WQ6X Floats a 24-hour Field Day w/K6QLF - Part 3

W Q 6 X  R u n n I n g  20 - Cw

In Parts 1 & 2 of this BLOG series I gave more of an overview of running Field Day with the K6QLF crew.  In this next installment I want to share some technical details of what the boat operation was
all about.  It was all made possible by combining the working parts of two semi-working ICOM 7000 transceivers into one wholly functioning radio.

As I often do before Field Day, this year I ran the All Asia contest; this time not once, but 3-times
as W7AYC in Concord, NX6T remotely & WQ6X from WB6RUC's 42' Catalina sailboat then moored in the Oakland harbor.  While the operating demographics of the All Asia and Field Day GiGs couldn't be more different, the equipment needed to make it all happen is virtually the same.

Because this was to be a more-or-less public event, a 5" monitor was plugged into the back of the unit for better radio screen viewing.  A "Y" connector on the audio allowed the use of a speaker so visitors can hear what I hear in the wireless headset or Heil headset microphone.

Having two antennas (an auto-tuned sloper wire and a goofy hamstick dipole into an old Dentron manual tuner) required a coax switch to use the best antenna at any given moment.

For computer keying Cw an old classic West Mountain Radio (WMR) Plug-n-Play device was used.  The P-n-P is actually older than this laptop, yet still runs on COM2, just as it did 10+ years ago when
I first configured it.  The WMR touch keyer also worked as well as it did 10+ years ago.

A solar flair going into the FD weekend littered the lower HF bands with interminable static; only
half-of-which could be routed out with the Icom's DNB & DNR noise filtering circuits.  While the
IF-DSP circuitry in the ICOM 7000 is quite amazing, I am so used to Stereo Cw that I brought along Autek QF-1A and MFJ-752C external audio filters.  In this configuration the filters
provided a place for the laptop screen to sit; an external keyboard made it easy to type.

Field Day brings such a jumble of signals, after the I-F DSP has done, it's job the audio is fed to
the two filters, with the lower frequency sounds more-or-less routed to the left ear and the higher frequency sounds more-or-less routed to the right ear.  If you are not familiar with audio frequency splitting, at first it may seem a bit unnerving.  After a while you will wonder how you ever survived without it.

Unfortunately, while the Icom CAT cable identified itself as COM-143, it was unable to control the radio.  This required me to type frequencies manually into N1MM+ in order to store callsigns in the band map as well as run a frequency in the "traditional" manner.

The 7000 having a built-in CW Keyer and Voice Keyer (four channels each), was an end-around
to not having CAT control from the N1MM+ software.  Using the 4 playback buttons allowed calling
"CQ FD", sending "3A EB" for the exchange and "TU K6QLF" without using the computer keyboard. 
It's always good to have a backup plan.

Lacking internet access on the boat it was not until AFTER the FD event that I was able to view the RBN (Reverse Beacon Network) stats and confirm that we were well being heard throughout the USA and Canada.  Altho the signals were much weaker, a number of KH6/KH7 signals managed to "skip across the pond" and into the log.

As the evening wore on time was rotated between 40-meter then 80- meter Cw, followed by time on 
40 & 80 meter Ssb.
By 07:30z (12:30am) I ran out of stations to work, giving me a reason to get some sleep for 3+ hours.

At 11:00z (4am) I was back on 80 & 40 working the Midwest and east coast stations who were getting back on the air after their morning coffee.

At 6:30am it was back to bed, waking up to a strong Kona coffee at 9am. 

By 16:30z 20-meters was open and then 15 meters briefly.  When 15 failed to produce anything further it was back to 20 meters and then even down to 40 meters to finish the FD event from Alameda.  The above section map documents the coverage K6QLF enjoyed from our event at
the Aeolian yacht harbor.
In case you are interested, there is a 4th part to this Field Day BLOG series.

Did YOU work the 2019 Field Day?

Is K6QLF in YOUR LoG?