Field Day at the beach

The second in a series of previously published articles from the OCRA (Orange Co. Radio Amateurs) newsletter. This appeared in the July 2009 issue.

Surf City, NC

My Beach Vacation: A way to earn ARRL awards and make QRP contacts
By John Shadle, W4PAH

Participation in OCRA’s Field Day activities has been a tall order for me the past few years. Last year I was with my wife at UNC Hospitals welcoming our first child into the world, and this year we were headed to the beach for our first family vacation to celebrate our anniversary and his first birthday.

Thankfully, since it was “my vacation” too, my wife was okay with me bringing along some radio gear to take advantage of the near-legendary effects of saltwater ground on antennas!
Planning for the trip began with considerations of antenna options. I began chatting over the repeaters and email with Bruce N1LN and Steve KZ1X about possibilities. They both highly recommended loop antennas. Given the house’s layout (3 stories high, 450-500 foot pier into the sound off Topsail Island) the loop made a lot of sense. I could’ve probably used a single long wire from the house to the pier, but the loop offered quieter reception and more gain.

In my antenna junk box I had a 500 foot roll of #14 AWG stranded insulated wire (the kind you can pick up at Lowe’s or Home Depot for pennies by the foot) and some of those white plastic insulators that are ubiquitous at hamfests. One evening, I headed over to Bruce’s house to create the loop. Bruce had offered up the use of a balun he had created which was currently not being used. It was either 4:1 or 6:1, but we were unsure of its properties beyond that. We measured out 140+ feet of wire, threaded the insulators on the wire, and soldered each end to the balun to complete the project. After coiling it up, I was ready to pack it in my bags for the beach.

My wife, son, and I had planned to leave on Saturday afternoon and head down east, but my son had a low-grade fever that morning so we ended up leaving closer to dinnertime instead. Field Day was already in full swing by the time I was able to set up my antenna during my son’s morning nap Sunday, June 28th. I attached two of the insulators with 1/8” rope to the balcony of our third floor bedroom and the remaining wire of the antenna was stretched to a point and tied to the side of the pier over the saltwater marsh below. The feed point was at one of the corners of the balcony and a stretch of RG-58 connected my station in the screened-in porch below to the antenna above. The high end of the antenna was at least 25’ and the low end wasprobably 8’ above sea level in a sloping inverted delta configuration.

After connecting the coax to my SWR meter, antenna tuner, and rig (a Yaesu FT-817D), I was ready to go!

Despite the fact that I had a full-wave on 40m, I operated exclusively on 20m SSB for the duration of my participation in Field Day. My first contact was with W1QI in Connecticut at 14:35 UTC and my 25th and final contact was with K4F in Florida right before 18:00 UTC. I was surprised that my 5w and simple antenna were able to net 14 states and Canadian provinces over the two and a half hour period I operated. Hunt and pounce were the words of the day, and I had a great time with the quick “contest” exchange of Field Day.

A map of the contacts I managed to make can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shadle/3669789986/in/set-72157620687360544/

After Field Day had concluded, I decided to add PSK31 to my operating modes, but not before making one last SSB contact on 20m. Right before bed on Sunday night my meager 5w was able to get my voice all the way to N6JW’s station in Riverside, California (near Los Angeles). Perhaps it was the salt water, or perhaps it was the fact that he was running an Elecraft K3, but the contact was made and logged.

1000 Miles Per Watt from QRP-ARCI!

During the rest of the week, on 14.070MHz, I had QSOs with operators in 22 states and 5 DXCC entities (outside of the USA) including Canada, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, and Alaska (yes, Alaska is a DXCC entity). The QSL cards and Logbook of the World confirmations have finally started coming in, and I’m proud to state that my 2.5w PSK31 contact to KL8DX in Denali National Park in Alaska qualified me for the QRP Amateur Radio ClInternational’s “1000 miles per watt” award. The strange fact about this contact is that it was made as my battery power was beginning to drain. I had to QRP to 2.5w from 5w for the last few QSOs of that particular day. Amazingly enough, KL8DX still heard me loud and clear—up until the radio shut off!

All in all, it was a wonderful trip to the beach. I’m hoping to make it back to this location for future vacations and eventually earn the ARRL’s Worked All States award with the endorsement for QRP. The QRP-ARCI also offers an “All States” award for QRP contacts with 20, 30, 40 and 50 states.

More photos of my adventure may be seen at Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shadle/sets/72157620687360544/

Information about the QRP-ARCI and their awards may be found at their web site.
http://www.qrparci.org/
http://www.qrparci.org/content/blogsection/4/116/