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2006 ARRL Field Day

07/02/2006 | K9ES/4 K9ES/4 Field Day Operation took place from Longpoint Park, in South Brevard near Sebastian Inlet. The exact location was at the Indian River edge on the very south tip of the island. Operators were Eric K9ES, Chuck AD4ES, Jeff KG4IPO, and Hank AA4HP. We operated from a 10 x 20 foot tent (with massive hurricane fans keeping the bugs to a tolerable level) and slept in a 10 x 20 foot tent with air conditioning. The operation was powered by a KG4IPO battery system, made from four 6V deep discharge 400 Amp-Hour marine batteries in a series mode to produce 2 banks of batteries. While one bank was connected directly to the rig and accessories, the other bank was solar power charged at about a 7.5 ampere rate. Control, switching, and monitoring were at the operator position, with a fully microprocessor controlled system, allowing monitoring of either bank, the charge to the bank being charged, and the average and peak discharge to the radio.

The radio used was my Icom 756 Pro-2 (with a spare Pro-2 in my car). We used AD4ESs laptop computer to log (Writelog) and generate CW. A paddle was used in parallel to send manually. The radio was connected to the antenna through an ICE 419B bandpass filter, electronically tracked to the radio. An external Mirage Wattmeter was in line to verify output power as well as reflected power. An I-Mate was used along with a Heil Proset Plus-2 headset / mike.

Antennas were a TH6DXX at 38 feet, on the top of a trailer tower, and initially a Gap Titan, located 10 feet in the river. It was very clear that there was a problem with the Gap, and we elected to put up a 40M inverted vee on the tower. The Gap did not play on 40 and although the VSRW was low on 80M, we could not hear a signal on that band. The TH6DXX was rope rotated.

With 11 minutes to go in the contest, and severe weather threatening, Jeff pointed the TH6DXX straight north and we had a pileup of 31 QSOs in that short period, including the needed Delaware QSO. We managed a clean sweep, with DX as far as VK4. At the end of the contest, the skies unleashed with a squall hitting us. Thankfully, no one was hit by lightning. -- K9ES


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