[MRCG] Mt Diablo Recon Mission

[amillertkx--- via MRCG]

Great pics Tim! Really enjoyed keeping the skeds and looking forward to more CW operating...I really enjoy it. 

Love the lantern glow / TRC-77 RF indicator glow shot! Looks like Alex is working phone on the TRC-77 in that one pic. Homebrew software defined modulator.....naaaw cant be :)


Andy     



-----Original Message-----
From: Tim <timsamm at gmail.com>
To: Andy M <AMillerTKX at aol.com>
Cc: tom horsfall <wa6ope at hotmail.com>; Jason Atkin <martinihenry at gmail.com>; Bart Lee <kv6lee at gmail.com>; Richard Dillman <ddillman at igc.org>; Steve Hawes <shawes at berkeley.edu>; West Coast Military Radio Collectors Group <MRCG at mailman.qth.net>; Alexander Seddio <alexseddio at gmail.com>; MRCA <mrca at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Mon, Jun 15, 2015 3:33 pm
Subject: Mt Diablo Recon Mission




Hi Guys - had a fun Military Field Day up on Mt Diablo with Alex this weekend.  We were running a TRC-77 on 80/40 CW, an ARC Type 12 set and a PRC-25.  Had good comms with Andy on multiple sked times on both 80 and 40 meters CW, night and day. We worked Bart on the PRC-25 and also a long QSO with him using the Type 12 on 144.450 Mc AM (and no interference from the &#*&% APRS repeaters this time!).  That little set sounds Great! 

I wanted to test the TRC-77 with the "per the book" slant wire antenna of 50 and 25 feet on 80/40 respectively, including 2 radial ground wires.  (Well described by Andy as a Bush Antenna)...Worked well, made all the skeds with Andy but best reports were around 459.  It's not a rock-crusher, a dipole would have worked much better over that 78 mile NVIS shot. 
  
We also worked "Agent Control" once again at KSM/K6KPH in the Marin Headlands - they dominate the freq (7050) when "on".  They asked for my airdrop resupply requisition - I asked for a Field Air Conditioner Set which they forwarded to Supply and the expeditionary air wing.  Amazingly, a C-17 out of Travis flew directly over Mt Diablo, very low, about 45 minutes later, but alas no pallet with said air conditioner...(the next day we were entertained by a nice P-40 flying overhead) 

A good shakedown cruise for the TRC-77 in the ALICE Pack and it worked Andy with his TRC-77 and also his TDE/RBB combo.  It is a very good field rig, here running off internal SLA batteries for 3 days in a fairly stock field configuration.  Receiver was "On" for around 35 hours continuous, no recharging necessary.  Worked lots of stations, 10 watts goes a long way.  It is a very RF quiet location.... 
Thanks to Andy for keeping all the skeds!  We also monitored 3985 for the MRCG AM net but signals were weak and a lot of QRN this time.  Next: up to the Sierras. 

AR 
Tim 

N6CC