[PaQSO] Ideas for Portable Operations

Mon, 21 Oct 2002 18:21:22 -0400

If you stop and think about it, it would be very easy to, with a little bit
of effort on all of our parts, activate all 67 counties.  Everyone who has
operated portable, rover, or stationary mobile has their own favorite sites
in the various counties to go to.  And most of what you'd need to operate
with (as a bare minimum) would be a 100 watt transceiver, an 80/40 trap
dipole or similar simple antenna, mike and/or key/keyer, and a card table
(with suitable shelter in the event of inclement weather).

What we need to do is find amateurs who would be willing to go out as one
and two man (er, person) teams and set up these various spots.

To do this... well, I'd hate to send out raw "rookies" right off the get go,
but anyone with Field Day experience ought to have some idea of what to do.
Anyone who might be interested has almost a full year to pick up the needed
experience -- start breaking them in at FD 03, then use some of the early
QSO parties to get them used to that style of operating.

If you do this under the sponsorship or auspices of one or more of the clubs
you belong to, then you can have someone with some experience going around
to help the teams get set up before they go off to do their own thing.

Could it work?  Sure.  If you worked N3SH or WA3SH this year or in the past
few years, then you should know it works.  The Clarion County crew this year
has been doing it for 3 out of the last 4 (missed last year due to a death
in our hosts family) up there & last year in Washington.  Two of the people
who worked the Washington County crew in years past, many of you got to know
as N3ZNI/M & their "co-pilot" N3ZEL.  Most importantly, this year's WA3SH op
from Somerset/Washington consisted primarily of ops who had little if any
PaQP experience, and considering they only had about 2/3 of Saturday to
operate, they did just fine (and many of them operated from their home
stations on Sunday, too).

This is something that we can do on our own.  We all know how much fun the
contest in.  So let's convince some more people and see if we can get more
activity from ALL 67 counties!

73, ron wn3vaw
"Be who you are, say what you think, people that matter don't care, and
people that care don't matter." -- Dr. Seuss

----- Original Message -----
From: Jim <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 4:54 PM
Subject: [PaQSO] Ideas for Portable Operations

Thanks to all who worked K3YTL during the party.  We
had a blast putting Adams County on the air.  I have a
suggestion about people's plans for next year.  Many
people seem to want to go to the supposed rare
counties of western PA.  While it is true that we need
people everywhere, we seem to neglect the nearby
counties.

I would like to see operations in:

1.Perry
2.Juniata
3.Snyder

These are easily accessible to the population centers
of the eastern part of the Commonwealth.  US 11 goes
through all 3 counties(it does hit Juniata, but you
need a good map to see it.)

In addition, let's say someone wanted to do Snyder,
they could even live it up and stay at the Hampton Inn
in Shamokin Dam.  No hardship there.  These 3 counties
have many areas which should work for an operation.
These were much harder for us than the counties
everyone drove to to activate.  Just a thought.  Also,
can we pursuade any locals to get on the air?

The compiled list was also helpful, since you knew who
would be where.  We didn't know until the last minute
that Adams would be put on.

Jim, N3PBH

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