FIELD DAY 2009 @ KA2BEO

This year we decided to mostly experiment with portable antennas during our 
ARRL Field Day operation. John (N2PHX), Ellen, Natalie, and I were the only 
participants this time. We had two tables and four chairs inside an outdoor 
screen house. The plan was to run two portable HF stations with many 
different small-scale antennas, and to operate only during the afternoon 
and into the early evening. We checked several antennas with an analyzer, 
and made our first contact at about 3:45pm. We played with various antenna 
configurations, while using more than seven different antennas that were 
mostly home brewed.

 10m fixed dipole, using two top-loaded mobile whips (up 5' pointing E/W, needs tuning)

 15m center-loaded vertical mobile whip with two ground radials (up 2.5' omni-directional)

 20m 22-foot rotatable loaded dipole on a pool pole (up 16' pointing N/S, our best 20m antenna for transmitting)

 30m fixed dipole, using two base-loaded mobile whips (up 5' pointing E/W, we tuned it, but did not use it for operating)

 40m 14-foot collapsible loaded dipole (up 5' pointing N/S, needs further tuning)

 40m center-loaded vertical mobile whip with two ground radials (up 2.5' omni-directional, our best 40m antenna for transmitting on SSB)

 40m 4-foot 3-turn loop with isolator (up 2.5' pointing N/S, our best 40m antenna for transmitting and receiving on CW)

 40m/30m/20m 2-foot 3-turn loop (up 5.5' pointing N/S, tri-band switchable, great for receiving)

Using the Icom IC-706MkIIg and Yaesu FT-817 transceivers, we operated CW 
at 100W, SSB at 100W, and SSB at 5W on the 20-meter and 40-meter bands 
until about 9pm. SSB on the 15-meter band at 5W was attempted also with 
no success. A heavy rain storm moved through the area, but we kept 
operating in the humid conditions. We had a great time, even though 
the event was brief for us this year. And, we are looking forward to 
trying some new antennas in the near future. Until next time, 73! Rob 
(KA2BEO).