Hi!

Field Day was fun, even if my "contest" was only a Saturday event. I did not stay out for the whole time, but enjoyed being in the mountains in a forest playing radio. I also had a chance to make some QSOs on HO-68 about an hour or so before the start of Field Day. A good way to avoid the 111F/44C heat in my home city of Phoenix.

On my way to my Field Day site, I stopped in Flagstaff AZ near the I-17/I-40 junction to sneak in on an HO-68 pass at 1645 UTC. I parked in a parking lot west of the junction and the Northern Arizona University campus in grid DM45de, and made 7 QSOs before the satellite was out of range. After that, I packed up my gear and finished my driving to my Field Day spot.

I parked at the same place I used for Field Day last year, the Garland Prairie Vista picnic ground in the Kaibab National Forest. This picnic area is 20 miles/32km west of Flagstaff AZ, along old US-66 in grid DM45ag. Along with last year's Field Day, I have worked from along the road just west of here at the DM35xg/DM45ag grid boundary several times in the past couple of years. I set up my station in the back of my truck, catching some shade and enjoying the occasional breeze through the forest. There have been some forest fires near this area, but those were some distance away from me. I worked HF and 6m, along with the satellites, enjoying the much cooler weather at this site. This year, for the first time, I made some SSB satellite QSOs. :-)

I had a VO-52 pass right at the start of Field Day, 1800 UTC Saturday. It was a shallow pass, and at that time the satellite was only up a few degrees from the horizon to the southwest. No luck in completing a QSO in the 4 or 5 minutes of the pass that started Field Day, but I'd get a QSO on VO-52 later. Off to HF and - when I heard activity - 6m to log some QSOs before SO-50 and AO-27 passes to the west starting at 2112 UTC.

I was able to make my SO-50 QSO with W0NT in Colorado before AO-27 started up. Then a quick QSO on AO-27 with "neighbor" WA2DFI in another part of Arizona took care of my QSOs for 2 of the 3 FM birds. A few stations called for me toward the end of the pass after I made my QSO. I responded, so they could get their QSOs on AO-27. These additional AO-27 QSOs were listed on my ARRL and AMSAT logs, but not counted in the score for either event. I then went back to HF for an hour, before an AO-7 pass at 2242 UTC. Lots of stations, but the 7- degree pass at my location proved to be a barrier. No QSOs logged on this pass, but I had 2 more AO-7 passes later. Back to HF and 6m...

Between 0018 UTC and 0110 UTC, I had passes on AO-51 followed by AO-7 and FO-29. I was able to get Alvaro XE2AT on AO-51, something on the order of a miracle with all the stations trying to get on there. Then over to AO-7, which - once again - was as busy as 20m SSB. Near the end of the pass, Rick VE4AMU was able to hear me well enough to make a QSO. Then the fun really started on FO-29.

FO-29's pass to my east, starting at 0055 UTC, was what I hoped it would be for my Field Day effort. During that 15-minute pass, I was able to work 4 stations. It was easier for me to find my 5W signals in the downlink, and hold it for the QSOs I made. I know there were many more stations I did not work on that pass, but these QSOs got me excited for more satellite passes an hour or so later.

Before the last group of satellite passes in the hour starting around 0222 UTC, I copied the W1AW Field Day bulletin on 17m SSB. After that, I packed the HF/6m side of my station and got ready for 3 more passes - AO-7 at 0222 UTC, then FO-29 at 0240 UTC, and VO-52 at 0308 UTC. The first two passes were to my west, and VO-52 was on a pass to my east.

When AO-7 came up, I was able to quickly find myself in the downlink and started calling CQ. Throughout the 20-minute pass, I made 5 QSOs! The most-productive satellite pass I worked all day. As AO-7 was going away, FO-29 was coming up. Despite hearing myself through the bird and alternating between calling CQ and trying to answer other CQ calls, I made no QSOs. Not a problem, since I had one more pass I wanted to work as the sun was setting. VO-52 was loud, with many stations just like I heard on the earlier AO-7 and FO-29 passes. Near the end of the pass, WI9MRC in Wisconsin patiently asked for repeats in order to complete our QSO. This was my only VO-52 QSO, but it was fun to slug it out with my 5W radios trying to make that QSO happen.

When VO-52 went away, I turned on a couple of flashlights to help see as I dismantled the satellite station and pack things in my truck for the drive down I-40 to a truck stop for food and fuel, followed by the 2-hour drive home.

For ARRL Field Day, I logged 49 QSOs on bands between 40m and 6m plus the satellites. For AMSAT Field Day, 14 QSOs on 6 satellites - 6 on AO-7, 4 on FO-29, and one each on the other 4 (AO-27, AO-51, SO-50, VO-52). All done on battery power with a pair of 12V/20Ah jumpstart battery packs, 5W transmitter power, without generators or running off my truck's electrical system. No world records, but spending the day in the mountains playing radio was a lot of fun. The SSB satellite activity, in particular, was a great test of my skills in advance of my trip to Canada next weekend.

I used an IC-703 HF/6m transceiver at 5W with an Outbacker Joey HF/VHF vertical for my HF and 6m work, and my Elk Antennas handheld 2m/70cm log periodic as my satellite antenna. I swapped between different radios for the FM satellites (an IC-2820H 2m/70cm FM mobile radio, throttled back to 5W) and SSB (two FT-817NDs, connected to the log periodic through a diplexer). My ARRL web site soapbox entry for this year's Field Day, along with some photos, can be seen at: http://www.arrl.org/soapbox/view/7117

I've worked Field Day with my call as a 1B/1-op/Battery station every year since 2001, and since 2006 on the satellites. My ARRL score won't be as big as in 2009 with a slightly-lower QSO count, but being able to log those SSB satellite QSOs meant I achieved the goal I set for myself for this year's Field Day. And, as always, having fun at the same time.

Field Day is always a fun time for me, and I look forward to the 2011 event. Thanks to all the stations that made QSOs with WD9EWK, whether on the satellites or on HF or 6m. 73!

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