[PVRCNC] 2026 IOTA K4TMC IOTA NA-112 SOLP 24Hr SSB Unassisted

Mon Jul 27 14:33:42 EDT 2026

OMG Henry. You are a glutton for punishment! Full admiration for your
efforts, even if the yagi didn't quite make the QRV test. Great job and
IOTA SSB results.
73,
Jim K4QPL

On Mon, Jul 27, 2026 at 11:19 AM Henry Pollock - K4TMC via PVRCNC <
pvrcnc at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

> Call: K4TMC
> Class: SO24SSB LP
> QTH: NC - IOTA NA-112
> Operating Time (hrs): 16
>
> Summary:
>  Band  CW Qs  CW Mults  Ph Qs  Ph Mults
> ----------------------------------------
>    80:
>    40:                                   8                 5
>    20:                                   144            36
>    15:                                    49             17
>    10:                                    4                2
> ----------------------------------------
> Total:   0        0                   205             60  Total Score =
> 116,700
>
> Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
> Logging: N1MM+
>
> Comments:
> Portable IOTA Island Station on Bogue Banks, NC (IOTA NA-112). Station
> house located on ancient sand dune at 15 ft ASL.
> Rig: Elecraft K4D with Heil HC4 mic element
> Antennas: Buddipole BuddiHex at 30 ft; PAR EF-QUAD Inverted-L vertical with
> feed point at 12 ft off ground
>
> Another chapter in the one man portable beach contester saga…On the heel of
> some email discussions with PVRCer Tim, N3QE about portable 20M yagis, I
> started a quest to find a feasible 4 element 20M yagi that could be managed
> by the one-man portable contester. EZNEC gave me dimensions of basically 34
> ft elements on a 34 ft boom. In normal yagi antenna construction that would
> result in a heavy antenna requiring a substantial vertical support. So, in
> keeping with my use of portable antenna parts via Buddipole, I chose to use
> coil-shortened elements on a rope boom between two vertical masts. With a
> ready supply of Buddipole accessories of long telescopic whips and
> accessory antenna arms, and a quantity of 3/8-24 couplers, I only had to
> buy some of their small mini coils. More on that later…
>
> The XYL did not feel like making the trip, so dog Zoe and I headed to the
> beach Thursday after lunch. It rained all the way during the 3-hour drive,
> and into the evening. I managed to get the BuddiHex antenna assembled
> between the heavy showers. Friday morning found the rain continuing even
> harder, but was able to get the hexbeam up in the few periods of light rain
> and no lightning before lunch. Zoe and I drove/paddled/sloshed through a
> significant downpour to reach our favorite brisket smokehouse for lunch.
> Spent the afternoon getting the 40-10 end fed halfwave inverted-L erected
> on the upper deck. Luckily the winds were mild, but a fully extended 44 ft
> heavy smooth fiberglass pole can be a little slippery with rain water
> streaming down the sides. After a short break, it was on to the 20M yagi
> project. Raised the 2 Blue Sky Mast systems, and assembled the elements and
> boom cords out of the rain. In the process of raising the elements they
> slid a few inches along the grass before lifting up in the air. As I was
> attaching the coax to the driven element I noticed that some of the coil
> tap pigtail wires were dangling loose. Upon closer examination, the wires
> had broken off the end of the mini-banana pin that fits into the coil tap
> J-connector pieces. With no spare pigtail wires and no easy way to repair
> them, the yagi project was suspended. It was late in the afternoon, still
> raining, and I was too tired to try anything else. In retrospect, I should
> have pulled out a stored Spiderbeam, assembled and raised that with just
> the three 20M elements. As a result of all the rain and clouds,
> temperatures were mostly pleasant for the beach in July, which made for
> less personal physical and mental health conditions, versus last year’s
> effort.
>
> This was the first time using the new-to-me used K4D; more about that at
> the end. I entered the contest as a SO LP SSB-only 24hr unassisted Island
> Station category effort. Started the contest at 1200Z on 20M running at the
> bottom of the General portion of the band. No EU stations, only US and VE
> stations, and it was a slow rate. Picked up 6 NA island mults. Then moved
> to 15M and finally at 1331, got the first European, followed by lots more,
> by S&P using the K4’s panadapter to find them. Over a 30 min period picked
> up 3 EU island mults. Over the rest of the morning and into the afternoon I
> alternated between 20 and 15 doing mostly S&P and collecting 4 NA, 7 EU and
> 1 SA mults. I checked 10M often and finally got a 4M5 at 1810, and PJ4 and
> 9Z4 at 2040. The only other 10M stations were domestic rag-chewers. Back on
> 20/15M In the 2100 hour I collected 3 AF island mults. After having missed
> S77 earlier in the morning by not being able to break through the pileup of
> EU stations, I finally worked them in the 2100 hour, and 3V8 in the 0000Z
> hour, both on 20. Finally, after several attempts at running, I got lucky
> with a large pileup in the 2300 hour and collected 8 new EU mults along
> with lots of previous mults. Between 0000 and 0200 I continued to bounce
> back and forth between 20 and 15, with a few short trips to 40 and 10, S&P,
> collecting 6 more new island mults. I was back at the rig Sunday morning
> for the last 2 hours and collected 4 more new mults. I finished with 205
> QSOs and 60 mults for a score of 116,700. Compared to last year’s effort, I
> had about 200 less QSOs but 3 more island mults.
>
> The only PVRCer I worked was Nate, N4YDU who was running on 20. I later
> found out that perennial IOTAer W4KAZ did not make it this year to the
> Outer Banks due to loss of power at his home QTH. I did hear N8II on 40
> working a EU station.
>
> The K4D worked well. I found the receive audio more pleasing to my old
> ears. Although the bands were never super crowded, I found that I could
> work weaker stations close to loud stations easier than with my K3. I have
> not yet tweaked the AGC settings, so there may be even more improvement.
> This was my first time really using a panadapter to search for stations.
> That worked well, not as much knob twirling. Still, you may miss those weak
> stations that are right in the noise that only your ear can detect as you
> slowly turn the VFO. For this contest, I felt that the stations I worked
> had more trouble hearing me than my hearing them. Some, or all, of this may
> have just been the band conditions. I may need to play with the mic gain
> and compression settings to make it work better with the HC4 dynamic
> element.
>
> Looking forward, the next beach portable activity will probably be a SB10
> effort in CQWWDXSSB in October.
>
> 73,
>
> Henry – K4TMC
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