The Beginning ! QRP in the Driftless !

 Hi !

Welcome to QRP in the Driftless, a blog about portable operation in Wisconsin's lovely Driftless Area !


I have been intending to start up my own QRP / portable operating blog for weeks; finally just gave up on debating the pros / cons of platforms and so forth and got to the "just do it" point.    Better to have a blog, any blog, than none at all !       Can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, so here's version 1.0     


Just a placeholder for now while I set up the blog; real QRP content coming Real Soon Now.

 - Phil, 10 August 2022

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My first POTA activation

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This was on June 12th, 2022 at Wildcat Mountain State Park , K-1480 , in Vernon County, WI; EN43rq.       I had been having only limited success with the end-fed random wire antennas in the 26' - 28' range I had been using on my last few hikes, so for a POTA activation attempt I brought out the Buddipole Deluxe set that I bought at Dayton years ago,  along with everything else I could think of; lots of room in a minivan ! Setup was lengthy because I hadn't actually deployed the Buddipole in a long time; on the spot I decided on making a 20 meter vertical from the Buddipole In The Field book: the 12 foot whip on top of 2 arms with 4 radials, all fed from the tee.   With the extendable pole and the tripod I could get it high enough without needing trees or other structures. Using 3 different colors of mason's line for guying helps keep confusion to a minimum!     (there will still be enough for everyone!)   ...
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Driftless QRP is moving !

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Blogging about QRP operation has been so much fun, I decided to upgrade, and earlier this month, I got the domain driftlessqrp.com  , and I will be posting new content at that URL from now on. Thanks for the great (free!) start, Blogspot.com and Google! A picture of my Xiegu X-6100 field pack, taken in late September, 2022 on the back porch. Early morning on the top of Mill Bluff  in August. Thanks for visiting Driftless QRP !
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Failure to activate

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 So, filled with enthusiasm by my success a few days earlier, I went back to Mill Bluff S. P. on Tuesday, the 11th.     Same rig, same antenna, same location, but this time only 4 QSOs resulted. Did some useful stuff, like getting my new EFHW all ready to deploy, and learned that my abysmally cheap phone plan does not allow me to hotspot. I bought that 24 foot surveyor's pole at a hamfest back in the mists of time and it has been sitting in a corner of my workshop / shack ever since.  Maybe it will finally get some use!
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