I’ve deployed a whole lot of different antennas in the 25 years that I’ve been an active participant of ARRL Field Day. Some have been utter duds and others have worked great. Some antennas seemingly should have worked well, but where the wrong choice for band conditions or operation goals. But each and every one of them has been a learning experience.
Long story short, it’s one thing to deploy an antenna during your average Parks on the Air activation, but when you go head to head with multiple transmitters on a site and having to deal with wall to wall QRM, you really need to think about how your antenna system will help overcome those challenges.
This week’s video: My quest for the BEST Vertical Delta Loop Antenna! chronicles my adventure in building, deploying, and using a 20 meter vertical delta loop antenna. You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/-WqOFKUKQaM
Was this antenna the best ever for Field Day? That remains to be seen. But it was the right choice for me, this year.
Eating through Field Day
I often do recap videos of my field day experience. This year I didn’t. I was more focused on making contacts and proving that my homebrew antenna was worth the time and effort put into it. This week on the livestream Joe and I will talk about Field Day, the good, bad, and ugly, so you’ll want to tune into that. It’s Thursday July 3 at 7:00pm CDT (4 July 0000Z). https://youtube.com/live/LvDJIO7Q1JI?feature=share
But I will share a bit on the food, because we had a lot of it. Some of the food choices for the weekend are planned long in advance, some come together in the last minute. There would be about seven people camping at the Field Day site near Black Lake: Travis and family, Dave, Joe, and I, so we would need enough to fee an army. Fortunately with Travis being the camp host at the Black Lake campground, we had access to a grill, fire pit, and other cooking essentials.
Friday night was totally inspired by a reel I saw posted by Malcolm Reed of How to BBQ right. Bacon wrapped chicken thighs. Basically these were boneless skinless thighs there were cut in half, liberally coated with rub, rolled and wrapped with a half piece of bacon, and skewered for the grill. Smoked for about an hour at 325, the thighs then got a glaze of BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Rays) and a finish on the smoker. Delish.
Saturday morning Joe showed off his skills by making breakfast over the fire. Biscuits in the dutch oven, bacon, pork sausage, and eggs over the fire. It was fun watching him work, and I was glad I didn’t have to do the cooking (I supplied the donuts).
Saturday evening is the big meal, and Travis was the star of the show with his smoked beef brisket. Going since 5am that morning, it was at the perfect point of doneness, although I wish there were more burnt ends. Dave brought is farm fresh deviled eggs, and we had some beans, salads, and other sides to round things out.
All in all, we didn’t starve while out in the woods that weekend.
Finishing up
As I mentioned above, join us for the livestream on Thursday. Joe and I will talk more about Field Day and answer your ham radio questions. You’ll find the livestream here: https://youtube.com/live/LvDJIO7Q1JI?feature=share
The 13 Colonies special event is going on right now. If you missed my interview with Daryl Cash, the North Carolina coordinator for 13 Colonies, you can catch it here. https://youtu.be/9or1QQ0MVZM It’s a great insight to this amazing special event.
Finally, Independence Day is coming up this Friday the 4th. 249 years ago a group of brave individuals signed a document that pushed up against tyranny. Our country was built on protest, and protest will continue to keep us free. Have a safe holiday weekend.
I hope to get you in the log soon
Michael
KB9VBR
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