10000 Miles, 100 Watts, 10 Meter Contest

I am not feeling like a million bucks. I’ve been cooped up at home, avoiding people, and wishing I had an investment in Puffs facial tissue. Its just a little cold, and I still can remember when colds were just little colds like it was only a few years ago. But it is annoying me and dragging me down the way coryzas do. I figured I would use the fancy word for a cold there just to make it seem like it is something more than it is. AA1F and I decided a little fresh air would do us good and we drove to our farm in Upstate NY. We were going to operate in the ARRL 10M Contest. Or at least I was. AA1F was going to chase SOTA and POTA.

You are looking at our antenna set-up. That is AA1F’s now go-to MFJ-1979 seventeen-foot stainless steel whip antenna on a tri-mag mount on top of Limey’s (my van) roof. This telescopic whip can be tuned from 2M to 20M.

And the other antenna is the Radiowavz 20M Double Bazooka on the Max-Gain Systems 28.5′ push up mast (with 4′ sections).

We hunkered down in the cargo trailer. AA1F was on the air much faster than I was. He hunted nearly 30 POTA/SOTA stations with his trusty Yaesu FT-891.

I used the Yaesu FT-991A. I enjoy this radio for contests and it easily integrates in with my cheapo Microcenter laptop (the $60 Evolve III Maestro that were quite the rave until they sold out.)

The big news?! I reached Australia! For the very first time. I managed to have a qso on 10M with VL4U in Morayfield. In total, I made 17 contacts in the hour or so I was on the air. I could not shake off a bad chill (temperatures were heading toward the teens), despite the propane heater, and just kind of wanted to go home. When the sun finally tucked away for good, we packed up and drove straight back to Boston. A six hour round-trip drive for a ten thousand mile contact. Today was a good radio day.

Forever and Ever Yours,

KM1NDY