Soapbox Comments: October '11 Spartan Sprint

K7TQ

Had not been able to participate in an SP for too long.  Started on 15 m and got 3 Qs in short order.  GA and TX were the states.  Moved to 20 m after about 10 minutes on 15 and had a nice time working stations there until around 0130 Z.  20 was still open, but seemed most folks had already moved to 40 m.  I gave 80 m a couple of tries, but quite noisy here in ID.  Worked K4BAI, John, and WB5BKL, Nick, on 3 bands and several others on 2 bands. Lots of good strong Signals and a few weak ones as well went into the log.  Thanks to all who stopped by.

NK6A

could only put in an hour this time.

WB5BKL

K3/10 @ 5w to a 15m 2-element delta loop, a 20m wire delta loop or the 40m extended double Zepp.  15m was open (apparently to the west) when I started, but I could only work K7TQ.  Tried to work K6CSL but he was almost exactly zero-beat with K7TQ and impossible copy for my old ears.  Sorry Bert.  Also made 11 Qs on 20m, 11 Qs on 40m and 4 on 80m.  Did end up working K7TQ on 3 bands.  Nice to hear increasing activity and some new (to me) calls.  Thanks to all.  Had fun.

WB5MNK

I want to apologize to the stations I could not copy but I had my filter set up wrong and did not realize it. I will do better next sprint. I had fun but was not very productive. Thanks to all the stations that I worked and the ones that called me but I was not able to copy.

NQ2W

An OHR 100-A running 5W to a mini-beam at 25 ft for 9 Q's on 20 meters and a Ten-Tec 1340 at 5W to an inverted vee at 40 ft for 4 Q's. I thought I was gonna break a record...the first few minutes on 20 were the best I've experienced in a quite a while...then reality settled in and the Q's became much more infrequent. Oh well, maybe next month. 40 was lousy, QRM and intermittent line noise made it very difficult copy (except K4ORD...he was loud). I'm thinking of adding some filtering to the 1340 and converting the main tuning knob to a 10 turn pot...we'll see if that's possible ... can't hurt. Thanks to everyone that heard me and thanks to the organizers. Hope to see you all next month.

AE7CG

Thanks to Randy K7TQ, Bob N4BP, Scott W5ESE, and Nick WB5BKL for QSOs. I ran 2 watts to a 10-foot high dipole. The Spartan Sprint was great fun. See everyone next month!

KD2MX

just had a few minutes to spend.  Nothing heard on 20, 40 was pretty good.

AB9CA

Fun, as always. The bands seems little punk but not too much noise. That was kinda nice. Rig was K2 at 5w to 100' dp. Worked NQ2W, NK6A, WT5RZ, W5ACM, W5ESE, and WB5BKL on 2 bands but no 3-banders. 20 seemed to be OK but few there, only worked 6. 40 was the workhorse with 26. And only 5 on 80. But it was good to hear Jay, AJ4AY, over in Mobile on there. We are so close it is hard for us to hear each other. Thanks go to the folks who do the work to make these happen. And thanks to all who stopped by . . . and hope to hear ya'all next month.

N4BP

Started on 20M, but band went belly up almost immediately!  40M was good, but not much participation.  With that fall nip in the air (only getting to the upper 80's now), 80M is almost usable and managed one easy QSO there with K5JHP.  Sure wish participation would pick up so I could sit in the chair for two hours instead of only one.

K4BAI

QSOs by band:  21: 1 (K7TQ); 14: 7; 7: 22; 3.5: 7.  We could have used more activity.  Band conditions were pretty good on 80 through 15.  Thanks for all QSOs.

W5ESE

KD1JV AT Sprint 3 (@3W 80m/40m, @2W 20m), with a 9.6V wall wart and Whiterook MK-44 paddles. Antenna is a 300' horizontal loop, fed with open wire line.  Good activity and conditions this month, although the QRN was pretty high on 80m. Will submit my log to ARRL's 'Logbook of the World.'

WA1ZCQ

Bands in poor shape during the times of this month's sprint. 40 was the only place I hear other station here in 1 land. Started late, 30 minutes into the sprint. First station heard was Jim - K4ORD-VA, RST 559, I received a 449. Listened around on 80 & 20 as well but no signals. Hung in there for about 60 minutes, no stations calling CQSP. Called on 7033.5 and 7044 with no luck. Station: 703 @ 5W with 60' indoor wire, inverted "L" configuration (approx: 22' flat-topped, 38' vertical) Total station weight: 703 + NiMH battery pack + Whiterook paddle + associated wiring/cabling = 5 lbs.

WT5RZ

Wow, what a fun night. 20 started out jumping with 6 quick contacts. @0 seemed to get quiet very quick so I shifted to 40 for another 14 contacts. I tried 80M a couple of times, but only logged 1 lone contact there, W5ESE. Somehow W5ESE and I managed to contact one another on the 3 bands. Had a good time!

WØPQ

K1 (5 WATTS) G5RV

W5ACM

I started on 20M with six excellent contacts, and would have liked to stay there, but the crowd thinned out early. There was still plenty of activity on other parts of the band, and conditions were reasonable. For me, 40M sounded very noisy and I only got one QSO - AB9CA. Surprisingly, 80M was better and I had some good contacts with AB9CA, WB5BKL and W5ESE. Overall, it was a fun event! My ATS-3A is still on the workbench - so once again, the ATS-3 that I built in 2004 was pressed into service. Since it has MUCH larger (and heavier) batteries, I can call CQ as much as I can stand, so I did! Using this antique, Altoids entombed rig doubles my weight, but it is a great performer, and the keyer paddle - made from relay parts - is much easier to tame than the ultra-light-weight spruce paddle on the ATS-3A. I am getting to like this rig! C U next month!

K4ORD

Made 5 qso's on 20M, best dx WA, CA, 20 qso's on40m, best dx ID, MT, WA  and 2 on 80M. The QRN  was back on 40M, S7 TO S9 , some signals were strong and some weak. Rig K3@5W ant's 40M and 160M dipoles.   Thanks to all.

NØAR

Well this old "ham from Heath" got hooked on the GORC Heathkit Nostalgia Event, so out came the HW-8. Haven't used it in 5 years so was impressed that it fired right up. If you worked me it was on the old rig at a whooping 2 watts out. Nice to be able to hear most all of the contesters at one time. :)  Seriously it was just a blast working so many familiar calls. I hung in there until my ears hurt. See you all in the next event with my trusty K2.

AI4SV

Finally, a chance to shed some pounds -- Tonight the rig was my well-traveled TenTec 1320, a 2Ah battery, and Palm Paddles. The antenna was attic dipole. Almost all the calls came in the first hour.

K5JHP

Bands seemed long with SSB stations on 40. Hope for better prop condx next month.