Journal
2020 Field Day - A Fun One
Jul 9, 2020
I put forth more effort for this year's ARRL Field Day than I had for many years. Namely, I did more than just flip on the radio and sporadically operate. I did a full-on 1B setup with the intent of operating somewhat seriously.
I started out running my K2 at 4 watts from 8 AA alkalines on the backyard patio. After about an hour I started getting alerts that the batteries were dying, so I took an hour off from the contest to run to the store for Lithiums. Those batteries made it all the way to the end of the contest with just enough life left!
The antenna was my SOTABEAMS three-band portable dipole, gifted to me by my friend Lloyd, K3ESE. I had initially toyed with the idea of making a portable PVC mast to raise it. A quick survey of the area near my planned operating position found a decent oak branch at around 25', so I skipped the hassle and used that.
I was happy with the number of contacts I made given my minimal setup. I started on 20 and after the band died down, moved to 40 until shutting down for the night at around 0030 local time. The next morning I started back up on 40 before moving up to 10 and eventually down to 15 meters. This netted me a total of 85 contacts. While that's not record breaking by any stretch, during operating times I was averaging a QSO about every 10 minutes at my leisurly pace.
My total score with all multipliers factored in was 1100. I don't know how this compares to previous years as this is the first time I've actually bothered to calculate it. I figured since I went to the effort of seting up outdoors I may as well submit it. Now we wait until the results are announced to see how I did!
