back to 2025.01.25 Winter Field Day Camp Ingawanis

8 review:




my personal experiences:

- I had difficulty angling the solar panels - partly due to wind and partly due to lack of other good options
  for panel location

- I set up four solar frames, but due to low radio usage, two would have probably been sufficient.

- lighting in the east side cubbies where the two main radios were gets pretty dark at night, even with the
  overhead lights on. I set up a few DC lights which helped

- I also needed to set up a light outside to help Al with his grilling after dark, since the yard light on the
  cabin can't provide good light on the south end of the east side of the cabin

- I initially didn't get out the CCA jumper box, but hadn't set aside any jumpers for the solar frames, so I had
  to get that box out anyway, good thing I brought it

- the 2nd 100ft 10ga CCA reel came in very handy with having to set up the solar frames on the trees


other evaluations:

- pool noodles were used to gasket the windows, which worked but has room for improvement, possibly with
  making some modifications to the noodles

- pretty good turnout for a winter field day, 14 people on the sign-in sheet

- voice was the only mode that went smoothly - CW and digital each had setup problems, and digital suffered from
  what looked like RF interference with the radio/computer

- we were expecting 3 lithium batteries but one was forgotten. but due to the problems with CW and especially
  digital, two batteries were more than enough.

- with initial plans to run until 4pm, a larger lunch menu was prepared, and we ended up with a surplus of
  prepared food for lunch

- the large round table in the cabin was getting used for too many things - food, drop-offs, and a 3rd radio
  that never got working. We need to make better use of the small available space, maybe with a folding table
  instead of (or in addition to) the round table. The round table can be folded up and set aside.

- the wood burning stove did a good job of keeping the cabin warm, but it can be difficult to avoid wild swings
  in temperature when the fire is fed or starved, it's either 100% on or off.

- antennas were separated well and we didn't notice any interference. But we also didn't run CW or digital.


1 repairs and changes

2 reset for next event

tests



last updated 03/16/2025 at 17:02:04 by make_www_index.command version 2025.03.04.A