We planned, we came, we got cold, we kicked some butt, we went home.
Dave and I operated from the county line Piute/Sevier, near Koosharem, UT. Actually just outside of town. We drove right to the site we decided on and started setting up. We checked with a local who told us it was BLM land; good deal. The weather was terrible all day. A steady 20-30 mph wind, blowing snow, mostly cloudy with just enough brief sun once in a while to tease us a little. Temps were probably around 35, with wind chill......ugh, don't want to think about it. It was a full blown winter camping experience all weekend. Damn global warming! I could use some global cooling about now.
So my 50' mast went up without any issues. We used it for the wire vees for 40 and 80m. Dave's Spider beam and mast took a bit longer to get up. The beam went together fine; it is tedious, though. Putting it together with gloves is tough; taking off the gloves resulted it numb fingers shortly thereafter. A quick SWR check showed things were OK. Then we put it on the mast. We got it up maybe 30' and thought we'd better re-check the SWR. It wasn't good. Down it comes, retuned/shortened the wires on 2 bands, and back up. 45 minutes later (in a 20 mph steady wind, mind you!) it is sitting proud at 40' or so.
At this point it is about 5pm Friday, we're exhausted, and ready to get inside the camper and get warm. I think it was 25 degrees Friday night. The club roundtable on 3650 was fun; right before we signed off I realized I was TX on the Spiderbeam, oops, no wonder Mark W7HPW couldn't hear us! After the correction, Lynn K7XV said we went from 56 to 59+20.
Saturday AM: We get up right before 7am to get started. I start running 20m and the band is great! Good copy to the east coast. Not mega pile ups but a fairly consistent run on 20m. Rates vary from 100 to 230/h (last 10). Dave makes breakfast then takes over and goes to CW mid morning. He starts running Europeans at a fast clip. Dave is one hell of a CW operator!
We switch back and forth all day; the bands are great, lots of station on, and no one had trouble hearing us. There was an occasional repeat for the second county, but I don't remember dealing with lots of repeats due to lack of signal. Dave's Spiderbeam is an absolute superb antenna! The 500 watts from the amp helped out tremendously. Saturday's weather wasn't too bad, partly cloudy all day with a constant cold wind.
Later in the afternoon I decided to dink around with the 40/80 wires and figure out why the SWR wasn't where it was supposed to be. After a lot of frustrating back and forth, up and down, ^#%@!! I basically gave up and resorted to plan B: use the tuner. Something is wrong with either the balun, the coax, or my analyzer, because nothing made any sense.
Despite the tuner, we still got out great and worked through the evening on 40 and 80 (mostly 40). Dave took over about 1230 am to do some more CW.
Sunday morning we woke up to 4" of snow on the ground and a sky that threatened more. Tear down was done carefully and methodically to prevent leaving stakes, rope, cable, coax, pieces and parts, etc. in/under the snow. 2-3 hours later we're completely torn down and on the road. Luckily the ground around us was firm enough we didn't have to worry about the truck getting stuck. It was also less muddy than field day 2009, which was a big plus. Those of you who were there know what I'm talking about!
This was a great weekend; the radio part was fabulous; the camping part...not so much. We're already planning next year's adventure and figuring out better ways to do things. Huge THANKS to everyone who worked us!
UPDATE!! THE RESULTS ARE IN!
Today, June 10 2010 the 7QP results were posted here. Dave and I took 3rd place overall (!!!!) and first in our category. We were only beaten by two larger multi-multi outfits, one fixed and one portable (the K7EAR guys down south where it doesn’t snow...) Woohoo!!
