A Field Day Adventure: A Blissful Backpacking in a Fire-Free Zone

July 12, 2002 - As I bank the Cessna 210 gently, I stare in amazement at the raging forest fire just west of my flight path. I'm flying a charter, carrying several passengers from Show Low to Flagstaff, AZ.
The Rodeo Fire is just one day old, but has already devoured more than 30,000 acres. Flames are leaping more than 200 feet into the air as I skirt the restricted airspace established to protect the fire aircraft from unauthorized intruders.

Listening to the air attack command frequency, I can hear the TV news helicopters swarming like flies around the perimeter of the fire. No one has ever seen a fire like this in Arizona.

What does this have to do with Field Day? I've been planning to do a backpacking Field Day this year, but the driest year on record in Arizona and extreme fire danger have caused the land managers to close all of the national forests and other public land.

Sure, as a backpacker, I could sneak in. But I won't. Why? Because if some fool starts a fire upwind of me, I probably won't be able to escape. It's hard to describe just how flammable the forests really are.

To give you an idea, the Rodeo Fire started spot fires five MILES in front of the main fire. As a large forest fire burns, it throws embers high in the air. In these superdry conditions, every ember that falls on fuel such as pine needles or grass starts a new fire.

The forest floor ignites so easily that firefighters compare it to a pool of gasoline. I really don't want to set up my Field Day station in a pool of gas! During, the spring, as it became clear that the fire danger would be extreme in Arizona by Field Day weekend, I made alternate plans.

The most realistic one was to escape from Arizona entirely and drive to the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado. As Arizona's forests closed one by one, I kept a close eye on conditions in the San Juan National Forest. As I expected, the forest went on campfire restrictions, but stayed open to the public.
As Field Day approached, however, a major fire started north of Durango, only about 15 miles south of my planned operating area in the West Needle Mountains. People were being evacuated from their houses, and I expected that the forest would be closed any day.

Then, on the Thursday before Field Day, the Forest Service issued a new set of restrictions, prohibiting car camping except in hosted campgrounds. Luckily, backcountry camping would still be allowed in wilderness areas, as long as vehicles were parked at designated wilderness trailheads.

My planned site was within the Wiminuche Wilderness, and the trailhead was at Andrew Lake near Molas Pass, so I would be OK. The fire to the south was not spreading north into the wilderness, which meant that the fire danger was lower in the high country.

On Friday, I drove across northeastern Arizona through the smoke from the Rodeo Fire, which had already burned hundreds of houses and had forced the evacuation of more than 3,000 people. Even in Durango, a couple of hundred miles from the Arizona fire, the smoke was so thick that it was hampering fire fighting efforts there.

At the 10,700 foot trailhead, a chill wind was blowing, a welcome relief from the record setting heat in Arizona. I loaded the last items in my pack, made a few last adjustments, and set off for the high country.
The trail initially skirts a lake, then climbs through a beautiful section of alpine forest. Last time I was here, in August, the weather was completely different. The summer monsoon was in full swing, and thunderstorms were producing heavy rains every afternoon. As a result, the flower show was awesome. This time, the trail was dusty, and the alpine meadows, though still green, looked distinctly parched. So I was pleasantly surprised to see plenty of paintbrush and other flowers.

Everyone's favorite Colorado flower, blue columbine, was also common. I had several possible operating sites in mind. One site, at 11,200 feet, was only a mile or so up the trail, near a very scenic meadow graced with several small lakes. I had camped there on the last trip when heavy rain threatened.

In addition, I had plotted several possible sites above timberline, at around 12,000 feet, but as I continued up the trail, the weather made the wise choice obvious. Clouds were building and it looked like the official forecast of possible thunderstorms, the first of the summer, was likely to come true.

So I decided on the closer and more protected campsite. It turned out to be a good choice, as lightning, high wind, and rain assaulted my snug little camp just after dark. On Saturday, tired from the long drive, I indulged in the luxury of oversleeping, lulled by the cool alpine breezes.

Then I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with not one but two cups of hot chocolate. I was feeling so lazy that I decided to set up the station after Field Day started at 1800z, in order to gain the full 27 hours of operating time.

Since I knew I could be on the air in an hour from a cold start, I would gain two hours of operating time on Sunday. Precisely at 1800z, I started on the antennas. The first was a 170 foot end fed wire. I laid out the 66 foot counterpoise, then tied off the station end of the radiator to a convenient tree.

I left enough wire free at the rig end so I could move the operating position from the shade of a tree to the tent if more rain threatened, and for the night effort- if I made one. I carefully unwound and stacked the wire and its attached monofilament line in a clear area, then used a small rock to launch it over several trees.
Usually I bring an empty 16 ounce plastic bottle, which makes a perfect and nearly indestructible fishing line launcher when half full of water, but I forgot it. The antenna ended up about 40 feet up.

My second planned antenna was a full size 40 meter vertical supported on a DK9SQ mast, which I've described in a previous article in The ARS Sojourner: http://www.natworld.com/ars/pages/back_issues/2000_text/0600_text/dk_vert.html This antenna goes up anywhere, with no supports at all, and I brought it because of my original plan to camp above timberline.

I set it up on the edge of a 30 foot drop off overlooking the meadow to the east of camp. This trip was a classic example of a backpack trip planned to support radio, rather than my usual situation where radio is a casual add-on to a hike.

It being Field Day and all, I loaded up the heavy artillery, the Elecraft K2. This meant a substantial battery, especially if I operated with a full QRP gallon- 5 watts. Since the weather forecast hinted that I might not have sun all day, a few calculations showed that I would have to carry two 7 amp-hour SLA (sealed LEAD acid) batteries to ensure I could operate at least part of the night.

That would be a lot of lead weight. A few more rough calculations showed that I could get by with one battery if I operated at 1 watt instead. What the heck, I've always wanted to enter QRP ARCI's Milliwatt Field Day anyway.

On the solar charging side, I brought not only my 5 watt panel, but also my new 1.4 watt backpacking panel. These turned out to be good decisions. I had plenty of sun both days, and ended the operation with a fully charged battery.

I brought my tiny Paddlette Backpacker paddle, which I find works as well as my much heavier Bencher. The paddle mounts magnetically, so I could place it on the magnetic base mounted on the K2's top cover at the left rear, or use it with the leg strap. In practice, I did both, to vary my operating position.

The internal auto tuner in my K2 tuned up both antennas to 1.5:1 or better on all bands, and did it so quickly that my battery still read 13.1 volts after the tuneup. I tuned up on the WARC bands too, just to see if I could. I was now ready to jump into the fray with my 1000 milliwatts of RF.

I had already decided that my Field Day goal was to enjoy the hunt while operating from the most scenic location I could manage, and not to worry about my score. The scenery goal was accomplished beyond a doubt; now I would try milliwatting in Field Day for the first time.

My plan was to hunt and pounce for a couple of hours, and if I couldn't work anyone, then I would increase power to five watts and just stop transmitting for a while if the battery voltage dropped too low.
I started just after 1900Z with a strategy of calling the strongest stations, on the theory that I would be louder on the receiving end. It worked right away, and I bagged a steady stream of stations as I cruised up and down 20 meters.

My QSO rate was low because it almost always took some time to work around the pileups, but the excellent crystal and audio filters on the K2 did their usual fine job of cutting QRM.

By moving my transmit frequency up and down slightly to vary my pitch in the other operator's passband, I was able to work nearly every station I called - eventually. I found that I really enjoyed this extended hunt and pounce, and the QSOs mounted up steadily.

For logging, I used NK0E's GoLog on the Palm. This is a basic program on a basic computer, but it provides the one essential feature of computer logging - duping. There are no advanced features such as ARRL section checking, but I can live without those, especially for a computer weight of six ounces! (GoLog does have the capability of sending CW, with an optional rig interface, but I prefer to contest with paddles, so I haven't taken advantage of this feature.)

From previous, shorter contests, I knew that the Palm IIIxe would easily log the entire event on one pair of AA batteries. That sure beats my Dell laptop, which would eat more batteries than the transmitter and add more than 10 pounds to my already bulging pack.

Back at home, I used NA on my desktop computer to produce a dupe sheet for the QRP ARCI and ARRL entries.

Saturday's workhorse bands turned out to be 20 and 15 meters. I checked 10 regularly (the instant band changing capability of the K2 and auto tuner is a real delight), but never heard anyone. I even ventured a few 1 watt CQs, but failed to up stir anyone. Now, since my goal was to enjoy the hunt and have fun, I had already decided that night operation was strictly optional.

I was also blowing off all the bonus points except those which fell into my lap - 100% natural power and emergency power. After a break for dinner, I moved the station into my little tent and continued the operation from there.

After a couple of hours my eyes grew heavy and I called it quits. After an early breakfast, the morning effort began on 20 meters with an occasional foray to 40 meters. QSOs continued filling the log at a slow but steady rate until 1800z, when the bands died.

Only a few diehards, nearly all of whom I'd worked, were still on the air. My longtime contesting partner had always warned me that no one operates the last three hours of Field Day, and now I found out he was right.

An hour's effort only put one more contact in the log, so I quit for lunch. Afterward, the bands were even quieter, so I dismantled the station and moved on to my planned secondary activity- photography. I didn't have to drive home until Monday, so I took advantage of the fine afternoon light to waste some film and batteries. Thirteen thousand foot Snowdon Peak and the lakes near camp made a fine backdrop.

I ended up with 131 contacts - not bad for a relaxed effort in my biased opinion. But the numbers didn't really matter in the end, just the hunt.

Back in Arizona, the Rodeo Fire had combined with another human-caused fire to create a firestorm. It had become the largest wildfire in Arizona history, and 30,000 people had been been evacuated.

My company got a call from the Forest Service, and I spent the holiday weekend flying fire recon. As I write this in the Show Low airport terminal during mid-July, the Rodeo-Chediski Fire is finally contained at 468,000 acres. More than 731 square miles of ponderosa pine forest has been burned, and now the lightning season is starting.

It's going to be a long summer.
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Bruce Grubbs, N7CEE, a contributing editor to The ARS Sojourner, has been active in QRP for more than fifteen years. He enjoys homebrewing, kit building, and field contesting. His favorite wilderness activity is exploring the Grand Canyon on trips of a week or more, and he also enjoys long backpack trips in the mountains of the west.