Murphy Visits Us
A Field Day would not be complete if Murphy didn’t show up. With us, he showed up when we switched over to 20 meters for the first time. My 430 foot horizontal loop is non-resonant and fed with ladder line. The LDG autotuner couldn’t tune the Horizontal loop. After swapping out a few things, I decided go to a “plan B” antenna, which was a random length inverted L antenna. Thanks to my several POTA activations, I have a few extra tricks up my sleeve, such as a new DIY slingshot / fishing reel antenna launcher, which made setting up this secondary antenna a snap.
After I got the secondary antenna up, I STILL had a problem with the autotuner not loading. So the one common denominator that I hadn’t changed was my coaxial switch. So I quickly removed that, and boom! 1:1 SWR on 20 meters – YAY! That got my daughter back on 20 meters FT8 and we were rolling again. We ran on the secondary antenna until it was time to change bands and then changed back over to the horizontal loop antenna. Anybody want to buy a used coaxial switch really cheap?
You never cease to amaze me with your ability to adapt and grow and innovate! That was a challenging time with power out for sure. You demonstrated the importance of hams to continue to find ways around issue!
Scott
Thanks Scott! I appreciate it!
We have experienced a two day down total ecomm emergency where city officials are looking for ham radios to use. Not many have experienced the no power no water no internet and no cell phone service after the hurricanes we get here in South La. Seven weeks before everything is up and running. But my generac 22kw and dipoles were available and did get used. Ecomm for me is not only in the field but in my case home…….someone has to get the traffic in and out.
Well done!!