November Day in Indiana

KB9BVN, N9IVI, AC9HP at US-12023

Boy, it was nice and sunny today, and a great day to go  outdoors and play radio.  So I got with Wayne AC9HP, and Ivin N9IVI and we plotted a trip to Morgan County Indiana to grab a nice lunch, shoot the breeze and take in a POTA activation.  

I think the last time we got together to have some radio fun was maybe three years ago, maybe longer.  It was a great time and really nice to hang out again. I met N9IVI on a local repeater probably 25 years ago, and met AC9HP on that same repeater maybe 15 years ago.  We keep in contact on a text channel we built out before COVID hit in 2020.  Well today the stars lined up and we all three had an afternoon free to go out and do something 

We started out at the Texas Corral in Martinsville for lunch, we had their "steak" burger and some fries. I can NOT recommend this place.  The burgers were mediocre and they've jacked their prices something fierce.  Three burgers, with fries and ice water was almost fifty dollars.  We should have went for pizza instead. Our waitress was very pleasant, so our disappointment in the food wasn't her fault. 

After lunch we discussed going to the Morgan Monroe State Forest for a POTA activation, then Ivin brought up the fact that gun season for deer started here yesterday. The state forest is a very popular public hunting area, so we were not prepared for that.  So instead we decided to head up the road about 5 miles and visit the Cikana State Fishery (POTA US-12023) and operated from there.  It was about 52F but the wind was cutting.

The equipment today was Wayne's neat little QRP radio, running about three and a half watts, CW (Morse Code) was the mode, and the antenna we used was one of two magnetic loop antennas....the Alpha Loop, and the Alex Loop.   These magnetic loop antennas are portable and can be setup in about 5 minutes.  The tuning of this type of antenna is a little different.  You basically tune for loudest signal by turning the air variable capacitor on the antenna.  These antennas are advertised to tune on 10m through 40m. We seemed to have very good luck operating on 20m today at a frequency of 14054 Khz. KB9VBR has some great info on making and using a magnetic loop antenna in the outdoors. 

Alpha Loop Antenna - Tuning capacitor in the middle

Alex Loop tuning capacitor

The radio we used today was a CFT1 5 Band QRP CW rig.  We were running about three and a half watts to these loop antennas.  This combo worked very well for us today.  I made 11 contacts in about 20 minutes, then Ivin N9IVI took his turn and had 15 or 16 contact in less than 30 minutes.  

Ivin N9IVI working a POTA pile up on 20m. It was freezing. 

We were surprised at the distance we were getting.  I worked South Dakota and Ivin worked Mexico and Canada during his time at the key.  Tom K4SWL has a great write up on his QRPer blog pertaining to this cool little QRP radio. Check it out. 

Wayne's CFT1 5 Band QRP Radio 

So here's an idea of how my signal was getting out during my turn at the key.  Looks like the antenna was pretty much oriented in an East-West radiating pattern. Signal level was being received pretty well in a lot of places. 

Here's a map of the 11 contacts I made today from Cikana State Fishery.  I think it shows an almost omni directional range.  I worked stations in SD, GA, NY, NJ, MD, GA, TX, and MN.  Not bad for three and a half watts and a portable magnetic loop antenna. 

It's always a great time going on an outing with these guys.  We always amaze ourselves at what works and what doesn't work.  I hope we get to do this again before it's too cold out. 

Best DX to everyone! 

73 de KB9BVN