My Portable Op in Jo Daviess County for the 2006 Illinois QSO Party

by Wayne Wagner / AA9DY
October 23rd, 2006

The Site:
~7 miles east of Galena, IL, in JoDaviess County (JODA)
~980ft ASL + antenna height
The Station:
FT-920 w/built-in tuner
25-Amp MFJ Switching Power Supply
WinKeyer USB
Bencher Paddle
Heil Pro Set Quiet Phone (w/HC-4 mic element)
Dell Laptop
The Antenna:
G5RV oriented NNW<-->SSE, with one end up ~50ft and the other end tied to the top of a combine
This was my first time doing a portable op. Glad I had family in JODA to give me this opportunity to have an awesome QTH to setup at with a great rolling hill/valley view and a warm place to operate in. I don't know how some of the county line portables put up with the cold. Glad you guys were out there. Thanks.

I was prepared to tie the antenna between one of the tall oak trees and a 36 foot fiberglass mast. Had all the rope, fab'd some temporary guy rings out of pipe strapping, and other misc stuff. When I got to the site I didn't need the mast. There happen to be a big 'ole John Deere combine parked close to where I was going to set up the mast.

Temp was in the upper 30's, and it started to rain. There was a twine put up through the tree for me in advance, but it just wasn't high enough to have the ladder line of the G5RV clear the ground. So, I had to recast the line into the tree higher. Got the line up there, but when I tried to pull the antenna rope up thru the trees it kept on snagging. Back and forth... Back and forth... Getting nowhere.

Now I have been out in the freezing rain for a couple of hours... fighting the line knot in the tree (on a side of a steep slippery hill) and trying to get the other end of the antenna high enough, as well. Soaked through a couple of jackets and hands were starting to become useless.

Then determination to contest gave me the idea of taping a twig across the knot and wrapping tape around the leading end of the twig. This "popped" the knot over the crotch of the limb that was catching it. WoooooooooHoooooooo!
I got the antenna line hoisted over the limb and the north end of the G5RV close to the high end as possible. Then tied the other end over the top of the combine and to a side support. Then I thought to myself "Nothing holds up an antenna rope quite like a Deere." HI HI! ...maybe the cold was setting in toooo deep.

About 3 feet of the ladder line of the G5RV was still touching the ground. Fixed the issue by pulling
the end of the ladder line towards the house so the line was at an angle relative to the dipole plane.
Taped the coax connection to a plastic stake a couple of feet off of the ground.
Got the station all set up. For the most part everything checked out OK, as far as the radio and antenna goes. Once exception... with the internal tuner I could not go higher in the 75m band than 3.800MHz. So I figured that will kill my ability for 75m phone in the contest. But later 40m proved to be the bread and butter. Still would like to figure out how to get more of the 75m phone band to work... next time...

For the rest of the evening B4 the contest, I made general contacts with various stations across the US and Canada. Did some SSB, CW, and one PSK contact. Worked some Canadian Islands. Got good reports of 5x9+20 from many. That was cool. I never got reports like that before. At home I only have a compact vertical that works on 40-thru-10 meters.

Contest Day...

GAME TIME! Got a late start on the contest. Couldn't pass on the home cooking.

I started out on 20m, and I thought I was going to Work All States before I snagged my first IL County (got 18 states before I got the first IL county). When I dropping down to 40m the Q's started to really roll in.

Got my first taste of working a pile up (40m SSB), where I was being piled upon. It was a real rush to work through everyone and give out the JODA exchange. Thanks to the ops out there for sticking with me as I tripped up a few times.

I worked some states I normally find hard to get during other contests (NE, ND, DE, VT...). They were calling me.

Worked many fellow SMC'ers and several home county (LAKE) stations. I also took to opportunity to talk to a couple of Boy Scouts for a few minutes. Then it was back to the game. Throughout the rest of the day I just had fun making the Q's and multi's as I sat in the living room looking over the rolling valleys below...

Last QSO logged: 00:56Z CW with KF9D/KANE

Packing Up...

Snow/ice melted though out the day from the night B4. No wind. Calm and quite night. Temp in the mid-30's. The take down was easy. Packing was a cake walk. A LOT nicer experience than the antenna setup. Got home at 1am... still wired from the day.
I homebrewed a QSL card for this event with the use
of one of the picture of the countryside. I'm sure there
are some county collectors out there needing this county.

My logging program (N1MM) for THIS particular contest didn't score correctly. So I parsed the Cabrillo file with Excel and got the following...

Score Breakdown:
Band CW SSB Band Total
80m 30 0 30
40m 46 192 238
20m 0 31 31
 
Totals 76 223 299
 
Points 152 + 223 = 375

Other stats:

63 of 102 IL counties
36 States
3 Canadian Provinces
2 DX Multi's (W/VE)

Score Calc:

375 Points x 104 multi's = 39,000 points

Unless plans change, I think I will do this QTH next year for the 2007 ILQP.

73,

Wayne / AA9DY