Several club members participated in the SSB edition of the North American QSO Party on August 18. Jason KF5EJX and Jim AB5JK set up two G5RV wire antennas the night before, including lots of yellow caution tape! If that wasn’t enough Jason pulled out his BBQ pit and cooked for the crowd – it was like Field Day all over again. Initially we had some problems getting both computers to stay connected to the wireless internet; but things got a whole lot better towards night time (after a whole lot of experimenting.)
At the end of the day everyone was pretty tired, but satisfied. We made 118 QSOs on 4 bands, good for a score of 6,608. We only managed to log one foreign country, Canada; but we did get 4 of their provinces. And we got 34 US states, not bad with only 118 QSOs! So it’s safe to say that all the hardware was working; unfortunately our good old sun was not cooperating by throwing that solar disturbance at us. Better luck next time!
Here are some pictures of the event, made by Jason. Of course he forgot to take one of himself…
Mary KU5Z, Richard N5YPJ and Erik K5WW.
Mary KU5Z, Hubert KC5MCE and Erik K5WW.
Jason’s truck and BBQ pit. Just to say that the food was good!
The full-size G5RV antenna that Jason KF5EJX and Jim AB5JK installed for the contest.
Jim AB5JK having a bite.
And, thanks to Mary KU5Z, we did get a picture of Jason after all! He’s on the left. With his back to the camera. Now that’s just rude!
