Field Day 2012

I participated in Field day with the Panama City ARC as W4RYZ 2F NFL at the Bay County EOC in Southport, FL. I setup an operating position outside with a 40 meter Off Center Fed (OCF) dipole up 20 feet. The feed point was supported by the military mast sections off a hitch adapter on the truck and the ends were supported by crappie poles. The antenna will tune 40 20 15 and 10 with my IC 703 internal tuner. I had a 10 foot coax section and a choke balun to make it a New Carolina Windom but the coax section was intermittent. I discovered the problem the day prior to FD and went without it. I also had a new EZ Up canopy with screen sides. We never zipped the screen because not one mosquito showed up. The bands from the tropical storm Debby threatened on Saturday but they missed us. It was raining just South of us. The outside conditions were actually pleasant after dark. We were next to some pools of water and had a symphony of croaking frogs. 

Outside we started out on 10 meters and heard some stations but could not be heard. We switched to 15 and picked up a few and on to 40 and 20 later where the bulk of the contacts were made. I had the pleasure of sitting in with some proficient CW ops Jim ND9M and Bob WB8PAF. I have a long way to go to be proficient.  We traded out my Icom 703 for Bob's Yaesu 100 watt rig and a paddle. Those two racked up contacts all through the night. Sunday AM while I was napping, the outside operating position was disassembled due to some bands of rain coming in. It rained pretty good that morning through pack-up of the gear. Since I was out of business for outside ops I tried the AlexLoop setup just outside the door of the EOC. I made a NM and a PA contact on 20 meters. I was very pleased with that.

The inside operating position in the EOC used 80 meter OCF  dipole outside supported by military masts setup as tripods. Marv KK4DKT made a good number of PSK-31 contacts inside.  Marv, our FD chairman, coordinated the bonus activity and we got credit for 12 bonuses. ND4M made a satellite contact. I charged a battery with my solar panel and we used it to make 5 natural power contacts. The preliminary QSO count is 476. The whole team did a great job and we did have about a dozen visitors. We hope they get on the air. 

Bob WB8PAF in front of EZ-Up

Rigs for outside ops

Solar Setup

Military mast tripods for 80 meter OCF

AlexLoop In the Living Room

The AlexLoop arrived in the mail Saturday about 11 AM. It comes in a nice bag and the setup is easy. I found all I had to do was flip the post on my camera tripod and the loop fits nicely. Then well it is rainy outside and I'll just have to try it out in the living room. Expectations were low of course. My first QSO was N4UED in NC on 20 CW. Well not so solid but OK. Then why not try 40 meters. I had a great QSO with WB4BFO in Milton FL about 90 miles away. Then back to 20 and had a solid QSO with KF4TJE Burns TN  followed by KG5WY Fort Worth TX. I am feeling good at this point because  they say 40 and 20 are not even the best bands for the loop. All these contacts were with the Youkits HB-1B at 5 watts.

It just happened that the SKCC Weekend Sprint was under way. So continuing from the couch on 20 meters, I worked MI, NY, AZ, and UT. Then this AM on 40 meters I made calls to AZ and MI with no luck. Then I worked Joe K4NVJ in Calera AL. I think the closer they are increases the chances on 40 meters.

The loop is expensive but the payback was fast. Credit due to Alex PY1AHD for a great product. The loop is available in the US from Ralph W4RT. This opens up many venues to operate. I am pleased with the the portability, ease of setup and yes performance as well.

Have Loop Will Travel!

Greg N4KGL

Alabama QSO Party as K6JSS Op in Alabama

I volunteered to operate as K6JSS from Alabama in the Alabama QSO Party. I was one of several in the team headed up by Craig NM4T. My Alabama QTH was my parents in Dothan. AL. I have an off center dipole in the very tall pines there on Pinetree Drive.  My rig was the Icom 703 at 5 watts.

One goal was to make K6JSS available to QRPers in the QRP ARCI 2012 State QSO Party Challenge. So I just called CQ. In my three hour slot I had 13 contacts around 14.060 and 6 on 7.050. There was one exception I worked a special event station on 20 meters SSB. So the total was 20 Qs. I know W2KJ was QRP in a park in NC and Don K3RLL was was on his FT 817 in PA. It was a pleasure to work my friend Mike K4MTI back in Panama City. I also worked Jim W4QO in Georgia who is heading up the challenge.

Of course all QRP contacts are fun! I look forward to meeting the QRP folks at the Huntsville Hamfest August 18 and 19.

Greg N4KGL

Florida QSO Party as K6JSS Ops

K6JSS is a special call for the QRP ARCI Club. We volunteered to operate as K6JSS from Florida in the Florida QSO Party. We made this a club event at Panama City ARC. I had great help from Marv KK4DKT and Ron KK4DWE for ops and Don KK4DWC and Tom KK4TLC for logging. None of us are contest ops. I never did get much of a string going. Marv had a string of ten on SSB. I think the 38 SSB contacts were the most impressive because we were running 5 watts instead of 10 watts. I bet the exposure of the K6JSS call will click for most when they see it again on the web. We did have a time convincing a few that we really were in Florida. 

Most of the contacts were on my Icom 703. A few were on Marv's FT-897D. The antenna for 20 meters and 15 meters was a tri-band beam up 40 feet. On 40 meters we used a G5RV. I tried out a my new Tenergy 12.8V 10Ah LiFePO4 Rechargeable SLA Replacement Battery. I think the average current for FQP ops was right at 1 A. Note the IC 703 receive current is .55 A and transmit is 2 A. I think I got about 9 hours out of it or 9 AH out of a 10 AH battery. So this battery will cover any portable ops I do short of the 24 hours for Field Day. The battery weighs 2 pound and 10 ounces and can be charged by a regular SLA charger. 

See more photos. It was QRP fun! 

Greg N4KGL

        Band  Mode  QSOs    Pts  Sec

           7  CW      13      78    2

           7  LSB      6      18    2

          14  CW      40     240   20

          14  USB     29      87   15

          21  CW       9      54    5

          21  USB      3      9    1

       Total  Both   100     486   45

            Score : 21,870

10 Meter J Pole

Our club members have started meeting on10 meters SSB Monday evenings. It is a challenge for everyone to hear everyone else. So I decided to try a vertically polarized antenna. I found a nice diagram for a 10 meter J pole at http://www.qsl.net/n1lo/10mjpole.pdf by N1LO. Very simple and I had the 450 ohm window line on hand. It is a half wave element over a quarter wave matching stub.

The support I had in place was a "military" mast made from four foot fiberglass sections. I have a PVC pipe strapped to a post that guides the mast. Since the bottom is a little more than four feet off the ground I can add four foot sections from the bottom. I was able to slip an 18 foot Crappie pole through the neck of one of the four foot sections to extend the height. Currently I have 20 feet with the military mast plus 18 feet with the crappie pole for 38 foot at the tip. I just tapped the half wave and the stub starting at the tip of the crappie pole. The SWR showed a nice resonance point but it was below ten meters more like eleven meters. I  folded over the wire at the tip to shorten it up. And finally all is good.

I was able to talk to three locals for checkout and the one further north Don KK4DWC had an improved signal. He is using an A99 antenna we helped him out with. The vertical to vertical contact was working well. When he switched to his G5RV he dropped about three S units. Note Marv KK4DKT near by also built the  J Pole. He got his up and working first. His SWR was perfect right off the bat. Good Job Marv!

I did a CQ on 28.4 and was pleased to work Tim W6WQA in Southern California. He said I was up to S 7 and it was a solid QSO. He alsogave me his 10-10 number and recommended getting one. Our club members might be interested. We might create a chapter for our local net. See http://www.ten-ten.org/index.html. Enjoy the photos below they are all vertical Hi Hi

FL QSO Party K6JSS QRP ARCI Challenge April 28/29

The QRP Amateur Radio Club International (QRPARCI)  is holding a year long State QSO Party Challenge. There's an attempt to get K6JSS on during every state QSO party during 2012. http://www.qrparci.org/content/view/8407/139/

I'll be operating K6JSS/BAY for the Florida QSO Party from Bay County FL. I will be at the Panama City ARC club house and take advantage of the tri-band beam. I'll have assistance from our club members. We will operate SSB and CW at 5 watts. Saturday we will start on 20 meters.  Sunday AM we will start out on 40 meters. Note there are no 80 meter ops.

We plan to stick to the FL QSO Party rules for QRP and will not be self spotting but if you spot us please update QRPSpots.com

The Florida QSO Party 
April 28th and April 29th, 2012

When: April 28th and April 29th, 2012

Two - 10 hour operating periods (20 Hours total):
Saturday April 28th 16:00z (Noon EDT) - 01:59 (9:59pm EDT)
April 29th 2012
Sunday April 29th 12:00z (8am EDT) - 21:59z (5:59pm EDT) April 29st
2012 

http://www.floridaqsoparty.org/rules.html

Thanks,

Greg N4KGL

QRP ARCI Spring QSO Party April 7and 8th

On Saturday I started at the rocket launch Samson AL. So I spend a about 30 minutes operating from the field and got five contacts on 20 meters. I was using my ICOM 703 at 4 watts with about a 40 foot wire sloping to a fiberglass pole. The wire was connected to the IC-703 using a Balun Designs 9 to 1 Balun. I had about 20 feet of counterpoise on the ground side. This configuration will tune up on most bands with the IC 703 internal tuner. There was nothing scientific about the wire lengths.

I continued on Sunday from my parents home in Dothan. I have a 135 foot OCF dipole there. I finished out with 27 contacts. The SPCs were 20M TX(3) MI(3) ON(3) MN SD MO VA(2) NE WI NM AZ(2) PA KS CA ME IN FL 15M AZ(2). It was fun to work K7CHS Rick in Kingman AZ on both 15 and 20 meters. I took advantage of the SKCC Week End Sprint that was also operating. I could count those if I got their power. It felt good to get some QRP operating in the logs. I was pleased to have a visit Sunday PM from Thomas WD0HBR who lives in Dothan.

73s,
Greg N4KGL

I don't have any radio pictures so here is a rocket photo from the launch: