Hurricane Wave Pool Park Event

photo of XE1RK dog 

Dave Higley (KD8WA)  and I were sitting at a picnic table at the Wave Pool Park  in Hurricane West Virginia yesterday morning. We heard XE1RK  from Mexico City barking at around thirty words a minute . A lady from the park asked us if we had seen a little brown dog wandering around the grounds. Sorry to say but we were much too focused on the event at hand. I hope she finds the lost dog. 

The Mexico City station was the perfect example of "good operating procedures" when he immediately matched my sending speed of around 20 wpm. I'm sure that if I reduced my speed to 13 wpm, he would have gladly done the same. 

Dave (KD8WA) who was with me, has been an active SSB ham for many years but has now decided to enter the QRP CW fraternity. He is "testing the waters" so to speak. Twice today, we've worked DX stations which have "matched the sending speed of the inquiring station". Our other DX contact was 6Y5WJ in Jamaica, who by the way, was just as accommodating. 

I'm sure it was comforting for Dave to hear this "on the air" courtesy. I can remember those days very well from my early days using Morse Code. 

It was a beautiful day with temperatures supposedly reaching the lower 70 degree range. I don't think it quite made it while we were doing the event but perhaps close. The slight breeze made it feel a little cooler. 

We operated from around 10:15 am till 2:00 pm from this location. We used an end fed PAR antenna cut for 40-20- and 10 meters. The leafless trees made getting the antenna about 35 ft into the air a quick event. 

We worked 19 stations at our event yesterday. 

Some of the highlights yesterday was working our club President N8XMS who was 599 from Michigan and N4KGL in Florida who was using an "Alex Loop" from a portable location. We also had great signals from W7GVE in Arizona, KC0DD in Iowa, and it's always good to hear Don (KD3CA) in Pennsylvania.  

Information from K1SWL (nice call) has me listening for two hikers in New Hampshire this morning. I've previously worked both W3ATB and W1PID in "hiking mode". On our last NAQCC field event I heard them both working a station in France. (It doesn't get any better than this). 

Yesterdays event brought back the true joy of operating from a field location. Simplicity at its best with an added addition of "adjusting the sending speed to the inquiring station". Yesterdays event makes me proud to not only be a NAQCC operator, but also to be a member of such a unique fraternity of CW ops. 

Stations worked yesterday were: 

WB3T W3ZMN N2CX K4KRW K1SWL KD3CA K3SWZ WA8SAN N8XMS 6Y5WJ WA4SPJ K7TQ K4ARQ N0AR WA2FBN XE1RK KC0DD N4KGL W7GVE