[amsat-bb] AI6DO Field Day Report

Sun Jun 23 23:36:18 UTC 2019

Ryan,

First of all, thanks for the QSOs during the day yesterday. Especially the
AO-92 L/V contact just after noon. I was getting concerned with being able
to make an official Field Day QSO on that pass, after working two others
who were not giving Field Day exchanges. It was also good to get you on
AO-91 and FalconSat-3 later in the afternoon.

I drove to a Forest Service day-use area at Cataract Lake, west of Williams
in northern Arizona. Northern Arizona had the best weather for Field Day
this weekend than in the past few years, with the temperatures up there
never exceeding 75F. My plans were like past years - work both HF and
satellites, and have fun doing it. Even though this site is near Williams,
and not far from the I-40 freeway, I had no data service on my mobile
phone. The phone worked for voice calls and SMS messages, so I used SMS
messages to tweet during the day. I don't have my Twitter account set up
to forward tweets to my phone, so I was unable to respond until I was in
Flagstaff for dinner last night.

It took about 2 1/2 hours to make the drive from Phoenix to Williams, and
I knew that there was an SO-50 pass coming by a few minutes after the start
of Field Day at 11am (1800 UTC). As expected, a busy pass. I heard John
K8YSE operating as K8OU through his Arizona station, and that was my first
Field Day QSO. I did not use an HT for this pass; I had my Icom IC-2730
dual-band mobile radio, jumpstart battery, and Elk log periodic in a
clearing near my site. Five watts, and even 15W, would not work on this
and the other FM satellite passes I attempted yesterday not using the 1.2
GHz band.

About an hour later, the one AO-92 pass in the L/V mode for Field Day up
there. I heard Chris VE7CEW initially, but couldn't get back to him for a
QSO. I worked W5SAT and N6NUG before landing a Field Day QSO with AI6DO. I
used my two-radio, two-antenna L/V setup like I normally use at home. It
worked well as I pointed across the lake and made QSOs, easier than last
year's Field Day when I had a smaller 5-element Yagi on top of my Alinco
DJ-G7T. I did not try to adjust my transmit power on my DJ-G7T to its low-
power setting of 300mW on the 1.2 GHz band, keeping it at 1W for the best
possible signals I could send to the satellite. And as the AO-92 pass went
away, a very high AO-91 pass came over. Back to the IC-2730, and I cut the
string holding the 1.2 GHz Yagi on my Elk, as the AO-91 pass started. Many
thanks to Carlos W7QL for a QSO near the end of that pass!

After the AO-91 pass, I set up my HF station - Elecraft K3S running on my
jumpstart battery at 50W, and a Buddipole dipole. I made some QSOs on 20m
SSB before another group of satellite passes came by - PO-101, ISS, and
then a low AO-91 pass to my west.

PO-101 had a good crowd, but not as crazy as the earlier AO-91 pass. I was
able to work Rick VE4AMU for a Field Day QSO. After that, W0IN in Missouri
called me, and I made the exchange. Shortly after these QSOs, I switched to
the ISS digipeater. Unfortunately, it was off, so no ISS packet this Field
Day. AO-91 was coming up for the west coast, and I went on there to help
anyone looking to make their Field Day satellite QSO on that satellite.
AI6DO was there, and we made a quick QSO. This won't count for me, as I
made my AO-91 QSO for points earlier, but I might be a QSO that gets
another station their 100-point bonus, or their Field Day QSO on that
satellite.

Now up to almost 2pm (2100 UTC), I started working 20m and 40m SSB, until
a nice FalconSat-3 pass an hour later. I logged a couple of packet QSOs
with AI6DO and Brad W5SAT in Las Vegas on that FalconSat-3 pass. This time,
W5SAT was ready with a Field Day exchange in the APRS message I received
from him. I had two more FalconSat-3 passes that I worked, just before 5pm
(0000 UTC) and 6.30pm (0130 UTC), with a single QSO on each of those
passes.

I tried FO-29 at 5.30pm (0030 UTC), but one station was overpowering the
transponder really bad. After a few minutes, I gave up on this pass.
I didn't bother to try other SSB passes since it was getting late, and I
needed to ensure I left the site by 8pm (0300 UTC) before the gate was
locked. I overlooked the NO-84 pass just after 6pm (0100 UTC), a mistake on
my part, since packet QSOs using APRS messages have been good for me in
past Field Days. I stayed out there to copy the ARRL's W1AW bulletin on 20m
SSB just before 7pm (0200 UTC), and then I wrapped up my Field Day effort.
I went to Flagstaff to get some dinner, then drove home after that.

During the afternoon, I would periodically check the 10m and 6m bands for
activity. Nothing was heard on those bands most of the day, but a little
before 5pm (0000 UTC) W3AO - a group that loves to put lots of transmitters
on the air for Field Days - was barely coming out of the noise. After 2 or
3 minutes of back-and-forth to get information exchanged, I made a QSO with
W3AO. This was my first Field Day QSO on 10m in a few years, and worth the
extra effort to make the QSO. :-)

I still need to get my logs prepared for both ARRL and AMSAT Field Days,
as there will be some satellite QSOs in my log that won't count for
points in each event. My Field Day QSOs have already been uploaded to
Logbook of the World. If anyone wants a QSL card for a QSO from yesterday,
please e-mail me directly with the QSO details. I will be happy to send a
card, without first receiving a card or SASE from you.

73!

Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK
http://www.wd9ewk.net/
Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK

On Sun, Jun 23, 2019 at 10:01 PM Ryan Noguchi via AMSAT-BB <
amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:

> Unlike last year, where I participated in ARRL and AMSAT Field Day
> concurrently, I did them separately this year.  On Saturday, I worked only
> satellites for AMSAT Field Day from the vicinity of my home. I never
> operated from my property, only from other operating positions along my
> block each optimized for specific pass orientations, all well within an 800
> ft circle. All QSOs were made fully pedestrian-mobile, without recharging
> any of the batteries during the Field Day period.
>
> <snip>
>
> So, how'd everyone else's Field Day go?
>
> 73, Ryan AI6DO
>
>