2011 ARRL Field Day
The xyl (KD0MPW) and I usually venture to 14,178 feet in Colorado for Field Day, 1aCo, and the weather can change quite rapidly. This year we went to a more sedate location. We had purchased a used canoe and motors from a friend, and decided to try marine mobile. In the spirit of emergency set up, I stayed up until 1:30 am, in the back yard with a drop light and the canoe on the picnic table as a work bench. I made an inverted v mini tower with an old pizza pan at the apex to mount an ATAS 100 screwdriver antenna (which is mounted to a three leg base with 5 inch magnets), the legs being clamped to the fore and aft bracers with automotive hose clamps. I wound random lengths of various gauge wire around the legs, straight out of the junkbox, for radials to spread the current field out. I mounted the FT100 to the mini-tower with it's mobile bracket. I set a marine deep cycle battery in the rear ,near the 30 pound thrust motor, and connected a couple of grounds to the gunnels. We set sail onto Bear Creek Lake Park, Lakewood,Colorado, with a bystanders comment of " that must be a CIA boat", to which my reply was" you must have worked for them!", with much laughter ensuing.HI HI! A separate battery for the radio went in the center of the canoe,mounted securely in it's marine carry case. We made quite a few contacts, as the antenna acted like a vertical dipole/beam as we steered the canoe with paddles while the motor was running at it's slowest speed. We could here a lot of JA's and E2 stations, and others,etc, but could not work them for the qrm and the fact the ATAS 100 had gotten stuck. The lead nut had broken off above the motor, so had to be manually reset and run up and down for a good match. Steve, AA7V, in Phoenix,AZ., was 59/20 over and relaying 118 degrees and no rain for three months, and I mentioned the xyl and I were m/m in a canoe, and Steve asked what the equipment was,and stated that he had never,in 30 years,talked to anyone in a canoe,via ham radio. After we closed with him, we went qrt, and had a picnic under an umbrela on a small beach on the eastern shore of the lake, satisfied, even with the broken antenna, that Field Day was a success!
73,
WB7TNE AND KD0MPW
-- WB7TNEBack