[Elecraft] WB3AAL FYBO Report

[Ron Polityka]

Hello,

 Saturday February 2nd was a very interesting day. I went out to one of my 
spots on the Appalachian Trail in PA to operate the FYBO contest. I got to 
lot to find it heavily encrusted in ice. I parked the car and very carefully 
got out and started to get the backpack on. I almost fell 2 times while 
gearing up. I even had my cramp ons on my boots but they were of very little 
help. The area of the Appalachian Trail I was at is a very rocky trail, the 
cramp ons did help a little but hike was still very treacherous. I had very 
serious doubts if I was going to be on the air at all that day. The hike 
that usually takes 15 minutes now took 35 minutes.

 I finally arrived at my operating location. I had to find an area where I 
could drive a small ground rod into the stony area to support my vertical. 
After trying for 10 minutes I finally found a spot and got the antenna 
erected. I finally got on the air about 40 minutes later than I plan to be. 
But all good things take time.

 I started out on 40m and found the band had a lot of signals all over the 
place. Unfortunately they were taking part in the other contest that were on 
this past weekend. I did make a few QSO's on 40m but I decided to try 20m. I 
made a lot more contacts there. I did try 15m a couple of times on the top 
of the hour. I did call CQ for 10 to 15 minutes the three times I was on the 
band. There were a lot of signals on 15m but down around 21.030 and nothing 
up in the QRP area.

My Log:

40m    W8PIG      OH
40m    NK9G       WI
20m    N4BP         FL
20m    KK6MC    NM
20m    G3RSP       England Alan was running 2w.
20m    KE4YH      FL
20m    N1LU/4     FL
20m    K0XI         MO
20m    K4MF        FL
20m    W5ACM    TX
20m    AB9CA      AL
20m    W5ESE      TX
20m    AD7AN     CA
20m    W0RW       CO
20m    KB5FCF    OK
20m    WA4EWL  FL
20m    K5GQ        TX
40m    KB8FZY    OH
20m    AA1IK        FL
20m    WA5BDU   AR

I was really surprised to work Alan in England and then an hour and a half 
later to work California. My operating temperature stayed between 30 and 
31'F. There was a good breeze blowing with snow flurries most of the day. 
When I was calling CQ I was watching about 6 Blue Birds watching me and 
trying to find out if my ground radials were edible. They were around for 
about 45 minutes. I also noticed that my body heat was melting the ice 
around me and I was slowly sinking into the ice. I did have a small portable 
chair and table. I had to watch that my black coax did not melt down into 
the ice and freeze when the sun did peek out for about 10 minutes..

This places my Appalachian Trail QSO count at 921 and closing in on the 
1,000th QSO from the trail.

Thanks to all those that did make a contact with me and sorry to those 
signals that were too weak for me to pull the out of the QRN.

Until the next time I go out on the AT.

72 and Thanks,
Ron Polityka
WB3AAL
www.wb3aal.com
www.n3epa.org/

K1 - SN 01011
K2 - SN 01392