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As one of the many antenna restricted condo owners of America, I cannot operate as often as I’d like. The hassle of putting up and taking down temporary antennas wastes time, isn’t always practical and generally spoils the fun for us.

Great that we have some holidays and time off as it allows a bit more opportunity to get on the air. The MI QRP group hosted a 4th of July Sprint and although the hour was late (7-11PM EDT) since I did not have to go to work Monday, I took advantage of the chance to work a few of my fellow QRP ops.

Rain and lightning welcomed my efforts to set up an antenna. So I forsook my normal setup and settled for a twinlead 44 foot doublet hung from my 20 foot Jackite pole which was bungee cord strapped to a ladder in the back yard of our condo. The antenna ran north south so much less than ideal, but at least I could get on the air.

Freshly Built NEScaf saved my bacon!

The day was saved by my freshly built NEScaf filter. As one of the lucky ones, I recently received the latest edition of this great kit provided by the NE QRP bunch. It enabled me to listen to cw despite the high QRN and background hash from neighbor’s TV’s, computers and air conditioners. What a joy it is to actually hear stations through the noise. This is a must have accessory for the condo based QRP op! I am still learning to use it well, but am mega-impressed with the capabilities it offers. With this audio filter, I could null out the QRN and peak the CW signals making for much more relaxed and enjoyable copy. The extra audio boost helps my little Sierra audio too. Keep watching for the next round of kits!

On the road again… happy feet dance! K4UPG is loaded and ready for a good day by the lake operating the QRP To The Field event for 2010.

K4UPG ready to roll to QRP TTF site

Loaded with ALL the options!

Then came the wind knots in the antenna launching rig! I wanted to get a doublet up as high as possible. Took nearly 2 hours to get my antennas up in the air. LESSON LEARNED: It is really helpful to have another person along to help untangle all the knots that wire and string seem to make all by themselves.  Getting  the antenna up quickly is a key to portable ops. Grrrrr!

One of several tangled messes that delayed the antenna deployment

LESSON TWO: After a delayed start, I spent a lot of time moving my portable table to keep out of the direct sun! With temperatures in the upper 80′s it was HOT and direct sun causes my Sierra to drift a bit which makes qso’s more difficult. Need to get a sun shade setup and not waste time moving my position.

The band conditions were pretty poor and I did not hear as many stations as I had hoped. The ones I did work were tough going and seemed like others could not hear me responding to their CQ’s.  I didn’t even hear a lot of Florida QSO party ops, but sounds like others that were farther away did. In 5 hrs I managed three whole qso’s with TTF stations. I did hear one Polar Bear– Martin operating as VA3OVQ but he could not hear me when I replied to his CQ.

Warning sign about 30 feet from my operating site!

It was fun to be outdoors and playing radio! I did not get eaten by our neighborhood gator either! Maybe next time out will be better contact-wise.