Winter Field Day day two started off with a hot cup of fresh ground coffee and then I headed back to the garage to finish the exercise by doing as much participating as I possibly could. I started off with checking reception of 20 meters and 10 meters by trying to work some FT8, FT4, and JS8. I didn’t have a lot of luck reaching anyone for a QSO so I started piddling with the new antenna some more. In case you didn’t read yesterday’s blog post, I recently obtained a Chameleon F-Loop 3.0 magnetic loop antenna which I wanted so that I could work multiple HF bands from the comforts of my home. Since I don’t have the ability to deploy larger antennas such as my MFJ 1979 whip antenna and radials, a magnetic loop antenna offers me some ham radio operating capability that I’d otherwise lack. It’s been a winner so far and I’ve only had it for a day and a half. In fact, this antenna arrived an hour before the Winter Field Day exercise was scheduled to begin. No joke!
Day two consisted of me doing much of the same as the day before. I was determined to learn how to use my new Chameleon F-Loop 3.0 magnetic loop antenna as much as possible. Much to my disappointment, signal quality in my neighborhood is still quite atrocious regardless of which antenna I use. I will admit that I had much better luck with making QSOs with the magnetic loop than I have had with the MFJ 1979 whip when operating from home. Much of that is maybe due to the fact that the antenna size doesn’t change while allowing me to work multiple bands quite easily. I ended up making a total of ten QSOs for the day before calling it quits for the weekend. Most of those contacts were on the digital modes which seemed to be the easiest for me to work given my operating location. I plan on taking the new magnetic loop antenna out to a municipal park or something nearby and put it through its paces again. Perhaps it will perform better when outside and away from so many houses.
For Winter Field Day 2025, I calculated a score of 15 for my efforts. Nothing to write home about, certainly, but the weekend was a learning experience for me more than anything. I became a bit more familiar with the settings on the FT-891, I learned how to use the Chameleon F-Loop 3.0 magnetic loop antenna, I made a few QSOs on bands I’ve never operated on before (15m and 80m), and I got more practice on SSB and the digital modes. I’ll call it a win.
I sincerely hope everyone who participated in Winter Field Day this year had a great time and felt like their efforts were successful. If not, there’s always next year.
73,
Matthew
K2MAS.net 