FIELD DAY 2018 @ KA2BEO

This was the Silver Anniversary of ARRL Field Days for me, operating in the annual event for quarter of a century now. My 25th consecutive Field Day started out cool and rainy, so I set up under an umbrella on a picnic table outdoors and operated for about 9 hours total out of the 24-hour event. Again using a minimalist approach, the station consisted of an MFJ Cub (MFJ-9320K) on the 20-meter Ham band. It is a small 2-watt (1.6W measured) QRP CW transceiver that was powered by a 12.6Vdc battery pack. The 20-meter antenna was an 18.5-foot long dipole that I made out of two Slinky Jr. toys. I call it the TinyTenna, and my plans to build one are on the web (http://www.natradioco.com/TinyTenna_RLD.pdf). The antenna was only placed about 7 feet high, and even at this low height, the small linear-loaded dipole was surprisingly effective. I operated using only CW (Morse code), and worked much of the east coast, from Canada to Florida. The band conditions were spotty this year with much QSB (fading). Most of the time the band was dead, except for a few stations that appeared and disappeared quickly, within seconds. This resulted in difficult operating conditions, but yet the total contacts were up from last year. I contacted at least 19 different states, while using less than two watts and a very modest antenna! This Field Day resulted in a quiet and slow pace that was a challenge, but still fun as always. 73 de Rob, KA2BEO.