2024 Field Day

I don't keep up with this blog.  There's a lot went on since my last post.

Radio restorations.

Vibroplex restorations.

Antenna experiments. 

And Field Day.

I didn't post anything from last year's Field Day.  

Seems each Field Day gets better with the peaking of the solar cycle.  I like running QRP rather than going to the club Field Day site or working Class 1D as I did one year.

This year I used a compromise antenna. During the day I used a hitch mount telescoping 18 foot vertical mounted on a Palomar 9:1 unun on a trailer hitch on my truck.

Saturday night I changed to a Sigma-Eurocomm SE HF-X80 vertical on a military mast hitch mount using the stock unun that comes on the antenna.

The HF-X80 did better on 80 Meters and even had low SWR across some of the 160 meter band although I do not use 160.

Soon after the start my PC quit.  Died.  R.I.P.  I did the event using paper logs rather than wasting time with a Windows PC which I think was a hardware failure  rather than the OS for a change, but not repairable in short time.

 

Yaesu FT-450AT set to QRP powered by a solar charged battery pack, and Ten-Tec 247 Antenna Coupler to match the antenna. 

Soon after the PC failed and I made a contact or two, we got rain.  I initially set up outside since I set up my portable QRP set up or another rig that I can reduce RF power to 5 watts output. Now I moved into the garage and set up on the work bench.

Saturday was fine for 5W phone.  Saturday evening I decided to try the HF-X80 and put it up.  Thunderstorms.  Took the antenna back down for safety and did not operate during the overnight storms.

Sunday I decided to use the HF-X80 since it would be the first time using this antenna.  I usually use a Mosley RV-4C with counterpoise since it is such an easy antenna to set up and use.  I wanted to try something different this year.

Solar panels and the HF-X80 installed on the hitch mount. Used a small board over the choke balun to protect the connectors from rain.  Yellow thing across side walk is a cable ramp to protect the coax and prevent tripping over the coax.

 

 

There was quite a bit of activity on Sunday and the set up performed better than expected.  Not as good as using a Mosley antenna, but good enough to score more contacts than 2023.

I monitored the Solar controller to see if it would ever switch to battery power since I did not operate at night this year.  I operated from about 1900 Saturday until 1800 UTC Sunday and never used any battery power; all solar.  Next year I may get a new set of panels that are not as large and still as powerful.

I like setting up and operating from outside.  Portable set up is fast and easy. Fresh air and sun and shade, but rain...that forces me into the garage.  Thundershowers and thunderstorms shut things down.