Salton Sea ARC
Your club’s second event was the 2005 Field Day over the June 25 – 26 weekend.
After hearing about the exploits of various amateur teams that have operated from the edge of salt water, I thought that it might be fun to do the same from Southern California . Of course, our beaches point the wrong way, towards Hawaii and Tahiti , the least populated quadrant on earth. So where is some salt water with a beach facing East? The answer is THE SALTON SEA.
The Salton Sea is California ’s largest body of water, about 15 miles wide and 35 miles long. It was created a century ago in the Imperial Valley where the plan was to divert water from the Colorado River and create irrigation for the vast agricultural plain. Unfortunately, a dike broke and for two years the Colorado River flowed into the bed of an ancient lake. Over the last 2,000 years the Colorado River silted up the normal channel on three separate occasions, and when it did, the water flowed into this sink creating a lake over 100 miles long. Many hundreds of years ago, the river changed its course again and began flowing into the Gulf of Mexico . At that point the Sea dried up, that is until 1905. The current level of the lake is about 230 feet below sea level.
I thought it might be fun to operate Field Day from the Western shore of the sea, erecting a vertical antenna right next to the shoreline. On a scouting trip in February I located a marina that had some RV parking stalls with attached palapas, little three sided huts, each with a picnic table.
My early plans went awry when, first, the motor home I was going to borrow became unavailable. Next, FedEx diverted my new Sigma 40/XK vertical to New Jersey so it did not arrive until late Friday afternoon before the contest, so no time for testing. Finally, I was not quite able to get my new K2 operational, OK as I had a backup, but I was looking forward to operating with it. Ignoring that Murphy must have been hovering somewhere nearby, that these were hints that I should re-evaluate my plan, I forged ahead.
Palapas at Salton Beach Marina
I arrived Saturday morning about 9AM and one additional problem surfaced. The promised electrical hookup was for RVs, which have a unique jack. The marina had no converter to allow the use of a regular electrical plug. I had planned on using 100VAC for things like LIGHT after the sun went down. That being the case, I vowed not to spend the night relying solely on a flashlight so I decided to operate only until the late afternoon.
My location was about 30 miles from Palm Springs and, as you know, it gets warm there at this time of year. In fact, the temperature hovered over 100 degrees F (42 C). However, with a gentle breeze and being in the shade, it was actually quite comfortable.
It took a while to erect a brand new antenna so I didn’t make the 11AM contest start time. But I finally got my IC-706 hooked up to the battery and we were on the air at about 11:40. I had hoped to be able to operate QRP, but my first few calls to stations went unreturned and since I was only going to be there for the afternoon, I resolved to have some fun at least, and cranked up to 100 watts.
Force 12 Sigma 40-XK
I was quite pleased at my performance, sticking to 20 meters and making over 250 QSOs. Most pleasing was that I was able to sustain a rate of about 50 per hour, much better than I had ever done in similar circumstances at home. My signal was not strong enough to hold down a frequency, but others seemed to read my signal well.
Doesn’t LOOK as breezy as it was.
In mid-afternoon, the previously gentle breeze turned into a real wind, constantly between 20 and 30 mph with occasional gusts to over 40 mph. When those gusts came up, they stirred up a lot of dust. This is the desert, after all, and there is a lot more dust and sand than greenery.
Then there were the flies which gathered around my palapa. I was the only living thing for 100 yards in any direction so they gathered around me. I have been going to the Salton Sea for over 40 years, but always during the duck hunting season, mid-October through January. There are no flies then, but at this time of year, you’d get the distinct impression that you caught some of the outfall from one of the plagues that Moses had visited upon the pharaoh. I felt like one of those lions on the Serengeti Plain with files all over its face. Oh well, not THAT bad, but annoying!
Just in case any visitors showed up, I wanted to announce our presence and tell them about amateur radio. I was all set, but no one, not even a mad dog or an Englishman braved the noonday sun to stop by.
I wanted to check the antenna’s performance on 40 meters and at 5PM, I made the necessary changes. I quickly made 16 QSOs but all to W6’s and W7’s. I could hear some other stations back east, but 40 meters doesn’t really get hot until after sunset, a few hours later. As I was unwilling to wait any longer, I disassembled the station, packed it up, got out a cold beer, and headed for home.
Would I do it again? Yes, with a few changes. First, I wouldn’t want to do it solo again. Not only would it be more fun, wrestling with a 17 foot high vertical antenna in a 30 mph breeze isn’t the easiest thing I have ever done. Second, you really need a motor home for protection from the elements and critters, and it would have the benefit of a little air conditioning.
Third, I think that it would be interesting to put up a few other antennas, like a Moxon or two, and compare performance with the vertical. Longer antennas for lower frequencies would be easy to erect and it really would be fun to see if a more complete operation could be mounted. We’ll see what the future brings.