at least for setup and tear-down. It has rained here in PA nearly everyday for the past few weeks…errr..months…I can’t remember how long…

    73
    Goody
    K3NG

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