The photo below was taken today while I was testing the output of my solar panels that I’ll be using for the W5BOG (Bexar Operators Group) Field Day up at Lost Maples State Park. We will be setting up in the afternoon on Friday, June 26th so as to also operate during a Navy-Marine Corps MARS traffic net that evening. Field Day starts on Saturday, June 27th and runs through noon Sunday, June 28th. It is a 24 hour event, but we’ll be doing other ham-related things, including experiments, while we are there.
Since the duty cycle of SSB is much less than FM (25% vs 100%), they’ll be able to easily keep my six banks of marine deep cycle batteries charged.
Combine this system and my 200 watt wind turbine unit (pix shows three blades before I added three more to make it much more efficient) will mean plenty of power for at least two SSB stations to operate. This setup will also be used for my jump team programs. I may even skip bringing any of my gas generators with me to my jump team boot camps. Anyone who wishes to join us at Lost Maples is free to do so. Bring a sleeping bag (we provide the tent) and whatever personal items you wish. (check out the park and how to get there by clicking on the red “Lost Maples State Park” title above) All power, including the LED lighting system, will be furnished using either battery charged solar energy or wind energy. Cooking will be accomplished using propane stoves. This will be a non-polluting “GREEN” power operation. Antennas won’t be commerically made, but will be built “on the spot” as if deploying under emergency conditions. Come and learn how to operate during a real emergency situation where all you have is what’s brought to the site. Learn about site survey and set up from scratch, setting up and using solar and wind turbine power, duty cycles of equipment, propagation (how it works for or against you) and basic contesting skills from someone who has earned several operating awards and deployed emergency stations many times using survival skills acquired over the past 35 years. Since we are out in the field, I will even give mini-lessons on subjects such as how to filter “local water” using a 4- step filter system, of my own design, which ecom workers may need if deployed to a rustic area and run out of bottled water. Learn alot and have a lot of fun! If you plan on coming, email me at: alonestaryank@aol.com
Bob W2IK – W5BOG – NNN0KSI – NNN0BGY2 MARS Ecom
