Following up on Sunday's preliminary post, here's a quick list of noteworthy items.
- Next year, bring the FT-891 to work HF. There was a lot of spatter to contend with, and there even seemed to be some heavy noise in the campground on some bands that the FT-857d was having trouble with. The roofing filter & IF DSP would likely clean that right up. Or hell, just go big and bring the FTdx-1200, it's not like I'm backpacking this stuff around. It'll all fit in the truck.
- Then use the FT-857d for 6m & 2m/70cm. It has the bands capabilities, QRO power, and antenna ports. Noise isn't nearly the issue up on those bands either.
- I need some more coax cable, probably a 75' run of LMR-240, to get a little more room between the HF, 6m, and 2m/70cm antennas.
- People really need to use standard NATO phonetics in this sort of event. One guy who was all "whacky goofball fow-uh radio america swaziland" couldn't copy the "zulu" in my callsign, repeated it back as "zero" about three times. Then when he finally got it right, he then gave me a 59 report (i.e., perfectly readable and very strong signal). *facepalm* Yes, there are "traditional" phonetics in some ham sub-communities, but for these broad-appeal events like WFD, go with the NATO standard.
- The 42' W3EDP-Zepp (this plan, but with 450 window line) strung as an inverted V worked like gangbusters on all bands from 10m down to 80m. It would tune on 160m, but I couldn't get any contacts there. It was easy to put up too (see arborist throw line), with the apex at about 20+ feet. In anticipation of moisture, there was an insulator at the center hang point. I did use a 17' counterpoise/station ground off of the tuner, which may or may not have been necessary.
- Orange paracord and orange flag tape (picture at right; click to embiggen to better see the orange stuff) made it easy to avoid running into things, even in the dark. Well, mostly. At least nobody died.
- After grabbing contacts to cover the most bands and modes, I settled down to a grind out digital contacts on PSK-31 on whatever bands were working at the time. 61 contacts isn't a lot for some people, but it is for me.
- Over the weekend – and that's including fun contacts on Friday & Saturday – I ripped through 35+ AH of the 40 AH LiFePO4 battery. That's the farthest I've ever drained the thing down, even during hurricane season. Next time I'm bringing a solar panel. Even if I can scavenge only 15 AH or so from the weak winter sunshine, it'll be a big help.
- Bonuses were had for operating outdoor, away from home, using aux power, and setting up an antenna just for WFD. Bonuses missed were the satellite contact and operating mobile, neither of which I was in any way ready for.
- Camping at Wright Lake was good. Nice bathrooms.
- Cell phone coverage at the campground was sparse. Most of the time, but not quite always, texts would get through. However, SARNET coverage was fantastic. Get your Tech license, get a nice HT, learn how to use it.
- Finally, there's a 4.5 mile hiking trail there that I'll have to check out very soon.
