[WIQPmail] WiQP - Have rig, will travel

[Hank Greeb]

I have operated portable in the Michigan and Ohio QSO parties dating 
back to the 1990's.  I generally activate a county where there's a very 
low, or non existing record score in the QRP category.  There are many 
such counties in Ohio and Michigan. There are also many counties with 
low or non-existing records for Low and High Power, but that's not my "bag."

Go to ARRL.org, search for affiliatedclubs within whatever miles you'd 
care to travel from your zip code, IF you want to borrow an existing 
station and/or antenna as a "guest operator."

Personally, I generally find a campground or park in a small town in the 
county which I desire to activate and set up a portable station.  I ask 
the park board or camground director for permission to operate, 
generally outside of closing hours for parks, since both of these events 
go until midnight. When it's cool, as it often is cool in April for the 
Michigan QSO party, I'll operate from my vehicle, sometimes off the 
battery, but most generally I find a place with 120 VAC availableand tie 
into that. Trees make nice "naturally occurring antenna masts" in most 
cases, though I bring along 40' of military surplus mast in case it need 
it to support my dipole/inverted Vee antenna.

One caveat, I generally start considering the location of choice 4 
months or more, so you're a bit behind the eight ball unless you can 
find a ham who will allow a guest operator.  It frequently takes me two 
to three months, sometimes more, to get permission. And, I always get 
permission in writing, so I can fend off local or county police if they 
don't understand ham radio.

GL es 73/73 de n8xx Hg
QRP >99.44% of the time

On 2/12/2013 4:12 PM, w2pix at aol.com wrote:
> Hi
>
> This year I am interested in being on the "fun" side of the border (I 
> live 1.5 miles from the state border on the MN side) for the for the 
> WiQP and am trying to determine a way to operate WiQP from "in-state." 
> I asked about hooking my rig to the existing multi-band Alpha-Delta HF 
> antenna at the St. Croix County Government Center (for whom I worked 
> for 30 years prior to my retirement), but I was told that the antenna 
> is not available only for this type of activity.
>
> Does anybody know of an existing club station or other existing 
> station whom I might contact for permission to operate the WiQP?
>
> Thanks for any advice.
>
> 73,
> Jim K9DU
> Lakeland MN
>
>
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