ARRL Field Day
Call: K3TN
Operator(s): K3TN, WA3SEE
Station: K3TN
Class: 1B LP
QTH: MDC
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80: 49 1
40: 232 18
20: 18
15: 31 16
10: 11 3
6: 9
2:
222:
432:
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
----------------------------
Total: 323 65 0 Total Score = 1,529
Club:
Comments:
At the last minute various real world issues caused my usual Field Day crew and
Deep Creek Lake, Maryland location to be ixnayed, so had to scramble. Friends
of ours have a house on the Chesapeake Bay/West River in Shady Shade, MD that
has been for sale for a year during this slump, and they said I could use that.
I managed to borrow a generator, and disassemble enough of my station (K3, power
supply, keying, cables, spare trap dipole, etc.), load up my car and head south
Saturday am.
I'd only seen pictures of the place
(http://www.redfin.com/MD/Shady-Side/4744-Frederick-Ave-20764/home/10466662) so
when I arrived at about 1300z I found that it had a great waterfront view, but
the trees and the lot geometry didn't easily lend themselves to getting a 135'
wire up in the clear and away from neighbors and power lines. But, with my
trusty slingshot I managed to get it up to about 30' in the air, but in an E/W
orientation and with most of the wire in branches.
It got up to about 92 degrees (and about 80% humidy) as I did the antenna
work, then unloaded the generator and all the other equipment and set
everything up on the deck. By the time I had a working station, it was about
1530 and I was a big ball of sweat. I had taken along a kayak, so I launched
that and paddled around exploring the area and generated some more sweat. More
work hauling the kayak out of the water, a quick shower and I was ready to go
about 1745.
A little more sweating getting the generator going and it was just about time
for FD to start - and WA3SEE showed up with his 6M squalo, just in time to
avoid all the setup effort. By 1800, the shady deck had turned into a solar
powered oven, and Carl watched as I slowly became parboiled while running on 40
CW. He wisely suggested we move the operating position under the trees in some
shade, so a break to unwire, move, rewire, etc. Carl focused on 10m and 6m SSB,
carefully tuning each station in so the voices sounded just right before he
called them. I explained to him that only "pouncing" resulted in points, so the
"searching" part should be minimized...
We alternated this way for the first 4 hours, then took a break and went down
the street to the Shady Side "Inn" (bar) for some FB crabcakes for diner.
WA3SEE went home and I operated for a few more hours, mostly on 40CW. Either
absorption was high on 80, or the trap dipole was a dummy load there - 40 was
the only band I seemed to get out on. I operated until I heard the larger
mosquitoes telling the smaller ones "Let's carry this one home for dinner" and
I was forced inside.
This was my first FD with the K3. At first I was thinking "activity is down in
FD this year", then I opened up the filters in the K3 and said "Oh, there they
all are!" Nice having 6m in the box to play with, as well. As I operated, I
kept looking at the waterfront and thinking how much smarter it would have been
to have put some verticals on the dock but maybe next time.
Sunday I am I woke up early, made a few rounds of the bands but shut everything
down by 1300Z to begin the laborious repacking of everything. Getting that trap
dipole out of trees brought a few dead limbs down, so had to clean all that up.
Getting the generator back into the station wagon solo was an exercise in
physics and creative cursing. I headed home sunburned, mosquito-bitten and
dehydrated but secure in the knowledge that if there ever was a national
emergency, I could set up a self-contained communications facility and could
reach anywhere in the world and tell them "That was One Baker, One Bravo
Maryland DC"
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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