[PaQSO] Report K3NG/QRP/YOR

[Goody K3NG]

Greetings

    Friday night we arrived at my in-laws in Red Lion after a long drive on
78 and 81 with two accidents jamming traffic and yucky conditions.  After
eating supper, I ran outside to string a dipole up in time to get on the 80m
net.  I intended to string up an 80m dipole between two trees on the half
acre lot, but it wasn't going to happen.  The old
toss-the-rock-on-the-string-up-in-the-tree trick wasn't working in the
pouring rain at night.  Plus the neighbors must have thought I was crazy.  I
settled on putting up my lightweight Appalachian Trail 40m dipole about 20
feet off the ground between the house and a tree, and fed it with 450 ohm
ladder line.

    Saturday started off well.  My first contact was Ron WB3AAL, and I
stumbled rather badly on the phonetics for YORk County.  I had alot of
practice with CARbon, my home QTH, but not York :-).  I ran QRP phone on a
Kenwood 850, and used my Elecraft K1 for CW which worked quite well.  I had
a couple nice runs on 40m phone, but nothing to write home about.  I had
more fun on CW that night on 40 and picked up several mults.  I couldn't do
squat on 20m, and every contact on 80m was tough, so I milked 40m and had a
great time.  I was amazed at the non-PA contacts that came out of the
woodwork on 40 with QRP and a modest antenna 20 feet off the ground that
night.

    I intended to operate from Carbon County on Sunday, but with family
activities that day it just didn't happen.  So, my score with operating just
in York County on Saturday was 63,670.  Not bad and I had lots of fun.

    Thanks to everyone for the great party this year and all those who
withstood my sometimes finger-fumbling CW !  Next year I'm going for the big
points.  :-)

dit dit

73
K3NG
Goody