[ILQSO] Activity Encouragement ILQP

[Chuck]

Hi Carl,

My thoughts…

1) Doesn’t need to be a county line. One can activate a county not claimed. I am thinking of doing this or a mobile next year.

The resources are there to see which counties need attention over the years, and, which counties had home stations on the air. Some-most of these silent counties have little to no active ILQP guys, and, if one does get on, it will likely be a small scale short time effort. There will still be pileups-from home here, I averaged a 93/hr rate this year with a high hour of 145.  

I would plan on looking at 3 different counties in case one falls thru. Thats my plan at least assuming I will do a portable…AND will look at POTA sites to attract that group.

2) See above. Look at the last couple years and contact them.

3) Self spotting is allowed, and found it very beneficial this year. 

4) Again, don’t need to be a county line op. Just a portable. Monroe, Washington and Clinton were silent this year. At least I didn’t hear any or see any spots. That would have been a fun place to go.

5) Connecting a laptop to a cell phone hotspot is simple. I can help with that. At worst, use your phone for self spotting. 

We should meet on 5’s some morning with Bretz and talk about this. 

Great thoughts, Carl. Good food for thought. 

73 Chuck KI9A
Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 21, 2025, at 8:16 PM, James Funk <n9jfcountyhunter at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Carl, your comments deserve some thoughtful feedback which I will attempt
> to do in detail in a day or two. Right now I'm responding to submitted logs
> and on the road so it will have to wait.
> 
> 294 logs so far.  Keep them coming!  If you don't get an acknowledgement in
> 24 hours, send again.  I've responded to all of those I've received so far
> except for 3 I just found in SPAM....
> 
> 73, Jim N9JF
> 
>> On Tue, Oct 21, 2025 at 7:59 PM Carl Buehler <cbuehlercbuehler at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>> I was QRT the past two years.  Here are my observations from Portable
>> operations.
>> 1) First timers need to adjust their expectations. It can be hard to find a
>> county line that is safe, accessible, out in the clear, and close to trees
>> for antenna support. Compromised antennas make operating difficult
>> especially with generator noise, passing vehicles, neighbor visits, public
>> visitors, and an occasional local law enforcement officer.  You inevitably
>> get a 'run' going only to have an interruption, then work at getting things
>> going again.
>> 2) Each of my outings involved advanced planning with the attempt to
>> activate dormant counties.  It is such a downer to go into it anticipating
>> some pile ups only to hear a home station operating from the county(ies)
>> you are in. Perhaps all stations that operated the year before could be
>> contacted with the request to express their intent to operate?
>> 3) You can struggle for a while before someone spots you. It would be nice
>> to have the ability to self-spot when we begin operating from a new
>> location.  This may increase activity for the portables and home stations.
>> 4) I appreciate the "wet county line" limitation and strongly believe
>> everyone should play by the rules. Sometimes a three county operation
>> including a "rare one" can be prevented by a rather small flow of water.
>> Apparently this is a County Hunters requirement, but relaxing this would
>> help portables attract more attention.
>> 5)  Let's not even think about the technology of running a laptop logger
>> with internet accessed through a cell phone hot spot!  Not a strong point
>> of mine!  No suggestion here as to what the group can do to help.
>> So there it is.  Hats off to all of you that have this portable
>> operating downpat.  I really respect what you are able to accomplish.  With
>> a simple dipole type antenna perhaps I can do better than this Huster
>> mobile mount does.   I plan to review the results from this year and
>> explore where to operate here Southwest Illinois.
>> 73, Carl- K9ZA
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