Greg,
If you don't move around to operate from different locations, you should be able to do a class-A operation. You could even make that case if you parked a "normal" car near the picnic table and run off the car's battery, without firing up the engine or moving to different locations. I wouldn't consider it class-C unless the station was capable of being operated while mobile, regardless of the mode of propulsion of your car. Unless I am traveling with a rental car, I try to avoid ever using the car battery to power my radio gear. I'd rather not call AAA to jumpstart my own car. :-)
Class-A stations are not limited to QRP transmitter power levels. The power level determines the power multiplier for your score - if you submit your score to ARRL for this non-contest. When I work Field Day as a 1A station, I am always running on battery power at 5W. Even when I used an HT and Elk on the office balcony last year, to make some SO-50 and ISS packet QSOs during a break from a PBX upgrade project at my office during Field Day weekend. I can run longer on the batteries at 5W, and I enjoy the challenges of operating Field Day QRP - even on satellites.
Without any projects at the office over Field Day weekend, I plan on being at my traditional Field Day location in the Kaibab National Forest about 25 miles west of Flagstaff AZ. I might have a coworker with me, a long-time ham who is itching to get on HF with his own portable gear. I'll steer clear of wherever he operates (Technician license; he'll probably be on 10m and 6m much of the time), and of course I'll try satellites and ISS passes.
If I get up there early enough, and there are workable satellite passes before 1800 UTC on 25 June, I will go a few hundred yards/meters west of my Field Day spot and work satellite passes on the DM35/DM45 grid boundary. I have worked from this grid boundary in the past, parked on the side of old US-66.
Good luck, and 73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK
On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 3:47 AM, Greg D ko6th.greg@gmail.com wrote:
Hi folks,
Every year there's always someone with an off-the-wall question about the Field Day rules. Not hearing one yet, it might as well be my turn...
There are different station classifications based on your power source. What class is a station that gets its power from a Battery Electric Vehicle (one with battery only, no gas engine), for example, if I run my rig from the car's 12v Accessory outlet?
Class-C covers a currently-traditional (ICE) car, one with a combustion engine driven generator (alternator) backing up the car's battery.
My car has no such generator, just a really big battery (57kw). If I park the car and run a 12v cable to the operating position at a nearby picnic bench, and keep to 5 watts or less, am I Class A Battery? What if higher than 5 watts?
Puzzled,