Soapbox Comments: May 2011 Spartan Sprint

WB5BKL
K1 @ 5 Watts to a 40M extended double-Zepp and a 20M wire delta loop.  Since the K1's little tuner cannot get a good match on 40M, I operated only on 20M.  It appears that everyone migrated down after about 0145Z.  I only made two additional QRP QSOs in the last hour.  I did make several additional Qs with QRO stations (20 to 100W) but they are not 
included in my total.  The 20M delta loop has directivity NE/SW so it is nicely effective northeast of Texas.  Had fun.


WA8HSB
This month business took me to Forsyth, GA.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my W3EDP up as high as I would have liked and I got started late but, it was fun playing with my ATS3 again!  Thanks to all who dug my 2W out of the noise.  See you next month.


K4ORD
Started on 20M,band was open but only made 2 qso's , then on to 40M where I made 21 more, then to 80M where I made 4. Heard a WA8??? on 40M but unable to get his call, had a noise level of S7 to S8 and about the same level on 80M. Until next month.


NQ2W
Ten Tec 1340 to an inverted vee at 40 feet. Seemed like quite a bit of actvitiy again this month. There were a lot of stations, not just ARS Sprinters, in our bit of the 40 meter spectrum. I seriously considered going tubby and firing up the Jupiter to take advantage of its fine filtering...maybe next month I'll run an experiment. That's what happened with KD9KC...he was calling and I responded...I didn't get his state and asked for a repeat...then the QRM. NIL ... Hopefully, next time we'll complete the QSO...I hope you're not the same station I said that to last month. Hi Hi Thanks for a great event. I look forward to it every month. Thanks to all the participants and thanks to the organizers.


AI3G
Icom 756 Pro II at 5 watts, Hustler mobile vertical in attic.   Band conditions seemed better tonight than in the recent past.   Still a fun contest for a limited amount of time.  See you next month.


W5ESE
Used my AT Sprint 3 and 300' HOHPL. Terrible QRN from power line noise in wet weather on 40m. All QSO's on 20m this month.


W5ACM
I started on 20M. Conditions were not great, but acceptable. The first half hour was good for contacts with NG7Z, K4BAI and W4VHH. Then things slowed down a lot. I checked out 80M and managed a contact with AB9CA, but had far too much noise to continue. Back on 20M conditions were still good, but I only found two more stations. The grand total was six QSOs - five on 20M, and one on 80M. The antique vertical was working well and the new 170 mAh LiPo cells did great, even with periods of calling CQ. The power output stayed around 3 Watts for the duration.


AB9CA
Rig was the K2 at 5w to either the OCF dipole (E/W) or the 100' center fed wire (N/S), used both at different times. A fun evening. 20 did not seem to be too active with only 4 Q's early and one additional later - 5 SPC's though. 40 was the workhorse with 25 Q's and 16 SPC's. On 80, which was rather noisy but not too bad, managed 6 Q's and 5 SPC's. Thanks to everyone that stopped by. Worked K3RLL, K4BAI, K4ORD, K8CV, NG7Z, WA8HSB on 2 bands but no one on three. Somehow John, K4BAI, managed to hear me, and me him, on 20. That band is getting better! See ya'all next month! Special thanks to Richard and Chris and any others that do the work to make these fun events possible.


VE3HNE
First time on this sprint and hope to be back for the next one. Spent all my time doing S and P. thanks to all the stations that I worked. The rig here is a Yaesu ft-920 tuned back to 5 watts. Antenna on 20m was a Jr tribander up 30 feet, on 40m a dipole up at 27 feet. Will be looking forward to the next spring.


WA5BUC
Boy, what a night! The bands were a mess. I thought I had the wrong night. Then I heard AB9CA calling on 40. Made the Q. Worked KD5GM. Strongest signal of the night. Struggled to find stations working the Sprint. Went up and down the bands. Nothing until I found K4BAI on 40 late in the Sprint. Also heard AB9CA continuing to call for contacts. Not sure what his success was tonight, but give him an A+ for effort!


K6CSL
The bands were very good this evening. I had lots of fun with this one.


KD9KC
Not a good night as far as the sprint goes.  I worked a 12 hour shift, got relieved 1 hour before the start.  Fought traffic to get home, slammed down dinner...  my station was still in the backpack from our last SOTA outing.  Fortunately, the Li-Fe-Po battery was still fully charged. Started about 30 seconds late.  Worked 5 stations on 20m, then nothing.  Got one call on 40m, but he was sending about 50 percent faster than I can copy so I gave up and started CQing again.  Tried 80m, not a single signal.  Then I caught WT5RZ on 40m again.  He is 15 miles away, 40m was great.  We tried 80m and it was good.  Tried 20 with no success, but surprisingly 15m worked! 10m and 6m were not successful.  We were just going for 160m when we ran outof time.  I heard F3ND calling CQ on 40m, so it was either my neighbor or DX
tonight on 40m. I will be off in June - looks good for the sprint.  July will see me in Germany activating SOTA - no sprint for me that month.


WT5RZ
Arrived home from work real late. Conditions were noisy. I broke out the fat radio and started punching filters and noise reduction wothout much luck. The few folks I heard, would come, and then disappear; chasing ghosts. Tagged KD9KC, local, 3X! No threat from a fat man!


NG7Z
Finally had time to give the SS a full time effort. Started on 20M and worked John K4BAI right off the bat. Used the second radio to CQ on 15M but nothing heard. By  0142Z 20 more Q's were in the log. When CQing produced no new contacts, I spun the dial looking for new calls but none heard. Out here on the west coast, 40M isn't quite ready but worked it for one hour and picked up 6 more. I listened on the second radio between CQ's on 20M and 80M hoping to find more stations. Picked up NU7T on 80M for the only contact on that band. Was hoping Randy K7TQ would show up on 80M because I worked him on 40M. CQ'd on 80M for the last 15 mins while listening on 40M. Picked up K4ORD there for the final contact. Overall, I felt like 40M was not in good shape here. Great time had and thanks for the Q's.


K4BAI
20M was good with some close in QSOs.  40M was quite good with no skip zone.  80M was a bit noisy but got three QSOs there. By band:  20M:  13.  40M: 26.  80M: 3. Thanks for all QSOs.  Look for me from Bonaire PJ4/K4BAI May 24-31 and in CQ WPX CW as PJ4A.


WB4MNK
Another fun night of QRP cw. Will see every one next month.


WA8PGE
I was using my Softrock 6.3 RXTX SDR with my laptop running Rocky and a 5 watt amp, most QSO's were on 40, a few on 20. Antenna is an inverted Vee at 30' I switched off my amp towards the end of the contest and ran 1 watt and made a few more qso's on 40. This was my first log submission for any contest, it was a lot of fun.


KD5GM
Had a great time on the air. I only ran 40 meters since it is my current antenna. One of my 3 contacts was from Mexico City. My qrp was 5 watts since it is as low as the radio will tune. FT 897 to a vee at 30'. I'll be back again.


K3RLL
Nice to hear so many familiar calls and some new ones.  Thanks for pulling me out of the noise.


KB5JO
Fun and simple.


N8WE
Used VE7SL Tini Tuna Xmitter at 100mw to an attic dipole. Longest SP contact was NG7Z, WA. for 1957 Miles. QRPP is fun! Receiver- IC 735.