On Saturay morning I grabbed my backpack (the one with the FT817 and accessories) and jumped (OK sat) on the “Electric Vespa” and headed over to Dale Park which is about a 10 minute ride from my place.
The weather was fanatastic and as you will find out shortly the bands were cooperating..
I got set up on the Picnic Table (where I try to operate from only has one table so its first come… first served so to speak) with the End Fed antenna on a slight slope south east… I would of preferred South West but such is life…
First contact of the day was made with W0RIC (approx 1500 miles from me) on 14.225 in Arapole Colorado. As my earlier stated intent was to participate in the Colorado QSO Contest in the QRP Portable Catagory I was off to what I thought was a good start..
I have mentioned before that EQSL is really quick…
I also contacted Bill KF0UK in Mesa Colorado and I had no problems working him. Unfortunately the 5w signal going Bill’s way faded just a bit so he got everything outside of VA…. the 3QV seemed to be copyable but he never did get my prefix right… But it was fun anyway…
I was having some problems on 20 with the band just starting to get a bit crowded and with multiple contests going on I was having not much luck in making contacts so I decided to change bands…
In a lets make contacts and forget the contesting mode I made a contact on 12m with 9A2YB in Slovenia (just over 4000 miles on 5w) with Steve. Two things really impressed me…. Number 1- I got him on the first call and second… His signal was so strong… wow… Armchair copy is the term that comes to mind…
After a couple of missed chances… But when you are operating QRP with a wire antenna… not everyone is going to hear you I managed to get Italian Station IW3IBK into the log with a great 12m contact… Another contact of over 4000 miles on 5w and a wire… But before I brag too much….
I guess his station was doing the most work in this case… What do ya think???
Next in my log was SP5ADX in Poland who was again over 4000 miles from Ottawa… HMmmmmm Could there be a pattern forming here with 12m contacts today? His signal was great… and he could hear me so all was good…
I then tried 15m and after 5 almosts (they had strong signals but could not fully copy my call) I managed to get MW1LCR/p from Wales in the log . This one was just over 3000 miles…
Shortly after that I managed to get 2012L in the log on15m as well. The British Official Olympic Amateur Radio Station is still causing pileups as they now operate during the Paralympics in London.
Now I have made contacts with on 3 bands (12-15-20m) all with 5w and my end fed from the park… its looking like a great day for radio..
There were a few more attemps on 15 with a couple of almosts… DK0FC got my call on the first try but then second guessed himself and we never got it right after that…. He switched to QV to QY to VE2 to W2 but either way it was a no go. He had such a strong signal but… Not in Log… Not his fault either… 15 was busy with multiple contests and it does make it harder to hear a QRP Signal… I had to really work for the 15m and 20m contacts that I managed to make and the 12m contacts seemed much easier even though they were the longer distances…
After a couple of hours I figured I would pack things up and head back home… It was a great way to spend a few hours and the final score was 6 contacts in 6 DXCC entities on 3 bands while operating QRP SSB Portable.
Now nothing really special but other than the fact that I did it and I had fun at the same time… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…
“Radio can be an outdoor sport….”
73bob
Tags: amateur radio, Amateur Radio Portable Operations, Electric Vespa, Yaesu FT 817
