Dave and I are mobile again for the Wisconsin QSO Party. This time hitting four POTA parks and five counties on our multi-multi-mobile road trip. Will we end up with an epic score or fail miserably?

Team K9M is Michael KB9VBR and Dave KZ9V. This is our second year as mobile operators in the Wisconsin QSO party. If you made contact with K9M during the QSO party and would like a card, please QSL via KB9VBR. As they say, I’m good in the book.

Wisconsin QSO Party: https://www.warac.org/wqp/wqp.htm

Things that helped us immensly:
Feather Flag Base: https://amzn.to/3MdepHE
Wolf River Coils: https://www.wolfrivercoils.com/
MFJ-1979 whip: https://amzn.to/3B9cehF
42×108 inch Faraday Fabric: https://amzn.to/3Vt1m9R
Jaw Mount Antenna Clamp: https://amzn.to/3VL5Ir6
SO-239 stud mount for jaw clamp: https://amzn.to/3VT1KwG
SOTAbeams mast: https://www.dxengineering.com/search/brand/sotabeams/product-line/sotabeams-tactical-7000hds-compact-heavy-duty-telescopic-mast
Weize 100ah LiFePO4 Battery: https://amzn.to/3UswLbV
N1MM Logger Plus: https://n1mmwp.hamdocs.com/
Heil Ham Radio BM-17 Dual headset: https://heilhamradio.com/product/bm-17-2/

Graphical contact map provided by: https://www.qsomap.com/
Thank you for your support.

How I record my contact audio: https://youtu.be/tOqzZPphE7k
My headset trigger switch: https://youtu.be/b5Wu8BlrSF0

As a bonus, patrons can view the unedited phone contacts for the QSO Party and extended conversations between Dave and I. Visit my page on Patreon for details: https://www.patreon.com/kb9vbrantennas

Links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This does not affect the price you pay.

The post Revealed: Our Risky Wisconsin QSO Party Strategy appeared first on KB9VBR Antennas.

 Project TouCans has had a big couple of months!

It received a certificate of commendation in the GQRP building contest, as well as fourth place in the QRP division at the California QRP party!

Both of these things surprised me a bit. I've been inundated since junior high school with the 'QRP can't do much' schtick, and well? It just ain't true! 

TouCans is strung up on a dipole stretching from our roof to a wood pole mounted on our back fence. (Mota, the 11 year-old, and I levered a construction clamp over the lip of the roof using a broom handle from the kitchen window. I did all the window leaning... It was an adventure.) I didn't even realize the QSO party was the weekend it was, and yet that little pineapple can based rig came in pretty close to third!

The weather this weekend was not nice enough (for me) to seriously consider taking the Portable Station out any of the local POTA Parks as I had previously mentioned. Although the temps were above the freezing mark I find the cold harsher now and it was a bit too cold for me to be sitting at a picnic table.

Now it was not as bad as the above but it sure felt like it so…

So my Plan “B” was to just operate from the shack and give out contacts….

So starting on Saturday (0000hrs utc) I started spinning the dial and giving out contacts to whoever I could hear in whatever contest/event they were participating in. Contacts were made in the following contests/event:

POTA Support Your Parks, Ontario QSO Party, Michigan QSO Party, Nebraska QSO Party and the Quebec QSO Party. A few Special Event Stations were also in the log as well.

All the contacts were given a 5/9 ON exchange with the Ontario QP Participants getting a “5/9 FRO (Frontenac County)”.

I managed to give out 40 OQP exchanges .

The POTA activators were really busy and I found (in some cases) hard to break the pileups. That part of our hobby is growing in leaps and bounds. I hope that some of the newer operators were not discouraged by the sheer numbers of stations calling.

According to my records I managed to raise my Unique Parks worked count to 2565 logged. Slowly heading towards the 3000 mark which is my next goal.

With the promises (would the Weather Person lie to me?) of better (warmer/dryer) weather in the next week I am still planning to give the Portable station’s new 17 1/2 foot vertical a testing out from the field. Don’t know which day (yet) as the band conditions have to cooperate along with a bit warmer weather from “Mother Nature”

Hope to get you in the log soon

73bob

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