As a new ham, I have been eagerly anticipating the ARRL Field Day 2020 and the opportunity to learn from my fellow club members. While plans have changed due to social distancing measures surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, the challenge of planning the logistics of my first Field Day at home has me just as excited. I plan to divide my time between my home station, and a small park in my neighborhood (weather permitting). The following is what I am planning for W1YCZ’s first Field Day.

Home Station on Emergency Power

I will be operating from my home station for most of the Field Day period. I will be using an Icom IC-7300 Transceiver at up to 100W. The antenna is a MyAntennas End Fed Half Wave Antenna, mounted about 40 feet up from the roofline of my house into the tree line across my yard. With this setup, I can reasonably cover 80m through 10m with the 100W of power provided by my transceiver. I have had great success with this station so far. While operating from my home, I will be operating SSB and will spend a fair of time in the FT8 and FT4 digital modes.

The emergency power source for my station will be an 8kW portable generator connected via a transfer switch. The generator will provide power for all essential circuits in the home for the duration of my Field Day operation.

Portable Station on Battery Power

Depending on the weather, I may spend some time operating at a small park down the street from my home. When operating away from home I bring my Icom IC-7300, a portable antenna, and a battery pack. My antenna is the Chameleon F-Loop 2.0, which covers 80m through 10m. The antenna admittedly has relatively low power limits (10W full duty-cycle, 25W SSB). Though I would love to run a full 100 watts when operating in the field, operating QRP is a fun challenge. I will primarily operate SSB with this setup.

Power for my portable station is provided by a 15Ah Bioenno Lithium Iron Phosphate battery. I recently built an enclosure for the battery using a mini ammo box. I mounted the battery inside the box and added a bank of Anderson Powerpole connectors to the top of the box. The box is light, only takes up a small amount of space at my operating position, and protects the battery from the elements.

More Information about W1YCZ

If you are interested in more information about me, please visit my QRZ webpage at http://www.truland.net.

Matt, W1YCZ