06/27/2007 | WA5ZTD Field Day 2007 is history. I participated again on my own this year operating a class 1E station - ( Home station operating with only emergency power ) here in Hillsboro Oregon at my apartment complex. The results were a mixed bag as in number of contacts I really did no better than last year but I did have more operating time on the first day and I had the ability to operate on more bands than I did last year. Last years effort was very last minute with little or no planning involved but this year was much more planned and concerted. I did have the ICOM 706 set up with 7 memories specially dedicated to communicating with the ISS or utilizing the transponders on the amateur satellites 29 or 52. I also had the batteries charged with the alternator from the nissan pickup as required.

I did have the benefit this year that I was not outside in over 100 degree temperatures but I was outside in the SUN... I got a nice sunburn as this time the pickup was not under a covered parking slot. I had a tarp available in case we had any rain as we occasionally do here in Oregon. That tarp came in handy as we did have some showers in the afternoon and early evening where I was able to keep operating with the tarp over my station in the bed of the pickup. I had awesome plans of having a diapole or an inverted vee that could be used from the pickup and I also had plans to get a used laptop that I could use for mobile hf, vhf, and uhf packet operation but alas money and time ran out so I used basically the same antenna setup I used last year and of course I had no mobile packet operations.

I did listen for the shuttle and I tried to make contacts using the transponders on 29 and 52 during a couple of anticipated passes for the birds but was without success. I am not sure if it is because I had the wrong data on anticipated passes or if my antenna situation or power level was not sufficient.

I did get to operate a little bit on 80 meters this year which I did not get to do last year. That was only of marginal benefit though as I had such high levels of nose from the communications and power transformers that it was very difficult to use. I really only had 4 contacts and those were extremely difficult to get.

Maybe next year I will be able to be a little more creative with the antennas and utilize something that is horizontally polarized and maybe directional. Also maybe I will be able to have a laptop that I can use for mobile packet at least on hf and vhf. At least from the standpoint that I participated and actually had a number of contacts (some from Alaska and Hawaii) it was a success. -- WA5ZTD