After Winter Field Day...

A good weekend was had, but the weather could have been a lot better though as it snowed for most of it.  This year I did a combined POTA / WFD event, so I had the best of both worlds.  This was possible because the new WFD Executive has allowed a new class, that of "Mobile".

This allowed me, over the weekend, to go to seven different local POTA spots, setup, and take part in both POTA and WFD...and a good time was had!

I had originally made plans to take my 31' collapsible mast and a 40m EFHW antenna, but to be honest I don't think it would have stayed vertical with the wild wind we had.  So it was back to the old standby of hamsticks and a mag-mount.   My KX3 worked great, with no issues at all.

Was I happy with my results?  Not really, but given the fact I only operate QRP and use a severely compromised antenna system, I like to think I could certainly do better.  The other factor was the fact that while the propagation numbers looked good, in reality - not so much.  The numbers were: SFI=145. SN=76, A Index=9, and the K Index=2.   We also had a lot of deep QSB to contend with.

Operating in the back of my van at night causes some problems.  I like to stay as stealthy as I can at night, as you never know who's about, or what they are up too.  So I don't like using bright lights.  Last week I found a small, USB rechargeable light, it's supposed to be used to read a book in bed, but I used it to illuminate my log book so I could see to write.  It worked great, and it was pretty stealthy as it's not too bright.

All-in-all it was a good weekend, apart from the 37cm of snow we received that is.  

Here's the weekends contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!