2010 Indiana QSO Party 2010 found me back again in Benton County, same location as the last 3 years. I had a new MFJ push up mast with an Alpha Delta dipole hung from the top as an inverted V along with my usual vertical. The result was my best INQP ever.
2009 Indiana QSO Party 2009: Operating once again from Benton County and the same location as the 2007 and 2008 INQP’s. Notice the supplies thoughtfully left on the counter in the left background by my hostess, Sherry Fischer. Is this a great QTH or what? I made a grand total of 1 QSO on the second radio but at least it was a mult. I also had the top score in the single op, low power, wires/vertical category.
2008 Illinois QSO Party (Operated at N9FN) N9FN has put together a dream machine for portable operating, complete with a 50 foot pneumatic mast. The mast can support a 3-element tribander but, for the 2008 ILQP we had two inverted vee’s at 50 feet and we were never seriously challenged for our frequency.
Dave, N9FN
2007 Indiana QSO Party I operated the 2007 and 2008 INQP from the Benton County home of Jack McGinnis, father of my sweetie (and future wife!) Kathleen McGinnis. My antenna was a 23 foot vertical made from a painter’s extension pole. It was fed via an SGC237 tuner and had 16 20-foot radials. The 2007 weather was sunny but cool. Winds were calm early in the day, allowing the operating position to be set up outdoors. It grew windier as the day grew longer and I eventually moved inside. The 2008 operation was done entirely from indoors.
2005 Indiana QSO Party I operated the 2005 INQP as K9WX/M along with my good friend Ernie, K9EFP. We mapped out a route that would take us through nine Indiana counties. The event was a disaster. The installation in my new Ford Escape was hastily done and we quit after 87 QSO’s due to high RF inside the car. We also had problems with the logging software (WriteLog) which failed to correctly log the QTH when we changed counties. The experience with WriteLog motivated my to switch to N1MM for all contest logging and the problems with the mobile installation motivated me to operate the 2006 INQP from my home QTH.
2013 Indiana QSO Party I decided to operate the 2013 INQP mobile and spent the better part of 2 months installing antennas, wiring, radio etc. in my 1 year old Nissan Rogue. The installation process itself was quite an adventure and the lessons learned merit their own web page when I get the time. See the 2013 Contest Results page for more details.
2014 Indiana QSO Party Operating with Andy, K9ELF, this picture is from the Tippecanoe and White County lines at the start of the contest. Setup was essentially the same as for the 2013 INQP but with a shorter mast to allow us to operate while in motion. The mast was still guyed, however. We were the top scoring Indiana mobile. See 2014 Contest Results for more details.
2015 Indiana QSO Party On the Posey/Vanderburg County line midway through the contest. Photo by Andy, K9ELF. I was actually in the back seat and operating when the photo was taken but the window tinting makes it impossible to see. No, really, was in the car! Check the 2015 Contest Results page for more details.
K9WX Amateur Radio