[PaQSO] 2007 PA QSO Party Plans, NK8Q

[Mark J. Schreiner]

I've either operated from home in LEH or portable in POT in the past
several years but this year I'm going to try something a bit different.

Since it is the 50th Anniversary of the PA QSO Party I really wanted to 
pick a place that I thought would be extra memorable for me.  I found 
some very nice accommodations that should plenty of room for my antennas 
for 160m to 10m on CW & SSB.  I will be operating from Mifflin County.  
I also picked another place already for 2008 so it won't be a last 
minute search for me like it was this year.  However, I'm not going to 
report on that until next year, HI HI!

Anyway, more on Mifflin.  The farm has plenty of room for antennas and 
the hosts seemed quite willing to accommodate my needs.  I was a bit 
concerned about the electric fence (you know those noise pulses can be 
nasty!) that keeps their cattle in place but they said they generally do 
not keep it turned on and would make sure it was turned off when I was 
visiting in a couple of weekends.  They even offered to move their 
cattle into pastures that were further behind the farm buildings so that 
I could put my antennas in either or both of the front pastures without 
the worry of curious bovine chewing on antenna wires or guy lines for 
the support poles.  The area is surrounded by Amish so there should not 
be much of a problem of interference from or to them! What a beautiful 
valley, very wide from ridge to ridge which run sort of WSW to ENE in 
that area.  Since I don't plan to operate VHF/UHF I figured I didn't 
need to be on a hilltop and this valley view is a beautiful panorama. 

I'll be operating QRP at 5W with my Elecraft K2 and the antenna plans 
are some arrangement of the following:

40m and 80m full wave loops, probably horizontally oriented
Pseudo-Random Length Long Wire or Inverted-L with counterpoise
80-10m Carolina Windom
W5YI Mystery Antenna which is a 3/2 wavelength colinear for 20m
Others????

What?  Worried you won't hear me because I'm QRP and we are at the 
bottom of the sunspot cycle?  Don't be!  This stuff works!  Just because 
I operate QRP doesn't mean I have a little signal, you'll see!  Ask N3LL 
or K3TEJ.

Well, I have to get to bed to get my beauty sleep for work tomorrow.  
Some of us need more than others, HI HI!  I'll definitely have some 
special QSL cards made up for my operation from this location and to 
commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the PA QSO Party.  I hope to work 
many of you then!

If the weather is as nice as it was this weekend we are in for a real 
nice treat for PAQP 2007!

Mark, NK8Q