The FB Girls Radio Club, JL3ZGL, was established in Osaka prefecture, Japan. Our members are mainly girls who are staff members of the Monthly FB NEWS (Japanese website). We have an account on QRZ.com, so please check out our page!

One of our QSL cards

This time, we’d like to introduce the field operation we did the other day. Masaco is an active singer song writer in Japan, and at the same time, she is also an amateur radio operator. This story starts from a conversation between Masaco and her friend Ah-chan.

Ah-chan: “Masaco, I want to operate out in the field! I think it’s going to be a lot of fun if we are on the air from an observation deck!”

Masaco: “OK! How about going to a park near Tokyo? As you know, the tragic typhoon hit the area last October, and many parks, facilities, and buildings were severely damaged by floods and power failures. I’d like to pray for the people, so what about operating in the field there, and encouraging them?”

Ah-chan: “Sounds good! Let’s do it!!”

Sunny but windy day

They went to a park called “Futtsu park,” in Chiba prefecture. They saw people enjoying fishing on the shore, kite surfing, and jogging.

Masaco: “So this is the park where we are going to be on the air. So spacious!”

Ah-chan: “I heard this park is located on the same longitude as Akihabara City, or Haneda International Airport.”

This park sticks out to the Tokyo Bay, and that is why it used to be a military camp to observe foreign ships a long time ago. An artificial island was built to protect the Japanese capital city, back in Meiji era, late in the 19th century.

You can see Mt. Fuji behind the artificial island.

Masaco: “Ah-chan, do you have a Handheld radio? OK! Let’s go to the observation deck!”
Unfortunately, the day was too windy to be on the air. To make matters worse, the temperature was really low.

Very windy and cold....

It didn’t take that long until they decided to go back to their car. They changed their plan, and they prepared for mobile operation from the parking lot, surrounded by wind-breaking trees.

QSOs on the 70 cm and 40 m band

They started putting up an antenna—a ground plane antenna for the 2 m, 70 cm, 23 cm bands, was attached to a telescopic pole, and firmly held in place by a wheel base. They also had a “secret weapon”—a very long whip antenna, whose length was five meters (16.4 ft) — to be attached on the rooftop of their car using a magnet mount. Their rigs were the Icom IC-7300M and IC-9700.

FB Girls Radio Club’s mobile station

A DC to DC converter (12 V to 13.8 V) connected to the vehicle battery. This enabled them to operate with 50 watts, all day long!

Their favorite rig, the Icom IC-9700

Soon they had a pile-up on 70 cm. Masaco easily succeeded in making QSOs, one after another. One of her fans told her that he wanted to communicate on HF, so she also QRVed on the 40 m band.

Masaco was doing a great job with the Icom IC-7300M!

Actually, they announced their operation in advance using their official Facebook page, so that their ham friends in Japan could prepare for it. The comment field was filled with many happy messages! — “Thanks for the QSO, Masaco and Ah-chan!” “I couldn’t wait for today’s field operation!” “I’m a big fan of the Monthly FB NEWS! So glad to see you two on the air today!”

Masaco, holding the log. Ah-chan, holding a package of Japanese instant noodles for her lunch!

Consequently, their operation lasted two and a half hours. Eighteen QSOs on the 70 cm band FM, thirty-five QSOs on the 40 m band SSB. They’d like to say a huge thank you to those who worked them on the air on that day.