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2016 ARRL Field Day

07/06/2016 | WD4NIT

I  set up Friday afternoon at Bartow Co Gatewood Beach Park, Cartersville, GA.    I was at primitive campsite P4, not the picnic area. Earlier in the week started to replace my round stainless and poly electric fence 80 meter half wave conductors with one inch flat stainless and poly conductors, but due to some difficulty with making a good connection at the center, I changed to insulated solid copper  12 AWG and used it at home after Field Day to replace my 14 AWG  at home.     The home antenna had been up over a decade and some of the insulation was missing and the wire corroded where it no longer had weather protection.   The 2015  and 2016 sites were on the same hill and only about 200 feet apart and at roughly the same elevation.    The 2015 stainless antenna was a slightly inverted V  while the 2016 copper antenna was a shallow V.     Both were about the same average height above ground.     I would say the 20 QSO total for stainless was not substantially inferior to 22 QSO total for copper.    The 2 QSO difference could easily be explained by propagation differences.      I used the   stainless  antenna  for many Field Days, but only for Field Day.    I use weed trimmer line to support my antennas,  orange at Field Day where I wish for it to be seen and green at home where I would rather the neighbors not notice.    ( I am not in an antenna restricted area.)      Both for FD and at home I use 450 Ohm window line with a balun at the matchbox.     The antenna works best on the second harmonic (40 m), but also works on 80m and 20m.     The balun is a 4 to 1  transformer type.  The transceiver is a Yaesu  FT-897D.   Hope U had a good FD.     This was a 1B solo operation.    Next  time maybe I will have partners.      73,  Warren                                                     

 

 

 

 

 

-- WD4NIT


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