After a short email exchange with VA3PCJ on Monday nite we decided to walk over to the local Starbucks for a morning coffee and then head over to Weston Park where I could stretch out my W3EDP and he could test out his newly built Elecraft KX1 and put my CW skills to shame.
The reason for stretching out the W3EDP is that this Saturday I will be heading out to two seperate portable station events that will be having multi operators in a close proximity. From previous years I know that frequency coordintaion will be an issue several times during the day… Taking the W3EDP gives me the option of sitting on 80m in the mid morning and making a couple of contacts along with in the late afternoon when the others are CQing DX on the higher bands…
The park was much quieter now that the Kids are back in school but we set up close to the kiddie wading pool that was closed for the season and left the area that has the swings and slides available for the pre schoolers with their caregivers…
I stretched out my W3EDP north south which made it slightly directional east-west. As usual I brought my FT 817 (5w output) along with the LDG QRP Autotuner. I added the comment of slightly as the antenna was about 10 feet agl at the radio end and about 20 feet agl at the other so it was not really that high. I am guessing that the NVIS effect came info play on my 80m contact and my 40m contacts…
Yes the contacts… In the 90 minutes we stayed at the park I managed to make contacts on 80m, 40m, 20m, 17m, and 15m. I tried listening to 12m and 10m but heard no one….
Here is my log for the day…
80m__VA3OGR_Grant_Athens ON_ 55miles or 11miles/watt
40m__VE3BDB_Bob__Orillia ON_194 miles or 38 miles/watt
40m__VE3CBK_Chris_Kanata ON_14 miles or 3 miles/watt
20m__K0UB___Bill__N Dakota_1296 miles or 259 miles/watt
17m__K5DLO_Don_Oklahoma_ 1217 miles or 243 miles/watt
15m__8R1AK _Esmond_Guyana_2866 miles or 573 miles/watt
Now some of you might be wondering about the “mile per watt” distance mentioned above… Its fairly simple you take the estimated distance between you and the contacted station… I like the QRZ Calculators as long as the other person filled his coordinates correctly and then divide that distance by the output power used in the contact…
As an example….
100 miles at 5w output = 100/5 which works out to 20 miles per watt
100 miles at 100w output = 100/100 which works out to 1 mile per watt
but if I had lowered my power on the 817 to .5w….
100 miles at .5w = 100/.5 which works out to 200 miles per watt
I think you get the picture… Now these distances are not that great even for QRP operators… Lots of CW QRP/Digital types get into VK Land on 1W and that would be working out to approx 10000 miles per watt… Today I was doing this with QRP SSB… A good antenna system helps… but anything is possiable…
So I just figured that I would start to include the miles per watt distance on some of my contacts from the parks as its always QRP Portable for now (sold my FT 897) and the portable antennas are sometime installed in less than stellar locations so it gives you an idea of how much (or how little) performance you can get from a Field Station… Your mileage may/will vary but I doubt you will have more fun than I do….
But back to the park visit…
The weather was nice… The bands were cooperating (contacts on 5 different bands and DX as well) and good company and discussions… Around noon we both reminded ourselves that we had other places to be for the rest of the day and so we headed off in our seperate directions to get back to reality… But it was a great way to spend a couple of hours between coffee and radio…
Hopefully later this week (Wed am would be nice) we can do this all over again…
73bob
ps… In the “Its a small world” catagory. Chris VE3CBK will be one of the participants at Chilicon this weekend which is the 2nd event I will participating in on Saturday… The first time we ever talked to each other on the radio was today… Never met him at any club meeting… Never talked to him on a repeater… And we only live 15 miles apart…. go figure…
pps… Posting was edited September 12th to correct the distance for 8R1AK and the miles per Watt rating….
Tags: amateur radio, Amateur Radio Portable Ops, Chilicon, elecraft kx1, Starbucks, VA3PCJ, VE3BDB, VE3CBK, W3EDP Antenna, Weston Park, Yaesu FT 817
September 12, 2012 at 12:26 am |
Bob, I’m bringing my W3EDP to Chilicon, maybe I can get you to give me a hand and see if we can get it working this time
73,
Bill
September 12, 2012 at 12:57 am |
Ok…. But I thought it was working before….
using a 4:1 balun???? 84 foot on one side and 17 foot on the other??? Twisted wire connectors and used duct tape instead of solder??? Should work
CU on Saturday after Britannia… Should be there early pm
73bob