Thursday, August 30, 2012

Last weekend was a contest in the park.

The setup at the park
Last weekend on Saturday the weather here was great lots of sunshine and very few clouds. So it was off the the park with the radio to give the ARCI welcome to QRP contest a go. Its a 3 hour contest from late morning to early afternoon. I setup my Elecraft K2 along with my mono band mobile whip antennas. The key I used was the Mini Palm paddle which works great and has a super feel to it. I found the bands to be in good shape but was not able to find many who were participating in the contest. In total I made 3 contacts contacts in 2.5 hours of operation. While operating I did hear W6/DL6AP/P who was operating in the SOTA at location CT-086....translation Strawberry peak in California. I was not able to contact W6/DL6AP/P but I did hear him in there. There was some other very attended State QSO party contests going on at the same time and were very well attended. So over all I did not strike it rich in the contest by any means...BUT.......I did pickup some bonus points for just being portable on battery power with a portable antenna.

6 comments:

Paul Stam PAØK said...

Hi Mike, a nice set up, there at the park. When the weather is good, it's a good place to be. 73 Paul

VE9KK said...

Good afternoon Paul, yes the weather has been fantastic this summer at times just a little to hot but Im not complaining at all. It's a very nice place I found in this park that is about 15 minutes from home. I plan on going there more often.

IZ3NVR - KD2BGM said...

GA Mike, great fun in that wonderful location. Can't wait to finish my /P setup (QRPp rig + EFHW) and will be active from a portable location too, hopefully a SOTA.

Keep up the great job
73 Stefano

VE9KK said...

Good afternoon Stefano, do blog about the new /P setup when you are done and let us know where you have gone with it. It's very cool to get out and about with the radio.
Have a good week Stefano
Mike

PE4BAS, Bas said...

From what I see on the photo it seems you're on a very comfortable operator position. Nice shade from the trees. Always nice to operate like this despite you didn't make so many QSOs you probabely heard a lot more. 73, Bas

VE9KK said...

Hi Bas, yes it is a very comfee setup and I always look for the shade as it can make the operating time very hot if the sun starts to beat down on you.