As I may have written somewhere on this forum, MrsMac and I went down to my mom's for her B-Day on the 4th. Along with the usual baggage I brought down my Communication Go Box (CGB) which included my Yaesu 817Nd, radio, MFJ-971 tuner, my end fed 6-40m
EARCH antenna, and some para-cord all packed into a 50 caliber ammo can. I also had a 4' length of copper rod which I had banging around in the back of my truck since Field Day along with 75' of coax. Here is the results of my first field test.
The morning of July 4th the weather was in the low 70's, sunny and humid at 1100 hrs when I fastened one end of my para-cord to a crescent wrench and tossed it over a tree limb about 30 feet high on a oak tree next to my mom's patio. Tied the EARCH antenna to the para-cord and hoisted it to the limb. On the other end I screwed in the coax cable and draped it over a dwarf apple tree. I had a slopping antenna running east to west.
Once the antenna was set I plugged it into my tuner and set the dials for 20m. I had kept a cheat sheet from the same setup at Field Day. Then the radio. Went inside to refill my coffee mug. First things first
Once I was reseated I turned on the radio and started scanning 20m.
Boy O'boy there was a lot of traffic. I tried for an hour to connect with several 13 Colony stations but I had a hard time getting heard over the folks out there using 100+ watts. Well after an hour or so I went inside to get the days feast started.
About 1300 hrs. I came back outside to preheat the grill. Turned on the little radio to see what I could hear and maybe get a few contacts. Hams were coming in fine but I could not make a connection.
Put the rib roast on about 1400 hrs. and again could hear folks but no connections. This went on all afternoon as I checked the roast, shucked corn, planted some plants for my mom, etc. I could hear great but no connections.
Ate dinner, cleaned up, poured myself a nice adult beverage, and went outside to try it again.
With no luck on 20m, I moved to 40m. Readjusted my tuner and started to spin the dial. Again heard a lot of traffic but was unable to hale anyone. One ham heard me but I faded into the noise for him. I could hear him but he could only intermittently hear me. Frustrated I went out to the truck and grabbed my 4' copper rod, pounded it into the ground and hooked up a 10 gauge wire from the rod to my radio. The ground didn't help any as I could hear folks but they could not hear me.
Was it the propagation? Was it because the airwaves were packed with 100+ watt transceivers? Was it my 5 Watts? Was it me?
Anyhow, I went back inside to make my mom and MrsMac an individual strawberry short cake and refill my empty glass. Went back outside at about sunset to give it one last try before calling it a night.
VIOLA! I threw my call sign out there for a Long Island, NY. 13 Colony station a couple of times and I got answered! Yeah finally. Then I turned the dial and found a New Hampshire 13 Colony station and threw my call out there a few times and got answered.
Well not wanting to push my luck I packed up the radio and went inside. PLUS my glass was empty again
A few closing comments:
1) That little radio had been on and off from 1100 hrs to 2100 hrs and seemed to have plenty battery life left. Amazing.
2) I suspect that the grounding of the radio did nothing other than for me to get my frustration out at not reaching anybody by
pounding it into the ground.
3) I also suspect that the reason I was able to get the two contacts I did was because,
- At the time I made my contacts traffic on the air waves was low. Perfect fire works viewing time I guess,
- 40m at about dusk really seems to work for me on my big shack radio, and
- Luck.
4) It was a great exercise and of course I learned a lot.
5) Oh, I realized it doesn't matter if I am 61 years old or not, when my mother said, "don't leave that pipe in the ground. Someone will
trip over it!" My mother is still me mother
