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@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@gmail.com> wrote:
image.png

While we primarily chase DX, The "Arkansas QSO party
-- QJ" is important for us to Represent ARANSAS.
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