Every year, PCARS hosts a club contest for QRP operations in February. Astute readers of the blog will note that the last one was in…November? Of 2022? Well, things happened back in February of 2022 and the club wasn’t ready, so it was delayed until winter set in. Which, traditionally, in NE Ohio is pretty much November. But this year it was warm. I think I wore a hooded sweatshirt to protect myself from the harsh 50F with a stiff breeze. But this is February and that’s a different game. It was in the 20F range most of the time and hit a balmy 40F as a high. At least there was sun and it wasn’t windy.
Now, FYAO is a contest for members of a local club. On the surface, it’s pretty simple, but upon further investigation, this is a very complex social ritual. The scoring isn’t just for contacts. Over the years, points have been added for wearing a Hawaiian shirt (my dad had one on) and having a black squirrel (the mascot of the club and Kent, OH and conveniently enough, on a sticker on my Jeep) somewhere at your station. There are sign-in sheets at each station where people can come and check out what you’re doing and each station gets points for visitors. Alongside the radio contest, there’s a contest for the best hot dish. There are chili concoctions and desserts on hand. At it’s heart, it’s an excuse for radio folks to get outside in the winter and hang out. It happens just as everyone is dying for spring to land and it provides an opportunity to check out other antenna solutions and portable fun. It beats sitting inside and reading QST or CQ Magazine again.
Dad and I met at the pavillion we worked in November at 9:30 AM. The contest is pretty short. It runs from 10 AM to 3 PM. CW, Phone, Digital…do whatever you want as long as it’s maxing out at 5 watts and you can get a signal report and location. For us, we ran with my tried and true POTA activation setup with the IC-705 and the Chameleon vertical.
As luck would have it, the GPS unit that I use for time was acting up again. I charge it and it…loses its charge. Without being on. Regularly. I’ve swapped batteries and everything. I’m not sure what the deal is. But I carry around a powerpole power strip of sorts and I can feed it off of that if I have to. The new piece of gear this time out is the weird hydra of USB cables for power. It’s got iPhone, USB mini, USB micro, and USB-C power connectors. If nothing else, it cuts down on the number of cables I need to carry and can, possibly, be used to power more than one device at once. Hooray for getting to try that out, I guess.
As we were sitting at the station chatting with some folks who stopped by, I had a gentleman look over my shoulder and see my logbook. I had it open to an activation at K-0020. He said that he’d been there a few times. Sure enough, it was HIM! Rich, AF1K! 200 activations of K-0020. We had a nice chat and I figured out why I never run into him. He’s a smart guy and works from the high point on the far side of the park – not in the valley like some dunce who doesn’t want to add 20 miles to his Saturday bike ride. It was nice to catch up and hear his story of getting into POTA. Maybe I’ll take his advice and try that spot while he heads over to the picnic tables as opposed to using his truck as a base. It’s fun to trade notes.
We were doing really well in the morning. As we hit noon, the sun shifted and it got cold in the pavillion. This is where the IC-705 shines. I picked up my Surface and moved to where the sun was. I didn’t need to worry about cables and I could still see the TX/RX light of the IC-705 (I’m a paranoid operator sometimes). Being able to move around when doing digital modes is such a cool thing. It was especially useful when the Surface started to run low on power and I had to plug it into the big battery box. The adapter I have to power the Surface is RF noisy. Keeping it clear of the IC-705 was pretty important.
Hanging out with my dad is always fun at these events. We were just chatting and having a good time when he noticed that we’d had over 20 contacts in a row from unique states or countries. That’s a lot of multipliers. I think our preliminary score had us at about 4600 points. What does that mean? I honestly have no idea. I’ve only done this once before and I don’t remember what our score was. Maybe we’ll find out at the club meeting.
Here’s what it looked like on the map:
For me, QRP operations are the most fun. It’s great to see what you can do with 5 watts. I don’t know that it will ever get dull. It’s even better when I can hang out with my dad and other operators who are just getting out for the sake of it. “Contests” like this should be a staple of clubs everywhere. Everyone feels like more of a part of the community when they can get out and play together.
