This years Field Day theme was to do "somthing different" and we chose to go mobile (as is typical), up to our usual contest hilltop (the last official US Forest Service staffed fire lookout in California), but run phone only, low power (QRP) only and only run 160-2 meters from the vehicle.

I ran the front Yaesu FT-817ND mainly on the low bands, my son (soon to be licensed) ran the second FT-817 (normally used to drive transverters in the VHF/UHF contests) on 20-2 meters. All operations were from deep cycle marine batteries and my 60 watt mil-surplus folding solar panel, isolated from the vehicle power system.

The point to the exercise was to demonstrate to my son (as well as the US Forest Service Rangers and regiional fire chiefs that visited over the weekend) how much communications can really be performed with limited output power and a very mobile platform (vehicle mounted antennas) over a very wide area  - in this case just about all of North America.

The final score being phone only may not be very notable but the fact that we worked almost every section in North America, including Hawaii, Alaska, everything in Canada except for the upper territores is a solid testament to the capabilities Amateur Radio can provide in many communication venues when the need arises - and it was a great demonstration for the local Forest Service staff and fire officials !

73' - de KG6IYN