FOBB ’04:
PUSHING THE OUTER LIMITS ON THE OUTER BANKS
By Jeff Imel, K9ESE
Special to The ARS Sojourner

I operated off the beach of the Outer Banks of North Carolina (Duck, NC). My set-up included an Elecraft KX-1 and my antenna was a 28’ wire supported from a fiberglass fishing pole.



The Atlantic Ocean was my counterpoise. As we all know, the propagation conditions were not the best.

I was able to work Florida easily (strange propagation conduit) from my location on 20 meters. Stations would fade in and out on 20 meters and go from ESP to 559 in some cases – but only for a few seconds – then back to ESP and below.

There were long pauses when both 20 and 40 meters appeared to be dead. 40 meters opened up during the last half hour of the contest to New England and the Northeastern USA.

There is not an award for the “traveled the furthest” category, but if there were, I wonder if I would place in the top three. I drove 815 miles and hiked one mile to my operating position. Always a fun contest.
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Jeff Imel, K9ESE, is a QRPer living in Muncie, IN. He was Bumblebee No. 7 in the Flight of the Bumblebees ’04.