On July 19, 2025 the ARES group held a mini-field day, with the setup of 3 stations in two different locations over the course of a 3 hour period. It started early, at 7:30 AM to avoid the worst of the day’s heat. K4KE and KK4JP set up at Beaver Creek Reservoir Park near Crozet Virginia and K4DND set up a portable station near Barboursville. They used HF to communicate Winlink messages via gateways in Indiana and Michigan, and also sent and received direct peer-to-peer messages.
The two stations at the park were set up on a handy picnic table (spare tables were left in the cars) and hooked to a 40/60/80 meter (selectable) inverted-V NVIS dipole suspended from a nearby tree. K4KE’s station (right side of table) all fit in a pack/box, including the battery and used an ICOM-7100 radio and an antenna tuner, a setup also useful for POTA activations. KK4JP’s station (left) consisted of a Yaesu FT-450D and a G4ZLP USB sound card adapter, along with a newly made, collapsible, computer sun shield.
K4DND also used a ICOM-705 radio and a Mat-Tuner antenna tuner connected to a temporary end-fed 1/2-wave NVIS antenna. All stations were powered using LiFePO4 batteries for the duration of the exercise. VARA-HF was used to send and receive all messages.
Needless to say, there were some issues with rig control for transmitting, and propagation wasn’t great (dead on 80 meters, needed to go around 500 km distant on 40 meters to get a strong station), but we succeeded in the end. That is why we hold the exercises – finding ways to overcome the problems before we need to be sending messages in a real emergency.
If you want to be notified about upcoming exercises, email jhp7e@hotmail.com to be added to the list.