Remembering the fun I had 40 years ago working field day for K4BFT in Huntsville Alabama, and K2AE in Schenectady New York, I figured it might be fun to try my hand at FD again. I had hoped to contact a local club, but not unexpectedly, family life got in the way.
So I decided to run class 1E (Home Station on 100% Emergency Power) with a twist. First, I ran a QRP rig (FT-817ND) into a BuddiPole antenna set up as a full-size (no coils) vertical on 20 meters. The radio was run off of a battery pack that was charged by a 30 watt folding solar panel.
WB4SON 1E RI Field Day Station
I only had a total of about 3 hours to devote to FD during the entire weekend, but during that time I managed to slug out 19 QSOs on low power. I sure could hear a lot more than I could work, but then again I didn’t have to worry about my receiver going nuts with a dozen other transmitting stations running 100 watts with their antennas a hundred feet away from mine. I’d guess that about 1/4 of my attempts were successful. I generally stuck to the louder sounding signals on the band.
Field Day participation seems to be declining, and there aren’t many RI stations that participate (last year there were a total of 12 in all classes). So despite my tiny effort from the tiny state, I might still come out on top of the 1E RI class. However, the entire thing put a smile on my face — I had fun. I also learned that it was pretty fast to setup my station (20 minutes; 15 for the antenna and 5 for everything else). So maybe next year I might setup a 1B station at a nearby pond, or join in with one of the area clubs.
Have fun every day!
