07/04/2009 | AA1PL Field Day means something different to different people. For most folks its a chance to get together with club members and have a great time together operating radio and enjoying an outdoor feast. For me, Field Day is the one weekend where I can combine my two of my passions: ham radio and camping in the great outdoors. Each year I usually operate from a new location. This year I operated from an old stone & log shelter on a rocky ledge in the Arcadia Management Area in Exeter, RI. The shelter is on the Escoheag Trail, just a few minutes walk from the trailhead parking. I utilized a wheelbarrow and a large backpack to transport all my gear from my truck into the site. Arcadia is one of my favorite local places. Its a 15,000 acre state forest, which supposedly is the largest tract of woodlands between NYC and Boston.
I was supposed to have a couple of ham radio friends join me for FD2009 but they had to cancel due to other commitments. I was determined to continue with my plans even if it meant doing a solo operation. Upon arrival Saturday morning, the problems began when I realized that I forgot my 6 meter antenna at home. I wasted an hour round trip to go back home and get it. My propane lantern fell out of the wheelbarrow on the way into the site and shattered the glass and mantle. That left me with an LED headlamp and one 6 volt lantern for lighting.
Getting the HF wire antenna up into the trees by myself proved to be a more difficult task than I realized due to the lack of adequate open space betwen the trees for my 135 foot long dipole, which I fed with 450 ohm ladder line and a tuner. I got the antenna up about 30 feet above ground. Puting up the 6 meter antenna and 2M/440 antenna alone was a chanllenge as well. That all put me behind schedule. I didn't start operating until 2 hours past the official start time.
I then quickly found out that I had some battery problems. Although I had charged them all ahead of time, the voltage on several batteries was quickly insufficient to power my radio and my small AC inverter which I needed to keep the laptop computer going for logging. I had one good battery left, a 45 amp-hour gel cell. I didn't want to risk the inverter dragging it down, so I chose to resort to paper logs and decided to stick with my hopeful intentions of running 5 watts QRP for the entire duration.

A couple of ham radio friends visited with me on Saturday evening. Later Saturday evening there was a very strong thunderstorm with severe lightning, heavy rain, hail, and high winds. That shut down the radio operation for at least a couple hours. I had to quickly put up some tarps to keep things dry. After the storm passed, it cooled down and I crawled into my sleeping bag and reclined back in my outdoor lounge chair. With the radio operating table right next to me, I was able to operate while still in the sleeping bag! Finally around midnight I shut down operations and slept in the reclining chair. The birds in the forest provided a nice 5 AM wake up call, telling me to get back on the air.

I was visited by about a dozen or more hikers and mountain bikers throughout the weekend. They were amazed when I explained what I was doing. I handed out some ARRL pamphlets about ham radio to them. Hopefully I got some of them interested in the hobby.

I was only able to manage 132 QSO's, all via the search and pounce method. I operated CW exclusively, except for a few 6 meter phone contacts. Keep in mind that my normal CW copy speed is only about 16 to 17 wpm. It was a great challenge to try copying everyone else at 20 to 25 wpm! I was hoping to log more contacts , but that just wasn't to be. During FD 2008 I ran 1-Bravo with 100 watts battery power. Although I had more QSO's last year (411), my score this year is higher thanks to the 5 watt battery power multiplier and a decent amount of bonus points. All in all it was a good Field Day in spite of the many challenges I faced. I was able to work stations from coast to coast, including California and Oregon. I can't wait for FD 2010. I will definitely choose a different site in Arcadia that is more suitable for HF wire antennas. And hopefully I will have a Field day partner to join me in the adventure. Thanks to all the stations who was able to hear my QRP signal! -- AA1PL