06/28/2007 | KC7O This year I decided to try a 1B, one operator, Field Day after about 35 Field Days participating with clubs/groups in California, Utah, Indiana, and New Jersey.

I picked a beach campground just west of Ventura California called Emma Wood State Beach. It provided a public place and it is very near salt water.

It did take quite a bit of preparation to configure the station, in our motor home, but the advanced planning paid off and the radios, computer, batteries and antenna worked out well.

The antenna used was a 25 foot vertical fed with 3 feet of wire from a SGC-237 coupler. The radio was a FT-100D with extension cables for the microphone, speaker and control head. A FT-817ND and the old faithful TS-130S were spares. The FT-817 did come in handy getting the FT-100 audio levels set correctly for PSK-31 operation.

The computer ran on a 90AH AGM battery independent of the rest of the power system. The radio used the motor home batteries and the motor home generator only had to run for about a total of 2 hours.

The bottom of the sun spot cycle did not help the conditions but I did work 5 Hawaiian stations on 20M and 1 on 40 probably due to being close to salt water.

When propagation conditions improve again, Field Day will be even more fun. -- KC7O