[Elecraft] Field Day Report

[Bill Frantz]

The West Valley Amateur Radio Association returned to Mora Hill 
above Los Altos, Ca for field day. We used K6EI for our main 
call and W6ZZZ for GOTA. This year we were 14A, QRP, battery and 
solar panel powered. We had the luxury of lots of panels, so we 
were able to have a 120V utility for running our computers. We 
also had enough extra power to run our fans etc., as the 
temperatures on Saturday were in the high 90s (c36C or so).

Note, we are not permitted to operate generators at night, so we 
don't use them at all.

We were in category 14A with 3 CW stations, 3 SSB stations, and 
2 digital stations on HF. VHF and UHF filled the rest of the 
transmitter slots. We had separate triband antennas for CW, SSB, 
and digital with triband filters to allow use of all three bands 
at once. We also had separate wire antennas for 40M and 80M. 
GOTA had its own set of antennas. Getting all this set up took 
the better part of the daylight on Friday. (Thanks ARRL for the 
rule change that permits early setup Friday when it is cooler.)

We minimize interference between stations on the same band by 
careful antenna placement, running QRP, using Elecraft and Flex 
gear, and providing adequate voltage to the radios. I could see 
our CW stations on the P3 while operating digital, but they were 
just strong CW stations and caused no interference.

Our networked N1MM logging system lets us cheer every time we 
pass a QSO count milepost, as well as providing lots of backup 
for the logs.

Our GOTA operation was quite popular, with QSOs 150% of last 
year. Since we are next to a popular trail in the San Antonio 
Open Space Preserve, we get a lot of bicycle visitors. Some know 
about ham radio and others have never heard of it.

It appears our main operation QSO count was slightly ahead of 
last year, but I haven't seen a full comparison yet.

We got lots of people on the air, with some trying new modes for 
the first time. I counted 21 people who actually made it into 
the group photo. Everyone had a good time and went home tired.

73 Bill AE6JV

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