Despite all the challenges, with a few compromises Field Day 2020 not only happened, the bands seemed more jammed than ever. As part of the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA), last year
I ran much of K6QLF's HF activity from a sailboat in Alameda's Aeolian yacht harbor, while other operators enjoyed the luxury of running 2 stations indoors at the yacht club. ([CLICK HERE] to read that write up.)
of Alameda's Aeolian Yacht Harbor. A pair of antennas radiated the RF: the on-board Sloper-wire (tuned by an SGC-257 feeding the wire directly) and a Butternut HF2-V vertical I bungee-corded to the boat's main mast (with 6 groundplane wires hanging over the boat into the water). The vertical was tuned for all bands via the old vintage Dentron Jr. Monitor (It is an antenna tuner - I never DiD figure out what it is monitoring),
Thinking we had an SGC-257 tuner problem we removed it and brought in a replacement.
While waiting for the replacement, a kludge was improvised using bypass clip leads and red tape
so we could at least test-tune the sloper with the Dentron tuner.
Throughout the Field Day weekend there were a number of WEIRD anomalies, including:
- A large majority of stations were in some way operating indoors; probably 80% of the classifications were 1D/1E or 2D/2E. It would seem that my 1A classification actually confused many operators; until of course they hear I am running from a sailboat.
- The LOUD MOUTH on 7.164 (03:54z) loudly complaining about how WE are QRMing
him, making him run 1500 watts in order to have a ragchew. The fact is, his random complaint about QRM was in fact - QRM He Didn't have to worry about whether or not
His LOUD MOUTH was being heard. He needs a BETTER RECEIVER not More Power. - While attempting to copy the Field Day bulletin on 7.0475 and 14.0475, both frequencies were BARRAGED with Field Day stations, making copy all but impossible. Those Dingle Dorks should realize that a correctly copied message would be worth 100 points to them. That is the equivalent of 100 Ssb QSOs or 50 QSOs on Cw. What FOOLs!
- There was the slow Cw station who [allegedly] didn't understand Field Day so I explained it to him and gave him his 1st QSO. After working me he moves up ~150 Hz and starts calling CQ FD - HuH? WTF?
- While the QF-1A and MFJ-752 filters looked good in the photo, all they accomplished was in giving the laptop a place to sit (like last year). I guess I've never run the ICOM 7000 into a QF-1A before; the ground-loop hum was intolerable. The MFJ-752 was also sidelined when it was discovered there was no power cable to match the weird power jack on the back (one of my BEEFs with the MFJ-752b).
- Throughout the day and evening, I was hearing (very weak) BDCST stations in the middle of the 3.5 Mhz Cw band. HuH? The signals were heard with BOTH antennas, ruling out antenna-created false resonance. When setup in Concord, the ICOM 7000 has never heard these kinds of signals. I wonder what being in a boat harbor has to do with things?
- When running Ssb, it was quite apparent that many OPs don't know how to tune in a Ssb station as they were frequently off frequency (usually too low), requiring the R-i-T to tune them in. While I don't mind using RIT when I have it, when I run remote there IS NO RIT, so we have to FAKE it. The REAL answer to always be on frequency before you call.
According to the 3830 Scores Website, my K6QLF operation from the sailboat took 1st-place
for California and 4th place for the USA and Canada. As for how the ENTIRE K6QLF operation fared in comparison to the rest of Field Day is yet to be determined.
This is it, in summary. For me this Field Day was no different from any other in that it is guesswork
all the way as we turn all the pieces into some sort of coherent radio operation for 36 hours.
How about You?
Were YOU part of a coherent Field Day?
Is K6QLF in YOUR LoG?
Tell me about it.
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