QRP Afield in the Caboose
September 2014

I got called into work today and couldn't spend much time doing the New England
QRP Club's annual QRP Afield sprint. Today I was the station manager in Meredith,
so I decided to operate in the caboose after the last train and managed to get in 15 minutes
of operating time. Oddly I worked Switzerland (2-way QRP), Finland and Texas.

Tim W3ATB and I both work for the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad... so we set up a
couple of antennas together. We agreed to trade off making QSOs so we wouldn't interfere
with each other. We heaved our wires over some trees near the caboose.

Below Tim is getting ready to throw his line.



Then we pulled the lines through the window of the cupola.



I was running the KX3 with a 33 foot wire. Tim was using the HB-1B with the
Par End Fedz.

As soon as I turned on the rig and dialed in 14.059, I heard HB9DCL/QRP in Switzerland
calling CQ. Frank answered me and gave me a 549. Fantastic start!



"Tim... switch to 14.059 and call HB9DCL," I said hurriedly. The Swiss station answered
Tim and he bagged a nice DX QSO. When I pulled out the camera, he had a big smile.



Next we both worked K5P a special event station in Texas. Same drill... I worked him, then
Tim worked him.  More smiles.

Tim had a 4:00 commitment and only had a few minutes left to pack up his gear. While he started
pulling down the antenna, I quickly worked OG6N in Finland. It was a fast exchange and I started
packing up too. In barely 15 minutes we'd made five QSOs between the two of us and felt pretty
happy about it.

Hopefully, next year, we'll have the day off to devote to the QRP sprint.