[KLQRP] Field Day

[Randy Hargenrader]

Guys,

Nice to hear that it went well for your operation, too!  Obviously the 
gods don't want the KL's to use the high ground! hi!  Our local 
operation to a local city park went well, also.  The short ribs and 
chicken cooked on the grill Saturday were some of the best ever, but 
didn't exceed the "Derek Steaks" of past years!

The only hint of trouble (besides the oppressive heat and humidity) came 
at 1:50pm Sunday when a flash of lightning and immediate thunder put 
everyone in "scurry mode" to tear down equipment and get things put away 
before the downpour got started.  All but the 40 foot tower with the 4 
element tri-bander was left when the main cell hit and poured lightning 
as fast as rain drops!  30 minutes later the storm had passed and we 
left the lightning protective and air-conditioned comfort of our 
vehicles to dismantle the beam setup.

Next time I do this FD thing here I'm requesting two RV's with 
air-conditioning!   Make that three - one for sleeping!

Technical notes:   We ran 2A using 100 watt radios to separate 450 ohm 
window line fed 80 mtr inverted vee's spaced as far apart as we could 
manage (about 100 feet) and tried to position the legs at right angles 
to the other antenna.  They were primarily used for 80 and 40 meters.  A 
four element Tri-bander at 40 feet on a tilt up tower and a six meter 
beam on a separate minor crank up tower were also set up.  An R5 
vertical for the GOTA station completed the HF setup.   We dedicated one 
SSB station and one CW station and also coordinated only one station per 
band.  We used the bandpass filter units you described - the PC boards 
are available from FAR Circuits.  They helped quite a bit with keeping 
the overload and harmonics from desensing the other station.  You would 
need better filters and other techniques that Don alluded to, to share a 
band.

One particular technique that also helped was to reduce the RF gain on 
the receivers to help mitigate the desense.  It was interesting to show 
that technique to the new HF ops we had there and watch the "moment of 
epiphany" wash over their faces!  ("You mean I don't have to listen to 
all that noise all the time!?!")  When they heard more stations with the 
RF gain down than turned all the way up, it really sold the concept!  Is 
there a better tip in all of hamdom?

Of course the beam was shared with all stations as needed.  BTW, we had 
a GOTA station (banished to 10 and 15 meters until the other stations 
were on 80 and 40) and a satellite station and also an APRS and an SSTV 
setup for the extra points.  (BTW/BTW  635 CW contacts and 550 SSB)

A different experience from the KLQRP operations, but almost as fun!

72,
Randy
K4QO



Don Wilhelm wrote:
> Fellow Knights,
>
> I had a really great weekend - thanks to the others that showed up. 
> Perhaps next year the propagation gods will smile more favorably on 
> us, but it was fun even under low sunspot conditions.
>
> We learned a couple lessons this year that we may want to consider for 
> following years - they mostly concern operating both CW and SSB on the 
> same band.  In the future we should remember to space the antennas for 
> each mode as far apart as possible, and the antennas should be 
> orthogonal to each other (one horizontal and one vertical) - I did 
> notice a reduction when I added a 2nd radial to my vertical "L" 
> antenna and placed it physically in opposition to the single radial I 
> had before.  Secondly we should consider creating narrow passband 
> filters to further reduce local overload.  I recall that Zack Lau 
> published some filter designs for just that purpose in QEX a few years 
> back and I will look it up soon. We may want to consider using only 
> resonant antennas in multi-transmitter setups rather than multi-band 
> tuned antennas to further help with the band filtering.
>
> Thanks to all who were there, and sorry that the others had to miss 
> out on a great fun event.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
>
> Richard Hayter wrote:
>> Bob
>>
>> I echo your thoughts. A really enjoyable weekend! Thanks to all for 
>> the good
>> time.
>>
>> 72 de Dick N4HAY
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: klqrp-bounces at knightlites.org 
>> [mailto:klqrp-bounces at knightlites.org]
>> On Behalf Of Bob Kellogg
>> Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2007 10:32 PM
>> To: KLQRP
>> Subject: [KLQRP] Field Day
>>
>> Guys,
>> You will have to wait on a definitive description from Sir John Paul 
>> to know the full details, but while it's still fresh in my mind, here 
>> are my thoughts about this weekend.
>>
>> It was Great!  One of the best of the outings I've attended.  Who 
>> said it's a low sunspot cycle???  During one period of an hour or 
>> two, I worked every station I heard except two,, who obviously had an 
>> enormous build up of wax in their ears.  John Paul's barbecued 
>> chicken was delicious.  The company and camaraderie was too.  We had 
>> CW operators and sideband operators.  Ticks and bugs avoided us like 
>> we were the plague.  As usual, we learned some technical tricks from 
>> Don.   Derek stayed with  one station until it had racked up over 200 
>> QSOs.  JP will have to announce our grand total.  The weather 
>> cooperated  nicely.
>>
>> We had a great array of antennas, but failed to recognize the 
>> potential if the NVIS that JP built.  He and Dick tweaked it to get 
>> it to tune and we used it some, but it was Sunday morning before we 
>> hooked it up to a K2 along with a high dipole for easy comparison.  
>> Boy, The NVIS was a performer for surrounding states, beating the 
>> dipole on some stations by more than 3 db.  I wished I'd used it when 
>> I was working the graveyard shift Saturday night.  I'll bet we'd have 
>> received another 25-50 contacts!  Next field day we should have an 
>> NVIS for every station as well as the high dipoles.
>>
>> I'll always remember the solitude of working 40 CW at 3 AM, and 
>> hearing the gentle rumble of JP snoring in his tent 25 feet away 
>> followed by an even softer reply coming from Chris' tent only 15 feet 
>> away.  It was a concert only the woodland animals (and myself, of 
>> course) could appreciate.
>>
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