I’m currently out in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area for a week of house and puppy sitting for my daughter. My companion for the week is a five-year-old German Shepherd named Belle, who was adopted by my daughter and her family nine months ago. She’s a sweet dog, but she sometimes has some separation anxiety. So, I’m making sure my ham radio activities are short and close to home.

The first two days of my puppy sitting duty coincided with this year’s Field Day, so I did a little “backyard-portable” operating as category 1B. In my nearly 50 years of ham radio, this was my first-ever Field Day using my own callsign. 

My plan was simply to set up an antenna in the backyard and make a few contacts each day. The weatherman was calling for dangerously hot temperatures over the weekend, but there’s a section of the yard that has some shade for most of the day. 

My (far) better half came out for the weekend. While I was surveying the backyard trying to determine what antenna to use, she suggested strapping “that fishing pole antenna” (aka Jackite pole) to my grandson’s basketball pole. Great idea! So, I strapped my 31-foot Jackite pole to the pole and used a 29-foot wire and my weather-resistant 9:1 UnUn. I ran 18-feet of RG-8x over to the two chairs that served as my makeshift operating position. My rig was an Elecraft KX3 (5 watts, CW) powered by a 6 Ah LiFePO4 battery.

I started off logging contacts in HAMRS on my cell phone. That lasted for about two contacts before I switched to paper logging. I wanted to keep things simple and forgo using my laptop, so paper logging was just easier for me than using my cell phone.

With temperatures in the high 90s (F), I only stayed out there for two brief sessions on Saturday. When a strong thunderstorm blew through, I called it a day.  

After breakfast Sunday morning, I went back out to make a few more contacts before the weather heated up again. When I called it quits, I had 62 CW contacts in the log, including one DX station (France). 

My three hour effort didn’t break any records, but it was fun. I just wish the weather had been cooler, and I could have done without the thunderstorm. 

I hope everyone had a fun Field Day weekend.

72, Craig WB3GCK

Heading out for some portable operations yesterday, I had a few objectives in mind. First, I needed to take some pictures of an antenna mount for an article I’m working on. I also wanted to do a POTA activation, while also making some Winter Field Day (WFD) contacts. Lastly, I wanted to try out an inexpensive LiFePO4 battery I recently purchased.

I planned to do all this stuff while at Ridley Creek State Park (K-1414, KFF-1414). I started off by setting up to take the pictures for the article. After getting the shots I needed, I set up to get on the air. Today, I was using my KX3 (5 watts CW) and 12-foot loaded whip. I also had a 29-foot vertical wire fed through a 9:1 unun.

I finished setting up about 10 minutes before WFD kicked off, so I started calling “CQ POTA” on 30M. By the time WFD started, I had the required 10 POTA contacts in the log. After marking myself as “QRT” on the POTA spotting page, I started “searching and pouncing” on the bands. I was hunting for WFD, POTA, or anything else that seemed interesting. 

After a little under two hours, I wrapped up with 25 contacts in my log. Thirteen of them were WFD contacts. I also had a park-to-park QSO with AA4XX down in North Carolina. It’s always a pleasure to work Paul. A Straight Key Century Club contact with K3Y/8 rounded out my log.

The battery I was using today was a 6 Ah LiFePO4 battery I found on Amazon for about $20 (US). My trusty Bioenno batteries are still hanging tough after more than six years of use, but I was curious to see how this cheap battery would work. It did just fine, but we’ll see how it holds up over time.

With some welcomed mild weather yesterday, this wasn’t the most wintry of Winter Field Days here in Pennsylvania. I wish I had more time for it this weekend, but life had other plans for me. Best of luck to everyone taking part in WFD.

73, Craig WB3GCK