[Elecraft] NK8Q Polar Bear #4 Report

[Mark Schreiner]

I arrived at the Lynnport, PA location of the AT just before Ron, 
WB3AAL, around 1730Z.  The location is just over 1 mile down a paved 
access roadway to an AT&T microwave site that is no longer in use.  Ed, 
K3YTR & I got permission and operated from there last summer for the TAC 
Contest.  It is at about 1580' of elevation and my GPS receiver claimed 
the coordinates (within 25' accuracy) were N 40.71481, W 075.79837.  
Calculations from the FCC's HAAT website show that the location is about 
830 feet above average terrain!  The first thing I did was to look for 
the mason line I had left in the trees from the last time I operated 
there.  If they were still available my antenna raising would go 
quickly.  Well, I quickly found the first one, but it had broken and 
wasn't useful.  I didn't find the second one at all.  Luckily I had my 
trusty slingshot and 2 oz lead sinker.  Also, even more luckily, it was 
fairly windstill at that time.  I must be getting better with the 
slingshot because I achieved success on the first launch over each 
tree!  Good thing, because shortly afterward the wind kicked up and it 
would have been quite difficult, well, probably impossible to have done 
so!  The trees at the top of the Blue Mountain ridge are not tall, maybe 
20 to 30' at best.  After the winds kicked up to 40 MPH (that is my 
estimate although Ed claimed 30 MPH, I think they were much closer to 
40) we saw the trees really swaying and the parked vehicle was really 
getting pushed around a bit as well.  We also noticed several branches 
that were down during our drive back out and I think Ed had noticed 
quite a few branches and trees that were snapping over in the wind from 
our operating site. 

In any case, I had the antenna up, checked with the MFJ-269B, and 
connected to the Elecraft K2 and made my first QSO by 1820Z.  I think 
this is about the fastest I've ever gotten an antenna up, basically from 
scratch without reusing some previous ropes/twine.  My first QSO was on 
20m, since the antenna was really built for 20m as a 3/2 wavelength 
colinear dipole (W5YI Mystery Antenna).  That first QSO was with a 
mobile station in FL who was running 20W and a hamstick antenna.  I 
worked a total of 4 stations before the Polar Bear Hunt started, that 
first one on 20m, one on 40m that wasn't successful due to QSB, and two 
on 30m.

During the "Hunt" I started out on 30m as 20m seemed quite busy with the 
NAQP activity.  I called CQ PB for a long time and fnally almost one 
hour into the event I got a call from a very strong station, WB3AAL, who 
was operating about 100 yards away from me!  That was my only QSO on 30m 
for the Hunt.  I thought from there I would try 40m around 7.109 MHz.  
My first QSO there was with Don, N4HH, who was also using an Elecraft K2 
(S/N 2028) and is located down in Atlanta, GA.  Thanks to Don posting my 
info I had a few more stations calling me after that, K4MF, Gary from FL 
who was using an Elecraft K1 and  W4FOA, Tony in GA who was also using a 
K2 (S/N 2213).  Strongest signal reports exchanged were with Tony (oh, 
not counting the "local" QSOs with Ron).  Then Ron jumped in to let me 
know he was going to QSY to 20m and I finished up with 2 more QSOs, 
WA9PLT, Bob in IL who was also running QRP but due to QSB I didn't get 
any more info, and finally N4KV, John in TN who was running 5W.

At that point the wind was getting stronger and it started to snow and 
freezing rain.  The feedline was whipping around pretty good and 
smacking up against the right-rear part of my Chevy Blazer.  I had a 
bungie chord tie-down attached to the RF connector, to minimize the 
flopping but it worked its way loose several times.  After my last QSO 
with N4KV I thought I should try 80m since I posted that I would be 
there at about that time.  Well, no luck on 80m after about 15 minutes, 
so I went back to 40m for a few minutes more but again no luck there, 
either.  As it was getting colder, darker, windier and more frozen 
precipitation was coming down, I ventured over to see what Ron though of 
the conditions.  We decided to pack it in at that point, about 1-1/2 
hours early, in order to be able to safely get off the mountain and get 
some bear food.  Ron was much quicker with packing up his antenna, but 
it didn't take me too long to cut down the lines (I didn't leave them in 
the trees since I figured the trees might not be there the next time 
anyway as strong as the winds were), and I coiled up the antenna wire. 

We had a nice dinner at the restaurant right at the crest of PA-309 and 
the Blue Mountain along the AT.  We compared stories of the day's QSOs 
as well as last year's Field Day efforts and various other things.  
While I ended up with 11 QSOs in the log this time, which is about 
typical for my efforts during other Polar Bear events, only 7 of those 
were with folk who really were hunting for Polar Bears, and 2 of those 7 
were with Ron!  During my drive home I saw a very large utility pole 
that had broken over from the winds and so the power was out locally and 
traffic was diverted.  I also read in the local newspaper this morning 
about various power outages across the area due to wind related damage.  
Having been out in those environments, I'm not surprised and I know we 
made the right choice to terminate our operating when we did. 

Thanks to those who took the time to hunt for Polar Bears and especially 
to those who did find me and work me!  Thanks especially to N4HH & W4FOA 
for posting me on DX-Summit and the Elecraft reflector.  Hopefully 
weather conditions will be more kind next month.  I don't mind the snow 
and cold, but the wind and the freezing rain makes it really tough!  
Also, competition from the NAQP was sure not a help either, so in the 
future I think that will be addressed by having the events during a 
weeknight.

We've only got a few months of good wintertime conditions left before it 
gets too warm for Polar Bear activity.  Hopefully next month will be 
less windy and drier for everyone involved!

Mark, NK8Q