FIELD DAY 2014 @ KA2BEO

Walter, KD2EWL passed his Technician exam in October of 2013, and so this was 
his first Field Day event as an FCC-licensed Radio Amateur. For my 21st 
consecutive Field Day, the two of us limited our operating period to only 8 
hours, one-third of the event, from 2:15 to 10:15pm EDT. Once again, the 
station was kept simple by using only a single Icom IC-706Mkiig transceiver. 
I started the event by working five stations using natural power (solar) at 5 
watts output on the 20-meter band operating CW (Morse code) with a homebrew 
partially-loaded rotatable dipole. The furthest contact while running low 
power was made in Oklahoma (from New Jersey). The alternative energy came 
from a lead-acid battery that was charged by a 20-watt monocrystalline solar 
module. The main power was provided by a single 110Ah deep-cycle lead-acid 
battery, which lasted for the remainder of the event running at 100 watts. We 
operated CW and SSB (phone/voice) on only two bands this time, using the 20m 
and 15m Amateur Radio bands with the 20m dipole and an antenna tuner on the 
other band. However, SSB conditions were not as good as previous years, so I 
stuck with CW for most of our air time. We also managed to work Puerto Rico 
and the Virgin Islands this year, which was a nice surprise. The weather was 
perfect again this year, sunny and warm, but not too hot. As usual, the pool 
offered some relief from the heat, and it was another fun weekend. 
73 de Rob, KA2BEO.

BTW - The pin-type porcelain insulator (a brown Chance U-665, circa 1958) 
mounted on a section of wooden crossarm that can be seen in the photos is an 
artifact from the devistation caused by Hurricane Sandy and her post-
hurricane northeastern snowstorm on the Jersey Shore at the end of October 
in 2012.