Another Elecraft Field Day in Truckee

[Rick Tavan N6XI]

T.R.A.S.H. (the Truckee Radio Amateur Society Hams), again in alliance with
the Auburn Enclave of the Sierra Chapter of the Northern California Contest
Club, made about 2650 QSOs in Class 2A from a public campground beside
Stampede Reservoir, about 15 miles north of Truckee, CA. (Our regular site
on Martis Peak was snowed in!) We operated from KI6TRK's BIG RV and K6ST's
two-room tent. Except for about 150 GOTA and 2M Qs, the rest were made with
a side-by-side pair of K3s as the two HF stations and a third K3 used for 6M
and spotting. The radios performed superbly. Everyone enjoyed the K3s even
though most had not spent much or any prior time with the rig. Operators
included W6EU, KF6T, WC6H, K6TU, WX6V, KH2TJ, K6ST, WB6CZG, KI6TRK, KJ6HHK
and N6XI (who did I forget?). Thanks to K7MS, K6NV+Lois, AI6V, K6KLY, K6XX,
KI6TRK's RV buddy and others who could not operate but provided equipment,
food, encouragement, spousal consent and other valuable considerations.
Elected officials who stopped by included Richard Anderson (Mayor of
Truckee, brother of a ham, SO of KJ6HHK, cousin of WA6HHQ of Elecraft and
Editor of CA Fly Fisher) and KB6LMA (President of the Truckee Tahoe Airport
District and YF of W6EU).

Our HF antennas were a C3S at about 65 feet, an 80/75 remotely switched
dipole with one leg drooping steeply off the tower and the other almost
horizontal at 16' and our "death ray," a 40M wire beam with two elements
drooping off a horizontal catenary at about 50'. We used the K3 automatic
ATUs on several bands. The two main K3s were able to use any combination of
HF bands concurrently by sharing the single tribander via K6XX's WRTC
triplexer which worked beautifully again. (I've heard that N5KO's
International Radio Co. (Inrad) will be manufacturing a commercial
triplexer. If it's as good as Bob's it should be a big hit for 100W contests
like FD and IARU. It basically turns the canonical tribander-and-wires
station into an SO2R or M/2 setup.) Because of operator unfamiliarity with
the K3 and a busted connector, we made little use of the sub-receivers, a
subject for future repair and training.

Except in one band pairing, there was no audible phase noise. We had
bandpass filters in the RX ANT lines and had no cross-rig interference
until, during the waning hours of the contest, the external BPFs suddenly
stopped working! We quickly realized that the BPF relays weren't energizing.
We re-seated the APPs that powered the decoders and another APP carrying the
ground leads from the BPFs to the power strip. One of those must have been
the culprit because the problem went away immediately. The pleasure of
operating three K3s in close quarters with virtually no inter-station
interference other than narrow harmonics is sublime.

As a predominantly local contest, FD is hardly the ultimate test of rig
portability, but it is an excellent test of RF-cleanliness, resilience in
the face of less than optimal conditions and a rig's ability to integrate
with a variety of independently-supplied external components and people, all
on short notice. We were delighted.

/Rick

--
Rick Tavan N6XI
Truckee, CA
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