K1 Field Day de VE3WMB

[Michael Babineau]

wayne burdick <[hidden email]> wrote :

 > All your Elecraft gear was designed with
 > Field Day in mind, and we'd love to hear you on the air.

This year I decided to use my K1 rather than the KX1, which is my normal
portable operating companion. My effort was a very  casual 1B, Battery
with Solar Charging provided by a Coleman 5W flex PV panel and an SES
Micro M+ Portable charge controller. I operated under the shade of a
100 year old Red Oak tree in the Central Experimental Farm here in
Ottawa.

I got started a few minutes late on Saturday and managed only 6 contacts
before the thunderclouds rolled in and the sky opened up.  At that
point I
had to retreat to my car with all the stuff that doesn't like to get
wet.
After about 30 minutes of heavy rain it finally let up. I decided to
pack up the antenna and remaining gear (stuff that didn't mind getting
wet) as
the Wx Radio claimed a Severe Thunderstorm Watch for the remainder of
the
day. I figured that it was in my best interest to head home as I didn't
want to be
a lightning rod !

On Saturday I used an 87 foot (26.5m) end fed wire (inverted-L)
supported by two
20 foot fishing poles with 10 X  16 foot long radial wires made from
computer
ribbon cable. The 87 foot wire is a good match for the KAT1 as it is
not near
a multiple of 1/2 wavelength on any of the amateur bands and thus it
presents
a reasonable impedance for the tuner to match. It makes a great 40m
NVIS antenna in this configuration and has a squashed cloverleaf
pattern with
reasonable gain at low angles on 20m so it is not too bad for Field day
use.
My operating location has excellent soil conductivity so I seem to do ok
with a minimal number of ground radials.

I did get out again on Sunday morning for about an hour and a half.
Sunday I was lazy and wanted to spend my time operating not setting up
so I used  a 20 foot linear loaded vertical wire suspended from a single
20 foot fishing pole with 5 X 16 foot long radials connected directly
to the K1
(ie no feedline). No rain this time !

I ended up with a total of just over 30 QSOs in about 2+ hrs of
operating time.

Michael VE3WMB

P.S.  I used my Palm III running Golog to log for the second year in
a row and it worked great.

P.P.S My  K1 worked perfectly. As most of my portable operating
is with the KX1 I had almost forgotten how nice it is to use the K1.
The filtering is excellent and really allowed me to separate the
stations, even weaker ones adjacent to strong stations.


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