We are back from Field Day 2010. We had a good time and about 15 people participated in our FD group event. We put up Mike’s quadruple extended zepp again and it rocked on 40 and 80 meters. Eric brought out his new trailer. Frank did digital mode this year and learned a great deal. Robert was able to snag a couple of satellite Q’s. My Spiderbeam took awhile to reassemble but worked well on 20 and 15. Cal ran a HiQ tuna Dipole. Rigs included a pair of IC 756 Pro III’s, FT 100, TS 480, IC 706, a couple of K3’s, IC 7000, FT 857, SDR 3000 and a few I didn’t list. We had limited internet access via Frank’s EDGE AT&T Junxion box wireless hotspot. FDLog handled the logging with many laptops operating synchronized via wireless. Power came from various batteries and mostly Honda generators including 650, 1000, 2000 and 3000. The Honda EU3000is was amazingly easy to pull start (the battery was dead).
Field Day is about testing equipment and we tested more than ever before. This included radios, generators, batteries, power supplies, and Antenna Launchers. Franks newly contructed old kit worked well, as did the regulars including Eric’s soda bottle chamber linear and my CSV17. I tested a new prototype piston valve 17 inch launcher that has great performance.
Prototype PV17 Launcher at FD 2010
Photo by Dave Bermann W6PS