Field Day 2010 Operations
Field Day 2010 Operations
Conditions were generally not as good this year as last.
We found that the settings for the antenna tuner that we made last year were still completely valid. The only problem we had was when we had the 160 meter switch turned on for 80 meters at one point, which may have led to some dismal results there.
Ken (KF7FAM) joined John and I for his first Field Day this year. He started out by helping out with antenna construction, then by watching and logging while he learned the flow of the Field Day contact.
Later, he got more ambitious, and had his first HF contact, followed by several more throughout the weekend. I think he enjoyed each new section he contacted. As usual, we wern’t trying to maximize points, but were more interested in the technical setup, and the challenge of contacting as many sections as possible.
There were a couple of other new things we tried this year. Once we figured out how to make the new 43′ vertical work (at least on bands above 80 meters), we mostly used it for our contacts. The signals were not significantly higher, but the noise level was quite a bit lower, so almost all stations were much easier to hear on the vertical. I know that goes against conventional wisdom for verticals vs horizontile diploles. Perhaps it is due to the generator being within 30 feet or so of the doublet, but about 200 feet from the vertical. Or maybe its because the doublet has so much more wire in the air to pick up noise.
Another new thing to try was the MMR-40 QRP kit constructed during the year. It had been tested on the bench, but had never been put on the air. After completing our 5 natural power contacts with the TS-480 Kenwood at 5 watts, we switched over to the MMR-40. We completed another 5 contacts at 5 watts with this rig, with no comments of being weak or garbled or anything. So it appears to work!
We also were able to put the new homebrew Receiver Noise Bridge to good use in troubleshooting the vertical problem mentioned in a previous post.
So what were our results? Here is a shot of the sections worked:
The map for 2010 shows that we lost a couple of sections from the “7” call area, probably due to our lack of 80 meter contacts at night. We also lost quite a few sections from the “0” call area. Not sure why, maybe the 6 meter opening wasn’t quite as good as last year.
And we’re still having a hard time to the east of the Mississippi, particularly the southeast. I’m guessing that Black Mountain, straight east of us, has something to do with that.
Our operating time pretty much shut down after 11:00pm local, as 80 meters was bad, and we just lost interest this year. We didn’t start back up until 8:00 am or so…
Finally, here is our log from this year:
Call Used: WB0SMX Class: 1A ARRL Section: AZ 40 PH 2010/06/26 19:42:48 KI6ZQL 5A ORG 40 PH 2010/06/26 19:44:30 W6PWT 2F ORG 40 PH 2010/06/26 19:53:10 WG7G 4A AZ 40 PH 2010/06/26 19:55:54 K7GGG 1B AZ 40 PH 2010/06/26 20:03:54 W6DOJ 3E SV 40 PH 2010/06/26 20:08:38 W7SA 5A AZ 40 PH 2010/06/26 20:11:44 WA6BGS 6A SDG 40 PH 2010/06/26 20:15:29 W6ZE 4A ORG 40 PH 2010/06/26 20:18:09 N6R 20A SB 40 PH 2010/06/26 20:22:30 W7IO 3F AZ 40 PH 2010/06/26 20:25:40 W6NWG 6E SDG 40 PH 2010/06/26 20:28:55 W6GNS 2A LAX 40 PH 2010/06/26 20:38:56 W6ICR 2F SDG 15 PH 2010/06/26 21:04:08 NH6P 1D PAC 15 PH 2010/06/26 21:19:48 KH6RS 1A PAC 15 PH 2010/06/26 21:26:57 NR5M 2D STX 15 PH 2010/06/26 21:36:49 W5HUM 2A AR 15 PH 2010/06/26 21:38:27 W7WA 1E WWA 15 PH 2010/06/26 21:52:28 VE6AO 1D AB 15 PH 2010/06/26 21:55:06 W7SAA 10A OR 20 PH 2010/06/26 22:32:29 N7TT 1D WWA 20 PH 2010/06/26 22:50:56 W0CBH 3A CO 20 PH 2010/06/26 22:55:02 KL7AA 3A AK 20 PH 2010/06/26 23:07:17 WB5UDI 2D CO 20 PH 2010/06/26 23:12:10 VE7BC 1E BC 20 PH 2010/06/26 23:28:39 WS4Y 2A KS 20 PH 2010/06/27 00:02:00 W0NT 12E CO 20 PH 2010/06/27 00:17:24 NR5M 2D STX 20 PH 2010/06/27 00:27:04 K0KKV 3A NE 20 PH 2010/06/27 00:31:27 VE5NN 1A SK 20 PH 2010/06/27 00:32:14 KH6RS 1A PAC 20 PH 2010/06/27 00:34:02 WJ5J 4A NTX 20 PH 2010/06/27 00:37:05 NH6JC 1D PAC 10 PH 2010/06/27 00:44:20 W4UG 5A VA 40 PH 2010/06/27 02:49:19 K6LRG 3E EB 40 PH 2010/06/27 03:01:12 W5KS 4A OK 40 PH 2010/06/27 03:18:33 W0DK 1A CO 40 PH 2010/06/27 03:22:22 W6CX 3A EB 40 PH 2010/06/27 03:26:49 K6TZ 2A SB 40 PH 2010/06/27 03:49:24 N1SV 1E EMA 40 PH 2010/06/27 04:07:08 KU6S 3A EB 20 PH 2010/06/27 04:16:35 W9BJ 4A WI 20 PH 2010/06/27 04:25:30 W4DXA 3E SC 20 PH 2010/06/27 04:37:57 W1NVT 2A VT 20 PH 2010/06/27 04:46:57 W8HP 5A MI 20 PH 2010/06/27 04:53:45 K8UU 4A OH 20 PH 2010/06/27 04:56:36 W7WLL 1D OR 20 PH 2010/06/27 04:59:45 KJ6RA 1E SV 20 PH 2010/06/27 05:03:36 W3AO 24A MDC 20 PH 2010/06/27 05:05:09 NH7O 1E PAC 20 PH 2010/06/27 05:07:30 K8BF 4A OH 20 PH 2010/06/27 05:08:11 K5FD 2A WTX 20 PH 2010/06/27 05:10:34 N4TP 2A WCF 20 PH 2010/06/27 05:12:41 KH2JU 1E PAC 20 PH 2010/06/27 05:13:39 W3HGT 1E WPA 20 PH 2010/06/27 05:21:34 KD6LM 3A SF 20 PH 2010/06/27 05:30:15 K1TTT 8E WMA 20 PH 2010/06/27 05:31:51 NX0G 2A CO 20 PH 2010/06/27 05:37:44 NE7WY 2A WY 80 PH 2010/06/27 05:49:05 W6LIE 5A SJV 80 PH 2010/06/27 05:53:09 W6ITN 1A SV 80 PH 2010/06/27 05:58:07 WR6HMB 2A SCV 6 PH 2010/06/27 15:44:11 K0HA 1D NE 6 PH 2010/06/27 15:50:43 K0LMD 1E CO 6 PH 2010/06/27 15:58:11 NW0K 2A KS 6 PH 2010/06/27 16:01:52 W5ANR 5A AR 20 PH 2010/06/27 16:51:43 W7SUR 2A UT 20 PH 2010/06/27 17:03:06 W7FO 1F MT 20 PH 2010/06/27 17:10:36 KE0PX 1B CO 20 PH 2010/06/27 17:12:00 K6LY 3A SCV 20 PH 2010/06/27 17:17:44 W6R 2A SB 20 PH 2010/06/27 17:18:53 VE7CVA 2F BC 20 PH 2010/06/27 17:21:17 VE6AO 1D AB 40 PH 2010/06/27 17:29:01 K7UM 4A UT 40 PH 2010/06/27 17:31:03 K7MPR 7A AZ 40 PH 2010/06/27 17:38:46 AB7QG 1B UT 40 PH 2010/06/27 17:42:00 K6QM 3A SDG 40 PH 2010/06/27 17:45:44 W8SWB 1B ORG 10 PH 2010/06/27 18:03:21 W0TX 6A CO 10 PH 2010/06/27 18:04:49 N6RK 1E SV 10 PH 2010/06/27 18:07:00 KE6IEL 1D SCV 20 PH 2010/06/27 18:13:17 W0IVJ 1C CO 20 PH 2010/06/27 18:22:12 K7DNH 1B NV 40 PH 2010/06/27 18:24:04 NU6N 1E SJV 20 PH 2010/06/27 18:33:32 W7PIG 3A WWA Natural Power QSOs were: 20 PH 2010/06/27 17:10:36 KE0PX 1B CO 20 PH 2010/06/27 17:12:00 K6LY 3A SCV 20 PH 2010/06/27 17:17:44 W6R 2A SB 20 PH 2010/06/27 17:18:53 VE7CVA 2F BC 20 PH 2010/06/27 17:21:17 VE6AO 1D AB 40 PH 2010/06/27 17:29:01 K7UM 4A UT 40 PH 2010/06/27 17:31:03 K7MPR 7A AZ 40 PH 2010/06/27 17:38:46 AB7QG 1B UT 40 PH 2010/06/27 17:42:00 K6QM 3A SDG
I’ll post more about Field Day when I see Ken and collect his pictures.
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