| QRP
Afield 2004
 I'd
been looking forward to this contest for several months. Part
of the fun of these outdoor events has always been the planning
stage - trying to figure out a new place from which to operate.
But torrential rain from Hurricane Ivan and a dying klystron
in the radar at my work QTH changed my plans. The contest day
would be spent at work burning in a new "tube" - a
task that would allow a fair amount of contesting while the
tube settled-in and stabilized.
QRP Meets QRO
One day before the contest, I put up a G5RV
at about 70 feet. Tests with the KX1 showed absolutely no interference
as the online radar channel pumped out over a million watts
from its rotating antenna about 20 feet above the G5RV. The
offline channel radiated the same amount of power into a dummy
load. Still no QRM - things are looking good!
I started operating around noon local time.
Activity was sparse but picked up sharply a couple hours later
with an equal amount of activity on both 20 and 40 meters. The
first QSO of the contest was only the 4th QSO on my new KX1
and by the end of the contest I knew that me and this little
rig are going to become good friends. It was fun working the
familiar calls and being called in answer to my "CQ CQ
CQ Test" by OM3TBO on 20 meters.
Thanks to the New England QRP Club for a great
event. FWIW though, I can't help but wonder if activity would
be improved if the duration of the contest and the allowable
claimed time were the same. As it is, there is a lot of variation
in starting and ending times among the operators which makes
for a slower-paced contest since fewer are on the air at any
given time.
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