Radio W4KAZ

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W4KAZ IOTA 2022 from NA-067, Cape Lookout NC, POTA K-0683

Schedule is set for another adventure to Cape Lookout, NC over the IOTA weekend. The plan for operation is going to be a very relaxed approach, depending on the WX and radio conditions. Activity will be condensed to mostly Saturday, but maybe some POTA calls Friday night or Sunday morning. Probably will have only 40/20/15/10, and forego 80m. Probably not worth the effort to add 80m if 20m stays open into the evening as it did for FD.

UPDATE, 2022/08/29. End of July WX made the event mostly a bust. Decent WX on Friday afternoon on arrival, so antenna set-up went swiftly. The weather deteriorated as evening came on, so the Antenna supports were lowered. Saturday morning brought clouds and lightning. The weather attempted to clear of for a couple of short windows. The final window was in the mid afternoon, just as radio conditions began to show promise. Lightning soon returned along with a couple of driving rainstorms early Saturday evening.

The QSO total never grew to useful levels, and the na-067 mult was scarce from the w4kaz op. 37 QSOs total, all on SSB.

Photo of antenna mast in down position

 

Photo of solar panels for topping off battery.

 

The 2022 IOTA station. Destined to be under-utilized

 

Antenna is 40m/20m trap dipole. Intermittent lightning in background not depicted.

 

Photo of sunset from the day before operating event. Was hoping for this on event day, […]

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Field Day 2022 – W4KAZ 1B NC

Passed up a chance to operate at the Korn Krib Kontest Klub of N4GU for a pre-planned solo camp out. Hit my favorite campsite again at Carolina Beach State Park. I allowed for an optional POTA run at Fort Fischer, but lazy won out over ambition on that one. Also used the chance to try out a new camping scheme with mixed success.

I landed on the campsite Thursday afternoon, but made a side trip to Kure Beach, then settled in for the evening. Friday morning was used up sleeping late, making gas run, ice run, and brunch run.

The Antenna Adventure

Setting up the station, a K2, went quick enough. The two antennas went up easily using the same masts I had used to test them with at home. An EFHW for 40m/20m and a 10m/15m trap dipole. FAST……as in too fast.  For some strange reason the EFHW is not tuning………hmmmmmmm. MAYBE omitting the chokes at the feedpoint are the problem. duh-OH!

The antenna still required a bit of tweaking.  “Strange…it worked just fine at home…?” I did waste about 75 minutes screwing around before figuring out the chokes were not installed. After that mistake was resolved I tested out the 80m “variation” that uses the EFHW vertical as a qtr wave on 80m. That is set up as a separate feed point that attaches to the EFHW via a jumper and a swap of coax. With the EFHW working, the 80m variation was actually as trivial […]

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