Last day on Georges 2006
We made our last trip of the season to Georges Island (NA-148) this morning and it was a glorious day. We had blue skies, temperatures in the 70's, and an easy breeze accompanying the sounds of the ocean washing up on the rocks just below my operating position. This was a wonderful way to wrap up the last of summer here in New England.
We got a bit of a late start and just missed the 10 AM ferry so we didn't arrive on the island until 11:45 AM local time (15:30Z). We made our way to the northern part of the island (try Google Earth with 42 19'19.42"N 70 55'46.76"W) and set up the equipment. In addition to the Force-12 Sigma-5 antenna (good for 10-20m) I brought my little Buddipole system so I could play a little on 40m from this location.
My goals for this trip were modest: put another 25 or 30 QSOs in the log, evaluate battery performance with the IC-7000 using one of my 17 Ah batteries and the solar panel, and possibly do some A/B comparisons between my Buddipole and Force-12 antennas. I easily made my QSO goal as we put over 40 contacts in the log in just 2.5 hours thanks to some helpful activity on the spotting network. Here are the spots for today courtesy of the DX Summit spot database:
You might notice the first couple of spots are from my buddy Dave (KZ1O). I had called Dave on the phone and talked with him after operating for a while and he offered to get the spotting activity started. We worked on 40m and after his spot I worked one other station on 40m (Maryland) before switching back up to 17m. After the pump was primed, the spots took care of themselves as you can see.
It isn't cheating (if you are not in a contest!) to have somebody get you spotted in the packet spotting network. In fact, once the spots started appearing I was able to make many people happy by handing out a QSO for NA-148! If you can, arrange to have somebody perform this service for you if you can't spot yourself.
I'll continue with this thread tomorrow and talk about battery usage, the effectiveness of the solar panel (now that I can measure things with my Super Whatt Meter), some antenna comparison impressions, and managing the little pile-up I had generated from all those spots.
We got a bit of a late start and just missed the 10 AM ferry so we didn't arrive on the island until 11:45 AM local time (15:30Z). We made our way to the northern part of the island (try Google Earth with 42 19'19.42"N 70 55'46.76"W) and set up the equipment. In addition to the Force-12 Sigma-5 antenna (good for 10-20m) I brought my little Buddipole system so I could play a little on 40m from this location.
My goals for this trip were modest: put another 25 or 30 QSOs in the log, evaluate battery performance with the IC-7000 using one of my 17 Ah batteries and the solar panel, and possibly do some A/B comparisons between my Buddipole and Force-12 antennas. I easily made my QSO goal as we put over 40 contacts in the log in just 2.5 hours thanks to some helpful activity on the spotting network. Here are the spots for today courtesy of the DX Summit spot database:
KZ1O 7155.0 NE1RD IOTA QRP needs help 1803 09 Oct 2006
KZ1O 7155.0 NE1RD IOTA QRP needs help 1803 09 Oct 2006
KZ1O 18155.0 NE1RD NA-148 QRP needs help 1814 09 Oct 2006
KZ1O 18155.0 NE1RD NA-148 QRP needs help 1814 09 Oct 2006
GI3DZE 18155.0 NE1RD/1 na148 still there 1826 09 Oct 2006
GI3DZE 18155.0 NE1RD/1 na148 still there 1826 09 Oct 2006
CT1BXX 18155.0 NE1RD/1 NA-148 Good signal 1833 09 Oct 2006
CT1BXX 18155.0 NE1RD/1 NA-148 Good signal 1833 09 Oct 2006
CT1BXX 18158.3 NE1RD/1 Sorry Freq. 18.158 NA-148 1834 09 Oct 2006
CT1BXX 18158.3 NE1RD/1 Sorry Freq. 18.158 NA-148 1834 09 Oct 2006
I0SYQ 14000.0 NE1RD/1 PSE 14 SSB.MANY TNX! 1837 09 Oct 2006
I0SYQ 14000.0 NE1RD/1 PSE 14 SSB.MANY TNX! 1837 09 Oct 2006
WP4NIX 18158.2 NE1RD/1 57 NA-148 1842 09 Oct 2006
WP4NIX 18158.2 NE1RD/1 57 NA-148 1842 09 Oct 2006
IZ8EJB 18158.0 NE1RD/1 IOTA NA-148 1900 09 Oct 2006
IZ8EJB 18158.0 NE1RD/1 IOTA NA-148 1900 09 Oct 2006
You might notice the first couple of spots are from my buddy Dave (KZ1O). I had called Dave on the phone and talked with him after operating for a while and he offered to get the spotting activity started. We worked on 40m and after his spot I worked one other station on 40m (Maryland) before switching back up to 17m. After the pump was primed, the spots took care of themselves as you can see.
It isn't cheating (if you are not in a contest!) to have somebody get you spotted in the packet spotting network. In fact, once the spots started appearing I was able to make many people happy by handing out a QSO for NA-148! If you can, arrange to have somebody perform this service for you if you can't spot yourself.
I'll continue with this thread tomorrow and talk about battery usage, the effectiveness of the solar panel (now that I can measure things with my Super Whatt Meter), some antenna comparison impressions, and managing the little pile-up I had generated from all those spots.
posted by NE1RD's Blog at 11:59 PM
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