For the fourth time I operated Field Day from a remote dispersed campsite in the Los Padres National Forest. This location is at 7400' in the mountains overlooking the Central Valley of California with views of the Sierra Nevada's in the distance. But this was the first Field Day I used the club callsign of WA6LE for the SOTA LEOs although I was the only operator as a 1B SJV. Running an Elecraft KX3 to a KXPA100 amplifier, I had 358 contacts on phone and CW, short of the 400 that I was striving for. Almost all activity was on 20, 40, and 75/80 meters to a G5RV or endfed 20 meter dipole. Six meters did not open so only had 2 local SSB contacts and only 3 QSOs on 2 meter FM. 

The weather was in the 70's with sunny blue skies during the day but chilly at night requiring extra fleece, knit hat, and gloves. No campfires were allowed. The full moon gave some extra light. For the first time, I tried out an Iceco refrigerator and Yeti 1500 watt power station alhtough I charged my 40Ah batteries via solar. I copied the W1AW FD Message on 17 meter CW as usual. After studying up on the NTS net protocol, I was able to send a Radiogram to my LAX SM AI6DF on an 80 meter CW net. One of the highlights was 4 minutes before Field Day ended on Sunday, HA9RE answered my "CQ FD" on 20 meter CW which was one of the few times that I had ever worked Europe during Field Day.

While packing up, I smelled a slight odor of smoke. Having to drive down 3 miles on a rough road to the highway, I made contact with hams on a local 6 meter repeater where I learned there was a car fire on the I-5 freeway where I was heading toward which had spread to the brush. Getting closer to the town of Frazier Park, I could see a huge brown smoke plume. The fire eventaully spread to 1200 acres but it was several miles north of where I had to go south on the I-5 back to Los Angeles.

73 de Scott