Field Day 2017

Mark WS7M

I really hope I worked you... What was your club call?

Steve W6SDM

Ah, but the Flex does have knobs... available.  This is a fidget spinner for Flex owners.

W9WLX_Chuck

W9FK—2A—WI

We ran a Flex 6500 for the second year.  The radio performed flawlessly and no reboots were needed.  The excellent filtering made working a crowded 40 meters enjoyable.  I find operating the Flex much less fatiguing over a superhet rig.  Spending long hours operating is easy and enjoyable.

We had some great flexibility too.  One of our operators, WB9IXS, also a Flex owner, wanted to experiment using his config and accessory apps.  We swapped laptops, imported profiles, and he was up and running in a matter of minutes--seamless and painless.  Looking forward to the 6600 showing up at Field Day 2018.  Maybe additional Flexes too???

-Flex 6500 into 40m dipole running 40m/15m, CW and Phone

-Icom 7600 into 80m loop running 80m/20m/10m, CW and Phone

-Icom 7100 into 6m, 5 element beam and 6m Squalo, running 6m

-All logging done with N1MM Logger+

QSOs—1115

CW—573

Phone—542

 

6—143 Qs

10—76 Qs

15—181 Qs

20—198 Qs

40—447 Qs

80—70 Qs

-73, W9WLX, Chuck

KENT HUFFORD

K4NAB 5A SC

N6SRP

3A-SF

This was the first FD for me, for my brother and for my father. None of us has much experience so our  goals were simply to learn, practice and have fun. I ran my 6500 while my brother and father each ran KX3s with panadapters. We didn't make a ton of contacts, but we certainly accomplished our goals.

A few observations:

• I loved the 6500, even though the KX3s were using the PX3 panadapter, I was still able to find more stations more quickly and make more QSOs.
• We were outside operating on a deck and during the afternoon, glare was a huge problem for me with a laptop screen.
  
• We had two Buddipoles and one OCF dipole (40/20/10/6). The ATU in the 6500 is great, though I did notice that the ATUs in the KX3s seemed able to tune a few solutions that the 6500 wasn't able to manage. 80m with a low band coil on the buddipole can be a bit twitchy.
• We ran on battery for part of the time and on a generator for part of the time. I'm running Parallels on a 15" Macbook Pro. This config worked fine with the generator, but it is a bit tough on battery. Once the internal battery goes, I had to run an inverter from our battery to charge the Macbook. The charger is 85 watts and seems to generate a chunk of heat. Needless to say, DC to AC back to DC isn't at all efficient. I wish that Apple made it easier to charge from an external battery. I have a 6600m reservation so this won't be an issue next year.
• I slept from 130a-330a. When I came back out at 330a, I noticed that my brother had stopped using his KX3 and was using my 6500
  
• I truly appreciated the encouragement and positive feedback that other stations offered in FD QSOs. There have been many times when I hear stations admonish others for mistakes, accents, political views, etc.. I enjoyed that on FD everyone seemed to be part of a community.
• With 100w on 40m I worked folks in STX, IL and Pac. We were right on the coast with mountains immediately to our east. Next year I may try to find a spot on the east slope of the Sierras.
  

Good times!!