FIELD DAY 2012 @ KA2BEO This year was my first 100% solar-powered Field Day operation. The alternative energy battery bank consisted of two 110Ah deep-cycle lead-acid batteries. Two solar charge controllers (7A/4A) and three 15-watt solar modules in a 45-watt array provided all the power needed for two small radios (not operated simultaneously). Running all CW (Morse code) and all QRP (low-power) on mostly the 20-meter Amateur band, it was a true challenge to make contacts between all the QRM (interference), QRN (noise), and QSB (fading) on the crowded 14MHz Ham band. I started the event running a 20m Small Wonder Labs Rock-Mite 0.5W transceiver that I just finished building the previous week. Two years after receiving the kit, I finally found a chance to assemble it. I plan to add a bi-color LED lamp to the American Morse Mity Box enclosure (in place of the optional volume control) for indicating the +600Hz shift, during transmit and receive (red/green). Modification details will be available soon. The tiny rig actually works great, with a measured output of about 350mW. However, being rock-bound (crystal-controlled) with no tuning ability, the few stations that I heard were too far off frequency to actually make a contact. Also, the direct-conversion receiver is not as sensitive compared to the superheterodyne in the 20m MFJ Cub 2W transceiver (MFJ-9320K), which I repaired since last year. So, I quickly swapped rigs, and started working several CW stations, with a measured output of 1.6W. The furthest of five stations worked at this power level was located in Wisconsin. Not too bad from New Jersey. Once five QSOs were logged as natural power contacts, I moved over to the 'big gun', my Icom IC-706MkIIg all-band/all-mode rig that was set to its minimum output power of 5W (at the fully counter-clockwise 'L' setting). A fuse in the 4-amp solar charge controller blew out the moment I hit the tune button on the Icom. After double-checking the radio's output power level setting, I replaced the fuse, and blew that one too. It took a short while for me to realize that the Better RF adapter (an optional add-on for the Icom to simplify the tune-up procedure) was forcing a 15W output (during tune-up only), regardless of the output power level setting on the radio. After removing the third-party tune-up feature (to avoid accidentally destroying more fuses), and switching to a 7-amp solar charge controller (just for good measure), I was ready for some high-power (5W) operating. Well, greater than flea-power anyway. In order to keep things simple, I erected only two of my home-brew portable antennas for the event, a 20m rotatable dipole up about 20 feet, and a 40m four-foot square, 3-turn loop hanging on a fence post. After implementing a hunt-and-pounce technique across the entire CW portion of the 20m band, I rotated the dipole 90-degrees, and repeated the process. I briefly tried SSB (phone/voice) on 40m and 20m, but switched back to CW, after realizing that I had no built-in speech compressor to boost my 625mW average output power. The 40m CW mode wasn't working as expected either (exhibiting high VSWR), and following some quick troubleshooting, I corrected a loose PL-259 connector on the balun that I used between the radio and the balanced mini-loop antenna. Making contacts on 40m was more difficult than on 20m, probably due to the lacking antenna size and height, so I reverted back to 20m CW and decided to finish out the operating event on the single band and mode. Running just 5 watts, I worked coast-to-coast and Canada to Texas/ Florida from New Jersey, but was really amazed to also work Mike (F5IN) in Pithiviers, France. The weather was perfect, especially for the renewable/sustainable energy system, with no clouds or passing storms, just clear and sunny sky. Similar to last year, I operated for less than eight hours total (one-third the norm). With five visitors and a poolside setup, it was a fun weekend. I plan to change my category from 1B to 2A for next year's event. 73 for now! Rob, KA2BEO.