AB1OP - 2020 ARRL Field Day
Objectives:
- Xiegu G90 - Use the G90 in a portable operation.
- LiFePO4 Battery - Test a 6ah LiFePO4 battery as an emergency power supply.
- EFHW antenna - Build and use a multiband EFHW antenna for portable operation.
- Anderson Powerpole Connectors - Convert all my field portable equipment to power pole connectors.
- Downsize - Try to reduce / resize radio gear for effective portable operation.
- BE SAFE & HAVE FUN!
Preparation:
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Prepare Radio gear for packing. What I packed for Field Day:
66 ft 18 ga wire for EFHW 40-10M antenna
50ft RG8X Coax PL-259 connectors (20ft close wound on a coffee creamer container - air choke)
49 to 1 EFHW transformer (a PL-259 and wing nut connectors)
Sling shot Antenna Launcher
Nextbook 7 Android Tablet for QSO logging with 5000mah USB battery Bank for recharge.
Backup Paper log in clam shell clipboard (black case under the tablet and power bank)
300ft Reel of 100# line for antenna deployment.(green reel) with spare line.
Small Tool Box (black w/ yellow handle)
Xiegu G90 20W 160-10M transceiver with power cable.
Small plastic Ammo box (30 Cal) for LiFePO4 battery box, cable storage, VOM, spare fuses, etc.
Xiegu G90 microphone.
Bug Spray.
Golf Umbrella
Deployment: |
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Radio gear as deployed
Xiegu G90 propped up on a plastic tub.
Battery out of the box for size comparison. Small black box next to tablet is a home brew battery monitor (mini LED voltmeter, 2 pair power pole connectors and two lengths of 12 ga solid wire, in an ABS box)
Results:
I operated for 3 hours Saturday afternoon. In the first two hours I was able to log 9 contacts on 40 meters, then moved to 20 Meters and did not make any contacts in the remaining hour . My poor results I can only attribute to a reluctance of mine to jump into pile ups. My EFHW was almost completely vertical so that is why most of my contact were about 400-600 miles to the South West. I did have one contact to the East. (See attached Map)
I wasn't able to participate on Sunday. Family obligations and pending scattered thunderstorms in my area caused my early withdrawal.
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Conclusion:
I met every objective I had with the exception of working multiband 40 & 20 meters.
I was able to claim 168 points (9 QSO's X2 for Low power, 100 points for 100% emergency power and 50 points for Web submission of cabrillo log to ARRL.
I was very happy with the VLS Logger android app. It was a smaller footprint, lower power option to bringing a laptop into the field for single op logging.
I am thinking adding an optional bluetooth keyboard to the tablet, but I'm concerned on the tablet's power consumption. With wifi turned off and display at a readable daytime brightness I only operated 2.5 hours before needing to attach the power bank.
An objective for next year will be to resize my antenna to a smaller size more in line with my maximum 20W output. Shorter RG58 cables with BNC connectors, a smaller 49:1 Transformer and a 1:1 choke using RG172 and FT118-43 toroid core that would fit in a altoids size case using BNC connectors.
As Solar panels drop in both size and cost. Adding a solar panel and controller might be doable by the 2021 field day.
73 de AB1OP Ralph
Addendum:
Sample of my Field Day 2020 eQSL design.
