CQ BB VA3SIE BB...
We (VA3SIE & YL) drove up to the trail-head at King Mountain in Quebec, Canada, and hiked up to the top of the Eardley Escarpment. We operated an Elecraft KX1 in the Adventure Radio Society's Flight of the Bumblebees QRP CW contest.
We hiked 30 minutes up the trail and set out a couple of camping chairs in a clearing above the escarpment. We attached a fishing pole to one of the camping chairs and put up a 44′ doublet stretched across the clearing.
Bumblebee Camp
The weather was beautiful, if a little on the hot side! We covered ourselves in sunblock and kept cool drinking iced water from a thermos. We broke for lunch mid-contest to eat a couple of tandoori chicken and lettuce sandwiches.
Topographic Map (Click for larger image)
The band conditions were far from ideal! 20m propagation was marginal at the beginning of the contest - contacts were weak. The QRP segments were crowded, and I could hear two or three signals simultaneously even with the bandpass filter turned right down to its narrowest setting.
I operated the KX1 from external power (8 rechargeable Duracell® NiMH batteries in a Radio Shack® battery holder), and I used the Elecraft® KXPD1 paddle and a pair of Sony Fontopia® earbuds.
I made a mistake in the contest - I gave my QTH as 'ON' (Ontario) not 'QC' (Quebec). Oops!
I stayed in 'Search & Pounce' mode for most of the contest. My morse code speed is pretty slow (around 15wpm now) and I like to listen to a station make one or two contacts so that I get a few chances to copy the exchange. I tried calling CQ a few times but it was hard to copy the other station who responded to me first time around.
I switched over to 40m in at the top of the last hour of the contest, and I heard a few stations calling CQ, but they couldn't hear me come back to them. QRN was strong from thunderstorms in the first skip zone so 40m was an exercise in futility . .I soon gave up and decided to switch back to 20m. I discovered then that I hadn't re-connected the external power to the KX1 and therefore my 40m attempt was only driving 800mW into the antenna! That wasn't smart!
Towards the end of the contest, my YL walked over pointing excitedly at the bushes at the edge of the clearing. There was a black bear cub sitting there munching away on berries. I guess we must have been too quiet! That was pretty cool, it's the first time either of us had seen a wild black bear. Unfortunately by the time I reached for the camera the bear heard us and took off.
A Black Bear - Not the one we saw! (Click for larger image)
Topographic map used with in accordance with non-commercial copyright policy of Natural Resources Canada. Black bear image used in accordance with non-commercial copyright policy of CBS News.