[Elecraft] Field Day Report

Mon Jun 25 16:07:40 EDT 2018

I was part of the W7LT Portland (OR) Amateur Rdaio Club effort again this year, and had a blast. We were 4A all qrp at 5 W on a local park that’s on an old volcano (Kelley Butte) with elevation and tons of trees. I used my KX3 for 40,20 and 15 CW coupled to a rhombic/loop antenna copied from the June 2017 article by WU0I. You can switch the configuration between a rhombic or a full loop at the end opposite the feed point (450 ohm line). In the article it’s done manually but one of the club guys devised a 24V latching relay we could engage /disengage by sending a pulse through the feed line (disconnected!). I ended up using it mostly in the rhombic configuration as it loaded better and was quieter, and seemed to perform slightly better on 40, my primary band. Still I wasn’t too impressed by its’ performance on 40, but I have to say that on 20 and 15 it was outstanding! Almost always one call and I had ‘em. 15 opened very nicely for a big run for me Sunday morning around 9 AM (PDT) and I stayed there till the end-worked a ton. Of course the KX3 shone particularly with the filtering-I used the APF a lot and guys were blown away how clear it was. I also noticed a big difference from last year since I installed the roofing filter. I used an amplified speaker system so folks could hear as they came in-next year I need to find a small portable mixer so I can use phones but still allow others to hear. I had the panadaptor as well which was helpful, but I need to learn to use it more effectively in this crowded situation. the other thing that was really helpful was the little wooden stand to mount the radio and panadaptor from the ‘NOGA’ (North Georgia QRP club) that Marino KE7EMV loaned me. All in all I think I did about 2-250 Q’s with only a 3 hour nap, but next year I plan to have other operators I’m training on CW to spell me.And-there’s another cw station with old gear that I need to switch to another KX3 or K3!  My next adventure will be SOTA with the KX2 in Oregon and a couple of QRP Foxhounds where I’m the fox-planning to go to some SOTA sites for these runs in August. All fun!
Dan Presley  N7CQR
n7cqr at arrl.net

> On Jun 25, 2018, at 4:40 AM, Rod Hardman <va3on.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Oakville ARC VE3HB (Ontario, Canada) ran an all KX2 QRP Battery Field Day this year from a a country back yard. Lots of rain but good times. 
> 
> Quite a positive education for all, esp the hardcore CW ops accustomed to 100 Watt contest stations. Ended up logging on iPads (Hamlog) syncing to a Raspberry Pi Zero Server - which the Operators found easy in power but the lack of automation proved tedious. (We should have implemented the Piglets) That’s ok, we automated with people!
> 
> Everyone had very good things to say about the KX2. Fantastic experience and the bands were kind to us. 
> 
> Best part was not having to listen to the generators (no end of Field day headache!)
> 
> Rod, VA3ON
> 
> On Jun 24, 2018, at 23:40, <ktalbott at gamewood.net <mailto:ktalbott at gamewood.net>> <ktalbott at gamewood.net <mailto:ktalbott at gamewood.net>> wrote:
> 
> FD was a hoot from the farm here in southside Virginia.  The KX2, an Alpha Delta dipole, and N1MM+ on a $99 Kodak laptop performed flawlessly.  The most amazing thing was 10m!  Since I embarked on my QRP CW adventure 4 years ago I had logged not a single 10m contact. This weekend I bagged 26 Qs on 10m, and as many on 15m.  My total of 212 in 6 hours of operation certainly thrilled me!  I really miss the FD social events of the late 1980's in Greensboro,  NC. But when you are trying to bust a pileup with 5-watts who has time for socializing?
> Ken ke4rg
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Wayne Burdick
> Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2018 6:30 PM
> To: Elecraft Reflector <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> Cc: KX3 at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Elecraft] Field Day Report
> 
> A large group gathered for the K6SRA 3A/SCV FD operation in San Jose. Despite temperatures in the mid-90 s and blistering sunshine, we had many visitors, including a lot of curious non-hams. 
> 
> This tends to be a social event with lots of conversation and ad-hoc experimentation with radios and antennas, so I won t be bragging about our claimed Field Day score. Still, a good time was had by all, with vast quantities of water and other liquids consumed to avoid heat stroke.
> 
> Late Saturday afternoon I undertook a brief solo trek to exercise the KX2. I had intended to climb a nearby hill. Given the outrageous temperatures, I settled for a picnic table on the other side of the parking lot, beneath a large oak. 
> 
> Normally I would have tossed a wire into this tree. Instead I used a prototype 2-band, 4  whip, in keeping with the  two QSOs per foot challenge  we proposed in a recent Elecraft newsletter. I made 10 QSOs over the course of about 20 minutes (that s 3.00 Q/ft, for those keeping score), ranging from KH6 to the East Coast. 
> 
> Overall, conditions were not thrilling. 20 meters was pretty much single-hop until Saturday evening. 15 m was deceased until this morning when, back at the home QTH, I noticed things picking up on this band around the same time as some sporadic-E kicking in on 6 m.
> 
> Wayne
> N6KR
> 
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