Ridley Creek and QRM

I’ve been a little under the weather this week, but I squeezed in a long overdue POTA activation this morning. Although I had a successful activation, I had to contend with some annoying QRM.

I took a ride down to Ridley Creek State Park (K-1414, KFF-1414), one of my favorite nearby parks. I went with my usual setup: TR-35 (5 watts CW) and 12-foot whip with my homebrew loading coil. 

WB3GCK at Ridley Creek State Park (K-1414, KFF-1414)
WB3GCK at Ridley Creek State Park (K-1414, KFF-1414)

I had a great start on 40M, logging my first 10 contacts in 12 minutes. Four contacts later, a loud digital signal popped up on my frequency wiping me out. I moved up to 20M and had to tune around for a while until I found an empty spot. Although the band was producing contacts for me, it seemed like I was operating on the “international tune-up frequency” or something. At one point I had to stop for an extended “tuner-upper.” After what seemed like an eternity, he finally unkeyed. After that, I heard someone call him a “lid” (in CW, of course). Fortunately, things were more civilized on the 17M and 30M bands. 

When I wrapped up, I had 43 contacts in my log, including Finland, Italy, and two stations in France. 

Despite the occasional QRM, it wasn’t a bad morning.

73, Craig WB3GCK

6 thoughts on “Ridley Creek and QRM”

  2. Sorry you had the QRM. That tuner upper on 20 sounds like the signal I was hearing on 20 while chasing a POTA QRP CW station on that frequency. It may have been you. I was never able to get a copy on the CW station, because the tuner upper or whatever it was. Sure a long time to tune up. Sorry you had the QRM. It sucks when we hunters are trying to make a few CW contacts, especially since my CW suffers greatly but I try. Hope to work you again, even through I did not get you today. 73 DE AI4LL

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    1. Hi Jack: The real bad signal sounded a broader than a pure CW tone. Usually, you can still hear stations that are slightly off frequency. This guy wiped out a good chunk of bandwidth. Sorry I missed you today, but I hope to hear you again soon. Thanks for hunting! 73, Craig WB3GCK

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