2006 ARRL Field Day
06/29/2006 |
WA5ZTD
WA5ZTD - Chuck Dennis
Phoenix AZ 85044
Operating setup - ICOM 706MK2G with HF mobile vertical and using two 12 volt 8 amp hour batteries set up in the bed of my Nissan pickup in the parking lot of my apartment complex.
This year for the first time in a long time I participated in field day operations and for the first time flying solo I did pretty good. I operated under the class of 1E - 1 transmitter using emergency power only. I started at noon on saturday and for the first two hours it was slow and I almost gave up. The heat outside was about 105 and I was set up in the bed of my nissan pickup where I had a mobile hf vertical on a mag mount attached to the front of the vehicle. I had two 12 volt batteries that I alternated using and charging off the car alternator. After the first two hours the contacts started coming and I wrapped it up saturday at 5:30 pm with 20 contacts on 20 and 40 meters with 2 CW and 18 SSB. I got back out sunday morning and resumed operating at about 7:30 am and added another 15 contacts between 7:30 and 9:30 with 3 contacts being CW and 12 being SSB. At about 9:30 I started having Antenna, Tuner, Radio problems and ultimately had to break it down and close it up a bit early. Still not bad for the first time on my own.
I found that I was able to operate my transceiver at about 60 watts output for SSB and CW for around 1 to 1.5 hours with my 12 volt 8 amp/hour battery before having to recharge. This worked out ok as I had two that I was able to alternate using. It was actually better than I anticipated as I originally planned to operate QRP with only 5 watts out but unfortunately I did not have enough of an antenna or I was not in a good location where I could get a signal out and I could not be heard so I moved to using 60 watts out and did pretty good. The radio itself got very HOT as I was outside in the shade in 105 degree temperature out here in Phoenix AZ. I think in the future I would like to look into something like fans to keep the radio (and myself) a bit cooler.
Unfortunately I did not get to take any pictures as I had loaned my digital camera to my daughter the week before and had not had an opportunity to get it back yet.
Thank you all for a great event and I hope to do much better next year.
ctd1500a@hotmail.com -- WA5ZTD
Phoenix AZ 85044
Operating setup - ICOM 706MK2G with HF mobile vertical and using two 12 volt 8 amp hour batteries set up in the bed of my Nissan pickup in the parking lot of my apartment complex.
This year for the first time in a long time I participated in field day operations and for the first time flying solo I did pretty good. I operated under the class of 1E - 1 transmitter using emergency power only. I started at noon on saturday and for the first two hours it was slow and I almost gave up. The heat outside was about 105 and I was set up in the bed of my nissan pickup where I had a mobile hf vertical on a mag mount attached to the front of the vehicle. I had two 12 volt batteries that I alternated using and charging off the car alternator. After the first two hours the contacts started coming and I wrapped it up saturday at 5:30 pm with 20 contacts on 20 and 40 meters with 2 CW and 18 SSB. I got back out sunday morning and resumed operating at about 7:30 am and added another 15 contacts between 7:30 and 9:30 with 3 contacts being CW and 12 being SSB. At about 9:30 I started having Antenna, Tuner, Radio problems and ultimately had to break it down and close it up a bit early. Still not bad for the first time on my own.
I found that I was able to operate my transceiver at about 60 watts output for SSB and CW for around 1 to 1.5 hours with my 12 volt 8 amp/hour battery before having to recharge. This worked out ok as I had two that I was able to alternate using. It was actually better than I anticipated as I originally planned to operate QRP with only 5 watts out but unfortunately I did not have enough of an antenna or I was not in a good location where I could get a signal out and I could not be heard so I moved to using 60 watts out and did pretty good. The radio itself got very HOT as I was outside in the shade in 105 degree temperature out here in Phoenix AZ. I think in the future I would like to look into something like fans to keep the radio (and myself) a bit cooler.
Unfortunately I did not get to take any pictures as I had loaned my digital camera to my daughter the week before and had not had an opportunity to get it back yet.
Thank you all for a great event and I hope to do much better next year.
ctd1500a@hotmail.com -- WA5ZTD
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