Yellowstone Lake State Park CWT

Another of my favorite cycling destinations is this state park, about 60 km southwest of Madison. Again, I arrived before noon to get set up for the 19Z CWT.  It turns out not to be easy to find a good spot for operating.  We have plenty of trees, but I need to find one with access on both sides, so the fishing line doesn't get hopelessly tangled in brush.  We also have lots of Lyme carrying ticks around here, so crashing around in thick vegetation isn't advised.  I don't carry a table on my bike, so there needs to be a picnic table within dragging distance of the end of the wire.  Soon shade will also be a requirement at 19Z (1400 local), though it was comfortable in the sun this time.

After a bit of looking, I did find a spot meeting my two requirements:

Another Antenna Tree

I only had to drag the table about 30 meters:

Operating Position

There was some playground equipment off to the left, which I used to support the low end of the antenna.  I didn't expect there to be a lot of children about on a Wednesday afternoon.

The antenna installation turned out to be a bit troublesome.  I got the line over the tree on the first try, but it broke while I was pulling up the wire.  I stretched the antenna out on the ground and got ready to try again just as a work crew showed up to do something or other.  It looked like they were going to be there a while, and I didn't want to draw attention to my technically illegal antenna launcher, so I started to pack up, perhaps to look for another spot.  As I was rolling up the wire, the work crew truck backed over it and broke it off.  (I don't think they even noticed the AWG 26 wire.)  I figured that was it for this operation.  Then the work crew packed up and left, and I once again had the whole place to myself.  I didn't have another 20 meter wire, but I had a 10 meter one, which I thought might replace the broken end.  I paced off the remain wire, and found it was still about 20 meters long, so just the end must have broken off, and perhaps it stretched a bit.  I got the line over the tree again and got the wire up with half an hour to spare.  

The 19Z CWT went fairly well.  I ended up with 36 QSO's and 33 mults, edging out W1UU by 1 QSO.

Later, before the 03Z CWT, I ran some RBN tests:

RBN

Not bad for 5 W to an end fed 20 meter wire with the high end up about 10 meters.  My friend K9IMM was only about 16 km away, but ground wave doesn't get far on 40.

The temperature plummeted after the sun went down, so I once again used the warm clothes I had lugged over the hills.  At dusk, I heard something hitting the wire, looked up, and saw bats, which I thought were hitting the wire.  Later I noticed June bugs, probably the bats' targets, so THEY might have been hitting the wire.  Then some nearby coyotes started howling.

20 meters was quite good at 03Z, so I stayed there for quite a while.  UR5MM heard me.  There was some local QRM from the coyotes.  After 11 QSO's on 20, I went to 40.  It seemed a bit harder to get through, but I made a bunch of contacts before I discovered I'd left the tuner in the "Tune" position, cutting my 4 W down to 1.  The last few contacts did seem a bit easier, but time ran out.  This time I ended up with 37 QSO's and 32 mults.  W1UU beat me by 1 QSO, with only 45 minutes of time. Serves me right for forgetting to flip that switch.

At 04Z, I posted my score to 3830scores.com, packed everything up, and pedaled back to my campsite.  I took the antenna down in the morning.  I'll need a new one for the next operation, but they're pretty cheap.

I used a paper crosscheck and log this time, but I'm really out of practice.  Still, unless someone comes up with a phone app that can do contests, it's the most weight-efficient logging system.

CWT from New Glarus Woods State Park

Besides ham radio, one of my long-time interests is bicycle touring.  Each year, I ride several thousand kilometers, mostly on the back roads of Wisconsin, One of my favorite campsites, just 50 km from home, is New Glarus Woods.





To combine ham radio and bicycle touring, I built a KX1 transceiver, an antenna tuner, and various other bits so I could put up an end fed 40 meter half wave.  The whole operation weighs under 1.5 kg, including spare batteries and the launcher.  (Almost half of that is the launcher.)  The KX1 runs on 4 Li-ion cells with a linear regulator to limit the voltage to 14 Volts, and puts out 4-5 W on 20 and 40 meters.  The 800 mAh batteries are more than adequate for two hours of contest operating.

Wednesday morning, I rode down to the park, arriving in time to get the antenna up before the 1900Z CWT.

Transport

The campsite didn't have antenna potential, but the nearby picnic area had a big clearing and a tall, conveniently located tree.

Antenna Tree

It only took one try to get the line over the tree, and the AWG 26 wire went from the picnic shelter to the tree, insulated with monofilament line.  The high end to the north was about 10 M high, so it should have slightly favored radiation to the south.  Because it's a half wave on 40 and a full wave on 20, the feedpoint impedance is high, so the counterpoise is just a short length of wire on the ground.  The tuner is my own design, and can match up to 6,000 Ohms with only a dB or so loss.

Operating Position

For the 1900Z CWT, I set up in the sun next to the shelter, in hopes of a little warmth, as there was a cold north wind.  At 0300Z, I moved under the shelter.  It was down to about +5 C by 0400 during this late spring cold snap.  Those bags on the bike contained lots of warm clothes, in addition to the radio stuff.

I made about 70 contacts in two hours of CWT operation, including some DX. It's been a long time since I logged on paper, so it was a challenge.  Next time, I'll use a dupe sheet.  The KX1 and antenna seemed to get out fairly well, with only a couple strong stations calling CQ in my face.  It took a few tries to get through to F5IN on 40, but Mike eventually heard me.

All in all, it was a fun operation.  I'll be doing more of them.  In between portable operations, I should be about 40 dB louder from the home QTH.