Cape Lookout Island Activation

N4A 2008 Extended Soapbox  
2008 N4A Photographs
Updated August 1st 2008

The 2008 N4A operation was a huge success. We were able to improve upon 2007’s results, and learned quite a bit in the course of the operation.  he weather was far better this year, which was also a big boost for the operators stamina. The temperatures during station set up on Friday afternoon were mild by North Carolina standards for July. The lower humidity levels made the sea breeze pleasant. K4CZ joined the expedition this year, and the extra set of hands made the work much easier.

The accomodations are somewhat spartan, but much better than merely camping in the sand. We rented a small cabin from the National Park Service. The cabins there are equipped to be powered by generator, as there is no elecricity service to the island. The cabin luxuries include both running water and a gas stove and water heater, so hot showers were available […]

2007 N4A Photos

As always, working with N4YDU was a blast.

Setting up for operations was a chore. The heat and humidity beat the two operators down mercilessly. We only made a handfull of QSO’s after the station was set up, and spent much of the time we had Friday evening debugging station set up problems.

The start of the IOTA contest brought in a steady flow of QSO’s, which declined as the day wore on.  By 1600z the rates had plummeted, with no decent propagation to Europe, not even on 20m, and few US stations operating the contest.  10 and 15 meters never offered up much in the way of Q’s nor mults.  20 meters did not really begin to show life to Europe until nearly 1800z.

N4YDU had a couple of hours of decent rate from EU on CW then, with most 20m signals very strong.  Nate switched over to 40m CW fairly early, as 40m was showing signs of good […]

N4A  –  2007 Krewe of Operators:

  N4YDU, Nate
  W4KAZ, Keith

N4A operated in 2007 from Cape Lookout National Seashore

IOTA number NA-067
gridsquare FM14tt
Carteret County, NC
Final Score: 380688, QSOs:577, Mults:112
N4A – 2007 #1 North American Low-Power Expedition, #24 Worldwide