A QRP Amateur Radio Contest
It all started on the morning of 26 July, 1998,
0500 and the alarm clock rings. I woke up and realized that I had 
better
get going because Ron, K6EXT, would be arriving soon to start on our journey.
The Bumble Bee contest is put on by the Adventure Radio Society, a group
of amateur radio operators dedicated to QRP (low power) amateur radio using
light weight field equipment and human power to get to remote sites to
operate. There will be about 80 bumblebee's spread across the North
American continent. These are dedicated hams like Ron and myself,
who will brave the wilds and hike, bike, or boat to remote locations, set
up amateur radio stations, and act as targets for other hams to work.
Today we will be heading to the top of Fremont Peak. At 3200 feet,
it is one of the highest peaks in our local area. Ron arrives, we
load up our gear, and off we go. Once at the park, we unload all
our gear and packs, and hit the trail. It is about a 30 minute walk
to the top of the peak climbing about 1000 feet. The view is breathtaking.
The valley on all sides is blanketed in fog with only the highest mountain
peaks emerging from the snowy white plains below. 
After carefully surveying the location for the best
operating position we begin setting up our station. With no trees 
for
support, we had to have a free standing antenna. We decided on the
St. Louis Vertical, a 20 foot vertical antenna made from a collapsible
20 foot fishing pole. This incarnation, the newly developed St. Louis
Express, uses a linear loaded radiator and six sets of seven radials.
It sets up in minutes and easily tunes 10-40 meters.
The rig today will be my newly upgraded Wilderness
Sierra. With it's new NTE342 PA, my Sierra boasts a 
power
output of 5 watts. It will allow me to operate on both the 20 and 40 meter
bands. A small MFJ tuner and an N7VE SWR bridge will provide the matching.
A few twists of the BNC connectors and we were ready to go with 45 minutes
to spare. Probably the smartest thing we did was bring along a couple
of small folding beach chairs and SPF30 sunscreen. Sitting there
waiting for the contest to start, we felt like we were on the top of the
world.
I decided to try out the set up to be sure everything was working FB. Tuning around I heard KB7LOH calling CQ. A quick call brought John in Sierra Vista, AZ. We exchanged signal reports, and had a nice short QSO. I have worked John previously 2 other times, with each time being the same. This QSO was no different. I get a good signal report and after telling him I am running 5 watts, he suddenly can't hear me. He even sent me a QSL card telling me QRP doesn't work. I now know that everything seems to be working just fine.
The minutes ticked away and finally it was time to
start. I picked out a frequency and sent QRL?. Finding the 
frequency
clear, I sent my first call, CQ TEST DE AC6KW/BB. Instantly the the
frequency came alive with signals buzzing like.....bees. Within a
few minutes we had worked stations in WA, AL, and CA. As the contest
progressed the QSB seemed to worsen with signals fading in and out in seconds.
We managed to work 25 stations and 11 other bumblebees all on 20 meters.
Contacts included Q's in AK, AL, AR, AZ, BC, CA, CO, MI, MN, NC, NM, OR,
TN, UT, and WA. Not a bad haul for 5 watts, a fishing pole and some
computer ribbon cable.
After 4 hours of sitting on rocks in the hot sun,
the temperature had become quite warm. The black base of my 
Norcal
key paddles had become so hot that I couldn't touch them. We realized
that we, like the rocks, were becoming very hot. It was time to go.
We broke down, packed the equipment and were ready for the trek down in
about 15 minutes.
All and all it was a fun day. The equipment
worked flawlessly and we had remembered to bring everything we needed.
The new antenna was a breeze to set up and take down. We worked stations
all over the country and even some DX.
I can't wait until next year to do it all again.
All the buzzing reminded me:
- "QRPer's do it with low energy, but lots of enthusiasm!"