DIY Field Day Set up


As the Rambler Editor asked for pictures from our DIY setup, here goes:

The solar panels are, well, meh.  Solar panels.  I had to take this picture to get the 100 bonus points for natural power.

Those panels are driving the charge controller and its battery (which I bought from Rob, VE3RXH, at a VERY good price.  Thanks Rob.)  Of the 3 DC leads flying off the battery, of course 2 of them are the regulated output of the charge controller.  Another 2 are going to the powerpole distribution strip for powering the IC705.  The third (out of picture) is wired into a cigar lighter with flying leads that is the socket for a CTC Eliminator 75W inverter.  The inverter is quite efficient, passively cooled and was more than enough to handle the 23W drawn by the monitor and the minimal draw from the Pi4.

The end fed antenna seemed to work OK on 15/20/40 - it was cut for a half wave on 40.  I checked it with my nano and the resonance point was ok on 40 but on the high side on 10/15/20.  I could tune out the impedance with my Palstar but having the resonance points different from where I was operating means the antenna really wasn't all that efficiently and I suppose it's unavoidable with a simple wire.  As well, the impedance was around 3500 ohms which didn't transform well through the 49:1 unun.  I'm thinking of adding 1 turn on the secondary to make the ratio closer to 70:1. Maybe more to report on that later for the September Rambler.

All making good for a total score of 3040 points, a personal best on this 4th DIY effort, which has been submitted and accepted by ARRL in the name of the OVMRC.

73, Hugo, ve3ktn

Appears in: Rambler Vol.66 Issue 1