LA2MOA/QRP - Entirely devoted to low power amateur radio

Ok, the final results from the Nordic portable contest is published at SM3CER's Contest Service. It seems that I managed the 9th place total and best LA-station in the Single Op CW-class. I'm more than pleased with that result, considering the struggles I experienced when preparing the station. Other LA-stations did also very well, and among these LA1TPA/P managed to win the Single OP SSB-class. Indeed excellent, considering the fact that LA1TPA/P didn't run more than 3.99 watts out. The complete list of results can be found here:

http://www.sk3bg.se/contest/res/r07smph.htm

72/3! Hans / LA2MOA

Received a comment from Chris/SM5KRI, who is a well known avid QRP:er! Chris does a lot of portable QRP:ing and I enjoyed visiting his blog and homepage, with information about his /P-operations. Pay him a visit you too! The URL:

http://www.qrpadventures.net

72/3 de Hans / LA2MOA

SM5CKI Göran has a homepage, which should be interesting for those of us who are interested in radio- and military history. The homepage consists of a number of videoclips and short movies. Especially interesting is the short movies titled "Radio at War 1944" and "Radar Secrets Revealed 1945". There is a number of other films and clips, but these are generally in Swedish. Anyway, pay a visit to Göran's page. It's worth every second. The URL:

http://www.sm5cki.se

Hans / LA2MOA

The Nordic Portable Contest was about to start at 0700 UTC on Sunday, August 19, so I got my feets on the bedroom floor already at 0400 UTC. I hate stress, so it was important for me to get up early. I had plenty of time to make all the coffee I needed during the test and to carry out everything into the car. My portable QTH is about 30 minutes of driving from my home QTH and it's located at 1100 meters ASL in the southern slopes of the Jotunheimen mountain area. It's really a beautyful location, and once there one sometimes get stunned by the wiev, and as a result, forgets to work the contest. Anyway, I started to assemble the station at 0530 UTC, and after a while I got company... A herd of sheep (I guess it was about 20 animals), rushed through the area where I was just about to put up my portable mast. The result was devastating. The sheep had managed to chrush my fiberglass pole more or less halfway up. Still, I managed to put it together, and worked the contest with a "half" portable mast. At 0640 UTC, I was ready to start operating. I checked out the conditions on 80 meters, and immedeately found SM4BZH, Seppo, calling CQ. He gave me a 539 report, which I was quite happy for, considering the fact that I was running 3 watts into a 27m lw (inv. L. configuration) on just 50% of the originally intended height. The contest started at 0700 UTC, and I managed to work 14 Q's on 80 meter, which was much more than I expected with my ravaged mast. As the morning went on, I was visited by a number of curious German and Dutch tourists, about 40 bolting mountain bikers trying to finish what the sheep had started earlier, and one lemming(!!). The lemming was barking at me for five minutes, before it went - direction west. At 0900 UTC signals started to get much weaker on 80 meters, so I switched over to 40 meters. I originally beleived that it should be a lot easier to work on 40, but I was dead wrong! The entire 40 meter band was completely occupied with DL-stations, working the "Q-test" - whatever that is. Furthermore, a huge number of lighthouse activity stations was calling CQ - EVERYWHERE! It was not easy to copy weak QRP-signals from /P-stations in Scandinavia, beleive me. And if this wasn't enough, at 1000 UTC the band was invaded by QRO OH-stations working a national test. Well, I still managed to work 12 Q's on 40 meters before it all ended at 1100 UTC, which for me is a stunning result considering all the other activity on the band. This was indeed a fun contest to work, and I will try to be QRV again next time. I've got some more pictures from this activity, and if someone is interested in watching sheep, me(!), mother nature and my equipment, please drop me an e-mail on: la2moa (at) qsl (dot) nu, and I will send the pic's in return.

Rig: Argonaut II @ 3 watts + DSW-II-40 as reserve, WizKey paddles, 14Ah powerpack

Antenna: 27 meters lw, radials for 80 and 40

Tuner/SWR/PWR: Emtech ZM-2  + OHR WM-2 QRP wattmeter

72/3!

Hans / LA2MOA