[Elecraft] Field Day in Oregon

[Kevin Rock]

Good Evening,
   Here in Western Oregon we had a Field Day event with two K3s.  Luckily it was only a few miles away and not too difficult to beg my way in.  My friend Karl, NM7N, is a member and asked me to join him there.  We were scheduled to run CW for 12 hours of the event in three separate shifts and got to use a K3 to work stations.  The other K3 was used for digital operations about 700 feet away.  There was no interference between the voice, data, and CW stations but they did attach bandpass filters to all of the rigs except the K3 at the CW station.  
   Weather got a little warm.  It reached into the 90s both days.  Since I am normally on my mountain under the fir trees this was my first exposure to the heat.  I drank an awful lot of water!  The sunburn will calm down in a day or two but I don't think it will be too bad.  CW operations went fairly well.  The bands were much better than they had been during the days previous to FD.  I was surprised how well we could hear and how quiet the bands were compared to my daily skeds into Alabama.
   The K3 worked nicely.  NR was used occasionally as was the noise blanker.  There was a ticking noise at one point which the K3's noise blanker eliminated.  We were running with paddles to transmit and two CW operators for ears.  One logged while the other ran stations.  Our CW station had three wire antennas in an inverted V orientation.  It was getting out nicely.  One problem we did have was at a shift change when the rig was inadvertently left in TEST mode.  For about twenty minutes no contacts were made until a power meter was put into the line and the reason for zero RF out was ascertained.  QRP operators are used to periods where no one can hear them so this seemed fairly normal!  
   I just awoke from a three hour nap since Karl and I had three alternate shifts through the event with not much time for sleep.  Sam and my new cat needed my attention so I would drive home to feed them between shifts.  Even though I was fairly close this is a mountainous region of Oregon where it is difficult to get anywhere rapidly so most of my off time was spent travelling.  The nap felt very good but I am sure it will take a few days to recover.  
   Food was an issue.  Next year, if I am invited to attend, I will make sure to take a cooler with lunch, dinner, and breakfast.  I did bring plenty of water so that was not an problem.  I was surprised at the lack of interaction between the CW operators and everyone else.  We were isolated in our own corner of the location so there was not much foot traffic between stations.  There was also not very much talking about radios, antennas, or operations.  What a stark contrast to my first Field Day in New Mexico where food and talk was a very important part of FD.  This group is working toward learning how to make a higher score.  In a few years I think they will perform that aspect of FD better.  
   I only heard a few comments about the K3 from other operators but it seemed to work well.  Its biggest problem was it could hear better than could the operators on the other end.  It took a little riding of the QSB waves to work those stations.  The ergonomics of the rig seem functional.  Most of the buttons were not used for this event but I could see where they could come in handy.  The flat black presence of the K3 was nice.  The fans ran a lot due to the ambient temperature but no one heard them working.  We tried an external keyer but due to changing preferences of the various operators multiple sets of paddles and a bug were attached.  The internal keyer worked adequately for this event.  I did want to try the memory keys but it was too dark at that point to see them very well.  Maybe next year. 
   On another note: the Elecraft CW Nets will be back on the air next Sunday with a slightly browner NCS.  I hope the bands are as happy as they were over the last two days.  Currently we are getting clouds and I can hear thunder in the distance.  All of my antennas are disconnected and soon the modem will be unhooked from the phone line too.  
   Until next week, stay as cool as you can.
      73,
         Kevin.  KD5ONS

   

-----Original Message-----
>From: K8TB <k8tb at bosscher.org>
>Sent: Jun 29, 2008 6:16 PM
>To: 'Elecraft Reflector' <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
>Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 - One Heckuva Radio
>
>Lee Buller wrote:
>
>>but the K3 is one great radio Field Day was a joy to operate on both 
>CW and SSB.
>>There were stations close in and I never knew they were there.
>
>   Actually, the K3 has started a new ham-social problem of the have 
>and have nots. I noticed with my K3 at the K8DAA field day site, 
>that I could copy just about anything. 
>But many were not hearing me due to AGC pumping/lockout of signals some 
>5-10kHz away. It was very noticable. We had a K3 on 20 cw about 300 feet 
>from a K3 on SSB, and we never knew the other guy was there (This deals 
>with raw RF overload).
>
>   But that receiver, well, maybe it's "too" good?  ;)
>
>   Tom K8TB