ARRL 10m 2022 - Two Days In A Park, QRP, Unassisted, SSB (And POTA)

After my technically-a-success in ARRL Sweepstakes 2022, I decided a bit more ambition was necessary for the ARRL 10 Meter 2022. Of course I could have just tried replicating my performance with an indoor antenna, but my log only had one QSO on 10m at Sweepstakes… and there would be interesting DX opportunities to be had with a better situated antenna. I had already confirmed that there was a convenient shelter at Lake Kegonsa State Park (K-1459, wiki is down) with mains power (those details in another potential post).

Station setup at the shelter on day one. Just about to get started, log is empty!

Of course, I wasn't just going to jump straight into this. There were pieces of prep and planning to get this done other than just scouting the location.

Wednesday night I made my antenna decision: I was going to make a 3-radial, 1/4 wave vertical to be hoisted up one of my fiberglass poles. Scrap wire from antennas past (early activations this year and 20m for Sweepstakes) and measurements from this calculator gave me a starting point. I thought I could do a quick trim-up at work over lunch next to a parking lot on Thursday, but was wrong. It was long enough to almost be on point for 12m operation and I hadn't accounted for tensioning the radial wires for elevation. Still, the KX3 got me an SSB QSO with Newfoundland at 5W and on first call (plus I got to hand the mic to a coworker amateur headed out to run an errand for another quick contact on the setup). Antenna total height of only about 12'!

So it was back home Thursday night to get the wires cut to the right length. I set up in the front yard outside my apartment, had some curious undergrads question my antics, and got it tuned in nicely. Monofilament lines to water-filled bottles were the easy option for tension on the radials.

Antenna junction as it came down after tuning.

Then it was just packing up in prep for the Friday snow covering southern Wisconsin.

A mess ready for reorganization on-site in the park, right? Antenna all tuned up with accompanying lines and bottles. Feedline is 25' of RG-316 with BNC termination.

Of course, with my plan to use clear monofilament line as an antenna structure, safety is critical. I string dipoles, doublets, and EFHWs with bright orange Marlow throw line, so the support is normally highly visible. A quick run by the hardware store net me the last roll of just what I wanted:

Fluorescent orange flagger tape for providing visibility of the lines I was going to run for the antenna in the park.

Then it was just left to plan, well, everything else.

• Transportation: the usual household car
• Rig: KX3 + PX3, MH3, classic Apple TRS earbuds (pre-earpod shape)
• Analyzer: nanoVNA with dying flexible jumper
  
• Logging: my daily driver MacBook Pro and bluetooth Keychron K2 v2 keyboard with RUMlogNG
  
• Power: 25' extension cord, Bioenno 2A charger and 4.5 Ah LiFePO4 battery, Apple stock charger
• CAT: Digirig Mobile (RS-232 levels) with cables for laptop and rig
• Primary bag: a Manfrotto camera + laptop backpack
• Food: rice cooker, rice, leftover frozen turkey from Thanksgiving, frozen broccoli, leftover sauce (day one)
• Drink: two bottles of water (with budget for the rice) and a thermos of hot water (it wasn't good at holding heat)
• Additional bags: reusable grocery bag for food/water, reusable grocery bottle bag for weight bottles, drawstring gym bag for towel/spare rope/spare clothing, and my messenger bag previously filled with radio gear for holding the laptop when taking a walk to the pit toilets
• Antenna support: speaker stand and 26' telescoping fiberglass pole
• Clothing: shirt, flannel shirt, vest, jacket, shell, pants, wool socks, boots, wool hat, selection of gloves
  

Day One, December 10

And then it was actually time to get on the move. I skipped the kickoff because the roads were still melting/getting cleared and it wouldn't be worth it for me to be on-site for a nighttime's worth of 10m. Plus camping is closed. I got on the road not long after 7:30 am local for arrival at the parking lot by 8:30 am local (1430Z). Already on the late side for getting Europe and Africa, it turns out. So I set up and got ready for contesting. Antenna and markers went up first.

Antenna deployment at the hilltop shelter of Lake Kegonsa State Park, Wisconsin

Then I populated my chosen table with the full spread for operating.

Station positioned, connected, and dark before getting going.

And so I was off to join the races (59 WI). Conditions were cloudy, just above freezing, and less damp to start the day. First QSO was France at 1513Z, a new one for me on any band.

The biggest challenge? Staying warm. Going out to a park often involves some amount of decent movement and that keeps a chill off pretty easily. During setup, I was doing fine with my layers. An hour and a half of sitting and slowly hunting out contacts, that brought on a chill. Walking to the vault toilet down the hill and pacing the shelter helped a bit with staying warm. Not that I needed additional off time to meet the operating constraint of the contest.

Looking back into the shelter while on a break.

Fortunately, I had another source of heat: hot food! The rice cooker was a convenient choice to bring from home and an absolutely critical contributor to successful operation.

As-prepared rice, turkey, and broccoli in the rice cooker

Serving happened in a park-compliant plastic bowl and I finished the presentation with a little fine-crushed red pepper flake

I ended up with probably three bowls across the afternoon. Definitely good to keep the energy and attention up. Still, an electric blanket and/or long underwear would have been appreciated. By the time sunset was approaching, I realized that hunting pileups on mults was a mediocre strategy and pushed through to a decent number of west coast stations before the band went out.

Day one results: 62 SSB QSO, 14 DXCC, 11 State-Province for 3100 logged points

Then I had to pack up everything that got me the score so far and conditions weren't great outside.

The mist and fog made for a wet and obnoxious station teardown. Everything here was covered in dew from the fog.

A goodbye to the park, for now. All the damp mess of gear got broken down

Park gate sign nicely lit in the decently dense fog

Fortunately it wasn't too late (unlike a contest with more bands available), so I was able to pick up some more food on the way home. Also had to re-kit, re-pack, and dry to be ready to roll out promptly again in the morning.

Day Two, December 11

Next day, same schedule (again would have benefited from getting moving at true o'dark-thirty) to make it back to the park. There would be new DX, old DX, and plenty to listen to!

Same place, new day, same pile of gear in the shelter

Same antenna, back up it went!

Antenna re-deployment on day two. Looks almost the same, I just skipped bringing the third bottle because the furthest radial is tied off on a shelter pillar.

Before I could get finished deploying onto my chosen table, I was hailed by a ranger coming up from the parking lot. Turns out that Friday's snow was motivation to close this parking lot for the season, but he hadn't gotten around to it on Saturday. After providing a quick assurance that I wasn't camping (that season's been over for a bit already), I got to explain my selection of purposes for the trip: amateur radio, POTA, contesting, antenna design, and talking to places far away. He left to go set up the road-closed sign without blocking me in and I got on to continue my operating. An excellent time for outreach!

Heard a selection of good EU DX, but pileups for Ireland, England, and other new mults for me were deep. Still, I managed to pick up some islands, Portugal, and Namibia for good excitement alongside more QSOs with France, Spain, and Brazil for the morning.

While an additional layer of pajama pants and a hearty breakfast helped, food for the afternoon was necessary and planned. The protein of the day was a tin of eel that I acquired at an Asian market earlier this year and had been meaning to try out.

Soy sauce, broccoli, red pepper flakes, tinned eel, and dishes awaiting being added to the rice cooker

Cooked, dressed, and served for lunch.

The sauce on the eel was decent and overall a unique flavor. As to be expected, I got a bit of eel spine for some canned fish bone crunch in one of the pieces. Next time I probably wouldn't go with something as overly flavorful as fish. The turkey didn't keep reminding me that I ate it as the day progressed.

To round out my operating, I got a good selection along the west coast of North America and a quick contact out to Hawaii. Trying running a frequency did work. For two whole contacts, though the first one was very promptly after I started calling. Definitely a lesson in why using a voice keyer is key for contest running. A quick CQ repeated very frequently to try holding the frequency is rather hard on decently worn vocal cords. The final excitement as the grayline rolled past just before 2300Z was hearing VK2CGG clearly under another station in South America, then hearing AL7LO in a pileup. I threw out some calls, but didn't have much expectation for reaching them in my dark.

Final results when the band had died out and I wasn't going to reach anyone else easily on 10m. Nominally 6.5 hours of on-time according to RUMlogNG.

My logged multipliers, in chronological order per type:

• DXCC: F, EA, FY, CO, 6Y, EI, TI, V3, KP2, LU, PY, CE, ZF, P4, (day 2) EA8, EA6, V5, CT, HC, PJ2
  
• State: CA, AL, FL, AZ, BC, OR, NF, WA, AB, EMX, CHH, (day 2) MT, PEI, UT, ID, NLE, JAL, HI, CMX
  

Off the top of my head, that should be 16-ish new ones, plus Mexico being new! Working the world with (an expensive source of) 5W and a wire.

Now there was still time left in the UTC day and I wasn't going to let some traditional self-spotted SSB POTA get away from me on lower bands out of the contest. A quick and easy swap out of the 10m vertical for 28' of speaker wire to tune up on 20 and 40 for a bit more operating.

A collection of the antenna parts on the left and a quick switch to HAMRS on the laptop

I picked up K8A on 20m from the PX3 presence for Youth on the Air. Then ran on 20m followed by 40m for about 40 minutes as the UTC day end approached. While I probably could have pulled another 10 QSOs out on 40m, I didn't want to remain out in the cold too much longer, so I cut it off to pack up. Plus 40m was rather noisy. I suspect the power to the shelter had some of what the nearby transmission lines and substation were carrying.

Spread of 20m and 40m contacts for POTA. 19 total between the bands.

Pretty good for finishing up 5W and a wire. Of course, collating the logs and annotating them for submission will be a pain. My contest log is in with the ARRL online submission and other public submissions will happen after the entry period closes.

Improvements for next time include: better weather, better clothing, better/more antennas, more on-time, higher confidence at hitting pileups, and recording setup for getting some running time in to keep rates up. Next year will depend on the weather for returning to this shelter at Lake Kegonsa due to parking convenience and the winter road closure, though a longer hike is possible from the next parking lot down.

Until the next one, 72!