Field Day 2020 - Loft Mountain
Campground (inside the NRQZ)
My son and I set up a portable
operation at Loft Mountain Campground for ARRL Field Day 2020 [FM08PF]. We
operated solar/battery powered on 6M/40M SSB S&P, and on VHF/UHF FM Phone.
We operated Sat from 6pm to 1030pm EST (shutdown to observe quiet hours), and
on Sunday from about 11am to 3pm EST. We logged 64 QSO's, all voice.
The weather was beautiful,
especially in the evening when temperatures were 55-60 degrees F overnight with
a light 5-10mph breeze. If only we could have brought some of that evening
weather back in a jar! The closest storm was north of us in Luray, VA (~30m
north). The campground did not have online reservations, we went very early
Friday to get a site (first come, first served) and by 1130am the campground
was Full for Friday/Saturday.
My Tundra pickup truck bed held the
antennas: 14' of 1" guyed PVC with my Elk Antenna Log Periodic Antenna
mounted vertically for FM. I worked stations using this setup being a bit over
3,200ft ASL, it's proven its worth before on other portable trips. On HF, I
spent 2h+ Sat trying to tune a Hustler 4-band vertical antenna/coil setup using
a Rig Expert AA-600. I made a few 6M and 40M SSB contacts on the Hustler setup
but I switched to the HF antenna I was going to run on the mobile for VaQP
(pre-covid) so I could field test its operation: A 104" SS Whip from
DXEngineering and a Wolf River Coil (Silver Bullet 1000) (picture on QRZ.com).
Once tuned for 40m SSB, I received great feedback on the whip/coil HF antenna
setup at 75-100W. I did not work 6M once I placed the SS Whip/coil in-place on
40M.
Visitors: I had two people (a ham
and his girlfriend) sign a sheet that they visited our site (first name, town),
I did not think of that until others had left. I talked to more than 20 people
as my truck/antennas were right at the road in the campground. That was just as
enjoyable as operating the radio, that actually surprised me. The questions
about what the antennas were for were amusing: Is that for cellular ? -
that was my favorite and the most common one although several people (hams)
knew what FD was but they had forgotten it was that weekend and did not even
have an HT on them (yes I shamed them and sent them on their way, HI HI). I did
not let anyone operate my gear, COVID was not worth the health risk.
Power: We operated as 1B, battery.
The battery I have is a 30Ah LiFEPO4 from Bioenno Power, it normally runs the
radio in the shack and is solar charged. The West Mountain Radio Epic PwrGate
has jumpers inside to set it to safely charge this battery (it is not set that
way by default, RTM or you’ll damage a LiFEPO4 battery if you do not change the
jumpers inside) and it has a USB interface if you care to set different
charging parameters.
30 Ah LifePO4 solar charged battery
pack (has run the IC-7100 for the last 2y at QTH)
Operating in the NRQZ (National
Radio Quiet Zone)
The campground is inside the NRQZ
(National Radio Quiet Zone) so one week prior [earlier is better], I contacted
them to notify them of my intention to operate portable inside of the NRQZ so
they could check for any potential impact on their schedule based on my plan
(an example follows). Once approved by email, they handled notifying Sugar
Grove, no response came back from them so I was clear to operate. The NRQZ is a
very large area in VA and portions of other states, if you operate
inside the NRQZ area please see their site for the boundary, rules, and contact
information. Please note that my permission for Field Day 2020 is not
transferable to any future operation by me or others; fines and penalties are
steep to include seizure of all gear, your ham license, fines, and I think
potential jail time -it's just not worth ignoring and you'll see in the example
below how easy it is to obtain permission for licensed portable/mobile ham
radio operations.
My initial email and reply to NRQZ
Coordinator on 6/22/2020 follows as an example:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Email Title: NRQZ: Amateur Radio
Field Day [June 26-29, 2020] Amateur Portable
Good afternoon,
I am writing again to inform you of
my request to operate portable amateur radio gear within the NRQZ. All portable
antennas, nothing aimed directly western.
Dates:
June 26-29 (ARRL Field Day Weekend)
Location:
Shenandoah National Park, Loft
Mountain Campground
Approx GPS Coordinates:
38.246706, -78.670701 [center of mountain top, campground area]
The park is not reserving campsites
online so I selected the approximate center of the top of Loft Mountain for
this request as it represents the worst case interference profile wise, etc. If
GPS selected coordinate is an issue, I am usually 100-200' lower on the S-SE
side of Loft Mountain.
Antennas - omni directional
- FM, 5/8 wave 2m/70cm on my mobile
for VHF/UHF voice, 5-50w [2m: 3dBi, 70cm: 5.5 dBi]
- HF/6M, 104" SS Whip on mobile
[parked] and a wolf river coil for base loading [2-3.5 dBi]
Antennas - directional
- FM, 2m/70cm Elk Antenna [gain: 2m:
8.7 dBi, 70cm: 9.0 dBi]
- 6M, 2 element antenna, approx 120
deg 'beam like' antenna (moxon) [~ 6.3Bi gain]
(Any directional antenna will be
pointed North to East to South, 15-23dB loss to rear of ant)
- flexible on these directional
antennas, on 6M power 5-20w [or less]
- [note:
I did not use the moxon for 6m]
6 meters (USB modes)
50.125-52.500, analog voice, 20-100w
50.260-50.326, digital,
FT4/FT8/JT9/JT65/MSK144/PSK31/PSK63, 5-20w
6 meters (50 mhz) to 80 meters (3.5
mhz)
Typical bands/modes, General Class
Licensed Amateur Station
5-100w (analog voice), 5-20w (digital
modes)
antenna: 105" SS Whip, Wolf
River Coil (base) - omni antenna (6m-80m)
daytime: in the daytime, both
digital or analog voice modes are planned
night time: due to noise
regulations, digital modes would be used 9pm-7am [not all night]
Please advise if any parameters
above need adjusting, I can request an eastern campsite that would be 100-200'
below the summit of the GPS coordinate above (depending on availability when we
arrive Fri). If the campground is full, we will operate elsewhere (mobile).
Thank you,
David kk4zuu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The reply from the NRQZ Coordinator
was received by email on 6/23/2020 [<24 hours later]:
Thanks David.
I’ll make a note of it and advise Sugar Grove.
Looks like we have at least one good obstacle in the way for both the Observatory and their site as well.
Be safe in your travels and thanks for the notification.
Paulette
I’ll make a note of it and advise Sugar Grove.
Looks like we have at least one good obstacle in the way for both the Observatory and their site as well.
Be safe in your travels and thanks for the notification.
Paulette
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That is how simple it is to remain
legal inside the NRQZ. Feel free to use this format, it is one I wrote on my
own and the format is used every time I have operated in the NRQZ, including
being less than 15 miles away from the telescope at Middle
Mountain Cabins, WV. You may encounter issues using larger antennas, beams
pointed at them without any mountains, and if you fall into a fixed antenna
category they will have a spreadsheet for you to fill out so for /P or /M
operations stick to verticals or wire dipoles and coordinate your operations.
All in all, a great trip, great
weather, campsite, food, and ham radio -what else is needed?
Our next trip: The ARRL September
VHF Contest [6m ft8, need more FFMA grids] back on Loft Mountain, we reserved our site on-line so hopefully no site drama when we arrive. Allot of folks were moved around on this trip due to on-site and online reservation issues.
--
73,
david kk4zuu
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