Tag: QRP

QRP Afield at Pine Grove Furnace State Park

Our reservations for a weekend of camping at Pine Grove Furnace State Park (K/KFF-1398) in south-central Pennsylvania coincided nicely with the New England QRP Club‘s (NEQRP) QRP Afield contest. Although I didn’t hear much QRP Afield activity there was a lot going on this weekend, radio-wise.

We had a great campsite this time. It was large and isolated from our neighbor campers. Behind our site, there was nothing but woods. This site was screaming for a larger antenna. I put up a 53-foot inverted “L” antenna about 25 feet tall. I ran the horizontal section back into the woods and tied it off in a pine tree. It only took two attempts to get my line where I wanted it. I’m embarrassed to say I missed the tree completely on my first toss!

The WB3GCK QRP camper at Pine Grove Furnace State Park. If you look closely, you can see my antenna behind the picnic table. The white object is a plastic bag protecting the 9:1 unun from the rain we had on Friday night. The horizontal part of my inverted L runs back into the woods.
The WB3GCK QRP camper at Pine Grove Furnace State Park. If you look closely, you can see my antenna behind the picnic table. The white object is a plastic bag protecting the 9:1 unun from the rain we had on Friday night. The horizontal part of my inverted L runs back into the woods.

When I fired up the KX3 Friday night, the bands sounded great. I made several SKCC contacts, including KA4RUR out in Missouri. Fred is a retired Coast Guard Radioman and a fellow Field Radio member. I also had a nice chat with Jim WT2W in New York on 60M. Jim told me he was a Navy Radioman on a “tin can” (destroyer). It was great to work these fellow former military radio operators.

The next day, I set up outside the trailer and got ready for the contest. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much QRP Afield activity on the bands. I only worked two stations — W0UFO in Minnesota and W1C at the Chowdercon QRP gathering. I briefly heard another station but couldn’t connect.

WB3GCK operating at Pine Grove Furnace State Park.
WB3GCK operating at Pine Grove Furnace State Park.

Despite the lack of QRP Afield activity, there was plenty of other stuff going on to keep me occupied. I worked several stations in the Washington State Salmon Run, Iowa, and New Jersey QSO parties. I had park-to-park contacts with VE2DDZ (VEFF-0365) and K5KJ (K-3031) and also worked 3 SOTA stations — N0TA, KX0R, and AC1Z.

My favorite QSO of the weekend, though, was a two-way QRP chat with UR5FA/MM. I heard Oleg calling CQ on 30M and gave him a call. He was aboard a Ukranian cargo ship in the Atlantic, west of Gibraltar and bound for Canada. After chatting for a bit about our respective set-ups, I wished Oleg a safe voyage and he wished me an enjoyable camping trip. I was pleased to add UR5FA/MM to my log once again. That contact sure brought a smile to my face.

72, Craig WB3GCK

My QTTF 2018 Tale of Woe

Boy, if I thought last year’s QRP to the Field (QTTF) contest was rough, this year was even worse. Solar wackiness and high local noise levels teamed up and made for a miserable day.

My (far) better half and I spent our first camping trip of the year at nearby French Creek State Park here in southeastern Pennsylvania. We were in a campsite that we have used many times over the years. Radio-wise, I used my 29.5-foot vertical and 9:1 unun. Since we were having an unusually chilly and windy April day, I wimped out and operated from inside our little travel trailer.

My mobile QRP shack at French Creek State Park. My antenna is in the background near the trees.
My mobile QRP shack at French Creek State Park. My antenna is in the background near the trees.

In between some beginning-of-the-season maintenance tasks on the trailer, I planned to get on the radio for some QTTF fun. Sadly, there wasn’t much fun to be had. Reportedly, there was a G2-level geomagnetic storm on Friday with effects that appeared to last through the weekend. I haven’t seen the bands that bad in a while. To make matters worse, our little trailer had some larger RVs for neighbors this weekend and all of their electrical doo-dads were causing some horrendous noise levels on the bands. The 40M band was the worst with near-constant S9 noise levels.

My vertical antenna out behind the trailer
My vertical antenna out behind the trailer

My high noise levels and weak signals on the bands made for a frustrating day. My contacts were few and far between. A few times, I just had to walk away from the rig and do something else. At the end of the day, I had worked only 2 other QTTF stations and 2 International Marconi Day (IMD) special event stations.

My apologies to those who tried to work me and to those who suffered through my requests for repeats.  I hope things go better next year.

72, Craig WB3GCK