| KF3M | Hanover Area Hamming Association Hanover, Pennsylvania |
Picnic and Pennsylvania QSO Party 2015
Saturday, October 10, 2015.
This year we got a beautiful fall day. This is our fall picnic and the first day of the Pennsylvania QSO Party (PaQP). A day in the park with a radio.
The first business of the day was to get the G5RV antenna up. One end to a tree and the other to a portable mast. But the IC-7800 would not tune the antenna. We replaced the short coax with another one and it worked great. Murphy is no match for us. We set up the laptop and the N3FJP software. Worked great. When we hooked the laptop to the transceiver they talked like they were old friends. Thirty minutes before the contest and we are making QSOs. Wow!Time for lunch. We had the basic picnic fare of cold-cut sandwiches. Bobbie, N3XTP, made some great chile. Good stuff for an autumn day.
The contest started but the ionosphere didn't. We made no QSOs on 20, 15 or 10 meters. Nothing! 40 meters was good out to 500 miles. We made very few QSOs beyond that. By 6 pm we had just over 200 QSOs in the log. Tear-down always goes faster than set-up. We were all home before dark. It was a good day.
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Al, W3TRW, pulls up one end of the G5RV antenna. The other end went to a portable mast. |
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We actually ate all day. We wanted to get some operators fed and watered before the noon start time. K3DUH, N3VN, N3XTP and N3XWN. |
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Brian, N3VN, and Bobbie, N3XTP. |
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You would grin from ear to ear if you had your hands on an IC-7800. |
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Charlie, W3CQB, logging and Al, W3TRW, operating. Chief Operator Brian, N3VN, in the supervisor's chair. |
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Mike, KC3DLD, logging and Brian, N3VN, operating. |
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The IC-7800 performed great in the contest filled bands. |
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We used the N3FJP logging program. It worked great. |