Did any of you have a Field Day station this year?

[ChrisW6ATV]

Hi-

Field Day was this weekend. If you have any interesting stories, tell us.

I was at a station here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we operated equipment from the late 1980s to early 1990s, but no real antiques. It is always a fun weekend. Camping and ham radio, and a barbecue, how can you beat that?

[Jeffhs]

I wish I could get to the Field Day sites in my area. Been in ham radio 40 years and haven't been to an FD in about 20. Never set up and operated my station at an FD site, either. One of these days...

I am a member of a local radio club (the Lake County, Ohio Amateur Radio Association), but haven't been to their meetings in a couple years, the reason being I don't drive and the bus service here doesn't operate after seven p.m. (the meetings begin at 7:30 and often do not break up until 10 or so). The weekends are worse, as the service doesn't run at all then, so getting to an FD site that way is out of the question as well.

At least on Field Day, I'd be able to use my Icom IC-725 and portable antenna; here in my apartment, the gear works, but not well at all. I've been told it's because the rig isn't DC-grounded. That may well be, but I can't find anything in this place to ground the set to as almost all the water pipes are PVC. There is a ground rod outside the building, but it belongs to the cable company, so I don't dare connect anything to it. I presently operate a 1.5-watt HT through the local repeater, and Echolink on HF, but I doubt if I could use the latter as a Field Day setup. Wouldn't be worth it, anyway, as Echolink QSOs are not recognized by the ARRL and therefore would not count as valid FD contacts.



73,

[Electronic M]

Jeff: This may be a dumb idea, but have you tried grounding your rig through the ground pin of a three prong wall outlet in your apartment?
From what I understand the ground leads of a buildings electrical system should all connect to a ground rod.

[N2IXK]

The ground pin on an outlet is fine for an electrical safety ground, but useless for an RF ground. Way too long a grounding path, with too much series inductance to work properly. Using it that way will actually help couple RF into your powerlines, causing all manner of RFI problems.

A good RF ground needs to be short and direct, preferably using a low inductance conductor, such as flat copper strip.

Once a proper RF grounding system is installed, it still needs to be tied back to the building electrical service ground to keep everything at the same potential.

[Jeffhs]

I realize my comments are off-topic for this thread, but I wish to answer the two VK members who responded to my original post.


Electronic M and N2IXK: I thought about using the third prong of the AC cord on my station's outlet strip (ground) to ground my IC725, but forgot about it when I considered (as N2IXK mentioned) that such a connection would or could cause RFI difficulties.

Oh well. My IC725 will stay in storage indefinitely, I guess, with my hamming done either over Echolink or 2 meters. Not the best solution, I realize, but since I live in an apartment building I have no other alternatives. Mobile operation is out since I do not drive, and the nearest amateur in my immediate neighborhood refuses to have anything to do with me (long story), so guest operating is out as well. This hobby means too much to me, after 40 years, to even consider giving it up, so even if I am forced to do my hamming via EL and 2m repeaters....well, it's better than nothing.

73,

[wa2ise]

Maybe using the cable TV jack's ground (I'm guessing your apartment has cable TV outlets), along with the 3rd prong on the power outlets might work. The two paths to ground will have less inductance than either one by itself.

[electroking]

I wish I could have just thought about listening a bit, but the fact is that I haven't
been involved with FD for about 20 years. 73 de VE2GTP