By Terry N5LOW
Field Day 2025. It feels like I’ve been preparing for this for years—because I have. The journey started back in the summer of 2022 when Dave, KG5URA, convinced me to join him in the pursuit of Morse code contacts on CW. I was intrigued but overwhelmed. Those first couple of Field Days were rough—I just couldn’t copy fast enough. But with patience and generous help from mentors like W5OC, AB5SS, K5RG, KG5U, and K5KUA, I kept at it.
Since then, it’s become a bit of a lifestyle. No one wants to ride in my truck anymore—it’s nonstop CW on the radio, and you’re expected to repeat call signs out loud. It’s how I train.
Then it was time: Field Day 2025.
I decided to raise my inverted V dipole a few extra feet, even if it pushed me slightly outside HOA compliance. I untied it from the fence and pulled the elevation rope… POP—antenna wires fell to the ground. XYK immediately chimed in: “You can’t leave that mess lying around—it looks bad.” I replied, “It’s Field Day.” That’s when everything started to go wrong.
With only 30 minutes to fix it, I was on the ladder lowering the ROHN telescoping mast. I re-fed the pulley with new rope, pushed the mast back up, re-secured it to the house, and re-strung the antenna. Back on the fence. By now it was dark-thirty.
In the shack, I fired up FT8 on 20, 40, and 80 meters. Made a bunch of contacts on 20M into Europe—one might’ve been the Pope in the Vatican (okay, maybe not, but IK8NSR at 5,784 miles and 124° azimuth sounded pretty holy to me). I never used this antenna , but it was ready.
Saturday Morning: Enter the Home-brew Dipole
I tuned up on my handmade ladder-line fed dipole—cut for 7.050 MHz and surprisingly fantastic on 14.050 as a full wave. This was my weapon of choice for Field Day 2025. Built it using a tried-and-true formula:
Length = ((123 / Freq) × 0.88)
Where:
- 123 is the 1/8-wavelength factor
- Freq = frequency in MHz
- 88 = velocity factor of DXE-LL300 300Ω ladder line
Use an odd multiple (1, 3, 5, etc.) of the calculated length. For me, 15 feet × 3 = 45 feet of ladder line. Then, cut your dipole legs—start long at ~70 feet total and trim down using a NanoVNA. Lots of shack trips. Final result: 35 feet per side.
Threw it up horizontally at 17 feet (close enough to my 20-foot goal). On the feedline side, you’ve got two choices: build your own 1:1 balun, or beg/borrow/buy one. Then coax to tuner—unless your rig magically handles the mismatch. I recommend the tuner.
This setup is perfect for HOA restrictions and even better for POTA or FD operation.
Let the Games Begin
At 12:55 PM, I staked out 14.059 MHz. Repeatedly called:
“CQ FD TEST CQ FD N5LOW FD TEST”
Made a few contacts, got into rhythm.
1:00 PM CST—Game on.
I started hunting. This allowed me to grab the Call, Class, and Section before transmitting. Armed with N1MM Loggerand rig control, one button did it all. Contesting bliss.
Soon I was working like a pro—just jumping in with a call sign, confident the exchange would follow. If I missed it, I’d wait for the next op to get the same info. Strategy.
My Yaesu FT-710 AESS helped a ton. The CW Zero-In feature is golden—precision tuning in one button. Combined with input filtering to knock out adjacent stations, it made copying signals easier. IC-7300 users know this as Auto Tuneand Notch Filter.
I’d find a strong signal, adjust RF/AF gain, clean up interference, and lock in the call. For the speed demons, FLDIGIdecoded the fast CW. I practice at 40 wpm, but I’m solid at maybe 15. I suspect decoders are more common than people admit—few repeats, no delays. Everyone just flies.
This style is way different from operating at W5RRR, where you can create a pile-up from your first “CQ” and hold a frequency for hours. I worked search & pounce style—up and down the band—letting N1MM warn me on dupes. That feature alone makes it worth using for Field Day.
Another gem: auto-clear input fields when I moved the dial. No more stale or wrong data cluttering things up when I changed plans mid-contact.
40M Night Shift & 101 CW Contacts
The 20M band fizzled around 10 PM. Switched to 40M. It was hopping—great contacts, some DX, and a few ragchewers who weren’t interested in contesting. I ended with 101 CW contacts and a huge grin. My solo CW Field Day was a complete success. I’m hooked and hungry for more.
Next year? I want to copy and log like the big guns—get that call, class, section in one smooth pass, all by ear. And maybe build another DIY antenna to test my skills. So far we have tested the magic 10-80m antenna with great success, and this 20,40 dipole , with great success. FD and POTA are great methods to test your antenna builds.
Oh, and while writing this? I logged 41 FT8 contacts on 20 meters. Multitasking, the ham way.
Amazing – I hunted on CW as well and cheated using RBN to decode contacts – Then got the courage to activate and got stuff on a “H” vs a “5” even though the other operator was super kind and kept slowing down – KI5GTR became KIHDTR and then KI5DTR and then finally dawned on me that it “GTR” – I wrote a note to his email and he was so kind in his response blaming QSB for my struggles.
Great article Terry