Our adventure started as it normally does, at the 7am breakfast on Saturday morning with other members of the Williamson County Amatuer Radio Club (WCARC). We chowed down, drank plenty of java, told plenty of lies, and had the usual great time. Right after breakfast we set out for our camping destination; Cedar Breaks, an Army Corp. of Enginners Park, located right on scenic Lake Georgetown. As coincidence would have it, this marvelous park is only about 5 miles from where we ate breakfast.
We were able to register with the park rangers
without incident and quickly found the perfect campsight for our operation.
It was right out in the open with plenty of space for antennas and even
a few fairly tall trees
to hang antennas (TALL in central Texas means about 28 to 35 feet, not
much rain to support really tall trees). As we pulled in the site,
I got to work on the camper setup while Bill started assembling the radio
station and laying out the antennas. As soon as I got the camper
and gear all set. I helped Bill finish the radio setup and antenna
installations. We were completely setup and ready to go by 11:00am.
So it was time to test the radios and antenna combinations out and generally
play around the bands a bit.
Our radio equipment consisted of the following:
- Red Hot Radio for 20 meter band
- Heathkit HW-9 for 10 meter thru 80 meter
band operation
- PK2 keyer
- K9 Keyer
- (2) Norcal iambic paddles
- Homebrew Resonant Speaker
- 20 meter dipole up about 20 to 25 feet
( right over the lake!)
- 20 meter full-wave horizontal loop (up
about 48 feet at its highest point )
- R7 vertical antenna (on short mast about
12 feet high)
- 12V Lawnmower battery
- 350ma Solar Cell
We tested equipment and made pleny of notes and comparisons about antenna combinations while we waited for the contest to begin. Finally 0700z arrived and we cranked up our awesome 5 watt signal to tickle the ether. We quickly found out that there were ZERO stations to be heard on 10m and we worked only a handful of stations on 15m. So it was off to 20m where we had ample guns ready for combat! Like the other bands 20m was hot and cold. We would get huge signals one moment, and then they would fade away to return again sometimes 10 or 15 minutes later. There were times when the band was completly quiet for period of varying length.
Bill and I alternated between logging sending. We make a great team, four ears and eight eyes really are better than the normal set! We had great fun working the contest and enjoying a spectacular view of Lake Georgetown. Our weather was great, our campsite had a constant lake breeze, and it was very pleasant.
We managed to bag 98 contacts by the time the Saturday portion of the event ended. Bill's wife Cheryl was very kind and brought us some dinner right on schedule near the end of the first day contest. We had worked pretty much straight thru with few breaks, so we were ready for some R & R! We had some dinner and some cold drinks and even deserts! We took a break for a while and also enjoyed a spectacular Texas sunset. Now well fed and smiling again, we started scanning the bands for some more stations to work. Before long we were working a bunch of DX stations in Norway and Finland. Lots of fluttery signals coming over the pole; but still great fun.
By 10:00PM we were out of gas( ever notice how much later it feels when you are camping out? 10pm feels like midnite) and decided to call it a night. We covered up the gear and secured it from any wind that might come up and retired to the camper for the night. At 6:30AM Bill was up and about and we both jumped in his truck for a quick run into town for breakfast and coffee (take-out at McDonald....we were on a tight skd). We shot right back to camp and got everything up and running just in time for the 7AM start of the special bonus event. We worked quite a few stations on 40 meters and then moved directly to 20 meter. If anything the bands were not quite as good as they were just the day before. But we stayed with it and by the time the event ended had put another 50 plus calls into our log.
We certainly had a blast working QRP Afield this year. Many thanks to the NJ QRP club for sponsoring the contest and to all the stations we worked. You guys had great ears and lots of class!
Final Results:
-Number of QSOs:
Saturday = 98
Sunday = 52
-Claimed Score:
(98 x 4 x 2) + (52 x 8 x 2) x 78 = 126,048
ie: 98 (sat qso) x 4(portable) x 2(5w pwr))
+52 (sun qso) x 8 (overnite
portable) x 2 (5w pwr) x 78 (spc total)
72 es 73, Dave-AB5WX and Bill-K5LN