A friend of mine suggested we participate in Field Day 2020. Having not done any contesting before, much less in the field, I wasn’t sure how this would work out but I really enjoyed it.

Our setup was a simple 12v car battery and our HF rigs. I had handheld 2m radios but we didn’t use them very much. Our antenna was an inverted V dipole that we shot into the trees with a bow, a fishing pole, and guy line. We set up a campsite and then focused on operating the station. My friend made a significant number of voice contacts and we discovered the rules gave an advantage to digital contacts. I have used digital modes mostly in JS8Call and Contestia, but I could only make a small handful of PSK contacts. The action seemed to be in what sounded like JS8Call, but I found later the mode was FT8. Having spent some time since learning this mode, I should be in good shape for the next field event.

We ended up needing a generator a couple times, which introduced interference with radio operation. For the next event I’ll be looking for some foldable solar panel sets to charge the station batteries and a Raspberry Pi/tablet combo for power efficiency with the digital aspect. My home station battery setup can run for a few days without sun, but that is mostly listening so i’ll have to work up the math on contesting, which is a great deal more transmitting, thus power consumption, than I am accustomed to.