Winter Field Day has just a few more hours before it will be in the log, but it’s been a good event six years in a row for W1SYE. The plan of using two ladder-line fed non-resonant antennas ran into a bit of a snag Saturday morning, as it was not possible to tune them using the Johnson Matchbox. Some adjusting of the feedline length rectified that problem, and the two transmitter operation was underway by 14:00L. The SSB tent would be on the air for 24 hours, while the CW station would be split between CW and Digital operation. We also had a satellite station (Sunday morning) that made a single contact to obtain the 1500 point bonus.
Life was fine until Saturday night when storms came through the area with hard rain (a bit over an inch) and wind, but they cleared out before midnight At least that kept the temp in the 40s. Also hard to believe that for six years in a row the weather has been warm and mostly sunny for WFD (easy for someone who didn’t show up until Sunday morning to say). Winter is coming, for sure, but hasn’t arrived in Rhode Island yet.
The SSB Tent is in the center (you can see the feedline running up in the air to one of the dipoles) with the all important Porta-Potty and CW station to the left
A view looking at the green-stick holding the end of the 2nd dipole. Taken from the location of the satellite station
The satellite station was on the air for 1 contact only — Computer for Doppler correction and rig are in the truck. Power is from a solar-charged Bioenno LiFePO4 battery. The antenna, an Arrow crossed beam is visible outside the side window (mounted on a camera tripod)
