07/03/2008 | KM5VI I normally do not post to the soapbox but at the strong urging of my good friend Jerry, KK5CA, decided to share this story of a field day that did not go exactly as planned. The following is the original text & photos addressed to my friends in Texas Jerry KK5CA & Bill N5LYG:


I arrived at JW Wells state park Thursday evening about 6:00pm. The park is located in the upper peninsula of Michigan on the north shores of Lake Michigan between Escanaba and the Wisconsin state line. Upon rolling out my tent I discovered I brought the wrong one and had no matching tent poles. I used my Garmin to locate the closest Walmart and returned at about 7:30pm with a new tent. Got my tent up, had dinner, and turned in early Thursday. I made a leisurely day Friday exploring the park and then setting up antennas and station. I was thinking I was lucky because the weather was beautiful however the forecast Thursday called for rain on Friday. I tried calling you guys on sched Friday evening on 20m, then switched to 40m after phone call from Bill & found my coax was bad even though I had checked it earlier. After replacing the 40m feed line I again turned in early to get some rest for Saturday,

The first round of storms (rain & wind only) arrived 3:00am Saturday morning. I woke up to leaking water dripping in my face! I made some makeshift rain flys for the tent using tarps & had them in place by sunrise. I thought all the weather was over as Saturday morning turned into clear skies so I tried to get some more rest and then staked out my spot on 20m at about noon. Just 15min before the start of FD I started hearing static crashes on 20m and looked outside to find a nasty line of storms rolling in quickly with lots of thunder. As I was just finishing dropping the antennas it began to hail ranging from pea size to small marbles. I turned to face the storm and saw a wall cloud overhead. I immediately abandoned camp and went to the only building - the showers and restroom facility.

The storm passed without any tornado touching down that I could see (or hear) and eventually things calmed down enough to return to camp. I found minimal damage (I'm glad I set up under a tree) so I pulled the antennas back up only to discover power had been knocked out by the storm. I decided to just operate off the batteries and logged my first QSO at 2:34pm just as the sun started to come out again. I was hopeful that the storms were gone.

About 45 minutes later I started hearing static crashes on the radio again and took a look outside the tent to find a third line of fast approaching storms very similar to the earlier round. This time I wasted no time in dropping the antennas and preparing for a quick evacuation if needed. The storm passed as before with the wind, rain, & lightning but without the hail or threat of tornado. I was back on the air for a second time at just after 5:00pm, this time keeping a more watchful eye on the weather.

Just before 7:00pm the computer battery warning came up & it was clear that I would have to switch to paper log soon. Fortunately I found some paper & a pen in the glove compartment of my truck (I had not thought to pack any) and somehow made the transition without loosing my frequency. I continued logging a long run by hand until just after 9:00pm when I heard the imminent static crashes again as a 4th round of storms approached. These seemed to me to be on a track a little further up the coast than the previous rounds so I decided to take a wait & see approach. I disconnected the antennas but decided not to drop the antennas unless the thunder got closer. At this point if I had to drop them again I was just going to cut the lines and call it a day.

We just caught the edge of this system so the lightning threat passed quickly and I was QRV again at about 10:00pm. By this time the sun had set and the twilight was fading fast. I still had no power and began to realize that lighting was going to present a new challenge. My desk lamp was useless. I had one flashlight and a 12v lantern. I decided to conserve the flashlight lest another round of storms return in the night and opted to sacrifice some of my much coveted radio battery for the 12v lantern. I continued operating until just before 2:00am when it became obvious that the batteries were going dead. By this time I could only generate about 60w on high power. I was tired too so I decided to call it a night.

I was awakened Sunday morning to temps in the high 40's and the sound of light rain but no storms. I drug the batteries out to the truck and charged them a bit while I had my morning breakfast - cereal & diet coke. I got back on the air at just after 8:00am but only operated for about 2 hrs. At 9:30 I had the good fortune to run into VA4GD during the contest who was kind enough to check the weather forecast for me. He let me know the radar showed new lines of thunderstorms making up from the SE with a repeat forecast of Saturday, By that time the drizzle had stopped so I decided to play it safe and pack it up lest I get caught up in more storms or rain. It never warmed up Sunday and I actually had to run the truck heater on the way home.

I got all the contacts keyed into N1MM last night but fear that I have misplaced at least one log sheet. I know for sure that I worked & logged a station in the northwest territories but I could not find the entry anywhere on the sheets I came home with. N1MM now shows I made 816 valid QSO.

20m: 145
40m: 650
80m: 21

Total operating time was 11:02 hrs.

Best run:
7pm till the 9pm storm on 40m - 191 QSO

Observations:

About half the contacts on 20m had to be sporadic E - short distance, high wave angle, deep QSB with coverage that literally floated around the US. I would work 5 or 10 stations in say NLI then they would disappear suddenly and in a few minutes it would move to say Ohio for 5 minutes then I would work 6 in a row from North Dakota & Montana.... all with strong signals but deep QSB. All the while there were much weaker stations worked but without any fading and all located at my predicted F layer areas - extreme SE Gulf Coast (GA, FL's, SC) , extreme Pacific NW (WWA & OR) and later in the day the AZ-CO-CA-NV area. If you were having problems getting through into the NE on 20m I suspect it may have been because there was so much sporadic E that would represent "easier pickin's" for them. The deep south stations were more difficult to hear on 20m. I could also follow the propagation from east to west as I picked up an AL, then a little later a MS or two, then finally LA - but no Texas.

40m rocked with the predicted peak at 9:00pm - too bad the storm hit then. I remember just before 9:00pm I would call QRZ and hear stations from coast to coast and everywhere in between - except Texas! Texas just did not open up until around midnight on 40m. Even then it was NTX & WTX. Only had one contact with STX and he was a Houston base station (1D - possibly running QRO). I noticed that most of the 40m signals heard from the south were just barely readable. It is interesting because I remember many contests where from Texas I could hear Midwest stations calling on 40m (&80m) but I never could get through to them - at best I might get a "QRZ again". I understand why now.

So for informational purposes, a single car battery will operate a 100w rig for about 4.5 hours in a contest situation. Theoretically it should go for much longer but when the battery voltage start to fall to less than about 10V the rig will likely start misbehaving. I had two batteries and got about 9 hours total. I may have been able to push it further but didn't want to risk damage to the expensive radio. I have been field contesting with batteries & charger instead of power supply ever since the 10m contest (years ago) at Huntsville. Bill knows which one...

One of the lessons learned - a voltmeter is a very useful device when operating off batteries. Make sure your VOM will read correctly in the presence of RF! I had a $5 Chinese special that would read all over the place every time I transmitted. I switched it out for my better quality US made meter and the problem went away.

Another big lesson learned - bring a WX radio with you when you are planning to subject yourself to prolonged weather risk. I normally take a HT with me to FD but decided to leave it at home this year since I rarely have had need for it. I sure wish I had taken it on this trip!!

A candle would have been a very small thing to carry and would have been great.

Enjoy the pics!

-- KM5VI