Just got back from playing in Hutton Park… Normally I go to Weston Park, but the park was filled with people enjoying the park… All the good operating spots were filled with moms keeping the young ones busy. I had Hutton Park all to my self and set up by the Baseball Diamond.
Once you enlarge the above picture you might be able to see the baseball infield on your right hand side…
The rig was my Yaesu FT817 and I was also using my LDG QRP Autotuner and the antenna was my freshly brewed W3EDP which was just completed…
The antenna was first deployed as an end fed flat top aiming east west which would put the signal more North-South and then deployed an end fed inverted V only using one tree branch for support.
Results on a day with very very poor band conditions were not too bad for a QRP operation. On 40m I managed a contact into Maine and on 20m I made a contact in Texas. Its safe to say that in both cases the other guys were doing the work as they were easy to copy but they had a rough time with my QRP SSB Signal but … They did hear me… Just… But they heard me…
I was able to get the antenna to load up on all bands (10-160m) although the tuner did have to sweat a bit on 160 but I won’t comment on the effiecency of the antenna on 160… I was able to hear stations on the ONTARS Net on 3.755 but no one heard me… 80m daytime conditions in the summertime… I was shocked that I could even hear someone… On 15 and 17 I heard some big guns calling CQ and they were running a large pile up… Breaking a pile up normally is an exercise in futulity when your mode is QRP SSB so I just listened for a few minutes but I did not hear much other than the Big Guns giving out 5/9 …
So I concider the build a success… The trip was fun… even though it was short as Hutton Park in close to home.
The W3EDP will be the antenna of choice during the evening of Field Day and also for the Canada Day Contest and perhaps when NR4CB/m visits us in Iroquois later this month…
73bob
Tags: amateur radio, amateur radio antenna, Hutton Park, LDG QRP Autotuner, NR4CB, The Bionic Nerd, W3EDP Antenna, Yaesu FT 817
