Maybe that’s the best way to describe our Fifth Anniversary outing at the park today. When I arrived around 10:00 Am, it was gray and dreary but still pretty much dry. Dave KD2FSI had been set up for a while and was trying his hand at working 7 Land QSO Party stations. He still needs Montana and Nevada for WAS, so he thought today might be the day.
I watched him for a bit and chatted with him for a bit more. I should have gotten straight to setting up my station instead, because as soon as I started, the sky opened up. It wasn’t a gully washer and didn’t rain hard enough to deter our plans, it just made setting up an uncomfortable affair.
I had planned to shoot a line up over a nearby tree and run the PAR END FEDZ over to it. That would have gotten the far end of the antenna up somewhere around 45 feet.
As I say, that’s what I had planned.
Things didn’t work out as planned. As soon as I pumped up the antenna launcher, I immediately lost air pressure. I suspected a bad Schraeder valve, or possibly a leaky joint somewhere. I didn’t want to waste too much time, so I went to “Plan B”.
It’s always good to have a backup plan, and outdoor QRPers are a resourceful bunch. I like to feel that I fit into that category and every now and then, I do. I ended up parking the Jeep a little further away from our operating position and used my drive on mast and the 31 foot Jackite pole as my antenna support.
My Jeep, on the right, is supporting the Jackite. You can see the mast support by the front passenger tire.
I’ve used this set up before numerous times, so I knew it would work. It did, and once again I was not disappointed. As usual the PAR presented a very good match to the KX3 and my signal seemed to be getting out pretty well. At our 1500 UTC jumping off point, I made three quick CW contacts on 40 Meters and two fo them were with good friends Bob W3BBO and Cliff KU4GW.. Things seemed to be going well. Then Dave fired up the 20 Meter SSB station and at 100 Watts, he just wiped me out. Not wanting to be a killjoy, I figured I’d let him operate a while and when he wanted a break, I’d resume 40 Meter CW.
Dave KD2FSI operating 20 Meter SSB.
One of the guys must have told him the trouble I was having, because he went over to his van, brought out a little silver box and handed it to me. It was a 40 Meter pass band filter. I put that in line and “Whammo!” - problem solved. Both stations operated for the full amount of time, not impeding each other in the slightest.
Bill W2AOF logs as Marv K2VHW makes contacts on 40 Meter SSB.
All in all, it was a fun day. We didn’t make nearly as many QSOs as we had hoped, but the ones we did make were solid. Our Club President, Bill W2AOF, went to a nearby sandwich shop and brought us lunch. Marv K2VHW made a coffee run to a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts and brought back some much needed caffeine.
Dave W2OIL and Danny KC2YRC, friends of ours from the ETS of NJ Club (and Honorary Members of SPARC) were there and took a look at my antenna launcher (which they had made for me). They pressurized it with their bicycle pump and it held, no problem. That means my $5 cheapie Walmart foot pump finally gave up the ghost after 5 or 6 years - probably a leak in the hose or the filler valve. I’ll need to acquire another before Field Day. I was relieved that it wasn’t a problem with the launcher itself.
And wouldn’t you know it? At the very end, the rain abated, the sun came out and it warmed up quite nicely. Nevertheless, we had fun, enjoyed each other’s company and got some winter kinks out in preparation for Field Day next month. That’s what mattered the most.
If you worked us, we thank you. If you heard us, but didn’t get through, we thank you for trying. Maybe we’ll have better luck in about six weeks when it’s Field Day, and NJ2SP is once again on the air, this time as “3A NNJ”.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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May 05, 2019 at 01:34AM
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