Hi Gang,
I've been working lately at getting my average power to work a county down
below one watt. Well the mission came to completion yesterday. So it must
be time for a big celebration.
Earlier this week Jerry, NR5A/M of this list made a special effort to get
me Pennington, SD. It took three tries to do it but we finally hooked up on
Thursday evening.
Then the big day was yesterday.
Larry, W0QE/M, and Ken, KA0W/M, and Jerry, W0GXQ/M, teamed up to put me
over the top.
Larry gave me Gilpen, CO at 2 watts - that took three watts off the
previous 5 watt figure.
And Ken gave me two counties in IA, Pocahontas and Hancock QRPp at 400
mWatts. He made a special trip out to get me those two counties. He also
shaved another 300 mWatts off the total with two other counties I had
already worked QRPp. Ken droped me a note a couple of weeks ago that started
I was wondering why your signals were a little on the weak side. I didn't
know if I should send you a roll of antenna wire with instructions for an
antenna that works a little better than what I have been hearing.
Then he must have gone to my web page and discovered I was doing the
counties QRPp and has since taken on the task of trying to get me the rest
of the counties I need in IA QRPp. He now holds my best power into IA with
a 15 mWatt QSO a couple of weeks back from Jackson, IA.
Jerry, W0GXQ/M, also managed to slip in by giving me Woodbery county, IA at
400 mWatts to save another 100 mWatts off the total power. Jerry has given
me quite a number of counties QRPp over the past several years.
There are many fond memories along the way - probably the best is Ken,
KC4UG/M, now a SK, who gave me 77 of the 82 counties in MS QRPp. There are
too many others who helped out to even begin to give credit where credit is
due.
The equipment for this endeavor was a Wilderness Sierra in the early days
and an Elecraft K1 later on. A Kenwoodk TS590 was used for the 324 counties
that it took 5 watts to work them. The Sierra and the K1 were coupled with
a TenTec 290 step attenuator for the real low power QSOs. The antennas were
nothing more than a bunch of dipoles of one type or another.
When it was all done I ended up with 2629 counties QRPp. 2587 of those were
at 500 mWatts or less. 444 were at 100 mWatts or less. The best state was
NH where the average power came in at just over 7 mWatts per county. I'm
working on 2 mWatts per county there - with only two to go. FL came in
second at 87 mWatts per county. The worst state was OR at 3.91 watts per
county.
Right now the power needed a county stands at 999 mWatts.
73 de Larry........WD3P
http://www.wd3p.net/
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