2003 ARRL Field Day
07/15/2003 |
N7JI
Wow, what a Field Day!
Between having a job end due to plant closure, looking for a new one, having a sick wife and toddler, recovery from a week-long business trip to the east coast, and a complete lack of planning, I was truly amazed to find any operating time whatsoever.
Even so, I managed two or three hours during everyone else's nap times, plus a couple of hours after everyone fell asleep for the night.
Sure, it wasn't the best Field Day experience I had ever had. It wasn't so bad, either. I managed to scrounge together enough cables and equipment to have a station, and even took advantage of the intensely beautiful, cloud free skies to work five QSOs off direct solar power. Of course, even with a Wilderness Sierra, with a 6 watt solar panel you've ony got about 1.5 watts of output with which to work. Into a dipole, this could be challenging.
Those five QSOs took a good, solid hour of calling, but shortly thereafter I was able to switch to battery power and run the "full teaspoon" of 5 watts.
When all was said and done, I ended up just shy of 40 QSOs - not a stellar performance but OK nonetheless considering the severe impingement applied by life into this operating activity.
73,
Scott N7JI -- N7JI
Between having a job end due to plant closure, looking for a new one, having a sick wife and toddler, recovery from a week-long business trip to the east coast, and a complete lack of planning, I was truly amazed to find any operating time whatsoever.
Even so, I managed two or three hours during everyone else's nap times, plus a couple of hours after everyone fell asleep for the night.
Sure, it wasn't the best Field Day experience I had ever had. It wasn't so bad, either. I managed to scrounge together enough cables and equipment to have a station, and even took advantage of the intensely beautiful, cloud free skies to work five QSOs off direct solar power. Of course, even with a Wilderness Sierra, with a 6 watt solar panel you've ony got about 1.5 watts of output with which to work. Into a dipole, this could be challenging.
Those five QSOs took a good, solid hour of calling, but shortly thereafter I was able to switch to battery power and run the "full teaspoon" of 5 watts.
When all was said and done, I ended up just shy of 40 QSOs - not a stellar performance but OK nonetheless considering the severe impingement applied by life into this operating activity.
73,
Scott N7JI -- N7JI
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