FYBO 2010
I got a call from a friend several days ago about possibly operating FYBO this weekend. Since I didn't have anything really planned I figured it was a great opportunity to get together with some friends, play radio, and enjoy the outdoors. We made an excellent day out of it!
We got slammed with the winter storm that went through the eastern half of the US between Friday and Saturday. Where I live we got 12" of snow. Over where we were hiking there was a bit less than that, 8-10" but it did blow around a little and accumulate higher in certain areas. This made for GREAT FYBO weather!
Some of the trails had lots of downed branches and entire trees in some parts. All that snow loading really stresses the vegetation.
The hiking was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. However, it was much more difficult plowing through and walking on the snow than normal trails, however. Since the snow is soft your foot presses it down and you end up using up more energy than if your foot was firmly pushing on the ground. Add to that pushing the snow out of your foot path as you take a normal step and the hiking effort is probably doubled.
Some of my problems when hiking was first I got really hot. The second problem I had (go back to the first picture) is my antenna parts would snag all these low hanging branches loaded with snow. I had taken my coat off to cool down and then got covered with snow. Having a load of snow down the back of your neck is one good way to cool off! Maybe a bit too much...
After the hour or more hike we got to our destination - a rock overhang up in the hills. Joe KD8BKB is in the background there working the FT-817. We had to rig that one up to an SLA battery using the AA case and alligator clips. The power cable wasn't anywhere to be found. We made do and got it on the air though!
Where we parked (first picture) was not all the way back in the park - the access road back in there was gated and not plowed. It was possible to get in, but it was decided to just park there and hike in. The trip in went the long way around to the hill top where the rock overhang is - this avoided some steep elevation gains. In the snow it would have been near impossible to climb. We went that way on the way out and I went skiing several times. If it wasn't for my trekking poles I would have turned my pack in to a toboggan (and not by choice).
The overhang has a real neat layout to it. There is a table to set radios and a seat to sit on! Not a bad operating position, eh? Note the coax running along the ceiling.
Here is Joe's Buddistick antenna. It was loaded up on 40m.
The coax on the ceiling goes to my modified Buddistick (note the additional 10m Hamstick base between the coil and aluminum arms). I used some poles from my cabin tent as a mast (with a bit of duct tape to take up a bit of space so the PVC adapter to the Versa-T would fit snugly). The mast is just leaning up against a tree branch (note the tilt).
I had this antenna running on 20 meters. The antenna was actually too long to resonate on 20. I shorted out the whole coil and still had to drop the telescoping whip one section to get it to resonate.
You can't tell this from the picture, but there are two radials extending to both sides of the feed point (laying up in the vegetation). They have a white jacket on them so they hide quite nicely against the snow.
I didn't plan ahead very well on coax. What I did is I used my 35' run of LMR-200 that I use for my jumper dipole (my typical backpacking antenna). I rigged it to work. I probably wasted a good 45 minutes trying to figure out how to make it work with what I had. In the end it ran fine. I will make spade adapter wires for this so I won't get stuck in the same scenario again.
We didn't rack up a bunch of contacts. It was still fun to get out and do some hiking, light a camp fire, and hang out. The trip was also a learning experience for all of us on having the right stuff. I had too many antennas and supplies with me for the time that we had. If I was going camping for a few days then having the selections might have come in handy, but all I operated on was the Buddistick.
One improvement I did make before the trip was I put PowerPole connectors ON my battery. This way I can easily connect with any cable I have. Before I was using a spade connector cable that went to a PowerPole. I would take the cable off the battery when I packed it up. This lead to leaving the power cable at the trail head on one of my trips to Zaleski State Forest. With the PowerPole connector right on the battery itself this is one less problem I face.
I did not take many pictures on the way out, but I had to stop and take this one on our hike back out the access road that we couldn't drive in on:
Where all the foot prints are is the road. There is a covered bridge behind the trees to the left of the telephone pole. I think we timed our exit perfectly with the amount of daylight we had!
We got slammed with the winter storm that went through the eastern half of the US between Friday and Saturday. Where I live we got 12" of snow. Over where we were hiking there was a bit less than that, 8-10" but it did blow around a little and accumulate higher in certain areas. This made for GREAT FYBO weather!
Some of the trails had lots of downed branches and entire trees in some parts. All that snow loading really stresses the vegetation.
The hiking was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. However, it was much more difficult plowing through and walking on the snow than normal trails, however. Since the snow is soft your foot presses it down and you end up using up more energy than if your foot was firmly pushing on the ground. Add to that pushing the snow out of your foot path as you take a normal step and the hiking effort is probably doubled.
Some of my problems when hiking was first I got really hot. The second problem I had (go back to the first picture) is my antenna parts would snag all these low hanging branches loaded with snow. I had taken my coat off to cool down and then got covered with snow. Having a load of snow down the back of your neck is one good way to cool off! Maybe a bit too much...
After the hour or more hike we got to our destination - a rock overhang up in the hills. Joe KD8BKB is in the background there working the FT-817. We had to rig that one up to an SLA battery using the AA case and alligator clips. The power cable wasn't anywhere to be found. We made do and got it on the air though!
Where we parked (first picture) was not all the way back in the park - the access road back in there was gated and not plowed. It was possible to get in, but it was decided to just park there and hike in. The trip in went the long way around to the hill top where the rock overhang is - this avoided some steep elevation gains. In the snow it would have been near impossible to climb. We went that way on the way out and I went skiing several times. If it wasn't for my trekking poles I would have turned my pack in to a toboggan (and not by choice).
The overhang has a real neat layout to it. There is a table to set radios and a seat to sit on! Not a bad operating position, eh? Note the coax running along the ceiling.
Here is Joe's Buddistick antenna. It was loaded up on 40m.
The coax on the ceiling goes to my modified Buddistick (note the additional 10m Hamstick base between the coil and aluminum arms). I used some poles from my cabin tent as a mast (with a bit of duct tape to take up a bit of space so the PVC adapter to the Versa-T would fit snugly). The mast is just leaning up against a tree branch (note the tilt).
I had this antenna running on 20 meters. The antenna was actually too long to resonate on 20. I shorted out the whole coil and still had to drop the telescoping whip one section to get it to resonate.
You can't tell this from the picture, but there are two radials extending to both sides of the feed point (laying up in the vegetation). They have a white jacket on them so they hide quite nicely against the snow.
I didn't plan ahead very well on coax. What I did is I used my 35' run of LMR-200 that I use for my jumper dipole (my typical backpacking antenna). I rigged it to work. I probably wasted a good 45 minutes trying to figure out how to make it work with what I had. In the end it ran fine. I will make spade adapter wires for this so I won't get stuck in the same scenario again.
We didn't rack up a bunch of contacts. It was still fun to get out and do some hiking, light a camp fire, and hang out. The trip was also a learning experience for all of us on having the right stuff. I had too many antennas and supplies with me for the time that we had. If I was going camping for a few days then having the selections might have come in handy, but all I operated on was the Buddistick.
One improvement I did make before the trip was I put PowerPole connectors ON my battery. This way I can easily connect with any cable I have. Before I was using a spade connector cable that went to a PowerPole. I would take the cable off the battery when I packed it up. This lead to leaving the power cable at the trail head on one of my trips to Zaleski State Forest. With the PowerPole connector right on the battery itself this is one less problem I face.
I did not take many pictures on the way out, but I had to stop and take this one on our hike back out the access road that we couldn't drive in on:
Where all the foot prints are is the road. There is a covered bridge behind the trees to the left of the telephone pole. I think we timed our exit perfectly with the amount of daylight we had!
posted by Steve at
8:33 PM
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