[ILQSO] ILQP 2007 from N9Q/N8XX Perspective

[Danny Pease]

Hank, it was good to here you on and get you in my log. I am glad you
enjoyed it and I am really glad the weather was warmer, if not nay less
windy than last year. Thanks for the short story.  Mine is quite a bit
longer than yours, so I added it and a few pictures to a site for those
with insomnia to look at. It is at http://www.myhamshack.net/NG9R/ 
Scroll through the picture bar, the last 3 are from ILQP this year,
below the picture bar are my blog entries.

My setup was also in a cornfield but this one had been picked.  The only
wildlife I saw was a hawk circling around when I first got underway and
later a groundhog walking across a bean stubble field for over a 1/4
mile.

Danny NG9R


-----Original Message-----
From: ilqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:ilqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Hank Greeb
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 9:14 PM
To: Illinois QSO Party
Subject: [ILQSO] ILQP 2007 from N9Q/N8XX Perspective


First of all, a BIG thank you to N9GZ for suggesting I take over the 
corner of Boone, Dekalb, Ogle & Winnebago Counties because he and KN9T 
wanted a location closer to home.  It was a BLAST!

I drove from Rockford, Michigan, got to that corner Saturday afternoon, 
cased the situation, picked out an operating location <100 feet from the

actual corner, literally in a corn field, and then went into Rockford, 
Illinois for the evening.

Sunday morning early, I went out to the site, and started setting up.  
Everything went well except for the "tennis ball eating tree" which I 
had decided would be a good support for one end of the antenna.  I got a

rope over one tree - a nice 40' or so tree, and then tried the other 
tree - but it ate two tennis balls in a row.  I was running short on 
time, so plan B went into effect, and the one end of the antenna was at 
about 10', which was as high as I could throw the rope over without help

of a slingshot.  That made the center of the antenna about 20' off the 
ground - not optimum for good radiation, but I figured it was better 
than a dummy load 6' under ground, so what the h....

The next thing was the generator - a brand new "no-name" 2 cycle 
generator, which had a "gallop" - even with a constant load it would 
occasionally slow down to about 100 volts, then the governor would take 
hold and it would race to over 130 volts.  This was exacerbated when I 
keyed the rig - going from less than 30 watts on receive to about 200 
watts on transmit, and the galloping was more fierce.  I couldn't 
operate more than about 50 watts out before the power shutdown on the 
rig and/or power supply would shut off.

However, contacts were still made.  The weather was fine, a couple 
neighbors came by and said hello.  It was a fairly quiet rural road on 
both sides of the corner - the traffic wasn't a problem except for an 
occasional farm tractor which was hauling corn from a field down the 
road to a farm somewhere north of my location.

As others have said, 20 was a bust - Only 10 Q's (24 log entries) from 3

DX stations, 7 USA stations.  They did give me some unique multipliers, 
so 20 wasn't a complete dud! 40 was long from the beginning, I had 67 
Q's (268 log entries), but very few actually inside Illinois.  80 was 
the workhorse, with 126 Q's (504 log entries).  I managed 62 Phone 
contacts (248 log entries), 141 CW (564 log entries).  Total claimed 
score is 119,712.  Nothing to write home about, but it was fun anyway.

I'm sure the lackluster performance was a combination of a not so good 
antenna, lower than possible output power, and operator incompetence, 
but fun!

I took a few pictures of the cornfield, etc.,  They're at 
http://www.greeb.net/2007ilqp

I'm looking forward to 2008 IlQP, and, presuming I'm still pumping 
blood, I'll be back!

73 de n8xx Hg (operating N9Q at the corner of Boone, Dekalb, Ogle & 
Winnebago Counties during 2007 ILQP)
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