Soapbox: December 2013 Spartan Sprint

K3RLL
In order to operate from any room in the house, I was trying my KX3 through RG6 TV house wiring patched to my attic dipole, so my signal may not have been totally ‘thundering’ tonight. Didn’t hear anyone on 20 meters. My thanks to those who pulled me out of the noise on 40 meters. Was delighted to be heard by our Buddies in the 
Caribbean on St. Lucia during the Sprint, but AA4W our local QRPer was not the op at this hour.

K7TQ
A tough night!  Nothing on 20 and only heard or worked a few on 40.  80 finally had some activity after 0330Z.  Got Nick, WB5BKL, and John, K4BAI, on 40 and 80.  Ron, WVØH, had a nice 80 m signal.  I hope January is better.  Catch you all next month.

VE3DTI
Second Spartan Sprint. KX3 at 5W with vertical wire at 43 ft. Just enough to be in the log thanks to Charles W3KC "CQ SP" in 80m. His was the only station I was able to work: nothing heard in 40m and higher bands start to close early at this time of the year here up north.

WA4ZOF
Very  noisy at my QTH . Argonaut VI ,  SLA battery ,  OCF 160 mtr ant . very heavy iambic key.

N5EM
PSK (interference) really pesky this month.  Really glad for narrow filters.

WVØH
This was a weaky squeaky sprint that only produced 10-QSOs for me. 1 on 40m and the rest on 80m. Very weak signals from coastal stations and central U.S. stations were a bit better.

K4BAI
20M almost dead to USA.  Two QSOs in TX.  40M pretty good most places, but some TX stations couldn't hear me.  80M quite good, but little activity.  Nice to work out to NM and ID on 80M.  Hope for more activity next month.

AB9CA
Used the FT-857 rather than the usual K2. Antenna was the usual 100' wire. Due to other activity had only limited time. Did not make the first Q until 0234. Listened on 20 for a couple of minutes but heard nothing and went to 40. Ended up with 10 contacts on 40 and 5 on 80. The noise did not seem too bad but condx did not seem good. Most signals were weak and difficult copy. 80 seemed to be in pretty good shape but not many there. Thanks to all for the fun and see you next month.

K5JHP
Band condx here is south Texas was really bad.  I did manage to work K4BAI on all three bands, 80,40, and 20. Thanks, John. Hope to be back next month.

W5ACM
Still using the ATS-3 with three 300 mAh LiPo batteries, providing 5W out and a final total of 14 QSOs this month (down 2 from November). I thought it was going to be a BUST. NOTHING heard on 20M, and most of the 40M QSOs were "local", i.e. TX, MS, AL and NM. However, things got interesting with stations like C6AKQ, N3FCS, W3KC, K4BAI and WVØH. It took a lot of work, but 40M and 80M DID provide some nice contacts. In the end, I had a GREAT TIME! Hoping for some 20M ops next time.

N5GW
K1 with internal ATU and micropaddles plus 800 mAh LiPO battery to a 90' vertical with counterpoise of metal carport roof (my 160M antenna). I made more contacts on 80M than 40M. Didn't even listen on 20M. 80M is getting into good shape this time of year, although QSB was noticeable. I was finally able to work K7TQ out in Idaho, but heard nothing else out west.

C6AKQ (N4BP)
Spending three weeks in Freeport, Grand Bahama.  Unfortunately noise levels were very high during the Spartan Sprint and gave it up after a half hour.  Using K3 @ 5W to inverted-V @ 80ft.

NQ2W
K1 at 5W to an inverted vee at 40ft for 40m and a ground mounted, home-brewed, near bottom-loaded vertical for 80m. Started on 20 - nothing. Moved to 40 and worked pretty hard to make 3 QSOs. Changed the filter board in the K1 and was able to make 6 more QSOs on 80. Band conditions here were not favorable, to put it mildly. W3KC was strong on 80. Had a two-bander with K4BAI. Hoping for better conditions and more participation to start off the new year! Happy Holidays!

W3KC
A fun and interesting event. QSOs here were about evenly split between 40 and 80 meters with nothing heard on 20 meters.

WB5BKL 
K3/10 @ 5W to a wire delta loop, a 40M dipole or a 40M EDZepp.  13 states this time with QSOs split roughly evenly between 40 and 80M - except for one lonely QSO with K4BAI on 20M.  Got John on 3 bands.  Had to work for most of the Qs with only a few strong signals from NM and TX.  Best of the holiday season to everyone - and to the Adventure Radio Society.  Had fun.

KK4DMT
I believe this may be my second Sprint. I was on for just the first hour. Heard only two stations calling and contacted only one. Was using KX3 at 5watts into an end-fed wire. Hope to do better next month.