CQ Field Day CQ Field Day & ARSIB

Although I’ve been a ham since 2001, I’ll consider this my first Field Day. Instead of participating in the local RACES field site or one of the local clubs, I decided I’d operate from home using emergency power. I spent the majority of the day completing my amateur-radio-station-in-a-box (ARSIB) project. The ARSIB is centered around an FT-817ND and is housed in a large dry box, the type normally used by outdoors folks and hunters. I built a shelf unit that slides into the box. Components are stacked vertically and secured to their own shelf. At the bottom I have an Alinco powers supply, very compact. Above the power supply is the FT-817ND. Above that is a 100W Tokyo HyPower amplifier for the FT-817ND (normally a 5W rig). Above the amp is an LDG Z-11PRO, great tuner. The tuner is also connected to the FT-817 ACC outlet for seamless tuning during band changes. Above the tuner is an SWR/power meter. The power cables run up the side of the box and feed into a small RigRunner that is mounted on the inside lid of the box. I spent just about all day putting everything together, to include two trips to ACE Hardware.

Once the ARSIB was complete, I set the box up in my ham shack a powered it with my portable generator running outside. I was now a “1E” station for field day (running from home on emergency power). I worked on the air tonight for about three hours and probably had about a dozen or so contacts. Mainly SSB, but I also tried out PSK-31. I need to mount my Rig Blaster NOMIC to the inside lid as well to help with the PSK-31 option. I also got to work some bands I rarely work like 15M. Lots of folks out there working field day…. good stuff!

The ARSIB is now my radio for portable operations. No more ripping my IC-706 out of the ham shack every time I want to activate a lighthouse. I can now use the ARSIB<.