I joined Newport County Radio Club, W1SYE, for their Winter Field Day again this year. The weather for New England was fantastic — in the low 40s dropping down to the upper 20s at night. The only downside was a pretty stiff breeze. But there was no snow on the ground!
Our WFD had two stations; one on phone for the entire 24 hours, and the other on CW or Digital modes. Antennas were simple ladder-line fed non-resonant dipoles tuned with venerable Johnson Matchbox balanced tuners. Power came from a generator, or LiFePO4 battery in my case.
My task was to make a single satellite contact. I had been planning and practicing the week before, having identified three optimal passes each for Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. As is usual for me, I avoided the FM birds because they tend to be insanely busy.
I had things set up about an hour before the contest began at 1900Z yesterday, and figured I might as well try a SO-50 pass that would be at mid-pass at 1905Z, just a few minutes after the start of the contest. I spoke with the CW tent and asked them to go off the air between 19:03 and 19:08 UTC, and preset my antenna for the mid-pass Az/El values, planning to have the satellite find me.
Just as expected, at about 19:04 S9 signals came out of the noise, a cacophony of call signs and grid squares. I put out my info once (W1SYE, FN41, Winter Field Day), WB9YIG immediately returned from EM68 (Indiana) and we are all done at 19:05:25 UTC.
Satellite Station setup in my truck – Icom IC-9100, Toughbook running SATPC32.
Arrow 2m/70cm crossed-beam mounted on tripod. Ax and El were set for mid pass
