Peter N8MHD at his QRP station; Tom KGØKJ looking on. (KCØGND photo)
Overall, the results were mixed. Lots of things worked well. Lots of people came by and talked about the set-up, a couple of people tried operating QRP, and the antennas stayed up The midnight sky and the dawn mist were both exceptional. On the other hand, not very many QSOs were completed.
The final tally was 46 CW QSOs, 26 SSB, and 5 PSK-31, for 640 points. With 1150 bonus points, the total claimed score was 1790. Getting almost twice as many bonus points as QSO points is downright embarrassing. Comparing to last year’s scores, this should put us about midway in the 1A class. We might end up first in 1A-Battery in Minnesota! (Last year there were none).
The K2 receiver worked very well indeed, and while there was some interference from the other stations, it turned out to be possible to work 20 meter CW while the main CW station was also on 20 meters. Interference from the digital and voice stations was more of an issue, forcing band changes a couple of times.
The big problem was getting heard. There was a long stretch at night when the higher bands were all closed, and nobody was responding to me on either 80 or 40, either CW or voice. It might have been the antenna, or it might have been the MFJ tuner just being inefficient. Or, it might have been just trying to push through a weak signal on relatively noisy bands. But even the best stretches, on 20 and 15 on Sunday morning, didn’t get more than about 20 QSOs per hour. Whatever the reasons, it was frustrating at times.
Bob AB0BW and I successfully demonstrated three digital modes (SSTV, Hellschreiber, and MFSK). This contributed 300 bonus points each to W0MXW and N8MHD. Being able to talk it over on the 82 repeater was a big help – we needed lots of fiddling and retries, and it would be much harder to manage the negotiation entirely on HF. Then since the laptop was set up, I made a few QSOs using PSK-31. I learned respect for the number of contacts Bob makes with his station – it’s hard work, and slow.
SSB got through on 5 watts better than I expected. Dave K0VH even managed a short S&P run on Sunday morning – very impressive.
What about next year? I’d like to do it again. The solar panel worked great, keeping the batteries charged up and powering the radio at the same time. Logging on paper was fine, though typing it all up afterwards was a hassle. The fiberglass mast needed another level of guy ropes, but otherwise held up the antennas well. The antennas worked, but the manual tuner will get replaced by an autotuner, for sure.
The mix of CW, Voice, and Digital felt about right. It’s nice to be able to switch between CW and SSB, even though CW (when done right) is clearly the way to get a good score. Using digital for the bonus points and a couple of contacts was fun, but it’s the least efficient of the three modes, by a wide margin.
Since it didn’t rain this year, it will certainly rain next year, and the station will need better rain protection – operating from the little tent would have been iffy. Even this year with perfect weather, it would have been good to have some kind of roof, for shade during the day and to protect from the dew as night fell.
Thanks again to Pat and Gena for sharing their farm. The setting really contributes a lot.
Peter N8MHD