Field Day 1998


I thought it would be a lot of fun to go camping for Field Day this year. So, while driving home from Dayton, we scoped out a few spots in the mountains of Maryland. The choice spot was in Green Ridge State Forest with peaks of around 1800 feet (that's a mountain in these parts!).

We operated as K1RA with the following people: Andy K1RA, Dave KA3RPU, Jon KD3FG, Ken N3FZX, Patty KB3CTO, & Scott NF3I

As you can see in the pictures below, the weather started out as nice sunny days on Friday and Saturday, but it rained Saturday night and all day Sunday. Yuk! But we still had a great time!

Lead Team


This is me (on the left) with Patty, KB3CTO and Ken, N3FZX. We got to the campsite a day earlier to reserve the perfect spot.

Swinging Andy


K1RA tries to grab the end of the line shot over a tree to hang a dipole.

20m beam in the rain


Here's the homebrew 20m beam I built (based on the KJ5VW 20 Meter Mini Yagi). It was mounted on an Army collapsable pole about 30 feet up. I was surprised how rotating the beam around made a difference with various locations around the country.

Outside the SSB tent


Ken and Patty at the food table outside the SSB tent. This picture shows just how miserable it can be when it rains during field day...

Inside the SSB tent


Here's the QRP SSB station consisting of an Alinco DX-70 turned down to 5 watts. We had the best luck on 20m with the beam but it was tough going.

The CW tent


A shot of the CW tent down a path from the center of the campsite. We had to keep it zipped up due to the rain.

The CW Station


Andy, K1RA, works the country with 2 watts! The radio is a Wilderness Sierra with a long wire antenna (about 500 feet!).

Dinner!


Ken and Patty know how to really cook over an open fire!

Results

From N3XRV & QST magazine:
Class:      2A - Battery (max power of 5 Watts)
QSO's:      476
Operators:  6
Score:      4485
That put us 8th in a field of 28. 2A represents about a third of all FD entries. Top score in 2A was 13,036 with 4411 Q's.

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