| WOUFO | What a lousy day! Steady cold rain all day. I started out fairly good in a nearby county park. Got a end fed wire into a tree and made a few contacts. Then decided to play it cool (or rather warm). Left the antenna in the tree, picked up the rig and went home for a warm lunch. Returned in about an hour to find that someone had ripped my antenna down and broken a support pole. No one in their right mind should have been out in that rain I thought. Repaired the wire and put it back up less the support pole (less height). Worked a few more stations and decided to tighten up the antenna ... the extra stress broke a tie and it came down. At that point I decided my day was ruined so gathered up my stuff and went home to warm up and dry out. That's my excuse (reason) for a lousy score. |
| AA9NF | Imagine my surprise when I worked AL7FS using only 5 watts and a homebrew Buddipole strapped to a lawn chair. It was nice to work John (AE5X) from his backpack portable location at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. John apparently liked my signal so much that he worked me twice, once at 18:51 UTC and then again at 18:56 UTC. Band conditions were quite good for the bottom of the solar cycle. The participation level was good making this a fun contest to work. |
| N7CEE | I set up in the Dry Lake Hills at about 8,000 feet, a few miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona. I was able to operate from about 1730 to 2330Z. Conditions were tough, as seems to be the norm during the low of the solar cycle. Waiting for the QSB to peak probably builds character or something. The highlight was working AL0HA on 15. Thanks Jan and everyone for another great QRPTTF! |
| N0EVH | Local rain storm dropped 3 inches in 48 hours and cancelled the camping trip, so ran from the mobile. FT-857 at 5 watts to Tarheel antenna. Sandwiched operation between family activities and operated about 3 hours thru the day. Thanks for sponsoring the event. |
| VA3RKM | This was my first time in this event and it was lots of fun. I
worked in an Ottawa park as single-op, where VE3EUR, VE3WMB and VA3SIE
were also located. Thanks for the event! Attached are two photos taken
by VA3SIE of me, Bob, VA3RKM in Britannia Park, Ottawa, ON for the TTF.
The antenna is a 2-element inverted -Vee wire beam, completed just as the
event began. It was fed with an MFJ tuner by the FT817 running from external
battery power.
[Welcome to the fun! Glad you enjoyed yourself, catch ya next year - J.] |
| PA0CMU | Well, here is my log of the QRPTTF 2006 and I was happy to read about using a park for the field operation this year as I have a small neighbourhood park just 100 feet away from my house. Unfortunately the weather, time (1500Z is 5.00PM here in the Netherlands) and conditions made me decide to stay at home. I even used the small CW filters and passband tuning facilities of my Drake TR7 to run the contest. Of course I first tuned the rig to 5Watts output maximum! Directly at 1500Z I heard John - W2AGN and I called, and called, and called ... for more than an hour but I didn't manage to make a qso with him, although his sigs were strong enough here. I did hear at lot of 229 signals but my first qso was at one hour before midnight local time. A nice and clear signal from Cape Cod, W1OH. Suddenly 20m seemed to be more open or whatever, but it still was difficult to copy the small signals from the States. I have been listening for you all until 2.00AM local time but all more or less readable sigs were down then. Also 15m was completely death here. I did make a qso with N8ET but didn't log it because there was no confirmation of all info. His signal went down and I could not copy him anymore. Perhaps he might have logged our qso. So, my log is not really a large one (as usual !) but I worked W1FMR again as I did in 2005. You should have seen how surprised he was when I presented my qsl card of that qso during our stay in Dayton last year. Fun! |
| JR0BAQ | I have been very interested in this contest but the condition was not so good between stateside and Japan. I hope more contacts will be made in next year. |
| K9EW | The grey clouds were already setting the tone for the day's event as I drank my first cup of coffee. The forcast was for intermittent showers throughout the day, followed by lots of rain overnight. With any luck, I could get in a couple hours of operating between those intermittent showers. But as I was tying down the ends of my 20m inverted vee at a local forest preserve, the forcasted showers arrived. It wasn't too bad, so I continued setting up. My K1 was in a clear plastic bag with the wires coming out the opening, and I could turn the knobs and press the buttons through the plastic. The handmade paddle was brass and sealed wood, so no worry there. I had brought along a rain poncho (from previous experiences) so I was ready to start. What I hadn't planned on was the effect of the showers on my log sheets. As time went on, the paper got soggy and I couln't write on it without tearing the paper. At about the same time, the showers turned into industrial strength rain, and I had to call it quits. I quickly packed everything up, and headed back to the car. On the trail I met a fisherman who was also calling it quits. "Any luck", he asked? "Yeah, I got a few", I replied. |
| W2AGN | Good participation. Sadly, there was a lot of QSB on 20M. I know
I had several stations call that by the time I gave the excahnge, they
were gone. South Vineland City Park was an experience.Went to a far corner
and set up early. Good thing as the drug dealers tend to arrive after noontime.
Several looked at me suspiciously, but only one asked "Whut you doon?"
I expalined, and indicated the radio was homemade and worthless. Fortunately,
I also left my money at home. But, they were busy being entrepeneurs, so
I wasn't bothered. I had brought my digital camera to take some pictures
of the operation, but decided taking pictures there would be a bad idea.
[Hope you weren't wearing that ballcap that says FBI on it - J.] |
| KD2MX | I could only grab a few minutes here and there. Conditions were terrible on 20M in the afternoon except NE4LS seemed to have a direct channel to me. I barely heard a couple of other stations but couldn't manage any other QSOs during this short stint. Squeezed in a few on 40M in the evening. Wish I had had more time for this fun event but still happy to participate, meet a few new QRPers and compete for the lowest score. |
| N2CQ | Thanks for the QTTF! Great activity with big signals from the western mountain stations. W0RW/pm very strong in PA but couldn't break thru his pileup. I had only about 2 hours with lots of lookers-on and questions. Great fun! |
| AE5X | Another fun contest and a great excuse to go somewhere scenic.
Participation was good & it was fun to work the familiar callsigns
plus a lot of new ones. Missed hearing some stations that I was hoping
to work in the
contest though. Thanks Jan! |
| N1LT | The weather was perfect and we just sat in the sun all afternoon.
Jim Cluett, W1PID, and I had the park mostly to ourselves. We strung wires
between the trees and then just started enjoying ourselves. I have just
recently gotten back into CW and discovered QRP. What a blast! This was
my first QRP contest and it was great.
[Hey, glad you could join in the fun, that's what it's all about! - J.] |
| AD6GI | Brian, N6IZ, and Paul, W0RW, were heard for the longest time. John, W2AGN, was heard a couple of times, but not long enough to make contact. QSB was very strong at my location. Good to get outside and work some radio. Tnx to all for a nice event and hope to cuagn. |
| NU0P | WE0M and I went to Palo Reservoir and had a great time, it was rain and high winds but we managed. The antenna stayed up and the rain stayed on the outside. Looking forward to next year. |
| K4JSI | I had a good time in the 2006 version of QRPTTF, ending up with 21 QSOs (15 on 40M and 6 on 20M) in 15 SPCs. Saw some of my neighbors at the local park and explained what I was doing to some other folks who had brought their little ones for an outing. But propagation left lots to be desired - sigh. The QRP+ functioned well, but I'm left with a question or two about the Companion ATU and my Crappie pole supported 44 foot doublet. The multi-story apartment buildings about 1/4 mile to the west probably didn't help matters any. Best DX was PA0CMU, also QRP, and being called by AE5X, who was tenting on that Oklahoma wildlife refuge, was a nice surprise. Early on, I heard W0RW/pm in Colorado, but he didn't hear me. The weather was great, and I put in about 4-1/2 hours operating. As always my thanks to Jan, N0QT, for organizing the event again. The theme aspect of QRPTTF always appeals to me. And my thanks also to those folks who worked me! |
| AK0M | Operated from Lookout Park in Cedar Falls, IA. Weather was not
good ... rain, wind, temperature in the low 50's. I was able to set up
in a park shelter and at least keep mostly dry. I considered there to be
very little activity, at least during the short 90 minutes I operated.
It's my opinion that the duration of this contest is too long, and the
rules are too complicated.
[Hmmmm, "Jump in there when you can ... work stations once per band" ... will have to think on how to make that less complicated - J.] |
| WA1ZCQ | Saturday was a nice, warm, sunny day here in New Hampshire. I headed out at 10AM to drive to Willand Pond Park in Dover, NH. On my way I saw the vehicle of another HAM friend parked outside a restaurant. Well, I had to stop by and let him know about QRPTTF. That was a mistake. I ended up staying for lunch and did not leave till about 2PM. From there it was over to the Park to get my wire up in the trees. The slingshot came in handy and within 30 minutes I had 190 feet of wire up at about 60' in the air between 2 trees that were about 130 feet apart. QRPTTF started at 11AM local time but because of my detour I was not on the air till about 3PM local. The family dog was with me and the park was filled with other dogs. Well, again, I just had to spend time talking to every person that walked by with their dog. I spent more time chatting with park goers than working the contest but the truth of the matter was I was really enjoying the weather, fresh air, sunshine, and conversation. Of course HAM Radio cropped up in all the discussions. By 3:49PM I made my first "Q" with Arn - K0ZK who was operating from his home in Maine. Not to far away, in Stratham, NH was another NEQRP Club member, Jim - W1FMR who I got to work on 2 bands. Other States that were worked were Florida and Washington. By 8:01PM I made my last "Q". The temperature was dropping fast and it was time to call it quits. All in all I had a fun day eating, operating, and meeting people. Hope to see you all next year for QRPTTF '07. |
| KD5MJJ | All set to go "to field" with FT817, battery and antenna, then thunderstorms rolled in. Stayed put at home QTH. |
| AL7FS | Signals were quite weak, except for K7TQ, the mega-beacon form ID. I had a great time and promise myself to do this more often. |
| AL0HA | This was our 14th Annual Moku Ola Island DX-pedition. Grid BK29IV
(North Pacific - near Hawaii).
[You guys have way too much fun, hope to make it over someday - J.] |
| VE6DN | We operated for about 6 hours, did not hear one Canadian station. Condx very strange the whole time. Had many visitors from the passersby. Great fun was had by all. |