After a couple year hiatus I decided to return to our RV in Huntingdon County, PA to participate in Winter Field Day this year.  My plan was to set up a battery powered station with a couple of my portable antennas.  Looking at the rules I operated as ‘1M WPA’ since the RV is on wheels and can be moved if need be.  The effort was successful even if I did not work a lot of stations or qualify for any awards.

Station equipment consisted of an ICOM IC-705 transceiver, Yeasu 891 transceiver, LDG Z100 tuner, Lithium battery, Microsoft Surface computer, and two antennas.  The antennas were a Chameleon Light End Fed Half Wave Sloper (LEFHS) and a Buddipole Deluxe configured for 40 meters.  The Buddipole worked well but unfortunately the wind blew it over during the night and one of the telescoping whips broke.  The LEFHS worked very well both days.

The RV already has a VHF/UHF antenna mounted on a flagpole attached to the roof ladder.  When I installed the antenna I had the forethought to put a pulley at the base of the antenna with a paracord rope to the base of the ladder.  The LEFHS matching unit was attached to the paracord and RG-8X coax, then hoisted up the pole.  The 63′ antenna wire was stretched out to the middle of the campground lawn and staked with an aluminum pin.  With the Z100 tuner I was able to work any band I wanted.  Amazingly 80 meters worked as well.  I checked into the PEMA Central Area net at 0830 Sunday morning.

Here’s a picture of the operating position inside the RV:

You can see I used N1MM+ logging software.  This is the first time I’ve used it and it also worked very well.  The desk is a little office area off of the living room of the RV.  Those red panels are from a yoga mat.  Since I had to keep the window open for the coax it was very cold at the desk without them.  Adding two cushions to the mat later finally stopped the cold air.

The computer was hooked up to the radio and N1MM+ tracked the radio well until I tried 20 meters.  RF got into the USB cable and knocked out the connection to the radio. I only had one ferrite choke on the cable and forgot to bring the box with extras.  Embarrassingly, I found out a couple days later that there was an extra ferrite choke in the ICOM’s transport box that I forgot about.  Go figure…

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the antenna set ups but I’m especially pleased with how well the LEFHS worked.  My total was 20 stations, not much, but I was able to spend a lot of time getting used to the radios and antennas which is the basic purpose of Winter Field Day.  With one or two exceptions I was able to work anyone I could hear. One or two contacts were made with the Yaesu but I found the ICOM easier to work.

In the end, it was a worthwhile trip, I had fun and learned a great deal about the radios and the antennas.  More importantly, what I need and don’t need for the effort.  All of that is important in helping me quickly set up an emergency station in the field.

On yes, the RV does have a heating system.

Carmine Prestia, K3CWP