[ADXA] Arkansas QSO party (not even DX)

[Nick Kennedy]

I took a little drive around several counties this year. I've been letting
a local music festival have priority but this year I put ARQP back in
front.  I ran the FT-991A at 40 watts. (It generates spurs if you let it
pull the battery down.)  I had my screwdriver antenna to give me all-band
coverage and quick band changes but it failed after the first stop. I had a
couple of "hamstick" antennas for backup. The 40 meter one failed right off
the bat, leaving me 20 meters or nothing from then on.

I started at a park at Elkins for WAS. Very pretty place on the White
River. I had decent luck there.  Then I went on down HWY 16 to Crosses and
onto a county road that's mud and rocks for another riverside QTH and MAD
county. Just a couple of QSOs there - I don't know why but maybe conditions
were up and down or maybe the local terrain jinxed me.

Then down HWY 23 at a trailhead parking area for the Ozark Highlands Trail,
which also counted as a POTA. This was a nice RF quiet area in FRA and I
did OK on 20 CW.

Next some truck stop food at Ozark and onward to Chester and another pretty
riverside park. Conditions were OK but I only did about 15 Qs for some
reason.

My final stop of the road tour was Devil's Den. I was excited about it as a
POTA I hadn't been to before and another WAS stop. But after finding a
parking spot in the shade, I had terrific electrical noise - too much to
try operating. I moved a quarter mile and it was better but still not good.
A motorcycle accident had traffic stopped and emergency vehicles buzzing
around which made me nervous parking to the side at a wide spot in the
road, so I moved out after only 2 QSOs. The good news is that the rider
seemed OK although an ambulance hauled him away.

Now back home at 4:00 PM and I still hadn't operated from my home county of
BEN. So I did a few on 20 in the driveway and then contrived a replacement
wire antenna for 40 using a telescoping fiberglass pole supported by the
truck's wheel and worked some folks on 40.

Local QSO's were K5XK, N5EE, KM5G and WQ5T plus semi-locals K9OZ and
WA5SOG. I made 124 Q's, but it's the journey, not the destination.

73

Nick, WA5BDU

On Sat, May 18, 2024 at 12:40 PM Dennis Schaefer <dennisw5rz at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I've worked a few on CW just to make a showing.  I did 27 minutes and
> worked 53 stations on 20M CW.  I quit for lunch when things slowed down.  I
> hadn't contested any for a few months and it took awhile to get the logging
> program straightened out.  I had ESM turned on and couldn't underdstand why
> the program seemed to have a mind of its own.  Not too bad considering that
> a couple of months ago, I couldn't sit up to the rig and look at the
> computer screen at the same time.  Things are improving and the doc cleared
> me to do physical therapy for my neck.
>
> I came back and worked a few more on 20M but no pileup like at the
> beginning.  15 was no-go and also 40.  Maybe 40 will pick up later in the
> afternoon.  I listened a little on 20M SSB but Arkansas signals were in the
> noise.  I think I'll stick with all CW, low power category.  100 would be
> OK, but I might go a little past that. Just getting on the air for anything
> but a quick DXpedition contact is a win.
>
> 73,
> Dennis/RZ
>
> On Fri, May 17, 2024 at 9:35 PM J. Setcer <j.setcer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> [image: image.png]
>>
>> While we primarily chase DX, The "Arkansas QSO party
>> -- QJ" is important for us to Represent ARANSAS.
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