This year’s New Hampshire QSO Party found me setting up in a quiet Sullivan County campground, operating comfortably out of my camper. My station was simple but effective: the rig on the desk, a straight key perfectly positioned underneath, and even a microphone nearby—just in case I ever decide to use it! My next project will be figuring out the voice keyer in N1MM.
For antennas, I ran inverted V’s on 40, 20, and 10 meters, all fed with window line. A balun and choke kept things quiet enough so the camper’s fake fireplace didn’t click on and off whenever I keyed up on 20 meters. The setup even worked nicely on 15 meters. They’ll need some pruning next time, but I was pretty happy with the performance. To make things easier, I built wire winders directly into the antennas—slick, right?
In the middle of the QSO Party, I also took a little detour to join the Flight of the Bumblebees QRP event. It was a fun change of pace and gave me a chance to work some lightweight portable contacts.
Overall, it was a successful outing, and I learned a lot. Next time, I’ll be better prepared—I finally figured out the spotting after the event was over!
73
Neil
AA1SB
