The normal group of Field Day scalawags were in the wind for 2018. N4GU was uncertain if the QTH from 2016 and 2017 would be available. N4YDU took up N9NB’s offer for FD at Ted’s QTH in VA foothills. I was also kindly invited, but decided that I didn’t want to drive quite that far, despite the nearly ideal location. I do love me some VA mountains.
Photos from FD2018: http://w4kaz.com/images/fd2018/
For 2018 I took exit ramp #3, and went with the backup backup plan. Operated 1B at a campground near Wilmington NC. A nice easy drive, with a couple of easy on/off stops along the way to stretch out the body parts complaining loudest. That made the drive tolerable.  Also made it into a mini-escape, leaving home QTH on Thursday with a return on Monday morning.
Weather conditions[i.e., heat] soon had me thinking I’d have been better off in the VA mountains, but after acclimatizing to “swamp butt” conditions, it was fine. When I sweat enough to remind me of living on the South coast – its pretty darn sticky. Usually not quite so bad in NC, but it happens enough to know to be prepared. Lots of water and gatorade. Thursday afternoon was the worst of it though.
Friday morning was spent doing a bit of unrelated recon. Friday afternoon I laid out the antennas and supports, and some more unrelated area wide explorations. WX on Saturday dryed out some, and there was a nice breeze that picked up from the start of operations though early evening. Never a drop of rain, just temps and humidity in the 90’s. Just like being back in good ole Bigg Swampy(SE Louisiana).
Antennas:
2018 was a time to test some antenna ideas. I built a 2 band triangular yagi for 20m/15m, based on article by Herb,N4HA as published in June 2018 QST. I kept to the published dimensions(mostly) but fashioned the driven element(s) from 300ohm ladder line. For supports I used a mast from Henry, K4TMC as the support for the drive element/apex. The tails sloped down to connect to the reflectors, and those ends were supported by 2 masts cobbled together by combining a Shakespeare Wonderpole on top of a section of 4 foot mil surplus mast.  Simple, and easier than I expected. This antenna was fed with 300 ohm ladder line run to a tuner rather than coax.
40m was a simple inverted Vee supported by a Spiderbeam 12m telescoping mast. Note: Simple does not mean “easy”.
10m was an afterthought. After struggling with the 40m dipole-that-wouldn’t, I had a relaxing breakfast and gave some thought to 10m. Had plenty of time, so may as well. To get on 10m I made a dipole by cutting a couple of equal 8.5 foot lengths of wire and constructed a “FD style” center insulator from a pair of cable ties taped together. Used a “composite” feedline – a ladderline drop to a 1:1 unun and a short coax run into the tent. I had a length of ladder line about 25 feet long so the 10m dipole was up about 23 feet.  At the end of the ladder line at ground level I plugged the ladder line into a 1:1 unun, and ran the last 30 feet or so into the station with coax. From start to finish this antenna took about 30 minutes to put up, including cutting legs and twisting it all together.
No antenna at all on 80m. Decided I’d have enough business on 20m & 40m to keep occupied, and figured on sleep rather than a night of 80m T-storm QRN. 😮
Now, about that 40m Vee. The antenna that would NOT. Still not certain where the problem was, but it had an issue in one of the feedlines somewhere[update-think one of the legs has broken wire]. Far too much time was wasted raising and lowering the antenna trying to debug the issue. Lesson1: Always have an alternative.  Lesson2: Don’t dick around debugging when you have the alternative at hand ready to go. Lesson3: Save debugging for down time. Lesson4: Read Lesson1 and Lesson2 until they really sink in.
Operating:
Once the CQ’s started, there were plenty of QSO’s to log. Saturday was a bit slow at first, but I got a better rhythm in the evening. Was tired though, and sacked early, including a 45 minute nap at 5pm in the nice cool breeze that came up. Also got up early Sunday, 5am-ish.  Sunday morning was quite a bit of fun, right up until my keyer interface died around 11am. So I finished the event with a bit of lackadaisical SSB, mostly S&P.
Camp:
The Cabelas tent goes up easily. My only regret is not getting one of the larger sizes. It has room for setting up a table for the station and also for a cot along the opposite side. But it is a bit cramped. Next time I do this I think I will use a screen tent for the station and the tent just for snoozing/bad wx. Also, the ideal site would allow for the tent to use an overhead spike support and avoid the need for the center pole.
Overall a big win. Keeping the ants away…..the real challenge!
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