Thoughts From the Bands

So, I was hoping that 2021 ARRL Field day would mean back in-person get-together for my club. I totally understand the decision to go with a second year of at-home instead of in-person but I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed. So… I decided 1E class this year.

Last year I made 332 QSO’s and was running 1B Back yard. Portable everything.. Shelter, antenna, power… the whole 9 yards.. Okay proved I could do it. The only thing that kinda felt like cheating was getting to sleep in my own bed. I placed pretty decent in the Class in GA and felt pretty good.

Fast forward to this year. As I mentioned I had decided to go 1E this year. This means normal radio (K3), Normal antenna, air conditioning etc. All that needed emergency power was the station itself. I got everything tested the week before. Generator tuned up and ran fine. It had no problem running the computer, and the radio. I needed it to run both because if you claim 1E and do any mode that requires the radio be keyed with a computer, then the computer needs to be emergency power as well.

The contest starts and I run a few QSO’s in FT8 mode and all is rocking along fine for about an hour when the generator trips. I’m still not sure what caused the trip but with my gen you have to shut it off to reset. It is a KIPOR 2kw generator. The fuel selector and the engine kill are the same twist. I grabbed the knob to shut it down and it comes off in my hand. The generator dies and gas starts trickling out of the place that the knob used to be. NOT GOOD. I examine the valve and what I had in my hand. The valve was riveted together and the rivets both broke. I guess I don’t know my own strength???? UGH was the most appropriate way to describe the feeling.

Adding to the issue was the valve was going to slowly leak all of the gas out of the tank and it was full. After I filled it up on field day morning, I went to the station and filled my gas can so i would have plenty for the weekend. Well now I have a full can and a full tank. I needed to dump the gas somewhere so it didn’t all leak on/into the ground. I poured it into a bucket but as soon as I opened the cap for the generator fuel tank, the air allowed the gas to POUR out of the valve all over my foot and shoe…. this is not getting better. I took the bucket to my lawn mower and TRIED to pour it in. It got EVERYWHERE… IN MY BASEMENT. Doors open fans going… The fumes were a bit intense. THIS IS NOT GETTING BETTER…

I spent a couple hours on the back patio opening up the generator case to get to the busted valve. It is NOT easy to get to and they don’t intend you to take it off or ever get it back together I think. I put everything back together after finding the valve and deciding it would take more than a minute or two to do this project. I expect the gen will need to be opened up a bit more extensively so I can get to the valve and it may be a over night project….. for another day.

What was I going to do??? I had already made 30 or so qso’s and was going well. If I hook up to mains I’m cheating the 1E category but I can’t change categories. I rack my brain a bit, I call a ham friend to see if he has a generator to borrow… no joy. Most of my ham buddies were using their generators. I had my solar charged LiFePO4 batteries for my ‘natural power’ qso bonus so I ended up turning the power down, and running all CW. I tried calling CQ but few could hear me. My q count seemed better hunting and pecking so that’s what I did. I kept a battery on the solar panel and ran on the second one. After dark, the first battery died at about 5 hours and I hooked up the second. It ran until I got tired.

The next morning I got the dead battery on the solar panel and started back. My wife let me sleep in more than I wanted but that’s fine… I figured the batteries would play out before the contest was over. I spent the rest of Field Day on the second battery until it died and alternated batteries from the rig to the solar charger and back. I made it until just before 2PM Eastern before both batteries were shot.

Things I learned.
1. Have a back-up plan.
2. Have a back-up to the back-up.
3. Don’t fuel a lawnmower in the basement. IDIOT IDIOT
4. My soar panel/charge controller don’t work well together… gotta sort that out. I should be charging a lot faster but HEY, I made it.

So 327 QSOs on battery power for the most part. I only had a few US sections missing. Conditions weren’t GREAT but they are a LOT better than the past few years. I’m really optimistic for solar cycle 25.

I haven’t added up all points but I’m pleased with where things ended up

73

NR4N, Dusty

Updated May 2021… see below for comments

So, from time to time, I get to travel to Mississippi for work. I’m lucky enough that my company allows me to drill an antenna hole in the roof and install a radio in my pick-up. Since 2017 I have had a Kenwood TM-D710GA in my my vehicle and it has been a very good companion over MANY miles around the southeast.

The 710 is a dual band 50 watt rig that has a built in GPS and TNC so it is set up for APRS location tracking. Just like my phone, I’m essentially beaconing my position ALL the time. When I’m going on a trip I program the listed repeaters along my route so I’m never out of contact. I began this before cell phone coverage was ubiquitous.

Last summer I had a need to go to Greenville, MS for work. As per usual, I programmed the repeaters along my route. And took off for western MS all the while beaconing my location via APRS. When I left Tuscaloosa, I noticed I couldn’t bring up the repeaters along Hwy 82. I’m not sure I brought up a single repeater until I was on my way home 3 days later. My APRS signal disappeared about that same time and I was at the mercy of the cell phone companies. I feeling I HATE.

So that brings me to this week. I had some meetings in Memphis this week. Well the best route from N. Georgia to Memphis takes me to ATL, the to Birmingham then up I-22 to Memphis. This is a route I’ve taken many times but this time I paid attention to the APRS and the path that made it to the internet. WOW. There’s NOTHING for i-gates in MS. I kind of expected it on last summer’s trip to Greenville. I didn’t expect it along an interstate.

I’ve been all over the southeast since installing a 50 watt APRS beacon in my truck. There are drop outs here and there but nothing like this. Half the repeaters didn’t pull up and there was no APRS until IN Memphis. From my hotel I can monitor APRS and hit a local I-gate with 5 watts. This is fairly typical for an urban environment. I’m just disappointed that so much of MS has been lost to Amateur radio.

I hope this doesn’t continue. I enjoy ham radio when I travel and the V/U repeaters are apparently a dying infrastructure in the southeastern US or at least in MS.

DSF

UPDATE>>>>>>>May 2021

I took a trip from North Alabama to Memphis and I have to say that APRS as well as repeater coverage was much better than in the central and southern part of MS… I will say my thoughts above are only partially founded. I hope I have not offended many.