Entering RSGB SSB Field Day on SRS’s behalf
Well done Stephen……
Stephen M0RDN’s IOTA 2024
IOTA was the first contest I took part in as an amateur, and from my memories of the 2023 edition, it was fun, but heavy going. Since I’ve been using the current contest QTH, it’s been a lot better. Still not perfect though.
After a year of contesting, the kit I use has been continuously evolving. It’s still a technical exercise for me, and one of the best opportunities to experiment.
Following the CQ WPX experiment of running on batteries for four hours, I decided to run the whole contest on batteries. I built a power station consisting of two banks of 3x12V LiFePo4 7.2Ah batteries. This goes into a wattmeter and then out to lower current sockets, two switchable USB sockets and a large output connector on Anderson Powerpole connectors.
For the rig, I decided to skip the usual Icom 7100, and purchased the Xeigu XPA125b linear amplifier to run with my Xeigu 6100.
I decided to use the usual 12m Rybakov 806 up the pole and a half size G5RV in the tree. However. For the first time the setup time was extremely limited, not arriving with the kit until 12. However. 1 hour later the station was setup and I started the contest 1 minute late!
My plan was to run for 18 hours, but I set a backup target of entering the 12 hour class if I was too tired. I’m glad I did.
One of the early contacts was G5O and I had a quick chat with Pete M1PTR down at the farm, wishing each other good luck.
I’ve had some issues with my X6100. for a while and it became obvious later in the evening that I was getting rf on my audio on the higher bands. It made it very difficult to transmit as I was hearing some uncomfortable feedback on transmit.
This led to the first big break in the contest, where I was attempting to use a lot of ferrites to shield it out. This was partially successful, but still made it difficult. I still made contacts on all bands though.
The battery pack was a big success. The left bank ran powering the radio, linear and my laptop for 10hrs straight. Maximum current draw was 10A and it stopped after 240wh (having the wattmeter was really useful for that).
I have plans for the next upgrade to that which will increase the capacity of the battery banks (and add a reserve).
I called it a night at 1AM and retired to bed. I was shattered.
On the Sunday Morning, I restarted, only to pause and join into the Sunday morning net in the sun whilst I ate my breakfast.
Bit later, I managed to work G5O again in one of the few times I started running. Had another chat with Pete, then went back to S&P (Search & Pounce) as G5O carried on running with the frequency I’d been calling on.
As I was talking to some Irish stations (with about 45mins left to go in the contest, I noticed that I had operated for 12 hours and then called it a day.
The station took about an hour to pack away too. This is really useful to know as I plan on doing field day as a portable station this year, and I’ll have limited setup and pack away time.
Overall, I’m very pleased with this radio combination. It was nice to have a waterfall for the first time as that made a big quality of life difference.
N1MM said I managed 133 contacts, 53 of which were island stations for about 65k points. As this was 10 times better than last year in a shorter period, I’ll take that. I recon I’ll lose some points in adjudication, but I’m still happy. The next experiment will be UK EI DX SSB, and I’m really looking forward to it.
Stephen M0RDN – 4th August 2024