K4TMC 2025 US Islands QSO Party

[Henry Pollock - K4TMC]

Call: K4TMC

Category: US Island Expedition

Class: SO Unassisted SSB QRO (>5 watts)

QTH: NC, Bogue Banks, NC010S

Operating Time (hrs): 8

Summary:

 Band  Ph Qs  Ph Mults  Islands

----------------------------------------

   80:    0             0              0

   40:    0             0              0

   20:    83         24               5

   15:    11          5               0

   10:   0              0              0

----------------------------------------

Total:  94           29            5                        Total (N1MM+)
Score = 3808

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

(Sadly, 3830scores.com does not track this contest so I don’t know how
others did…will have to wait until the results are published on
USIslands.org site. Plus 6 contacts were given 0 points)

Comments:

Another saga of a one-man portable beach contest operation…

With the XYL almost fully recovered from a serious fall that occurred the
week before last year’s event, we ventured back to the beach sand dune site
for only the second beach activity of this year. I was really looking
forward to this operation since last month’s IOTA Contest effort was so
successful. Allowing for a less rushed Field Day-like antenna setup
activity, the XYL, dog Zoe and I made the 3-hour trip to the beach house on
Thursday morning, thus allowing for almost 2 days to get everything ready
by 1200Z Saturday.

The weather was quite a change from one month ago, temps in the upper 70’s
to mid 80’s and very low humidity with light breezes this time. As a
result, antenna setup and take down efforts were not life-threatening.
There was even a light rain Sunday morning helping to wash away the salt
from the antennas and coax before packing away.

Now for the contest.  I decided to give myself a slight handicap by using
my KX3/KXPA100 portable setup instead of the old reliable K3+ (#98). With
Elecraft’s recent statement that they would be updating the KX2 & 3 to
usage of CESSB, this might just be the improvement that makes the KX3 my
main contest rig going forward. Unlike last month’s IOTA effort, I was
rested and at the rig ready to go at the 1200Z start Saturday morning.  Since
I was an island station, I decided to stay a run station for the entire
effort. 10 & 15M were basically dead, some activity on 20, and 40 was too
noisy. So, 20M is where I started at 14.257. The first 3 hours were dismal;
too embarrassed to say what the rate was.  I managed to stay on for 8 of
the 15 hours, took a few short breaks to stretch the legs, brew coffee and
walk the dog, and had dinner at a nearby restaurant with the family.  I
checked 10 and 15 frequently hoping for good conditions there, but they
never seemed worth the effort to change from 20M. Fading on the weak 20M
signals made contacts difficult. Everyone seemed to be hearing me fine. By
the time 40 and 80 were getting good, there was too much noise to hear
weaker stations. So I stayed on 20 until after 0000 when that became too
noisy. That was the end for me.

Based on three previous efforts (2021, 2022 & 2023) in this event, the
number of available stations seemed to be way down. Where was everyone? Was
it the Holiday weekend, the lack of the OH QSO Party (last weekend), the
magnet of the WW Digi Contest, band conditions or something else? Maybe I
should have stuck with the K3+. It did take some time to get comfortable
with the KX3, what with the cramped buttons, plus the interference of the
Side KX end panels. The pressure difference between tap or hold of the MSG
button resulted in erasure of my DVR CQ message numerous times. After each
QSO, you have to tap the MSG and then hold the PRE to start repeating the
CQ message. My old brain wanted to reverse things…

The next planned one-man expedition will probably be the CQ WWDX SSB in
October.

Radio: Elecraft KX3/KXPA100 with Heil HC4 mic element

Antennas: Buddipole BuddiHex at 30 ft on 15 ft ASL sand dune;  80-10 Endfed
Half Wave inverted L at 59 ft and 45 ft on carbon fiber masts

73,

Henry – K4TMC