Monday, April 23, 2018

QRP To The Field 2018 "A River Runs Through It"

Bob KK4DIV and I went to Dead River Landing in Walton, County, FL for QRP To The Field.
QRPTTF is an annual operating event to encourage QRPers and SOTA stations to get out of the house and operate portable “from the field” or a summit, and of course, have fun. Find a nice operating location for yourself, or combine it with some buddies for a day-long adventure.


The theme for this year was "A River Runs Through It". Thus we chose the Dead River Landing on a slough of the Choctawhatchee River. We used Dead River in our exchange. This venue was ideal having a pavilion by the river under oak trees. The oak trees were just the ticket for a 40-meter OCF dipole. We also had an elevated 20-meter vertical for a while and later traded it for a 20-meter dipole.



Bob and I operated under our own calls. This QRP event was 5 watts CW and 10 watts SSB. Bob works SSB. He used a new Yaesu FT 891. I used the Elecraft KX2. Since we were working concurrently on two bands, interference between the rigs can be an issue. Bob's rig on 20 meters was raising the background noise in my rig of 40 meters. It was an opportunity to use some band-pass filters I purchased from DX Engineering.  We put the 40-meter filter on my rig. It did not cure the noise. However, putting the 20-meter band-pass filter on Bob's rig cured the noise.This will come in handy for a multiple transmitter Field Day.

Bob KK4DIV

In QRPTTF, rivers and SOTA locations count as multipliers in addition to their SPC. I did not hear a flood of TTF stations, but I ran across them during the day. In terms of rivers, I worked

  • KC9RH/P Town Creek GA
  • KB4QQJ Haw River NC
  • KJ5FA Big Tiny Creek AR
  • WB5BKL Colorado River TX?
For SOTA I worked
  • KC4WZB W4G/NG-027 GA
  • N5DRG W5T/DE003 TX
  • WC6J W6/NS290 CA
  • WG4I W4C/EM001 NC
Additional SPCs included AL, FL, OH, MD, IN, KY, TN, MO, SC, MI

In summary

  • 40 CW 15
  • 40 SSB 5
  • 20 CW 4
  • 20 SSB 1
  • Total 25
Bob, Suzy and I had a good time. The weather was comfortable and the river was very scenic. I will definitely add this venue to my list for future operations. On the return trip, Bob and I listened to the Dennis Blanchard K1YPP QSO Today on which Dennis talks about his 2100 mile hike of the Appalachian Trail. You will find more photos at this link.

Bob's Yaesu FT 891
Greg's KX2