Hi!

Glad to see this old-school e-mail list is getting a workout today. :-) Despite all the complaining about how crowded the satellite passes were over the weekend, it was fun to get one. I try to make time to work Field Day, even if it is just the satellites, as a reason to get out of the desert heat.

As I have done since 2009, I parked at a Garland Prairie Vista Picnic Ground in the Kaibab National Forest. This is along old US-66, north of the I-40 freeway and 20 miles/32km west of Flagstaff in northern Arizona. I knew of this place from trips to the DM35xg/DM45ag grid boundary just west of this site, and being up in the mountains and trees is a lot better than the desert heat. I brought the two FT-817NDs I normally use on the non-FM satellites, along with a TH-F6A (backup radio for satellite operating, and possibly useful for VHF/UHF FM QSOs during Field Day) and my IC-703 HF/6m transceiver. Besides the Elk 2m/70cm log periodic I use on the satellites, I brought an Outbacker Joey HF/VHF vertical and a Buddipole multiband dipole that would really come in handy during this Field Day.

Since 2001, I have generally worked Field Day as a 1B/1-operator/battery station transmitting at 5 watts. I may be a glutton for punishment, but QRP power levels make it easier to power the equipment. I had printed out the pass predictions for the day, so I didn't need a computer running tracking software. The IC-703 is a 10W transceiver, but I dialed it down to the 5W level so I could qualify for the 5x power multiplier under the ARRL rules. The FT-817NDs and TH-F6A are 5W transceivers, so I left their power settings on "high", and hoped for the best.

I started out on 15m using the IC-703 and Outbacker Joey, then switched periodically to 6m using the Buddipole dipole. I would jump from band to band as I heard activity, and also worked many Arizona stations on 6m. For the first time in Field Day, I completed a terrestrial 2m FM QSO with a group on a mountain about 40 miles/64km south of me. I used the TH-F6A with a Diamond tri-band antenna on it, and had a nice chat with that group after making the Field Day exchange.

As for the satellites, I did not do as well this year. I confined my FM activity to only the west-coast passes. I made one QSO on SO-50 on the 2030 UTC pass Saturday afternoon, but the other station did not offer the Field Day exchange. My first Field Day satellite QSO was on the west-coast AO-27 pass an hour later. After making the QSO that I will score in my log, I also made a couple of other non-point QSOs as I detailed in an earlier post.

One of the things I wanted to try this Field Day was AO-7 in mode A. I had one chance to do that, on the pass around 2230 UTC Saturday afternoon before the mode change approximately an hour later. I was unsuccessful in making a QSO on this pass, but I was successful in hearing myself on the 10m downlink using the IC-703 with my Buddipole dipole reconfigured for this pass (one side vertical, the other side horizontal, set for resonance around 29.450 MHz), in CW and SSB. This was a great test, and I hope to make mode A QSOs on AO-7 in the near future. I tried the next AO-7 pass in mode B, but had no luck completing a QSO there. That happens sometimes, and I'm not complaining.

On FO-29 a little while later, I had a hard time hearing myself. When I moved up the passband a bit, I could hear myself, but nobody else joined me up there. I was able to make one QSO toward the end of the pass, as other stations wrapped up their activity and there were fewer signals on the uplink. Not too bad. I tried the next FO-29 pass that covered the west coast, but could not get through well enough for a couple of stations to copy my call correctly. Oh well...

As was mentioned previously, the AO-51 pass up the west coast just after 0000 UTC was a nice pass. I will try to post my audio recording of that pass, to show how things calmed down toward the end of the pass. I made my points-earning QSO early in the pass, then answered others who were calling WD9EWK, and even worked one station that was not interested in a Field Day exchange. I gave him my grid locator (DM45) in place of "1B-AZ".

I tried the shallow VO-52 pass just before 0200 UTC, after copying the W1AW phone bulletin that started at 0145 UTC. I think the mountains to the east didn't let me have more than a couple of minutes to hear the satellite. At this point, I wanted to stick around for the next VO-52 pass, but by then it would be completely dark in the forest except for my flashlights. I also had to return home that evening, due to other things I needed to do Sunday.

I still have to put together my log for submission to ARRL and AMSAT, but I know I didn't make as many QSOs - satellite, or overall - this year. For satellites, I had a total of 3 QSOs that will go on my submission. I was disappointed I couldn't get QSOs on AO-7 or VO-52, but being able to hear myself on AO-7 in mode A made up for that. Hearing several familiar voices - some working with their own callsigns, and several others with different calls - was nice. Those experienced operators probably helped their groups get QSOs and the satellite bonus.

I posted some photos of my station as part of my "soapbox" submission on the ARRL web site at:

http://www.arrl.org/soapboxes/view/7763

I also recorded a short video showing my station, which can be viewed at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8BGbDVBXTA

73!

Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/