- 3,657
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- Location
- Dallas, Texas
Well does a 30 mile road trip count? So I had to get a deuce driving fix.. And, today is Ham Radio "field day"..
I drove from dallas to Irving TX and joined in with the Irving ARC (http://www.irvingarc.org/) in erecting antennas, operating radios, and logging contacts from all over the USA.
To transmit, I chose the 14MHz HF ham band and added 5 more 3-ft MS-116A sections to the 9FT bumper-mounted whip for a total of about 25FT including the antenna base section which is about 1FT tall. The antenna would not support itself, so we leaned it over so the tip was up in a tree. With this very questionable antenna setup and a 100 watt SSB and CW modes on an ICOM IC706, we made contacts as far away as Ohio.
The second air conditioner (the one I made from parts) worked great, and really sucked the moisture out of the air, and quickly took up the slack after the shelter door was opened repeatedly in the 90 degree muggy heat. It worked well enough that we were able to use the 250CFM blower to keep frech air coming through the interior. This is important because the onboard generator could produce fumes. Never did smell any exhaust, but better safe than sorry.
This is the first time the onboard generator set was put to use without being watched, and for more than 30 minutes. It worked fairly well. It made a hum and vibration, but no more than the added air conditioner which itself is quite noisy. With 2 air conditioners and all the radio gear, the load was about 2860 watts (1210 on one side of the 220 and 1650 on the other side). After some time, the voltage decreased to 218V and the frequency decreased to 58.5Hz. This I attribute to it being hot, but still the speed should not have changed since on this kind of small 6KW unit, the speed affects the voltage. So I blame the engine and will have to take it up with the maker, Gillette Generator. Further, there seems to be an oil leak where the engine attaches to the generator. It is very minor but I expected no oil leaks on a new generator, if you know what I mean.
The four 92AH AGM batteries (flux capacitor in the other thread) and power supply system in the shelter worked perfectly supplying 13.65VDC and 27.3VDC to the radios. I made only one contact on 6M FM using the RT524, sort of disappointing. -but the HF was much better.
I discovered I had a nail in an inside rear tire, and had to deal with that unpleasantness.
During the day, the IARC provided cold cuts for sandwiches for lunch, and for dinner there was hamburgers, squash caserrole, cole slaw, beand, and pasta.
So that was from about 9AM to 8 PM. Well, it being 9PM when after stowing everything I got out of there, I stopped at a drive-through beer-barn/gas&diesel station to fill up the truck. Probably a bad choice.. after filling, I tried to exit, and all I could see was a bunch of drunks in hoopdie cars streaming into the parking lot at 20MPH against my direction. It was almost amusing as they scattered before me as I did all of 5MPH towards the exit. Who lets these ignunt people out at night?
All done, the truck attracted many vititors to the park, and I used the chance to interest them in MV colllecting as well has ham radio. It was really alot of fun.
I drove from dallas to Irving TX and joined in with the Irving ARC (http://www.irvingarc.org/) in erecting antennas, operating radios, and logging contacts from all over the USA.
To transmit, I chose the 14MHz HF ham band and added 5 more 3-ft MS-116A sections to the 9FT bumper-mounted whip for a total of about 25FT including the antenna base section which is about 1FT tall. The antenna would not support itself, so we leaned it over so the tip was up in a tree. With this very questionable antenna setup and a 100 watt SSB and CW modes on an ICOM IC706, we made contacts as far away as Ohio.
The second air conditioner (the one I made from parts) worked great, and really sucked the moisture out of the air, and quickly took up the slack after the shelter door was opened repeatedly in the 90 degree muggy heat. It worked well enough that we were able to use the 250CFM blower to keep frech air coming through the interior. This is important because the onboard generator could produce fumes. Never did smell any exhaust, but better safe than sorry.
This is the first time the onboard generator set was put to use without being watched, and for more than 30 minutes. It worked fairly well. It made a hum and vibration, but no more than the added air conditioner which itself is quite noisy. With 2 air conditioners and all the radio gear, the load was about 2860 watts (1210 on one side of the 220 and 1650 on the other side). After some time, the voltage decreased to 218V and the frequency decreased to 58.5Hz. This I attribute to it being hot, but still the speed should not have changed since on this kind of small 6KW unit, the speed affects the voltage. So I blame the engine and will have to take it up with the maker, Gillette Generator. Further, there seems to be an oil leak where the engine attaches to the generator. It is very minor but I expected no oil leaks on a new generator, if you know what I mean.
The four 92AH AGM batteries (flux capacitor in the other thread) and power supply system in the shelter worked perfectly supplying 13.65VDC and 27.3VDC to the radios. I made only one contact on 6M FM using the RT524, sort of disappointing. -but the HF was much better.
I discovered I had a nail in an inside rear tire, and had to deal with that unpleasantness.
During the day, the IARC provided cold cuts for sandwiches for lunch, and for dinner there was hamburgers, squash caserrole, cole slaw, beand, and pasta.
So that was from about 9AM to 8 PM. Well, it being 9PM when after stowing everything I got out of there, I stopped at a drive-through beer-barn/gas&diesel station to fill up the truck. Probably a bad choice.. after filling, I tried to exit, and all I could see was a bunch of drunks in hoopdie cars streaming into the parking lot at 20MPH against my direction. It was almost amusing as they scattered before me as I did all of 5MPH towards the exit. Who lets these ignunt people out at night?
All done, the truck attracted many vititors to the park, and I used the chance to interest them in MV colllecting as well has ham radio. It was really alot of fun.
. You talked to someone in Ohio, form Texas 
??!! Thats like 1200 miles, 1/3 the way across our nation!
