A few photos from our expedition to Sanborn County Park near San Jose, CA for QRP Afield.
Ops: K1MG and AK1P, assisted by K1MG's harmonic
What a pleasant day we had.
Paul AK1P and I (K1MG) finally got our act together about noon on Saturday,
and picked nearby Sanborn County Park in the hills above Silicon Valley for
our QRP Afield outing. We drove up and were surprised to find a beautiful
grassy glade near the parking lot with picnic tables and a few trees for
shade and natural antenna supports, elevation 1500ft. Although we were
surrounded with ridges on all four sides, we were high enough up that the
takeoff angle from our antenna wasn't too bad. The weather was perfect,
sunny and about 80 degrees.
We carefully checked the sun angle and chose a picnic table situated in the
shade directly between two medium sized trees. After hauling in all the
radio gear, we set to erecting my 20 meter dipole in the trees. After a
"few" attempts, I managed to swing a line over both trees, and we hauled up
the dipole to about 25 or 30 feet. It took about a minute more to set up
the DSW20 and we were on the air.
First QSO was Brian K7RE, who had a booming signal. We worked just about
everyone we heard, but it seems that participation was a little lower this
year -- or maybe the surrounding ridges took their toll. After a while we
ran out of stations to work on 20 and we tried 15 and 40. There we used
both a PW1 vertical and a ZM2 to feed the 20 meter dipole as a "T" top
loaded vertical. Although it may have been our compromise antenna, we found
very little activity on 40 and 15, and managed only one QSO each. We did
hear Jim KK6MC on 40, but he QSYed back to 20 before we could catch him. We
had fun switching bands, antennas, and rigs to see what would work best.
The rigs were my DSW20 and K2, and Paul's Sierra. All three worked very
well. We ran 1.5 watts with the DSW, 1.5 to 2 watts with the Sierra, and 5
or 3 watts with the K2 (to save batteries). It didn't seem to make any
difference how much power we ran.
It was nice to hear so many familiar calls, including a few mobiles like
N2CX and AD6A.
After an hour, my wife and daughter joined us with a picnic lunch. Most of
the day we had the whole park pretty much to ourselves, but we did have one
group visit us briefly, a young lady and her two kids, all naturists (That
means NO bikinis, Doug). I'll leave the details for the photos.
As the sun dipped below the mountain ridge to the west, we figured we had
had enough fun, and packed everything up. The nice thing about QRP field
operations is how easy it is to set up and tear down.
Final score was 43, with about 15 SPCs from Florida and Rhode Island to
Washington and California. Total operating time was a litte less than five
hours, including lunch.
So we finished off a very pleasant day with a glass of Napa Cabernet -- QRP
Afield, California style.
Mike K1MG
Looking west from our operating site.
Paul AK1P (left) and Mike K1MG
The center insulator of my portable 20 meter dipole. Oops, forgot to remove the pipe that I store it on.
The end insulator of the dipole, made from 1/2 inch delrin rod.
The view south of our site.
These are the rigs we used, a DSW20, K2, and a Sierra.
AK1P mans the paddles.
K1MG works another one.
A young lady and her two kids visited us.
The end of a fun day draws near.
Return to home QTH
copyright 2000 M. A. Gipe All rights reserved.