2009 ARRL Field Day
Since we were relying on solar power, the weekend forecast for a very wet and stormy Field Day was not encouraging. We would be set up in a field as well, and thoughts of having the truck and trailer stuck in a muddy field filled my mind. But since the object of Field Day is to prove a station can be set up and maintained "in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions," we seemed to be headed towards the true spirit of Field Day.
Strong winds buffeted the truck and trailer as we left Pueblo West at 2:35 on Friday afternoon. Running directly into the wind, I knew the truck was gulping gallons of extra gasoline. Our dog Heidi, however, couldn't have been less concerned. She watched intently out the window as Jane pointed out cattle and prairie dogs along the way.
Highway 96 from Wetmore to Westcliffe is a scenic drive, but it seems that about 95% of the time the road was on an upward incline as it wound into the Wet Mountains. While we had lost the wind, the mountain road was now taking a toll on the truck's fuel.
We arrived in Westcliffe to find Stan, KC0OYO, and Ron, K0LZD, waiting to direct us to our parking site east of the Custer County Search and Rescue Building. To our relief, the field was dry and had been mowed. A few minutes later, Leon, N0VWX, and his wife Pauline, KB0VMX, arrived with their travel trailer and set up camp next to the building. Since helping hands were available and we still had daylight, we quickly erected an experimental three band jumpered dipole antenna on a 20' mast. The 4' long aluminum mast sections were connected and set into the homebrew tilting bumper antenna mount and guyed from three directions.
I was anxious to see if the new jumpered dipole that Jane and I made would work. I found Paul, AC7QJK, in Utah on PSK31. He was checking out the equipment he would be running for Field Day and using 5 watts. At least I knew our antenna tuned easily on 20 meters with the MFJ-949E tuner. Tomorrow we would try the 40-meter section.
Not long after the sun was down we had lightning, wind and rain. What a wonderful lightning rod we presented to the heavens, but we were spared.
Jane and I were up early Saturday morning and set up the solar panels. We didn't use the "solar trackers" I had made from a QST article, electing instead to set the panels up at about a 60 degree angle and facing away from the sun at about the same angle early in the morning. We were still getting about 4 amps input to the battery at first, and this increased to 10 amps or more as the angle to the sun decreased. We only moved the panels twice during the day and had plenty of power available for the radio gear and the trailer.
Since the local newspaper didn't print the press release I sent, we figured not many people would stop by to see what we were doing. Leon and I decided to erect the 6' Cushcraft AR-270B VHF/UHF antenna to be used to send the required message to the Section Communications Manager via the Colorado Connection on Saturday night. The antenna was supported by 13' of schedule 40 PVC pipe near the front corner of the trailer and guyed at 8'. We set the mast up at 16' in the beginning, but I could see we were going to have to run three more guy lines if we left it at that height. It was easier to substitute a 5' top section for the 8' section. With the winds we experienced later, it turned out to be the right choice. While the antenna and mast bounced around, they stayed in place.
We pulled out the trailer's new awning, set up some chairs and a table for visitors. Saturday's visitors included KC0WYK, KD0HIS, KD0BVJ, N0MIK, and KC0WYK. We used the opportunity explain our solar power system and to demonstrate PSK31 running only 5 watts. Handout sheets about the station and ham radio in general were given out. Hopefully we inspired a few to work to upgrade their licenses and take up a new facet of the hobby.
Conditions were horrible on 20 meters Saturday afternoon. The bands were packed, with stations on top of stations on top of stations. It was very difficult to make contacts running only 5 watts in that crowd! I tried calling stations, I tried calling CQ, I tried working the edges of the PSK31 frequencies being used....
Only 30 contacts were made from noon to 7 p.m. when the panels were no longer charging the batteries and I called it quits for the day. Heidi was bored with band conditions on Saturday too, but she enjoyed sleeping in front of the fan bringing in outside air from the window behind me.
A small folding table I had made from bar stools worked quite well. It was sturdy and provided plenty of room for the laptop and more.
With Leon's help, we barely got the awning secured and the solar panels put away Saturday night before a strong wind came up and it started lightning and raining at about sunset. It rained steadily for at least an hour.
We were pleasantly surprised to find the ground still solid on Sunday morning. Jane and I set up the solar panels again and changed the jumpers on the Inverted "V" to 40 meters. The 40-meter section tuned easily, and I was on the air by 7:00. Conditions were better there until about 10:00 when we changed the antenna back to 20 meters. I didn't try 10 meters or 15 meters, though I probably should have. At noon, I only had a total of 74 contacts. My goal was 100, so I was somewhat disappointed. However, for the amount of time I operated, it wasn't too bad. The map below shows sections that were worked.
Although I didn't set the world on fire with my score, all the experiments we tried except for one worked. This was the first time for the rig to be run portable, the first time the homebrew tilting antenna mount on the bumper was used, the first time for the solar panels to be used, the first time the trailer awning was used, the first time for the homebrew jumpered dipole to be hooked to a radio, the first time for the MFJ battery booster to be used... the list goes on and on. All went extremely well. We did learn a few things though to make our next portable adventure a bit more organized.
The only problem we encountered was powering the laptop. The Chinese-made converter we had produced too much RFI, as did an 800-watt inverter. Luckily, Leon had a small inverter designed to be plugged into a cigarette lighter jack. It was surprisingly clean of RFI, and it had an internal fan to keep it cool. I will be looking for a model like the one he has.
All in all, the outing was quite successful, and we had a good time. We will be building on our experience and will soon begin planning for next year's Field Day event. -- WA0KAQ
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