Saturday September 17th was a fun operating day at George Park in Panama City FL. I participated in QRP Afield sponsored by the New England QRP Club. and Marv KK4DKT worked Parks On The Air POTA contacts.
The day began with erecting antennas. I had the assistance of Marv and Ron KK4DWE. The first mast was for a 20 meter ground plane and the second mast held a 40/20 fan dipole. I had the concept of an antenna shoot-out and was going to include a 20 meter delta loop as a third antenna but backed out to start operating. I was able to switch between the dipole and the ground plane. There was a slight increase of noise on the ground plane over the dipole but I made most of my contacts on the ground plane. The electrical noise on 40 was extreme so we stuck with 20 meters. I am very pleased with the ground plane performance and find the antenna visually appealing.
I enjoyed working 15 contacts for QRP Afield. There were 11 SPCs: FL, PA, AZ, IL, NH(2), TX(2), NY, MD(2), ME, WI, SC. All contacts were on 20 meters with exception of SC on 40 meters. Since I was portable and operated at 5 watts there is an additional multiplier of 10. So 15 X 11 X 10 = 1650 points. This was my first QRP event with the Ten Tec R4020. It did a great job. I was using an external set of ten Eneloop AAs and started the day at 14 volts and was down to 12.5 volts at the end. So I could have kept going.
A big hello to W3PO Pat who mentioned he is a reader of this blog in our QSO.
Marv KK4DKT did an hour or so of operating and got six contacts on 20 meters. He should be good for activating George Park under POTA.
There was also a visit from John KJ4MAK and Gary AJ4KY during the day. All hams were members of the Panama City ARC. It was suggested to have more portable events for the club.
I enjoy Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio, Field Days, QRP, satellites, and CW. I have many friends in the hobby that make it fun. I will keep you posted on what I learn about amateur radio on this blog.
