SOAPBOX: November 2015 Spartan Sprint

W5QLF
Very Spartan tonight.  Worked N4BP in Florida, NK0E in Colorado and W5HNS about 5 miles away all on 40 meters.  Twenty was totally dead. That’s it!  Phooey.

NKØE
Happy to be on the air again after a year hiatus due to selling a house, buying another, and moving. Ran the KX3 at 5W into a half-size G5RV. Didn't hear a ton of signals but happy to work the usual suspects. Thanks all!

K3RLL
Back in warmer FL for the winter and living again under the tyranny of antenna restrictions, but my highly compromised stealth antenna managed to find eight great Spartan Sprinters out there tonight on 40 meters.  Didn’t hear a peep on 20m again tonight, even though the propagation numbers looked okay.  Hot spots into FL this evening were TX and MD. Anyhow, thanks for the fun and appreciate each one of my pleasant eight contacts this evening. 72 de K3RLL

N9WAY
Still new to Spartan Sprints.  Sat on my deck with an HB-1B, a gel cell, and a small homebrew paddle.  Antenna is a 40m OCF dipole. Thanks for all the returned calls - another fun sprint.

W3KC
Contacts were sparse on 40 and 80 and nothing was heard on 20.
Rig was the venerable IC703 (5 watts) to a 90 ft doublet via a homebrew link tuner. 72 Chas W3KC

NC4RT
20 meters was problematic again.  I switched over to 20 a few times, and called CQ a bit but heard no activity.  After about an hour of calling CQ and making only 3 qsos on 40m, I returned to the Panthers game ;-).  My rig:  K1, LiPo battery with diodes to drop the voltage, ear buds, Vizkey:  1,426 grams.
72 de NC4RT

NQ2W
K1 at 5 W to a 2-element mini-beam at 25 ft for 10, 15, and 20 meters, an inverted V at 40 ft for 40 m, and a homebrewed, near-bottom loaded, ground mounted vertical for 80 m. Nothing happening on 20 meters. 12 QSOs on 40 but there was quite a bit of QSB and sometimes, digital QRM. I received a lot of RBN spots on 80 but only 1 reply to my CQs. Looking forward to next month's SP. 72, Will

W5HNS
An all 40 meter sprint for me this month.  Heard very few signals but those stations were working folks I could not hear.  So I knew there was more activity.  My antenna for this event was an end fed 40/20 strung as an inv vee with apex at about 25 feet. Henry W5HNS

W1PID
2 QSOs on 40 meters. Operated just a few minutes. Not much activity.

AH6AX
This was my first Spartan sprint; I’m new QRP op.  Enjoying the new challenge.  I managed to find 5 SP stations – but only played for an hour.

WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5W to a 40M dipole or a 40M extended double Zepp.  Well, that was better than last month - but not by much. I apologize to those stations I could not pull out of the noise. Though I operated the whole time, all of my QSOs except one were in the first hour. Several regulars were missing from my log.  Best signals:  40M - NK0E, 80M - AB9CA (and Dave was my only QSO on 80).  I sincerely hope you did better than I did.  Happy Thanksgiving to all and see you in December. Had fun.

W5ACM
The November 2015 Spartan Sprint was noisy at my QTH, but not quite as BAD as October! In fact it was greatly improved, although I found no stations on 20M. There were a few stations on 40M, like W4VHH and NQ2W. A quick look at 80M found N5GW, and then back to 40M. NC4R and N9WAY finished that band for me. Back down on 80M found a strong AB9CA over in Alabama for contact number 6 on the night. The antenna continues to be my antique 14AVQ vertical and power out was a maximum of 3W. I had to do a few minor repairs on the ATS 3a prior to the event, and noted that the LiPo’s are certainly puffing up, but it all worked! C U in December es 72 de Andy W5ACM (Houston, TX)

N5EM
Conditions seemed OK on 40.  Heard no QRP stations on 20M. Worked two on 40M  with the dipole lying on the roof after storm took down a tree branch.  Lost the 80M antenna (such as it was) completely.  Got to be better in December!  Usually run the KX3 at 3W but all the way to 5W this time! 72, Ed - N5EM

AB1AV
Used my newest portable Tx/Rx... Advantages: built-in key & tuner to save weight & clutter.  Disadvantages: xtal-controlled Tx limits flexibility; regen Rx hears many stations at once; oak enclosure and 300v power-supply add to the weight!  But I had fun with the Paraset making one contact each on 40 & 80 meters.

N5GW
2 watts - K1 on 800 mAh LiPO at 2W to CFZ. 20M was dead at this QTH. 40M in fair shape except sprinters few and far between. Very little heard on 80M. Don't know how much was band condx vs. poor participation.