Hello Everyone,

We had a ball and I think we will operator from the Turtle Rock
Lighthouse USA-1088 again during the Spring Lights QSO Party. So if you did
not work me today, don't worry I will be there again. To my surprise a lot
of stations needed a Lighthouse from PA. I am glad this is only an hour
drive away.

We had a little problem finding a good spot to work from since the parking
lot at the Lighthouse was very small and there we a lot of people out
walking, jogging or just taking in the view. We drove over into the
Fairmount Park and found a great spot that overlooked the Lighthouse with
plenty of open space. We were about 250 feet away from the Turtle Rock
Lighthouse. We started calling CQ at 14:30 UTC on 40 meters. We worked
numerous stations fighting a Q 5 to Q7 QRN coming from the power station for
the railway system that was across the river. Around 16:00 UTC we changed
over to 20 meters. Wow, it was hard to find an open spot to operate. We did
work a lot of stations all over the country. 20 meters was weird, one minute
I was working a station in GA and then I was working someone in WA or Spain.
Yes, we worked several DX stations. We worked a KP4, CO3, CT1, EA7 and a D44
station. Oh, yes I can't forget all the great stations up in VE land, they
are DX too!! After about 30 minutes of operating there in the park 2
police cars came by to investigate us. One from the front and one from the rear.
Ed told them what we were doing and they said have fun. I was going to call
the police or find someone to let them know what we were doing.
Food for thought for any lighthouse activation.

We were using a Kenwood TS-570 running 100 watts into a home brew vertical
that works on 40, 30 and 20 meters. I think we might be able to get it
working on 15 meters with a little work. We were using a stock mic. Our
power source were two 12 VDC / 100 Amp Hour Gel Cell batteries in parallel.
We also had a deep cycle battery running our computer. The home brew
vertical, I must say, work Great!! We were receiving signal reports from all
over the country that were 59+ 20 to 40 dB over 9.

I did have some help down there. Ed, WA3WSJ, ARLHS #983, was there with me.
Every time I asked him if he wanted to operate he said, "No you go ahead and
keep running the list." Ed is a Great operator and friend, we hike a lot on
the Appalachian Trail with our QRP radios. There are a lot of hikes we take
and Ed has his gear but just goes to take in the view and relax. Thanks Ed
for being there today.

Anyway we made 156 QSO from Turtle Rock Lighthouse and 78 were ARLHS
members. I worked 8 Lighthouses & Lightship. We made 5 DX contacts outside
North American. All this took place in roughly 6 hours of operation.

Next time I go down there I will probably take a dipole for 40 meters.
Hopefully that will take care of the high QRN that is in the area.

Thanks to All for the Great QSO's. Everyone was Great helping me work
through some of the high QRN and changing band conditions.

73,
Ron de WB3AAL
ARLHS #423
Keep The Flame !

wb3aal@verizon.net

US Lighthouse Society
      Chesapeake Chapter