[OhQP-mail] OQP -COOKEN -WW8OH- part II

w3hkk at roadrunner.com w3hkk at roadrunner.com
Mon Aug 30 22:31:37 EDT 2010


COOKEN operated WW8OH at the  home qth of Eldon  W5UHQ with  between 12 and 
15 members showing up for various lengths of time.  Plus numerous XYLs and a 
couple of harmonics. So as a way to stimulate the club members, it was a  
rousing success.  
    Station 1 (SSB) was downstairs near the pool table, with an ICOM Pro II to a 
Stepp-IR plus inverted L for 40-80.  It started out on 75 SSB and racked up a 
good number of Ohio counties during the early afternoon, then shifted to 20.  20 
was pretty good and it gave the boys a chance to get away from the sometimes 
brutal  intra-station QRM on 75.  40 SSB was almost impossible, as this was the 
main band for the CW station. 
    Station 2 was located in the sun room, just off the deck, and used  an IC 
7600 to  a 45 ft high windom for 80/40m.  I used a  Lightning Bug for human 
intervention, and Jack K8EM used an MFJ keyer, but we both loved the handy-dandy 
preprogrammed memories for calling CQ OQP, or  giving the exchange including 
sequential qso numbers. Pushing a button was a fun way to drum up activity when 
things were slow ( which was often the case) and sip on a beverage or chat with 
other members.   We began on 40 CW and found it poor going for several hours.   
Later in the afternoon, when Station 1 was on 20m we slipped down to  80 CW and 
had a pretty good go of it for most of the evening.  80 cw was far better for  
Ohio counties, but not spectacular.  40 cw was almost worthless for in state 
QSOs but  did nicely from about 300 miles on out, including  several Euros. 
    Surprisingly, activity remained   pretty good up until around 11:30 pm, and 
voices also gave out.  So the remaining guys had a group chat, disassembled 
Station #2,  and then hit the road around 12:30 for the 30 minute drive  home. 
    Next year will likely see  WW8OH from another Licking County  site. And the 
year will give some time to talk about how to  better limit intrastation QRM on 
40/80m. 
    NOTE:  COOKEN (WW8OH) will be doing the OSPOTA in two weeks, from Buckeye 
Lake, at Fritz's (WD8E) cabin by the water, again  with two stations.   Looks 
like  a windom dockside for the 80m Station 1, and a 25-55 ft high 
semi-horizontal delta loop for 40-20m, for Station #2. Not expecting much CW 
activity for OSPOTA, so  both stations will be SSB.




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