ARRL Field Day
Call: K7IA
Operator(s): K7IA
Station: K7IA
Class: 1B LP
QTH: NM
Operating Time (hrs): 14:43
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80: 1
40: 119
20: 491 3
15: 43 15
10: 27
6:
2:
222:
432:
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
----------------------------
Total: 681 18 0 Total Score = 2,760
Club:
Comments:
Class 1E Battery, Low Power on home QTH off-grid PV system. Add points for ARRL
FD message, 100% emerg power, Alternate power, web submission.
This was my first Field Day from a home QTH, and I hope it will be the last.
My Arizona 7QP and AZ QP sites were destroyed by the HUGH Wallow Fire in
eastern Arizona, and the same fire threatened my usual FD sites in New Mexico.
Fire danger, National Forest road closures, and other considerations called for
prudent thinking, so we stayed home. I gave some serious thought to operating
portable from the self-contained camper, either on our home QTH property or
from the adjacent National Forest, and I even found all of the parts from my
old Butternut vertical, assembled it, and tuned it; but I ran out of time, and
at the last minute, I decided to use the hamshack at home plus antennas. With
an off-grid PV system that generates in excess of 20 kWh per day, there was no
problem operating as Low Power while the evaporative cooler kept the shack
comfy! Such would not have been the case in the camper, considering the 95-100
degree ambient temps.
I began operating as QRP, my usual approach for Field Day in the field, but
five watts are easily swallowed up just trying to escape from our canyon QTH.
So I bumped power to about 95 watts and simply had some fun, ignoring the
consequences of the lower power multiplier. I really missed my usual FD
antennas, which perform far better than those at home. My portable antennas
are wire arrays--Moxon Rectangles on 20 and 15, a bottom apex delta loop for
10, and vees for 80 and 40--all up at 65 feet and everything in the clear to
all horizons at an elevation of 8500 feet. No problems keeping cool and making
5 watt QSO's from portable locations!
And that's why I hope this is my only Field Day from home!
Perhaps I was simply paying more attention this year, but there seemed to be
more Class D and E stations than in the past.
Thanks for all of the Qs. Special thanks to the QRPers who didn't knuckle
under to the bigger signals. I have a special fondness for those who enjoy the
challenge of five watts!
See you from the forest next year, but remember, as Smokey says, "Only you can
prevent forest fires!"
73, dan
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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