[FieldDay] GENERATOR SAFETY

[Phil Lefever]

At 10:00 AM 2/21/03, you wrote:
>All this fuss about generators. This is antiquated technology. Use
>batteries, the benefits are endless, the cost is cheaper. Batteries must
>have a down side, just can't think of any at the moment. I would quit FD if
>I had to go back to generators.....

First off let me ask what power level do you run and how many stations
total? Also how many total people are involved in your effort?

I would agree that it would be great to rid ourselves of the noise and
work. But... Out Field Day is a LARGE effort involving near 200 people.
The social part runs along with the radio operation and we need power
for cooking and coffee and lights. Sure we could just use Coleman Stoves
and lanterns but since we need power for the radio stuff there you be.
Also running in the 100w power level batteries will be a hassle. Lots
of weight and electrolyte danger.

>On another note, why all the towers and beams. This is ludicrous in my
>opinion. 90% of your contacts will be east of the Mississippi River. A beam
>will skip right over all the good stuff.

How will a beam cause a signal to skip over a geographic area? The take off
angle of the signal is based on the ground conductivity and the height of
the antenna. A dipole and a beam at similar heights will have similar
lobes. I do agree that low antennas are needed for this state side event.
We run the beams between 20 and 40 feet above ground depending on the
band. We have modeled all antennas to try to optimize our launch angles
in regards to heavily populated areas.

Also from here in the mid west about 40% of our contacts come from east
of the river. Most worked by call # are "5"s here. We will probably get
near 1000 q's from the 6, 7, 0, 9 districts as well.

>Way too much work for the performance. Sometimes simple is
>better.

Just like the generator thing, if I could I'd lose the beams. Like you
say lots of hassle and work. But the ability to find and hold a run
frequency, especially on 20m makes the beams well worthwhile in our
opinion. We have used verticals and dipoles on the high bands in the
past and there was a noticeable decrease in performance.

>This year there will be no VHF stuff. Not enough bang for the buck! ( Not
>enough points for the effort ) Putting those ops in a more productive
>position. Hope it works out better.

Yea VHF is a tough call. We run it more just to expose new hams to the
VHF/UHF bands more then anything. If you get some good Es conditions they
6m can make a load of points. It is a crap shoot though, last 2 years the
Es has been weak. Three years ago the 6m station made more then 500 Q's
so was well worth having that year. To keep it simple the VHF statios to
me would be 6m and 2m only. Of course then we add 70cm so we can make a
satellite Q for the bonus. Then next thing we are running on 222 and 1.2G
as out VHF guy just brings out his station ;) So much for simple but if
he wants to do it more power to him. Pretty cool when that new ham comes
out and makes his/her first microwave Q! We hear about it on the repeaters
for a long while afterward ;) Maybe this is what field day is all about!

73

Phil



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Phil Lefever, KB=D8NES            Field day Chairman
Twin Cities Repeater Club               http://www.tcrc.org
Burnsville, Minnesota