back to 2023.06.24 Summer Field Day Antique Acres

5 post-event analysis:


Reflections on what went right, what went wrong, and what to do differently next time:

My personal changes:
- add PL on RX for 82 on check-in radio
- add 3rd battery port on solar pigtail
- attach protective bumpers to the corners of the solar frames?
- minor improvements to check-in sheet to make date and time recording easier
- configure a dedicated controller for LiFePO4
- improved station distribution jumpers

My personal packing additions:
- antacid/omeprazole
- second USB A/B cable
- collapsible traffic cones to mark off solar

Analysis and feedback:

Weather was the dominant issue throughout the event, affecting how we had to do things, as well as what we
could and could not do. Both the solar panels and the antennas suffered greatly at the hands of high wind.

We only ran 2-Alpha (plus GOTA) this year. which I was worried might not be enough, but it worked out in the
end due to a combination of limited operators and antenna damage due to wind. The automatic antenna tuners
were struggling to tune damaged antennas, but an old-school supertuner was able to do the job.

We still struggled a little with getting the radios running digital. For the most part, software and drivers
were installed, but were not always configured, and it takes considerable time to troubleshoot digital mode
setup. Laptops need to be pre-configured to run specific radios, with their configuration status clearly
marked on the case of the computer. Radios also required some reconfiguring to get them running. We were
fortunate to have some LTE internet for our phones which allowed us to search online for help in getting the
radios and software correctly configured.

Logging went much smoother than usual after we got the master logging computer and WSJST auto-logging
enabled. Recommend getting that configured and tested on all the laptops before the next event.

FT8 worked for the most part, but there were persistent problems with being unable to complete the exchange,
often due to what looked like the software on one or both ends getting stuck in some kind of a loop. For
example, our radio would receive step 3 and reply with step 4, only for the other end to send step 3 again.
This would often repeat several times before either getting back on track and us receiving step 5, or the
other end would just keep sending step 3 for several times before giving up. This happened both when replying
to and calling CQ, on about 15-20% of the contact attempts. We also saw several stations calling regular
(non-field-day) calls or using non-standard message format that was confusing WSJST.

We struggled with one of the headphone-splitter boxes, which didn't seem to be able to generate sufficient
volume in one of the headsets that was being used. Might have been an impedance mismatch? The volume knobs
felt very rough when turned, but they might just be old wire-wound LADs or something and that's normal?

This year I didn't notice us lacking anything. There were minor forgotten items here and there, but spares
or alternatives were always available.

The talk-in radio was set up early on the 82, though there was discussion of it needing to be on a UHF freq
instead of VHF. There was no PL set on the receive, so it was periodically blasting some digital when the
repeater was used digitally, which did get a little annoying at times.

Despite the large amount of solar panels deployed, the weather (a combination of deep overcast, rain, and
especially the occasional gusts of high wind as storms periodically rolled through) greatly impaired our
ability to collect solar power and recharge the batteries. The FLA's were all dead by morning, and we then
switched to LiFePO4 to keep on the air. We had three in total: Als 400AH, my 100AH, and another operator
also dropped off a 100AH to use. In the end, we had enough power, but it was getting down to the wire.
We should probably start the digital station immediately on Al's lithium since it consumes power so rapidly.

The solar frames were effective at aiming the panels to face the sun while retaining portability. However,
their size and weight made them extremely vulnerable to wind, which we had an especially big problem with
this year. On the "flip" side, the frames DID make it much faster to rush the panels inside when a storm
showed up with little warming. That many panels laying flat on the ground individually would probably have
taken flight much sooner, as well as taking longer to pick up individually to bring inside. This may just be
a necessary trade-off for portability? Setup also took quite awhile, but again this may just be unavoidable.

I didn't bring my gas generator this year for testing, and I didn't see any other generators either. This may
be something we're forgetting to do for Field Day, make sure our generators are in operating condition?




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