Field Day on Mt. Kearsarge

Dave Benson K1SWL and I did Field Day at Winslow State Park part way up Mt. Kearsarge. We only operated for 3 hours, but we had a fantastic time and worked stations in Washington, Oregon, California and New Mexico among many others.

Our view was the best!

view

We met at 11:00 am at the gas station in Wilmot Flats. Then we headed up the Kearsarge Valley Road toward the mountain. We weren’t sure what to expect… but we really lucked out. We had a spot all to ourselves at the end of a small field. We had suitable antenna trees on all sides, and hardly any bugs. A slight breeze kept us cool most of the time.

site

I put up an inverted L with 65 feet of wire. It went up about 30 feet and then over. I used the earchi.org 9:1 unun. The KX3 tuned perfectly on 15 meters.

Dave used a K2 with a resonant 20 meter dipole up about 35 feet. He fed it with coax and didn’t need a tuner.

We operated with solar charged batteries using Dave’s call (K1SWL) as 2B battery. Remarkably, we didn’t interfere with each other at all. A few keying remnants was all I could hear. Dave got a very slight bit of hash now and then.

Here’s Dave testing his setup before the 2:00 pm gun.

dave

We feasted on freshly picked strawberries and cookies in between contacts. (thanks Judy!) It seemed to us that activity was down this year, but maybe it was just band conditions.

I started out using 9 AA cells with the KX3 at three watts. I didn’t have any trouble making QSOs with this setup. I just wanted to see how it would work in a competitive environment. After 30 Qs, I switched up to five watts and a LiPo battery.

The park closes at 6:00 pm and we started packing up shortly after 5:00. (We’d had enough… How do these kids go all day and half the night?) Thanks for all the Qs… see you next year.

Jim Cluett, W1PID, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Hampshire, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

3 Responses to “Field Day on Mt. Kearsarge”

  • John N8ZYA:

    Congratulations Jim and Dave…..This is REAL radio! It’s a pleasure to see this kind of operating on “field day”. This is inspiring!

  • Thanks John. I forwarded you kind comment to Dave. vy best, Jim W1PID

  • Jules Madey K2KGJ:

    Nice write up and real FD fun.
    I used a Heath HW8 a couple of years ago with a mil surplus 20 foot portable mast and during a 6 hour stint worked several 6 and 7 area stations on 20. FD is a great time for some QRP fun.

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