Join Elecraft for Field Day (June 23-24th, 2001)
(See below for maps to Henry Coe State Park)
For the past four years, we have done FD at Henry Coe State Park, south of San Jose, CA, and to the east of Morgan Hill. The first time we went up, the K2 was just a gleam in our eye and a sketch on the back of a log page. The next year, it was a rough draft--a heavily marked-up schematic, some color drawings. Last year we were ready to have some fun. With over 1000 K2s in the Field, and our newly shipping K1s, we did! But we always knew that the K2 was destined to be a real radio, and we're both looking forward to the yearly pilgrimage to Henry Coe. This year, with over 2,100 K2s and close to 1,000 K1s on the air, we expect to work a few of you...
With this in mind, we'd like to invite anyone who'd like to take a test drive on the K1 or K2, or just to visit, to join us for all or part of the FD weekend. We're hoping to arrive early and stake out a great campsite for our usual 1B effort. The operating position will be the cozy dining table of Wayne's '83 VW Westphalia camper and the adjacent picnic table. It will be a far more social FD than usual for us, hopefully with a chance to get to know some of you better while taking lots of notes on how the K2 stacks up. (If you plan to eat with us please bring what ever you like.)
How to get there:
Henry Coe isn't exactly the redwoods, but it has decent elevation, nice big oak trees, and a straight shot east and south. Weather can range from quite cool and windy to sunny and searing. (Link to Henry Coe Park web page with a map to the park.) We will be located in the camping area just past the main visitors center. (Map of the camping area.)
If you can't make it, look for us on the air. We will be using Wayne's call (N6KR). I guess mine has a few too many dits for FD...Eric
73 and best of luck at FD,
Wayne, N6KR & Eric, WA6HHQ
Elecraft Field Day 1999
Click on the small pictures to see enlargements.
Eric, WA6HHQ and Wayne, N6KR show off their K2s
(Photo courtesy of George, KJ6VU from the K6SRA group)
Henry Coe State Park is located at 2600 ft in the mountains to the east of Morgan Hill, CA. Our operating location is on a hill that looks directly down a sloping canyon to the east - ideal for propagation across the US from California.
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Elecraft field day site. |
View to the east. |
Our two station field day set up consisted of two K2s: one running into a 130' long wire down the hill to the east and one running into a SLV vertical. We also ran both antennas into an A/B switch to compare their operation. (The long wire down the canyon is a great performer, but interestingly the vertical would switch off with it 50% of the time for best signals.)
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View to the east from our SLV vertical. |
View of the Elecraft site from the north. The SLV vertical is in the foreground, and the long wire is fed from the VW vanagon to the pole on the left of the SLV, then over the oak tree to the left and down the canyon to the east. |
We had a great time operating our K2s in their first contest situation. Both were battery powered, with one K2 using its internal 3AH gel-cell battery for the complete weekend. We made heavy use of the K2 internal memory keyer, programmable memories and the variable crystal filter bandwidths. In a word, the K2s passed field day testing with flying colors.
To test RX overload performance we ran two K2's side by side in Wayne's VW Vanagon. One was operating on 40M and the other on 20M. The antennas were less than 50m apart. There was no overload of the K2 RX when the other was transmitting.
Click on the small pictures to see enlargements.
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Dueling K2s (tables rotated out for viewing.) |
Dual K2 operating positions. |
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K2 on the air. |
Operating position #1 as seen from position #2. (Day #2, N6KR asleep at the key.) |
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We also tested the K2 RX while listening to another field day station (K6SRA - The Sierra Radio Association) that was running 100W on 20M less than 0.5 KM from our station. Their beam was pointed directly at us. (We initially worried about their close location, but the K2 handled their local signal with no problems.) While listening directly on their frequency, the K2 RX AGC operated well, even though the signal was pinning our S-Meter. We then tuned 10KHz off of their signal to listen to a weak CW signal. We observed no overload or de-sense of the weak signal when their 100W station was transmitting. |
K6SRA field day site (0.5KM from Elecraft site) A Strong signal source for K2 RX testing! |
The comments from stations who listened to our K2 TX signal were all very favorable. The K2's PIN diode TX/RX switching contributed to our low operating fatigue. The K2 transmitter remained stable, even when it was run into a poor SWR. We certainly abused the K2 final transistors this field day, but they survived the weekend without any problems.
Thanks again to the K6SRA group for their strong local signal source and for a great Saturday dinner, and to those who made the trek up to our field day site to see the K2.
