AmRRON Field Deployment Saturday 10/7
Scenes, gear, and AAR from todays field deployment.
Gear carried:
Rifle and line 2 gear in the chest rig.
Machete and line 1 gear. (not all pictured)
Line 3A gear in the hip belt. This is the minimum gear I would need to sustain me in the field for up to 48 hours. Read: I plan on being back tonight, but won't die if that doesn't happen, not I'll be comfortable for the next 48 hours.
Mission specific gear in the OD back pack. In this case my communications kit, solar generator kit, Computer, and a lightweight stool to sit on.
The nice thing about doing gear this way is that everything is Legos. Just grab what you need off the ready shelf, no need for extensive re-packing each time.
I arrived at my destination at 1145, and was set up and operating by 1215. My location had a perfect alder bent over above the old road grade right about 30' up, and in a perfect spot to get my end fed to where the main lobe would be at 115 degrees magnetic on 40 meter, and 165 degrees on 20. This aimed my signal right across the country on 40, and down toward Texas on 20 from CN87. I initially ran the computer on it's internal battery from 1215 to 1315 during which it drained from 95% to 75%, then plugged the computer into the inverter from 1315 till 1415 which brought it back up to 95%. The 60 watt panel was charging the 10 AH Dakota lithium battery the whole time, and was sometimes even in the sun.
From 1215 to 1300 I was able to ping 6 AmRRON stations on 40 meter (and could hear about a half a dozen others), however I did not see any AFDS activity and was unable to make or observe any exchanges of the code word. However after 1300 I switched to 20 meter and immediately saw numerous exchanges going on, and was able to ACK more than the 2 required on that band. By 1430 I was getting hot and running low on water, so it was time to break down and re-fill from from the creek. Longest relay was across the country to Florida via a station in the Midwest. Shortest was relaying to another WA station, but via a station in AZ.
Quick AAR:
Sustain: Everything functioned well. Radio kit performed as I expected it to, the antenna was more than capable of doing what I needed it to, and I had everything I needed. Running some drills with the rifle was a nice way to break up the operating time and keep other skills sharp, this is one big benefit of living in a rural area!
Improve: I thought I knew how to relay messages using JS8CALL (this was integral to the field deployment exercise this month), but had forgotten an important part of the message syntax. This led to some initial frustration and wasted time, until I figured out my error by watching other exchanges. Being ready isn't just about gear, and you are not going to be successful if that stuff between your ears isn't squared away! If it's not something I do frequently I will be brushing up before hand next time. (like to op order even said to do...)