Girls Weekend Getaway: The CQ Worldwide DX SSB Contest
You know the feeling you get when you know you are going to disappoint someone? The funny sound in your voice when you try to figure out how to explain the “thing”? Well, let’s just say that is exactly how AA1F sounded when he told me he didn’t want to go stay in my cargo van (which by now most of you know I call “Limey”) with me and our dog Nellie in a thunderous rainstorm at a barely open beachside campground operating as a team for the CQ WW SSB ham radio contest. “It just doesn’t sound like fun. Your van is not as big as you think.”
I had made a spontaneous decision on Thursday to rent a site at the Salisbury Beach State Reservation for Saturday night. The campground was open but with limited provisions for the off-season. Of the 484 campsites, it appeared that less than ten of them were reserved. I studied the campground map and chose a site that would have plenty of access to trees to support the antennas and was far away from other reserved sites so we could be as noisy as we wanted to be. The map below has an arrow pointing to the site I chose and the line shows the placement to scale of the 80M off-center fed dipole (OCF) that I used.
So, by the time Saturday rolled in, and the morning bled into the afternoon with AA1F and I lazily hanging around the house, I think he figured he was off the hook for the radio expedition. Especially when the Skywarn email threatened of severe weather, rain, wind, and possibly thunder. The dreary overcast skies did not add to the excitement. When it came up again, AA1F looked slightly terrified at the thought of being locked overnight in a van with me, Nellie, and a bunch of RF energy during a claustrophobia-inducing rainstorm.
That tiny window of ocular horror emanating from AA1F’s face was all I required to declare the night before Halloween an official Girls! Night! Out! And “girls” really just meant me and my dog…
In less than an hour, I showered, grabbed everything I needed to get on the air, put some extra clothes in a bag, ordered a pizza at our local dive, packed up the dog and her stuff, and headed on out the door. Which meant that I would not arrive at the campground until the sun was setting. And that I would be putting up a 130+ foot 80M off-center fed dipole in unfamiliar terrain in the dark. (For your reference, I took all of the pictures you see below on my way home during the daylight.)
I have to admit, I was slightly startled when I arrived at the gatehouse and saw a sign “Just go find your campsite, we’ll check on you in the morning because there is not enough staff.” This essentially meant that I would be all alone in a giant campground with a handful of other camping vehicles and not a single employee around to provide me with a false sense of security. Truth be told though, when you are used to sleeping with nothing between your face and the woods but a mosquito net, Limey seems like a fortress. Not to mention, I realize these days that sometimes I seem like the oddest person around…
Yup, you thought I was kidding about the campground being empty…
If you look carefully below, you can see a streetlight behind Limey. This sure came in handy for putting up antennas in the dark!
And the next picture is where the 80M OCF dipole was hanging. The arrows point to where the trees that were the end supports of the antenna were located, essentially equivalent to five campsites in length. In case you are curious I use 550 paracord to tie it off. I wanted to keep the antenna far away from the utility pole in case there was a power line as well. (And yes, let me reiterate, I did string this up in the dark.)
The center balun was around 20 feet above the ground.
I needed to use 175 feet of RG8X coaxial cable to get back from the balun, through a tiny crack in the top of the passenger side of the van, into the cargo space.
I found this article by the maker (K8MSH) of this particular antenna. I personally think this is a fantastic, well-made product that I have used successfully on a number of occasions. Remember, these are my own purchases, no one is paying me, asking me, etc., to display them or talk about them.
As I was finishing tying up far leg of the antenna, the skies opened up and buckets of rain instantly drenched every layer of my clothing. If only I had been granted ten more minutes of relatively water-free skies… I decided to just complete the set-up and get back to the van. By 7:30pm, I was in my pajamas, munching on some now cold pizza, and listening to stations making contacts a half hour early for the contest.
The temperatures would be in the 50s, maybe 40s. I brought an electric space heater and a 12 gauge extension cord to be able to plug in to the campsite’s power supply, but I never managed to plug it in with all of the rain. I just ran the van’s engine once in a while to keep warm. That and I had extremely effective sleeping bags for Nellie and I. (I did manage to get a few hours of power in the morning once the weather subsided.)
Once 8:00pm (00:00 UTC) rolled around, I jumped in the contest. In fact, I kept going (despite the pounding monsoon which sounded like the underbelly of a freight train in my tin can van) until after 2:30am taking breaks every now and then. I kept listening for thunder, as I would unplug the radio, but the roaring storm and steady 20 MPH winds were drowning out any stray claps. I did not see lightning either, so I stayed on the air.
The parking lot began filling with water flash-flood style. In fact, if you look carefully at Limey’s wheel, you can see the line of debris that the couple inches of water filling my site had left behind. I could smell the salty ocean in the air, despite not having any idea where exactly the beach was compared to my site.
But I stuck with it, and when the morning rolled around, I plugged in and started again. I had not made many contacts (only 31), but I managed to have qsos on 10, 15, 40, 80, and 160. As I was attempting a 20M contact after the 11:00am checkout time, I was interrupted by a park employee who told me to beat it (in a much nicer way honestly). I missed my opportunity to have a ham band full house, leaving the 14mHz contact on the table. BUT! Most importantly, I got Russia! First time ever!
Sunday, with the storm a memory, was a glorious day! This is me in the morning looking a bit bedraggled…
Packing up, I noticed a couple of kites. In fact, the one on the right looked a lot like my sled kite that I picked up for my kite antenna project from Into The Wind. I was intrigued…
So I left my campsite and drove around the corner to the day use parking lot of the Salisbury Beach State Reservation. And I ran into this lovely kite-flying couple, Pat and Brian! In fact, the kite you see them holding was sewn BY HAND (no sewing machine!) out of ripstop nylon in 16 hours by Brian. He made the tail and the spinner as well. In fact, when I told them I wanted to put an antenna on the kite, he recognized me as a ham (he’s into electronics) and offered to put one on right then and there. I thought and 80M OCF would be a fairly impractical first attempt, but appreciated the offer.
Here is Brian fixing the spinner on the homemade parafoil kite. Not surprisingly, he also sews boat sails.
…And here is a closer-up view of the kites. It was lovely to make new friends and I hope to see them again!
This walkway looked like it would head to the Beach…
Nellie and I made our way past the dunes..
And into this stunning scenery. What a breathtaking moment!
Even though my trip didn’t last 24 hours, I felt like I got away from it all. It is sometimes easy to forget–or possibly not even realize–that adventures await us around every corner. A little imagination, a ham radio, a dog, and a partner who understands we all need a bit of space at times, is all you really need.
What a glorious world!
Forever,
KM1NDY
