07/22/2003 | K1LU Who says Field Day can't be fun. We decided to operate from the boat this year because it was hot in Northern California. Never having done this before we learned a lot about what works and what doesn't.

On board, drift has a new meaning. We used a portable loaded dipole on a tripod about 15 feet above deck. It worked OK, but as the wind moved the boat from side to side on the anchor point we would experience the pattern of the dipole which just added to the already intense QSB of the day!

We did make contacts, but it wasn't until we restructured the dipole into a vertical with the lower half being a 60 foot piece of bare copper wire tossed overboard that things really started to happen.

The picture is of K1LU (Len) at the radio with N1XYA (Vicki) doing the logging and/or dupe checking. We operated SSB and CW. It was difficult to hear the radio with the wind noise until we went to headphones, but that proved to be a bigger problem because the logger had to be instructed by the operator. The solution turned out to be a tape cartridge inserted into the boats stereo system which supplied over 100 watts of audio on receive.

We moved around several times to test reflections off of hills that surrounded Folsom Lake, but band conditions were such that no noticeable difference was recorded. If it was there, the normal QSB masked the effect.

Engine QRN was reduced by battery operating, and swimming breaks started to get more frequent as the day progressed. Food and drinks were coordinated by Vicki, N1XYA who did an excellent job of preparing a gourmet menu ahead of time. It certainly was a different type of Field Day, being mobile on the water, but it was interesting to be near a site identified for Homeland Security (Folsom Dam) and to have some practice understanding what it might be like to get the site active on HF from the water.

K1LU
Leonard J. Umina -- K1LU