Winter field day -- memorable QSO

[wayne burdick]

My son and I hiked a few miles into Henry Coe state park yesterday, setting up a winter FD station (KX2) at a spot overlooking an idyllic pond full of bullfrogs. The weather was, ironically, just about perfect: 60 F, no wind, blue skies. I regret that we weren't able to share the pain of those who experienced more winterish conditions.

For an antenna, I tossed 20 feet of wire into an oak tree. When I hooked it up to the rig I was pleased to find many FD stations on both CW and SSB. Seems that this event is reaching critical mass.

One of my favorite things to do during ARRL FD is to make a few RTTY contacts, using the keyer paddle on the rig and letting the radio do the conversion to FSK. (The K3/K3S, KX2, and KX3 all have this feature.) While I didn't find any  winter FD stations operating RTTY, I did find JA6ZPR on 14.083 operating in a BARTG contest.

Given that I was running only 10 W to a low random wire, I was surprised when he came right back to me. This is a new QRP RTTY DX record for me, and I'll note that the QSO was not computer-mediated in any way ;)

On the drive home we stopped at the Anderson reservoir overlook and were rewarded with two nearly simultaneous nature sitings. First we saw a brightly colored kestrel perched atop a tree near the water's edge. Then, seconds later, a bobcat appeared on the other side of the road. My son is an avid photographer and was able to get great shots of both.

To me this just proves the benefit of having two Field Days per year -- more time outdoors, more chance to "re-wild" amateur radio. I hope there's even greater participation in WFD in the future.

73,
Wayne
N6KR

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[marvwheeler]

Wayn3:

Sounds like you had a great time.

In addition to having more time outdoors, more chance to "re-wild" amateur
radio it also give you more time to spend with you son. Those times are the
most important because they are fleeting and once gone are unrecoverable.

73
Marv

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] <[hidden email]> On
Behalf Of Wayne Burdick
Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2020 8:55 AM
To: Elecraft Reflector <[hidden email]>
Subject: [Elecraft] Winter field day -- memorable QSO

My son and I hiked a few miles into Henry Coe state park yesterday, setting
up a winter FD station (KX2) at a spot overlooking an idyllic pond full of
bullfrogs. The weather was, ironically, just about perfect: 60 F, no wind,
blue skies. I regret that we weren't able to share the pain of those who
experienced more winterish conditions.

For an antenna, I tossed 20 feet of wire into an oak tree. When I hooked it
up to the rig I was pleased to find many FD stations on both CW and SSB.
Seems that this event is reaching critical mass.

One of my favorite things to do during ARRL FD is to make a few RTTY
contacts, using the keyer paddle on the rig and letting the radio do the
conversion to FSK. (The K3/K3S, KX2, and KX3 all have this feature.) While I
didn't find any  winter FD stations operating RTTY, I did find JA6ZPR on
14.083 operating in a BARTG contest.

Given that I was running only 10 W to a low random wire, I was surprised
when he came right back to me. This is a new QRP RTTY DX record for me, and
I'll note that the QSO was not computer-mediated in any way ;)

On the drive home we stopped at the Anderson reservoir overlook and were
rewarded with two nearly simultaneous nature sitings. First we saw a
brightly colored kestrel perched atop a tree near the water's edge. Then,
seconds later, a bobcat appeared on the other side of the road. My son is an
avid photographer and was able to get great shots of both.

To me this just proves the benefit of having two Field Days per year -- more
time outdoors, more chance to "re-wild" amateur radio. I hope there's even
greater participation in WFD in the future.

73,
Wayne
N6KR

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Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message
delivered to [hidden email]

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Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
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