ARRL Field Day
Call: KP2AA
Operator(s): W1HIJ, K7JA, KL7MF, NP2MR, NP2MV, K6PEQ, N6PEQ, KF6SGV
Station: KP2AA
Class: 4A QRP
QTH: St. Croix, USVI
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80:
40: 225 30
20: 639 1104
15: 722 633
10: 143
6:
2: 1
222:
432:
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
----------------------------
Total: 1586 1912 0 Total Score = 26,320
Club:
Comments:
WOW! What a great FD. The Pina Colada Contest Club, the folks who brought you
NP4A for FD 2002, and CO0US for FD 2003, had our first chance to operate from
what will become our standard contest station in the Caribbean. FD seemed like a
great chance to check it all out, put up lots of antennas, and find out whether
the location that we thought would be good, actually was good.
We decided to go QRP and concentrate on antennas. A full size 3 element 20, full
size 3 element 15, a 4 element 10, a two element wire beam for 40, and the
killer antenna of all time (from the fertile brain of K7JA), a rotatable 15
meter double extended zepp. The final antenna (which will become a permanent
fixture of KP2AA) was a Force 12 C19XR that had just arrived on site and was
built and installed on 28 feet of aluminum military mast as a test. Radios
ranged from a Yaesu FT817, through FT857's and FT897's to an FT1000MP Mk V Field
(which will also become a permanent fixture), all cranked down to a measured 5
watts.
The QRP decision was made on the basis that we wanted to see what we could do
from that location with minimal power, to test the QTH and the antennas.
As always, murphy's ugly head was in sight a lot. The best occurrence was
discovering three days before Field day, that the 1100 feet of coax we had
shipped down had disappeared somewhere between Florida and St. Croix.
Fortunately with the help of John Ellis, NP2B (SM for the VI) we were able to
gather up enough coax to handle the problem, but it was close for a bit.
We ran on batteries, and the look on the face of the employee at the Western
Auto store on St. Croix when I said I wanted 8 Group 24 auto batteries was
priceless. It took several minutes before he sidled up to me after the sale was
done and asked quietly, "Can I ask what you need EIGHT batteries for?"
Conditions from the Caribbean were superb with the low A and K indexes and 20
remained opean all night with 15 only closing for about 3 hours. 40 was
minimally acceptable and 80 was useless. We were disappointed not to have a
decent opeaning on 6, since a couple of days before field day there were some
nice openings.
And "yes, virginia", there was only one 2 meter Q. BUT --- we managed to get to
NA1SS from the International Space Station on a southerly pass. Now that was a
kick!!!
We achieved all our goals, and as our California Governor is wont to say: "We'll
be back!"
Thanks everyone for all the Q's
73 de Bill, W1HIJ/6 and all the KP2AA gang.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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