Chowdercon, QRP Afield, and a $150 fly-away kite

Chowdercon's pivot point: a fashionably late lunch at Geno's, where chowdah and lobstah rolls rock!

“Chowdercon, Chowdercon,
Please let me know wha-at bands you’re on.”
–With apologies to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice

The short take for yesterday’s Chowdercon 2011?

Good eats, great companions, 26 contacts for the log with a nice mix of US and DX stations, some chats with passers-by, including conversations with kids who tapped the Morse-code key, and one more park for Parks on the Air.

Oh yes, and a poor guy who, at the end of the day, wrapped up an otherwise relaxing hour of kite-flying with the loss of a $150 kite.

QRP Afield 2011 — T-minus 24 hours and counting!

Last year, while some of us toodled off to lunch, others held down the fort during QRP Afield on Four Tree Island

Ok, ham-radio fun devils, here comes another chance to dust off the portable radio and take it to the streets, in an RF sort of way. It’s the New England QRP Club’s QRP Afield event, which runs this weekend from 1500 UTC Sept. 17 to 0300 UTC Sept. 18. And you don’t have to operate QRP to take part!

For a quick run-down of the rules, I’ve unashamedly cribbed from the NEQRP Club’s web site. Saves you an extra mouse click. Any typos here are mine!

Exchange:

NE-QRP members: RST, State/province/country, NE-QRP Number
Non members: RST, State/province/country, Power
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Bands and Modes:

160M, 80M, 40M, 20M, 15M, 10M.
Any mode (CW, SSB, AM, PSK, etc.); all count the same.
Only one contact per station per mode per band.

Standard QRP frequencies are recommended within each band (or generally accepted frequencies for those modes for which there are no specific QRP frequencies). But, please, let’s spread out a little — not everyone within a kilohertz of 14.060.
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Scoring:

Power/Location Multiplier:

• 1 point per contact if you are QRO (above 5 watts) and operating from a permanent location.
• 2 points per contact if you are QRO and operating from a field or mobile location.
• 5 points per contact if you are QRP (5 watts or less) and operating from a permanent location.
• 10 points per contact if you are QRP and operating from a field or mobile location.

All contacts must be made from a single power/location category (i.e., the category is to remain the same once selected).

Final score will be the total number of contacts multiplied by the power/location category multiplied by the SPC multiplier (see below).
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Multipliers:

Each S/P/C worked counts for one multiplier point and can be counted only ONCE PER BAND.
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Submission of Results:

Email your scoresheet with a copy of the contest log and (please) any comments/photos concerning your setup, location, experiences, etc., no later than 20 October, to: K1CL@arrl.net

or mail your entry to:

Chuck Ludinsky, K1CL
6 Pracing Rd
Chelmsford MA 01824-1922

For printable summary sheet, click here.
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Multi-Club Stations:

Will not be permitted. That is, simultaneous operation of multiple transmitters (on the same or different bands) under a single call sign is not permitted. However, multi-operators per club call is fine, with one transmitter in operation at a time.

I’ll be out with members of the NEQRP club at Four Tree Island at Portsmouth, N.H., as W1PNS/1. Join us in the field and on the air, if not at the island!

Clams+broth+cream+QRP Afield=Chowdercon!

Ah, a bowl of chowder, Four Tree Island, and thou, oh CW paddle!*

It’s b-a-a-ck! Chowdercon 2011 is 11 days away, and I can smell the ocean now. It sure beats musty socks!

To recap: Chowdercon is a breakfast-to-dinner affair with a heaping helping of QRP operating in between. This year, the date is Sept. 17. The event coincides with QRP Afield, a 12-hour operating event organized by the New England QRP Club. That’s where the operating comes in.

Chowdercon is about as sure a sign that fall is around the corner up here in New England as just about anything this side of migrating geese. You can pick up one ham’s recap of last year’s event here. This year promises to be even better. Why? Who knows? But it’s hard to beat the combination of friends and acquaintances, some fresh-air operating, and great eats.

And after last year’s sartorial surprise (one club member showed up in a kilt, aye, but nae pipes), you never quite know what you’re going to see.

The gig starts with breakfast at  8 a.m. EDT at the Golden Egg restaurant in Portsmouth. From there, folks meander to Four Tree Island in the Piscataqua River to set up and begin operating about 11, when QRP Afield starts, then break for lunch at Geno’s Chowder & Sandwich Shop, a short walk from the island.

And just where is that island? (in case you want to skip breakfast)?

View Larger Map

Four Tree Island, a municipal park, shuts down around 5 p.m., so folks typically pack up and head for the Kittery, Maine, side of the river for dinner at Warren’s Lobster House. For additional details, you can get in touch with Carl Achin, WA1ZCQ.

It’s a great way to spend a late-summer Saturday. And who knows? With all these smart phones proliferating, it should be easy to call up QRPSPOTS.com (no relation to Pete Spotts), and see who’s operating Summits and Parks on the Air that weekend. Snag some QRP Afield points and some SOTA points at the same time!

Sweet!

* Photo courtesy of PDPhoto.org.