Separate But Together- NAQP 2021

January’s SSB North American QSO Party made a great excuse to play radio and winter gear test in this Never-To-Be-Named outdoor paradise. You know, the one in Massachusetts where winter camping is allowed? (…I’ll never tell!)

Plan (largely followed) was for WX1MAR and I to meet KB1REQ, hike 1.5 miles steeply downhill to the Adirondack shelter in the Millers River valley, set up three radio stations, and operate separately but as a team for the 2021 NAQP, until KB1REQ wanted to leave. Then we would hike him back out to his car, eat supper at the trailhead, and return to the shelter. “Mindy, did you really think a canyon was a great place to operate from?”

Antennas (20M end-fed, 40M OCF, 80M OCF) were strung up, and we were on the air before dusk. Stations consisted of 100 watt mobile rigs, 15ah lifepo batteries, automatic tuners, and band pass filters. The team (now officially a “gang”) logged nearly 100 contacts in just a few hours of operating.

The shelter was walled in with a tarp. A space heater ate 4 pounds of propane. And three sleeping stations were set up for WX1MAR, me, and Nellie (our dog). Temperature dipped to 30F, but our new 0F sleeping bags were toasty.

The major flaw in this trip? WX1MAR dragging the radio gear in a cart that was nearly useless *before* its front wheel fell off… And all while refusing the slightest bit of help either coming or going. Or at least until a saintly logger showed up at the last half mile of the trek to say “Just get in the damn truck, son!” An act of divine reciprocity (but that’s a story for another day!)