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Posted by: Ade W0RSP Posted On: 06/14/07 Subject: Milliwatt Field Day in a week -- FUN! Message Posted: Hi gang: Way back in 1971, I started up "The Milliwatt: National Journal of QRPp" QRP Field Day Program with categories for single ops and clubs, 1w and 5w levels. It took off pretty quickly since there were a lot of "loner" QRP'rs out there who were glad to find out there were others like themselves. It was all c.w. operation back then. Given our mostly primitive homebrew equipment like direct conversion receivers and rock-bound or VXO solid state xmtrs, it wasn't always a log-filling, soul-heartening experience! On my first outing using a 600-ft longwire, I sweated out a long Saturday afternoon in an old VW bus to snag 3 whole QSO's! Like I said, a d.c. receiver with no audio filter. Wes W7ZOI had not yet shown us how to build active audio filters! There were no Argonauts yet. But things improved rapidly. Two years later I was up to 257 Q's! Todd Olson went on to the 400's the next year! BUT NOW, everybody (almost) has great receiver selectivity to pick out the weak signals. Life with a weak QRP signal during a big QRM contest like FD has improved immensely. Using a standard "search and pounce" procedure consistently and not calling anyone more than 3 times can produce an amazing number of QSO's over a period of several hours. The great thing about FD is the primary antenna requirement -- no great height needed as in many contests where it is all home stations with 12-el yagis at 200ft and signals coming at a very low angle. On FD, most of the tall tower guys are brought down to our slingshot-over-a-branch altitude. In fact, I learned early on that a "too-high" antenna can make it difficult to work a lot of stns -- radiation angle mismatch. It is easy to find a good tree in a park or country road and get an antenna up. Although it seems an ideal choice because of its portability, a vertical antenna is not a great option for FD. Medium-high angle horizontal is the way to go. So, I encourage all of you to get on for the QRPARCI "milliwatt Field Day" contest which piggybacks on the ARRL Field Day next weekend (1800Z 6/23 -- 2100Z 6/24). Check the contest listing at the www.qrparci.org WEB site for rules. You can operate at home in your shack using battery power = Class E; or on the table on your patio -- it counts as full portable if you put up an antenna for the occasion, use only battery power for the rig, night-lites etc. just like in the field. I'll probably be hanging in there at a rest-stop on I-90 somewhere this year. Hope to work some of you! 72, Ade W0RSP |
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