SWCC Freeze Your Buns Off
2005 QRP Contest.
On Saturday, Feb 5, at about 9:00 AM, Chuck AC7QN and Rich KR7W met at
Tacoma's Point Defiance Park- Owens Beach to begin the set up of two QRP
stations inside of the picnic shelter.
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The first order of business
was to erect the "Salt Water Vertical" in the surf. Luck had it that
the tide was somewhat out. Chuck drove a piece of rebar into the sandy
beach and then placed the 16 ft fiberglass pan fishing pole. The pole had some 16 AWG
magnet wire duct taped to it. |
Four wire radials were connected to the base of the antenna at the shield of the
coaxial feed-line. The antenna's coax was spliced to a 100 ft piece of
RG-8X to extend it into the picnic shelter shack. [Tech note:
This 100 ft piece of coax added 1 dB of loss. This equates to about one
watt of loss subtracted from the five watts the transmitter outputs] The barrel
connector that spliced the connector became submerged when the tide came in.
It was not certain that flooding the connector with salt water caused anymore
loss... but we dried out this connection and raised it above the water level
with another support in the surf [see photo].
The next thing to do was to put up Rich's TV Twin-lead dipole antenna.
Lines were shot into the trees behind the picnic shelter while Chuck set up his
station. Gary WG7X and Al KE7C?? assisted with the dipole erection.
The dipole was about 30 ft in the air above the metal roofed picnic shelter.
Phone contacts were being made by 1725 UTC. There was the Minnesota QSO party going on all over the 20 meter SSB part of the band. All the
better to gain contacts from. Using 5 watts to break into a small pile up
involves using some skill... but it was no problem at this station. DX
contacts with Costa Rica on 15M SSB [two watts output] and Brazil on 20M SSB [5
watts out here, 8 watts out in Brazil] were achieved.
CW contacts started rolling in at 1815 UTC on 40 meters. 40 meters CW was sort of spotty- meaning that not a good flow of contacts were being made.
So, the CW station QSY'd to 20 meters and operated with little or no
interference to/from the SSB station. Low interference was attributed to the
fact that the antennas are operating in opposite polarity and we were using such
low power (2 watts CW and 5 watts SSB). The outstanding "far away"
contacts were VT and ME.
The tradition of Rich making Cowboy Coffee on the camp stove was adhered to.
Also, we BBQ'd some bratworst sausages. Sorry.... no beer this time.
72r5 de Rich KR7W
Update: Preliminary Score is:
65 QSOs Pts X 33 SPCs = 2145 x 3 (Temp for 40 F) = 6435 x 4
(Field) = 25740 x 2 (Alt Pwr Batts) = 51,840 + 10,000 (NQ7RP) =
61,840 Total Points
Click on photo to enlarge.
Use your browsers BACK button to return to this page
to select another photo to view.
Photos by Pat WT7N
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Owens Beach Picnic Shelter, The Site of SWCC's FYBO 2005 Contest effort.
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Nice day at SWCC FYBO-2005. WX was pretty clear and temp was around 40 deg F
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Another nice view of Commencement Bay from Owens Beach at Pt Defiance Park, located in NW Tacoma, WA.
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The AC7QN fishing pole vertical antenna. A piece of rebar was driven into the surf (while tide was out) and a colapsable fiberglass....
pan fishing pole was placed on the rebar. Magnet wire was duct-taped to the mast. |
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Closer view of the salt water vertical
Also, four magnet wire radials were placed at 90 degrees to each other. When the tide came in... three of the four radial wires were mostly submerged. Unscientific analysis determined that this vertical antenna outperformed the dipole by 10 times (per KR7W's opinion). |
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Kayakers were attracted to the SW Vertical.
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One Kayak got tangled in the north radial. Chuck asked them to go away.
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It's Fireball Adam, KD7TQX at Chuck's station using the SW Vertical antenna.
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Rich, KR7W's station. FT-817 @ 2 watts, Z-11 antenna tuner, RS Sperker, Paddlette PK-1 key, 7 a/h battery for all day operation.
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Rich, KR7W, FYBOing with hat and gloves @ 40 deg F.
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Roddney, WV7O, at Chuck's FT-817 SSB Station @ 5 watts. This station used a 25 a/h battery that would last a week.
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Roddney, WV7O. Got gloves?
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An Olympia hiking club hiked down the hill to the FYBO site....
to be onlookers to the SWCC operation. |
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As promised.... Rich's Campstove Cowboy Coffee.....
Gary, WG7X, contributed a new Cowboy Coffee making method: Add the coffee to the cold water, then boil for at least 10 minutes. I like the original formula better: Boil water first then add coffee, then stir with a dirty stick, let cool, then enjoy. The WG7X method bypasses the dirty stick. Hmmmm. You vote. |
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