[KLQRP] WQ4RP Knightlites FD 2006

[Chris Waldrup]

FD for us almost always involves rain! This year was no different.

JP and Derek went up early on Friday but I'll let them tell their stories of
fishing attempts and the trip to the summit at Max Patch....

 I'll pick up the story at about 6 pm on Friday.   I had been in contact
with them on the 145.190 repeater on Clingman's Peak (a.k.a. the Mt Mitchell
repeater, althought it isn't acutally on Mt Mitchell) and we had decided to
have me meet them for the trip to the backup site.  I had arranged with my
mom on Thursday afternoon to use my deceased grandfather's house and
property as a backup site in case of rain, as it is in the same county as
Max Patch, although about 45 minutes away over some winding roads.
I got to my mom's house in Asheville, picked up the key to the backup site
and headed north on I-26 to meet JP and Derek in Weaverville. We drove to
the site near Mars Hill, and had an hour or two to look over the property
before dark.  The antenna locations were decided on, and a 2 meter/440 beam
was raised on a mast so we could have a link to the 145.190 repeater.
I had hoped that this stay would be only temporary and we could go to Max
Patch on Saturday morning, but the weather channel (we had cable there)
showed a 90 percent chance of rain on Saturday so we opted to stay since we
had a covered porch to operate from.  JP and Derek decided to fish a little
in an adjoining pond but as soon as their flies hit the water it started
raining!

On Saturday morning we had breakfast a a local spot in  Mars Hill.  Even
there JP found someone he knew- a fellow trooper.  We contaced the guys
coming up from SC (Randy, Gene and Randy's son) who were just leaving
Columbia and told them to be sure to take NC exit  #9 off I-26 and we would
see them in about 3 hours. We went back to the house and started shooting
lines in the trees to pull up weed eater line supports for the antennas.  We
managed to make 2 80 meter dipoles and orient them at 90 degree angles  then
put up a small 40 meter dipole in the front yard for SSB. JP erected his 15
meter wire beam in the front yard too.

Five hours later we still hadn't heard from the Charleston crew and later
found out that they were 65 miles away looking for exit 9 on I-40 near Max
Patch.  Once we got in contact with them Randy managed to arrive in about an
hour (although he was heard commenting on the repeater that the mile markers
were passing him every 30 seconds) and get setup with a 6 meter loop.

We managed to get on the air with 20 CW, 40 CW, 20 SSB, 6 meter SSB and 2
meter SSB and operated 5B.  "Operating" 20 meters SSB might be a stretch as
no contacts were made at all.  We could hear the stations calling and the
signal strength was great on our K2's but we were in a deep valley and
couldn't get a signal out and CW was a little better but not what we were
used to on previous FD's.
Randy, his son and Gene decided to get a 500 foot longwire up and got it up
at about 50-65 feet at the highest point.  Now it was around 6 pm and we
were able to work most every 80 meter SSB station that we could hear thanks
to the autotuner in Randy's K2. Derek and JP did get a few dozen CW contacts
on 20/40 and after dark Randy managed to contact fellow Knightlite Paul
AA4XX who was operating from home.
We got two 6 meter contacts, one with the Marion club and one with the
Asheville club so they were both only 1 county away.  We heard a station in
North Texas and one in the upper midwest but they couldn't hear us.

Steak and potato dinners were enjoyed by the group and then we sat around
and talked while we causally operated.  Around midnight we decided to start
packing up.
It rained a lot but we were under the covered porch so the equipment and
ourselves stayed dry.

On the way back from dropping the key at my mom's house this morning I saw a
parking lot with tents at a community college where it happened that the
Asheville club (W4MOE) was set up for FD.  I was tempted to stop by and say
hi but my wife and son were sick so I decided against it.


If I missed anything please chime in.  I hope that you all had a nice time
at FD this year!

Chris
KD4PBJ







----- Original Message ----- 
From: "john" <johnmb at nc.rr.com>
To: <KLQRP at knightlites.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2006 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: [KLQRP] FD2006 1B from N C!


> Make that from NC not NM !!
>
> (old habits die hard)
>
> John K5MO (ex-desert rat)
>
>
>
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