{"id":424,"date":"2017-05-28T18:17:53","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T01:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/?p=424"},"modified":"2017-05-28T20:30:57","modified_gmt":"2017-05-29T03:30:57","slug":"field-day-2017-prep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/?p=424","title":{"rendered":"Field Day 2017 Prep"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been a busy weekend, I have been catching up on a bunch of projects to make Field Day 2017 and future contesting in general from the motor home better.<\/p>\n

Project 1: Extra coax lines into the RV<\/h4>\n

Adding a second coax line into the RV- the Yaesu FTDX1200 has two antenna ports- best to take advantage of both! \u00a0I had been draping a second line through a window and stuffing the crack with a t-shirt, however if it rains, or it is cold I can feel the weather getting in- not to mention bugs if they are hot and heavy where we are.<\/p>\n

So, peel back the trim, cut out the carpet and drill some holes in the floor of the motorhome. \u00a0Add a few washers and lock it down tight.<\/p>\n

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\nThe pass through from under the motorhome – I used 6″ barrel connectors, I could have gotten away with 4″ if I could have found some. \u00a0But the extra length under the motorhome makes it easy for me to get my big hands under there to screw on the antenna feed cables.<\/p>\n

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\nSealed with coax seal and right angle connectors added for easy access. \u00a0Just had enough room between the cage for the generator and the edge of the black water tank… I certainly didn’t want to hit or drill into that!<\/p>\n

Finished the final access port next to the powerpole connectors for rig power coming out of the bench- now just need to label them.<\/p>\n

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\nBeen waiting a while for that project to get completed- I am glad it is finished before the 100’s are the mainstay out here for the next several months.<\/p>\n

Project 2: Fixing the foot switch dance<\/b><\/p>\n

My Heil FS-2 foot switch always slides around on the RV carpeting when I am contesting and I spend a fair amount of time “foot searching” to try to find the foot switch. \u00a0 I added a bunch of industrial velcro to the bottom and boom! \u00a0Sticks to the carpet like glue!<\/p>\n

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\n<\/b><\/p>\n

Project 3: Three radios on one antenna!<\/h4>\n

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\n<\/b><\/p>\n

My triplexer came in- super excited to use this at Field Day 2017. \u00a0Three rigs on three bands all on one antenna with gain (CC A3S 3el tribander). \u00a0Nice! \u00a0Now I just have to throw some propagation sacrifice into the camp fire Friday before Field Day so we can get some action on 10 meters!<\/p>\n

Project 4: \u00a0Extra cooling for large Power supply<\/h4>\n

Not related to RV, but contesting and general hamming none the less. \u00a0I leave my JT65 rig on all the time to report out which stations I am hearing. Not to mention that I am on the radio quite a bit. As it starts getting warmer here in Arizona the ambient temp is also starting to climb, combined with the supply trying to regulate heat, means I have noticed that the 70 amp power supply heat sink gets VERY HOT – as in burn my hands hot if I kept them there long.. \u00a0So I needed a quick and dirty solution.<\/p>\n

Fans! \u00a0Complete with manual switch and bright LED staring me in the face to keep my fingers out of it. \u00a0A warning label adds a nice touch.<\/p>\n

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\nProject 5: \u00a0Green power!<\/h4>\n

The Yuma hamfest purchase of the used 12V 400w windmill is wired and ready for testing- I should have a larger blog post on this after Field Day- as this should be giving us power all night long up on the rim.<\/p>\n

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\nSo far a great project weekend!<\/p>\n

See ya on the bands!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been a busy weekend, I have been catching up on a bunch of projects to make Field Day 2017 and future contesting in general from the motor home better. Project 1: Extra coax lines into the RV Adding a second coax line into the RV- the Yaesu FTDX1200 has two antenna ports- best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,39,5,4,108,1],"tags":[114,13,110,113,27,111,112,109],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contesting","category-general-ham","category-jt65","category-portable","category-rim","category-rv","category-uncategorized","tag-camping","tag-field-day","tag-green-energy","tag-ham-rv","tag-jt65","tag-motorhome-radio","tag-rv-radio","tag-windmill"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428,"href":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions\/428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.n1rwy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}