06/26/2006 | WI7J Beautiful location for this year's Field Day, just outside of Zion National Park in Southern Utah. We had Jim WI7J, Dave KD7VNH, Marya N7KEC and myself from Southern Utah, and John K6MJB and George N6DNA joined us from Long Beach, CA. Later on we were joined by Ken and Tom (sorry, I can't remember the callsigns...)

We ran 2A on 20 and 40 meters exclusively. I had designed a fan dipole especially for the operation, tested it with an MFJ analyzer, and it seemed to be resonant, but after hoisting it up, found out it was pretty useless in the real world. We then temporarily raised a G5RV while we found a 20 meter dipole and switched that out. The dipole worked great. Jim used a G5RV for his 40 meter operation.

While 40 meters was pretty much predictable, the 20 meter conditions could only be described as bizarre. Stations were coming in from all over the map, within minutes of each other. We'd work an MDC station then turn around and answer a PAC station on the next spin of the dial.

And it was hot. Temperature reached 112F on Saturday and dropped into the high 60s at night.

Thanks to all stations who answered us - and to those who didn't, we'll get you next year! -- K7DLX