By the numbers:
Call Used: WQ8RP
Operators: N8XX
Category Code: Single Operator Museum Station
Station Location: Shawnee Woodland Native American Museum near
Bellefontaine, Ohio.
Rig: Drake TR-5, Johnson Matchbox
Antenna: 51' vertical, 16' radials connection to electrical ground stake
Highest Power: 4.9 Watts
Exchanged Info: RST (Usually 559) OH
40 M QSO's 13
40 M SPC's 7
Location Multiplier 5
Bonus points 400
Total Claimed Score: 885
WQ8RP, the Michigan QRP Club call, was activate by me from a "very rustic"
camp site next to the Shawnee Woodland Native American Museum near
Bellefontaine, Ohio. See
http://www.zaneshawneecaverns.net/museum.shtml for mor info.
According to signs at the entrance, this was NOT part of the Untied States,
but they took US dollars for camping fees. The place was very rustic - it
had a few "cabins" which were nothing but an
unheated room and a screened in porch, and about 19 trailer/tent
sites.
I worked PA, DE, NJ, ON, several other states, plus four or five
Florididia contacts. I didn't hear any Michigan stations. Skip
might have been too short for the lower peninsula, and the upper
peninsula may not have dug out of their latest sn*wstorm. Many of the
Florididia stations, operating in the Florididia QSO Party must have had
local QRN, because many of the very loud ones couldn't hear my 5 watts.
I was stuck on 40 metres - the olde motto P)rior P)lanning P)revents P)...
P)oor P)erformance goes for trying a combination of tuner and antenna - my
tuner wouldn't tune a 51 ft end fed antenna on any band except 40 metres,
so I was stuck there. The band was good, with some slow QSB.
The camping area had lots of naturally occuring antenna masts - too close
together to even think of a dipole antenna, so I tried a 51' or so length of
wire as a vertical. I probably could have fiddled with the actual length of
wire for the antenna and got it to tune on 20 metres - but that band seemed
to "come and go" as I listened occasionally, so I'm no sure it would have
been very fruitful
I took a bunch of pictures, and I'll be posting them on the web in the next
few daze.
QRPTTF was a good exercise. Several of the Florididia stations who were
expecting a "usual" call during FQP did a double take at the WQ8 prefix!
72/73 de n8xx Hg
Op, WQ8RP during QRPTTF 2008
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