Sunday, May 22nd ARK went to Kristiansten Fortress park to participate in the SSA Portable contest.

The SSA Portable contest takes place on the 40m and 80m band and operators in JW, JX, LA, OH, OHØ, OJØ, OX, OY, OZ, SM and TF are invited to participate. We participated in the Multi Operator – SSB class, with transmit power of 100 W.
You can read more about the contest rules here:
https://contestspalten.ssa.se/rules-ssa-portabeltest/

The Red Cross-mast and the very essential beverage cooler packed into LB0VG’s car
Photo: LB5PI

The event started early at 0700 in the morning, with some people meeting directly at the park and others transporting the remaining equipment.

We brought our trusty Red Cross and SpiderBeam masts and dipoles for 40m and 80m that we set up as inverted-V antennas in the park.

LB0ZI hoisting the Red Cross-mast
Photo: LB5PI

In the shack we had band-pass filters, FT-891 with our new LDG Z-11 Pro II ATU on 40m and FT-450D on 80m. Logging was done on paper.

To power the stations, we brought a good load of batteries. The 40m and 80m shacks were powered by two, large 190 Ah lead-acid batteries, one for each radio. At the 20m shack for POTA activation we supplied our two 24 Ah LiFePO4 batteries which were significantly easier to carry.

Alexander operating the 80m shack, while LB5FJ tries his luck activating POTA in the 20m shack
Photo: LB6GH

During the contest we learned that it could be frustrating for some of the QRP stations that received us well while transmitting with high power, when they were struggling to be heard by us while using low power.

From the left: LB5DH, Randi, Harald and LB8LI working on the SpiderBeam-mast
Photo: LB5PI

You can have a closer look at our QTH here.

LA2QUA securing the perimeters around the antennas with safety tape
Photo: LB6GH

LB5SH Stian from the LA2T group managed to get Kristian Fortress park in Trondheim into the POTA-program with ID LA-2523 in advance of our event. He also brought an extra shack for POTA-activation of the park.
You can read more about the POTA-program here:
https://parksontheair.com/

LB5SH seen from above trying to mount his antenna in one of the nearby trees
Photo: LA2QUA

LB0VG Kristoffer brought his grill and provided enough food to keep everyone happy and well fed during the event. The course consisted of burgers, hot dogs and pork chops, plenty enough for everyone.

LB0VG showing off his incredible burger-flipping skills for the hungry crowd
Photo: LB6GH

After the dust had settled, we ended up with a total number of 27 QSOs. 16 of these were made with operators in the 03 and 04 category, which means we were still able to hear a good number of the QRP-stations in the contest. 15 of the QSOs were from Sweden, with another 8 coming from Norwegian operators.

It seemed like everyone had a great time at the Kristiansten Fortress park this Sunday – a lot of nice and excited people were stopping by to have a chat and ask about what we were doing, which was great!

Thanks to everyone that was helping out and participated at this great event!
Special thanks to:
LA1UW Bjørn from LA2T for visiting us in the park.
LA2QUA Per-Øyvind for arranging the event.
LB1DJ Simon for being responsible for the dipole antennas.
LB5DH Henrik for coordinating the SpiderBeam mast and coaxial cables.
LB5SH Stian from LA2T for joining us in the contest and for bringing a 20m shack for the POTA-activation.
LB5PI Sondre for coordinating the Red Cross mast and QTH arrangement.
LB9WI Heidi for being responsible for the radio shacks.
LB0VG Kristoffer for being responsible for food and grilling.
LB8LI Yngve and Randi for helping the others with transportation of equipment.

The group after the fact, represented by members from LA1K and LA2T
Photo: LB6GH


You can check out LA2T’s own post about the event here:
https://www.la2t.no/ssa-med-la1k/