Contest Prep: WI QSO Party from K-1441 on W9/WI-010 Blue Mound State Park

It's already the start of the UTC day for the Wisconsin QSO Party (March 13, 2022 - 1800Z to 0100Z March 14) and my plans are kinda in place. With proven antenna capabilities on 40m and 20m (blog post of that POTA activation still in the backlog) that should probably also give me 15m with more tuner help, plus 6/2/70 FM capability, that should give me enough to work with. Since there's a perfectly reasonable time constraint on the contest, planning to operate portable for the whole thing is probably within my capabilities. So, what's the plan?

Destination: K-1441 Blue Mound State Park (wiki) containing summit W9/WI-010.

Summit summary from sotl.as, map content from Open Street Map contributors

So, with a start on where and why, let me break down all my notes on how to carry this out. I took handwritten notes on one page of printer paper, but will save anyone from needing to decipher it by transferring it to typed text.

WI QSO Party Planning

Contest starts at 1 PM CDT day of DST (1800Z - 0100Z)

Blue Mound State Park K-1441 Iowa
Blue Mounds W9/WI-010 (6 + 3 winter) Iowa
Ice Age Trail K-4238 Dane
@ Badger Prairie County Park, Verona, WI

Shoot for 100 ph QSO @ QRP rookie

Logging

  • Band
  • Mode
  • Time
  • Location sent
  • Call contacted
  • Location received (county, state/province, DX)

Test: phone w/ BT keyboard
Log to IRC or Discord?
-> Backup paper logging!

Note the time on/time off if breaking down the station

Solo hiking trip requires -> (n.b. inspired by this post from KB1HQS)

  • Emergency contact
  • Location info and contact
    • BMSP office
    • WI DNR
    • Blue Mounds PD
  • Schedule
    • QTH
    • 35 minute drive BM + hike
    • Setup + hike back
    • 25 min drive IAT + setup
    • 16 min drive QTH
  • Vehicle
  • Clothing and equipment

Prep

  • 818 set HF step to 1 kHz
  • 818 set VHF+ default frequencies
  • Load repeaters for BM area
  • VX-2 batteries

Gear

Radio

  • FT-818nd
    • charged internal battery
    • mic
    • 6/2/70 stock antenna
  • Z-817 tuner
    • coax + CAT cables
  • VX-2
    • charged + spare internal batteries
    • antenna
  • Bioenno batteries
    • 3, 4.5 AH charged
  • nanoVNA
    • Charged
  • Headphones
  • Antennae
    • 28' speaker wire
    • 20m scrap wire
    • All coax options

Non-Radio

  • Throw line + weight
  • speaker tripod
    • 2" PVC chunk
  • 16' fiberglass pole
  • flashlight
  • logbook + pens
  • phone
    • BT keyboard
  • food
  • water (!!)
  • hand wipes
  • USB battery bank
    • A to C table
  • outdoor blanket
  • Ice scraper
  • Masks

Body

  • head lamp
  • Sunglasses
  • Wool hat options
  • Scarf
  • t-shirt, flannel, light jacket, rain coat
  • 3 gloves options
  • pants, cycling legs
  • wool socks + spares
  • Keen Boots spare foot wear for in car
  • keys, keys, wallet, wallet
  • vasaline


Woah, that's a lot of notes. That took a good portion of my Friday lunch time. In addition to these notes, I printed out the WQP rules in full (frequency and category references), the multiplier list for official abbreviations, and the county reference sheet. These should allow me to validate line-of-sight contacts and understand how the skip is hurting/helping me without certain access to 80m. At least with the upswing in the solar cycle, 40m might be decently local.

Weather outlook from the NWS, not accounting for the additional altitude:


There's probably more that I can type about this, but it's time to do more than leave things on to charge. Organization and packing, time to go!

73 and good luck in the contest!

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