ARRL Field Day 2020 & Flambeau River State Forest Activation - Ham Radio Q&A

This year's ARRL Field Day adventure had me camping in the Flambeau River State Forest located in Northwestern Wisconsin and running as a 1-Bravo station. Flambeau River State Forest is K-4349 so all contacts will also receive Parks on the Air credit.
Items Mentioned:
Weaver Leather Throw Bag: amzn.to/3eFeQXQ
TC Teardrop 5x8 Trailer: www.tcteardrops.com/
Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet 1000: www.wolfrivercoils.com/
Map of contacts created by: qsomap.org/
Support Ham Radio Q&A by shopping at Amazon: amzn.to/2kO6LH7
Read my blog: www.jpole-antenna.com
Colophon:
Camera amzn.to/2GV2Og1
Lens amzn.to/2GWC5zU
Wireless Microphone: amzn.to/2qt3vDc
Microphone: amzn.to/30lJheO
Music by license: www.premiumbeats.com

[@frankmckinley1254]

A Ham & a Tear-dropper too! Very cool.

[@OutdoorsOnTheAir]

Thank you for sharing your experience, Michael! Nice video and a solid effort in a tough year for modest portable stations. 73 from VE3TWM.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

Your welcome. I saw your recap also. It looks like you also had a fun‚ albeit challenging‚ Field Day weekend.

[@ChrisN8PEM]

Great video. I had the same experience this year. 10 and 15 were open and with the elbow room I was able to call CQ. 20 and 40 was all hunt and pounce. I was a bit deaf to the west from Ohio as well. Heard a lot of TX and FL stations.

[@pipesmokercowboychris]

Ended up making 14 contacts. One of those was 20m. Mostly on 40 and 80. I didn't start until sometime after 5pm. So 15 and 10 no gos. It was nice to just operate from the shack in the A/C/ Congrats on your contacts made. 73 KA9WLU.

[@andrewhamop6665]

Me and my local club had some major QRM on 40 and 80 as well. Maybe it was a small solar storm? Other than that field day was fun, got my general, got to put faces to the names and call signs I've been hearing, and also I made my first HF contact for a total of 6. So looking forward to next year!!

[@brianrose2487]

Super cool setup and love that camper! Take care

[@shandybrandy5407]

Excellent, everything looks so good with a punch of real adventure. 73

[@thork0tjt515]

Great video! Camping and playing radio! Great weekend for you!

[@philipchandler330]

Super job looked like great weather

[@bobcrawford5083]

Always good info...talked you yesterday on pots #k-1472 in wisc...de kc3ans..hope to talk again keep up the great work..Bob in Pgh

[@expert244]

I also used my 12 ounce Weaver sack to get my Chameleon EMCOMM III portable wire in the tree for field day. Works great. I also have a lighter one but haven’t used it yet. Good slick UHMWPE throw line also makes for a huge improvement over paracord.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

The slick throw line is good but hard to find unless you order online. I used some 3/32" tactical cord that worked very well. It's lighter than paracord and I was able to get some good throws with it.

[@thuff3207]

I went to 15 and 10 and field was wonderful this year.

[@russellhayes911]

Hello Micheal, Great video! So glad you enjoyed field day with your family. Thanks for all you do for our great hobby! 73's Russell KE4GTQ

[@LEXPIX]

Nice overview of your Field Day. I like seeing others setups. haven't done one myself yet, but am getting up the courage and equipment to try soon.

[@kencarnley7101]

Enjoyed the video. Nice to have the family support and meals looked great. My Grandson KN4WRU and I missed Field Day this year as we are on a brief Beach vacation. Ken, N4FLG.

[@dougtaylor8735]

My brothers and I had a great time camping in Northern Arizona. Worked mostly CW on 20 and 40. We worked almost every state including yours. Our biggest problem was all the people that stayed home and used amps in noisy areas. They couldn’t hear us. Enjoy your videos. 73

[@KX4UL]

Looks like you had a satisfactory field day overall. I totally missed out this year...maybe next year I can make up for it. Thanks for a good video!

[@davidwilkinson1480]

Thanks for the video.

[@wayneskiba1237]

Enjoyed your video very much, a lot of good information and nice scenery, and we used to do a lot of vacationing in the Flambeau area of Wisconsin, great job!

[@JA-fy1bn]

Michael! I've seen a lot of your videos and previously, I commented on how awkward you were in front of the camera. Gotta tell ya, the more you do, the better you get! Keep up the informative videos and the good work. Thanks!

[@consciousness1237]

Great video and very beautiful park, I was born in lac du flambeau WI , very close to where you had field day. Your video brought back great memories from the area . I was 1D in Port Salerno FL my home now. You have great info on your channel The FT 891 is a great radio for portable ops. Keep up th er good work. 73"s Chuck AA4CP

[@joeladair9045]

Life doesn't get much better then what I saw in your video. Nice. Back to ham radio after 9 years, bought your j pole antenna last night. Enjoy all your videos! Your like a celebrity. 73 K0TU.

[@steveanness7975]

Great video! The camp site looks great and antennas were working well for you! 73 de KJ5T

[@joeddejohn]

Appreciate your love for the outdoors. Remind me of my old scoutmaster. You really know how to do camping right and with the trailer and radio gear really cool. Heard 10 meters was open. Yes. Don't have a H.F. Rig. Just did some 2 meter simplex, 70 cm repeater. Neat with the Radiogram. You made a lot of Field Day demonstrating the spirit of the event. Gosh I miss camping.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

We've been camping since the kids were toddlers so we've really refined how we do it. Plus adding the trailer has taken things to a whole new level. My daughter‚ who's in the video‚ hasn't been on an outing with us for a couple of years mentioned that she never remembered such camping luxury when she was little.

[@richardwasserman]

Æbleskivers in the forest. Made my day.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

Wife is Danish. She wouldn't have it any other way.

[@lurch89]

Casually watching FD 2020 videos. Hears "tough to get western states". Sees the one contact on the map in ND was the station you worked at. Thanks for the content! de KD0IOE

[@KennyGaming02]

Loved this video! My Field day video should be out today. WC8EC from 5A WV

[@eduardopower5254]

I found very very fine 15 ansd 10 meter thia year. Not to many contacts about 25 but it's something and was really fun.

[@chriscollins16]

Congratulations on a great video and field day. Just subscribed to your channel and look forward to your new uploads. 73's G7PVJ

[@brianshanahan3878]

Great job! Remember, sitting is the new smoking! Get out and walk / exercise! We need you to Elmer the next generation or 2 of hams!!! :)

[@scotthill6807]

Our Club had a low turn out due to the CovVid stuff. It was my first field day and we had a lot of fun. I got to work 20m and 40m and learned a lot. Like a dummy I was trying to get into pile ups. What I should have done was set on my own frequency and called CQ. One of our other members did that and they swamped him with tons of QSLs. Enjoy your videos and always learn from them. Thank you , 73 KI5HII

[@Winstonsdad1956]

Nice tear drop! And Aebleskivers for breakfast! Nicely done!

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

You noticed the Aebleskiver! My wife is Danish so we keep a cast iron Aebleskiver pan in the trailer.

[@Winstonsdad1956]

@@KB9VBRAntennas I'm also impressed with the range you achieved with the 80m off center dipole. Wisconsin to Texas!

[@TheTechPrepper]

Thanks for taking us with you on field day. I took the SOTA route for my first field day, but I think I may try the car/trailer/rv route next year... much more comfortable. Keep up the great work! 73, KT1RUN

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

Not too many SOTA quality hilltops in Wisconsin but there are plenty of remote camping sites that are accessible with my little trailer or with a short backcountry hike if I want to be more minimal. Great Field Day video.

[@MAWazaLLC]

We had storms roll through our area (EPA) and our vertical (MPAS) didn't do well either. We switched to our G5RV Jr and that's when the contacts improved. We also experienced equipment failure (LDG YT-100 tuner) and we had to manual tune our antennas. - KC3HUL

[@andrewbrafferty]

Great video as always, Michael. Conditions for me were mostly the same here in Chicagoland and your contact map looked similar to mine. QRM was out of control even with filters as tight as possible. Spent a majority of the time on the Wolf River Coil. K9ABR

[@MichaelSmith-yy8fw]

Andrew, I also used a WRC antenna for Field Day. How were your results? MikeinMinnesota N0WDM

[@andrewbrafferty]

@@MichaelSmith-yy8fw Called it quits with about 75 contacts. I had limited time to operate and only did search and pounce. I regret not calling CQ once the bands died down here Saturday night. WRC performed as usual...that particular day I had great coverage towards the Northeast and South, not so much to the West. I should have put more radials down. Had good luck on 15, 20 and 40 when I could avoid the QRM. I've only had the WRC for about a year and I'm still not a pro getting it tuned up quickly, but an antenna analyzer makes it pretty painless. I've been impressed with its receive performance for such a compact antenna. K9ABR

[@Medic-ui9ms]

Nice video and good choice in beer. We smuggle that back into MN ;) 73, KB0VXN

[@MichaelSmith-yy8fw]

Michael, I heard your call sign but I just couldn’t be heard for a response. Propagation wasn’t with me near Minneapolis. Another great video. MikeinMinnesota N0WDM.

[@keelieyohara7246]

Hi, Great field day vid. Your J-Pole works great for me, here, in southern Colorado! Thanks! Lerin O'Hara - KE0ZMW

[@kd5you1]

I heard very few stations on the West coast. I'm in STX and most of the stations I heard making contacts with QRZ stations were in NTX lol but most of my contacts were in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas. I did hear Puerto Rico, Ecuador, and The Netherlands... all of which generated huge pileups. 73 KD5YOU

[@ve3pcp]

Good video as usual. Was hoping to hear our QSO from Saturday at 18:20, VE3IHR, 1B ONS. at VE-2033, Inverhuron Provincial Park in Ontario,

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

I remember the QSO but I don't believe I recorded it. I came home with 50 gigabytes of video‚ so there was a lot of stuff to sift through. I'll give you the park to park credit when I upload my log to POTA. I was at K-4349

[@ve3pcp]

I am in the process of entering my log into my logging software. Got Saturdays entered but have to do Sunday yet. 150 total contacts for us over the two days. We set up in the day use area so had to set up and test down each day. I only live 1 km from the park donuts pretty handy for me.

[@lizzyfan1986]

10 meters was fire here in Delaware...I parked and barked for an hour and knocked out 90 contacts which was a record for me 73 de KT3LZY

[@jhayyang6796]

Like it

[@oldpreach]

Wonderful video Michael! Definitely inspiring the community. Pkease... roll out an external speaker with that 891 ! 11 dollars on Ebay for a knock off icon sp-10 rectangular speaker. Sounds SO much better. The 891 us wonderful. It my main radio at the moment, but its speaker is for when you're in a pinch.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

I preferred using the headphones but had to remove them for two reasons: 1) I couldn't record the headphone audio for the video (I need to work on that) and 2) my wife said I was talking too loud when wearing them. I will agree that the 891 speaker is not the best

[@oldpreach]

@@KB9VBRAntennas I'm sorry, like I'm going to tell you something you don't already know. I saw the headphones on that table and it just didn't occur to me that you would be needing to remove them to do the recording. Of course you would!.

[@billlamm4688]

I didn't get many contacts west either.. maybe the 440 volt powerlines on the west property line are not to blame?!?

[@billfisher3004]

Great video as always. It looks like you and your family had a great camping trip. de W1FSH

[@Martin_PA0KGB]

Again thank you for your video. Very nice to watch. good explanations. I noticed you mentioned the WRC with 100W digital? I don't see the product on their product page. Is this a brand new just test product? regards PD1AJE. Martin The Netherlands.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

I believe the coil is still in the testing phase. I'd had a sample to test since January but I think the release of it has been delayed due to the COVID situation.

[@vladimirturop7145]

Hello. how about Antenna MP1 ??

[@EdwardRaybould]

I enjoyed this video and I enjoy many of your other videos. Did your 50 Ah battery last for the entire event? I started looking at the 30 Ah Bioenno battery, but have already decided that I should move up to the 40 Ah one or larger. 73, N8OIF

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

I had plenty of juice. The solar panel kept things charged during the day on Saturday so I had no lack of power. I probably could have left it at home and the battery still would've held out for the weekend.

[@stephenwilliams5201]

Mine is a stick with a zebco reel and a sling shot. With a one ounce sinker. Shot into tree the 12# fishing line does just fine . Time to leave?? just cut and run kv4li.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

Funny story: I was putting the line up for the long end of the dipole. The first throw was low so as I pulled the line and weight back‚ I snagged a big hunk of fishing line. Who knows how long that stuff was up in the tree

[@stephenwilliams5201]

@@KB9VBRAntennas yeppers saw that my selfe. We were fishing near honey creek. "Near tiffin ohio" I WENT to rid some water away the bank all at once I hit the ground. a pull decked me . It was the ole man's fly casting. Over the bank and snagged. Me. I reported with a bloody ear and face and soaked trousers. And a surprised look on dad's face. A few stitches and a icecream cone helped. But no 60 years later I use a orange color line and rarely leave any Fishing line behind. When you go fishing and have a wife, and 4 kids. Can't leave much behind. And that "free time was rare" wife, kids, army, and tv factory. Fishing was a rare treat. Tks kv4li. God bless.

[@edrudolph1]

Nice video. How did you generate the map of your QSOs?

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

I used www.qsomap.org. You can upload an .ADI file and it will generate a map for you

[@hornhospital]

Nice video, good results on Field Day 2020. Are you having fun with ham radio? I ask because you never seem to smile. I thought maybe that wild Turkey would loosen you up, but nope, still serious face. Anyway 73 de Ken KO4AXN

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

We had a blast all weekend long. My upper midwest stoicism just gets in the way.

[@hornhospital]

@@KB9VBRAntennas Well, I'm from Grantsburg Wisconsin originally, and I do occasionally smile. I guess it's the Swede in me. ;-)

[@DialM4Microcontrollr]

I just got a SignalLink myself! Do you have a video where you describe your SignalLink setup? Thanks!!

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

Great idea‚ I'll add it to the list

[@johnkitchens4822]

Is there lingonberry syrup for the aebleskivers?

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

Yep, we had lingonberry jelly and also apple butter. My wife also like lemon curd on hers.

[@wd0exr]

What program did you use to show the locations of your contacts? Not the state map but the red lines to each contact location?

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

The website is www.qsomap.org. You can upload an .ADI file and it will make you a map.

[@bericmorse664]

Do you think that dust storm caused the noise on 40 and 80? Lots of operators including me in Mo were affected by it.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

I don't think the dust can cause the noise‚ but I really don't know. They are forecasting the dust storm to affect Wisconsin later this week.

[@bericmorse664]

@@KB9VBRAntennas www.livescience.com/8195-mystery-sandstorm-lightning-explained.html Been doing some research. I'm going to theorize it's that huge sand cloud doing it.😎 de KI0RR

[@garystout4300]

Hi Michael, did you make your camper or is that a factory built?

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

It's factory built. It's a TC Teardrop 5x8 camping trailer. They're custom built in my home town: www.tcteardrops.com/

[@N9IBZED]

Where did you get the plans for building your wire antenna and how long is it if you would like we can talk more about this topic on the Wisconsin statewide talk group via DMR just let me know when would be good for you

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

Here's the video where I talk about building the OCF dipole: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d2G8npapZ6lqodU. I took the plans out of the ARRL antenna book‚ but the antenna is 133 feet long in total length. I may be able to get on the WI DMR talkgroup later this evening.

[@N9IBZED]

KB9VBR Antennas that’s cool I will have my Anytone handheld there and my call is W9JE I got the call about a month and a half after getting my extra and this call is what I had as a tech and general I will look forward to catching you om the Wisconsin talk group later today till then 73 and enjoy the rest of your day W9JE Ed Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin

[@davidlarson3980]

For 1B class, isn't there a limit of 5W transmitter power? I may be wrong, but that's what I thought the rules are.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

There are two options for class B. 1) 1 or 2 person portable and 2) 1 or 2 person portable with battery. With the first option you can operate just like a class A station with either generator or other power source. Class B Battery limits you to batteries only and 5 watts transmit power. You use the same designator over the air but with class B battery your contacts are worth more points.

[@davidlarson3980]

@@KB9VBRAntennas Thank you for clearing that up Michael.

[@jeffreyverry8467]

Mike I believe I worked you during field day Club Call W2RME MY CALL AA2YG..

[@eduardopower5254]

Very good video, sorry to disagree but there's no "pandemic" but PLANdemic! And thanks for not wearing a mask. 👏 73!