Eastern PA QRP Solar Power Field Day 1999

Eight members of the Eastern PA QRP Club got together on June 25, 26 & 27th, 1999 to participate in the Field Day Contest of 1999. We were invited by Eric, WB3FPL, to have our Field Day on his property, which in in Southern Berks County at 900'. The members were as follows:

WB3AAL . . . . Ron. . . EPA #1

N3ZIL . . . . Jon. . . EPA #4

N3WST . . . . Bill. . . EPA #5

N2BSC . . . . Len. . . EPA #9

WB3GCK . . . . Craig. . . EPA #16

N3ANW . . . . Steve. . . EPA #23

WA3WSJ . . . . Ed. . . EPA #24

N3ZUI . . . . Jon. . . EPA #25

Ron, Len and Ed went to the site for the Friday Evening Set-up. We had a ball working together and learning different techniques in antenna installations. Friday evening we ran a coax to Eric's tower, we tapped into his beam coax and listen for some signals. The beam was pointed to the South West, but we managed to work the following station on 20 meters with 5 watts output:

John, UX3MR, from the Ukraine and Paul, I1ODP, from Italy.

We work them off the back of the beam, it was great!! During Saturday morning the other members showed up and started setting up camp. If we worked your FD station, thanks for the points!! You can get a QSL card by sending to WB3AAL, SASE would be appreciated. The following pictures and comments are from the EPA QRP Club's Field Day 1999.

EPA QRP Club Field Day 1999 Summary Sheet & Field Day 1999 Log.

  1. Unloading the car full of supplies.  Ron, WB3AAL, (left) & Len, N2BSC
  2. Everything but the kitchen sink.  Ron & Len
  3. Taking a break already?   Ron & Len
  4. 1st item of business.  Ed, WA3WSJ, (left), Len, N2BSC, (center) & Ron, WB3AAL.
  5. Tent city, our living quarters.  Take notice of the tent closest to you, that is WB3AAL's.
  6. What is that?  Hope this is not the SSB Station operating quarters.
  7. Oh, it's Len's new shelter.  Len, N2BSC, (left) is showing off his new tent to Steve, N3ANW.
  8. Setting up the kitchen.  Len, N2BSC (left) & Jon, N3ZIL
  9. Setting up the operating sites.  The tent is for CW & canopy is for SSB station.
  10. Start charging those batteries!  Get those solar panels charging!
  11. Another view of our small array. 3 Panels kept the two stations on the air.
  12. Ten-Tec Argonaut 515. This is our CW station.
  13. The only way to copy 25 WPM. How did that blue can get there?
  14. Hustler 5BTV Ron & Len are installing this for the CW station. 2 radials per band.
  15. Kenwood TS-50s. This is our SSB station.
  16. The Power Supply. We used 2 types of panels to keep things charged.