WD9EWK - ARRL Field Day 2002

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WD9EWK in ARRL Field Day 2002

Updated 13 July 2004
After my first ARRL Field Day effort by myself away from home in June 2001, I did it again in 2002.  I had more equipment with me, hoped to demonstrate different elements of ham radio and make more contacts than last year.  I still had fun, despite making fewer contacts and not receiving any visitors to my station for demonstrations. 

For Field Day 2002, I had the following equipment at my station (items listed in bold below were used) at the Fort Tuthill Park south of downtown Flagstaff, Arizona, in grid DM45dd - approximately 50 yards/50m northwest of the spot I used in 2001: 

As part of Field Day, ARRL has bonus points awarded for many activities in order to encourage activity.  I am trying to claim 5 sets of 100-point bonuses this year with my station: 

Preparations and setting up my station...
I spent a fair amount of time planning this day of activity.  I really did not need the IC-706Mk2 and 4 different gel-cells with me, but knew if I used my laptop for the day I would need more than one 7Ah gel-cell based on my experience last year.  I brought the 2 7Ah gel-cells I used last year along with 2 21Ah packs I recently bought, figuring one 21Ah gel-cell should be more than enough for the laptop and the other one could be a spare or used to jumpstart my car in an emergency. 

Once I started setting up my station I realized I forgot one important item - the cable to connect my KAM XL TNC to my laptop.  Without this, I could not use the TOR modes like AMTOR or PacTOR to copy the W1AW bulletin, and RTTY operation would be difficult using the laptop and the LinPSK PSK31/RTTY program I had on there.  Once I got to set up the laptop with the radio, I could not get the laptop and radio to work properly through my SignaLink interface.  I could receive using a patch cable going from the speaker/headphone jack on the FT-817 directly to the laptop's microphone jack, and that way could receive PSK31 or RTTY.  Without the ability to make PSK31 or RTTY contacts, I went ahead with my operating - only on SSB. 

On the air...
My first contact was with W7JCR in Washington state at 1303 local time (2003 UTC), on the 10-meter band.  I only made one other contact on that band, and then switched to the 15-meter band.  Last year, the 15-meter band was where I made most of my contacts - and it was the same for 2002.  For the remainder of the day I periodically switched between the 15-meter and 20-meter bands, with an occasional break to the 17-meter band (no contacts here today - most stations were on the other bands used for Field Day). 

Just like last year, many times I had to make more than one call to establish a contact, but on some occasions I made the contacts with a single call to the other station.  I was able to copy the W1AW Field Day bulletin on RTTY, a minor victory considering the hassles I had with my software and laptop configuration in the field.  My last contact came at 19.13 local time (0213 UTC Sunday) with K7LED - once again, in Washington state - to allow time for cleaning up my station under the remaining daylight. 

Statistics...
At the end of the day, I made a total of 36 contacts:  I had contacts with 15 US states, 2 Canadian provinces (Manitoba and British Columbia), and a total of 21 ARRL/RAC sections overall.  Since I used my FT-817 at its maximum 5-watt output, I claimed the 5X power multiplier for my efforts, for a total of 180 points through my contacts.  I also claimed 500 points in bonuses (see above), for a potential total score of 680 points.  Even with fewer contacts, this score would exceed my 2001 total by 95 points despite having one fewer SSB contact and no digital contacts compared to 2001. 

It seemed like I could always make contacts with Washington state and British Columbia at any time, except I did not reach the North Shore Amateur Radio Club of North Vancouver, BC, and their VE7NSR station despite hearing them early in the afternoon.  I also made more contacts in the US Midwest, plus a contact with Manitoba in the center of Canada, along with the contacts along the east and west coasts of the USA.  The FT-817, along with the little MFJ-971 tuner and a dipole fed with twin-lead instead of coax cable like I did in 2001, made for better operating on the other bands.  I could get a good match between my radio and antenna on all bands between 10 and 20 meters where last year my antenna worked well only on 15 meters. 

Want a QSL card from WD9EWK for Field Day 2002?
Just drop me an e-mail with your name/address and information about our contact.  I'll mail a card to you, no SASE or stamp needed. 
Pictures...
I finally brought a camera along and snapped some pictures of my portable radio activities.  Each of the following links will open a new browser window and display a JPG file. 
Looking back, and forward...
Once again, no problems with the FT-817.  It is a fun little radio, and fun for Field Day despite its low power output.  I should have spent time working with my PSK31 setup before Field Day, and of course packed a cable to use my TNC for RTTY contacts.  I still have not been able to drain one of those 7Ah gel-cells from continuous operation of my FT-817, and I probably could have brought one of each type of gel-cell and still had enough power for this day.  Since I had everything in my car and still had room to spare, I was happy to know I had the power to run everything I had at my station, and other things like lights if I worked too close to sunset - and the ability to jumpstart my car if I did something stupid to allow the car's battery to drain too low. 

My various trips in the year since Field Day 2001 helped this time in a quicker setup time and shut-down time at the end of the day.  The log entries from last year helped me to know that I should have had success on the 15-meter band for much of the day, which happened.  Using the twin-lead cable to my dipole made the antenna work better on many bands, plus the twin-lead was less weight than a comparable length of coax cable in my car.  My trip to Mexico in May 2002 was almost like a dry-run for this Field Day - an opportunity to set up a Field Day-like station and make contacts, running entirely on battery power, except I made lots of PSK31 contacts that weekend and used an IC-706Mk2G instead of the FT-817. 

Until next year..... 

WD9EWK/VA7EWK - ARRL Field Day - WD9EWK (in USA) - QSL VIA WD9EWK