06/26/2006 | N7VR This year the Jim's got together to due field day. Jim Aldrich (K7TQM) and Jim Fuller (N7VR) put together an interesting station. As usual, it was a jimmied up situation.

We had several goals this year. First, was to make it so, K7TQM could both operate and log. Second, was to operate from batteries alone. Third, was to try out the N7VR quad array.

The first project was to make logging and operating for K7TQM, as simple as it is for me. He is blind. We used N1MM Logger Program and JAWS screen reader to accomplish the task. Then, to make it even easier, we added a K1EL WinKeyer. We have a minor problem with a USB to Serial Adapter and the screen reader seeing the DUPE announcement from N1MM, but it work very well.

The second project was to operate the station from Battery Backup for the full 24 Hours. I had gotten ahold of a Best FerrUPS Battery Cabinet with ten 88 AH Batteries. I rearanged them into 12V at 880AH to power the station and a 1.5 KVA inverter. This supplied power to the radios and computers. Resultant current draw averaged about 15 Amps per hour. We had plenty to spare!

The last wast to try out the Quad array. This is a Qubex Mantus II with the 5 Band addition. It covers 40M & 30M with two elements and 20M, 17M, 15M, 12M & 10M with 4 elements. It is rotated by an Orion M2 RC2800 Rotor. We had a extra sucess, in that, the JAWS screen reader allowed K7TQM to point this quad any time he wished via software.

We ran mostly CW for the fun of it, only 13 SSB contacts:)

While we have a few things to debug and correct, this was an excellent Feild Day. Now, to take this show on the road. -- N7VR