Soapbox: April 2016 ARS Spartan Sprint

N5PJ
I made contacts on 20 & 40 meters. I called CQ on 80, but no Qs. I started a fire in the chiminea and operated from the patio. Was a great evening. My power was 5 watts. I contacted 13 states. It was a lot of fun! - Perry, N5PJ

K1QO
Fun as always!!!  20 Meters was the best band for me this sprint..all the way to CA, thanks Don NK6A and all the way to the southeast, NM;  AA5B, TX; KD5KC  and to the south in GA; K4BAI, John, AL; AB9CA, Dave,  FL; K3RLL, Don and MS; N5GW, Gene...many thanks to all of you!!!  Then there was noise...I had a lot of trouble with noise on 40 and 80...so much that I gave up trying to call on 40...I could hear a few stations trying to call me but the noise level was very bad so I quit.  I sincerely apologize to anyone I couldn't hear when I called briefly on 40 and 80.  My two banders were all on 20 and 40; K4BAI, KF0N, AA5B. My only three bander was neighbor N1IX. My only other contact on 80M was W1PID, friend, Jim. I could only operate for an hour this Sprint ... hope to be on longer next month.  See everyone for more fun next month!!!! Many thanks to KI6SN and www.73radiorow.com for supporting ARS! - 72/88, Ann K1QO

K3RLL
The published propagation numbers didn’t look very promising but 20m was certainly a pleasant surprise this evening. Had the joy of making my 10 contact goal in record time, all on 20m, and with the great patience of those ops, enjoyed chatting a bit along the way. Now, that’s my kind of contest!  (Sort of shows why I never win anything, I guess.  :-)   Anyhow, great Sprint tonight with ten very enjoyable contacts all over the country.  72/73 and see you next time. … Don

W1PID
Operated about 45 minutes. Used the IC-7000 at 5W to a Windom OCF dipole. Best DX Don NK6A in CA. Also Bruce AA5B in NM. Thanks everyone for the Qs. 72, Jim W1PID

WØPWE
It was fun to be back on the sprint again. 72 Jerry - WØPWE

KD5KC
I have missed a number of sprints because of Monday night puppy training, I have a new Great Dane Puppy. Basic puppy training is over now, so I started out going for the skinny radio.  I keep it and several other radios in a steel ammo box.  Well, somehow while I was getting stuff out to the garden, the Great Dane Puppy (18 weeks old and 60 pounds) got the skinny radio off the desk, and crushed the light-weight shell. It isn't allowed to run just the circuit board (undamaged), and I wasn't prepared to switch to the ATS-4B (7 ounces) or the FT-817 (2.5 pounds).  So with not enough time to repair or build a new shell, I just hit the power switch on the home station, a Yaesu FTdx5000MP (44 pounds). 20m was GREAT. 20m produced 14 contacts in IA, PA, MI, NH, TX, ME, MS and GA.  40m pretty much sucked with QSB.  My noise level was low, but lots of QRM on the band.  I only got TX, NM, IA and MS on 40m.  With about 40 minutes left I went to 80m.  I did a little better there, with NM, GA, IA and TX on 80m. I am off next month too, perhaps I'll have the skinny radio repaired, and head out to a SOTA summit now that the nights are warmer and we are in DST. Special thanks to John-K4BAI for struggling through some real bad QSB for the contact, it was more ESP than DSP. Someone kept calling way off freq, I could never get them tuned in.... sorry bout that. Puppy photo on my QRZ profile if anyone cares ... Vy 73 - Mike - KD5KC.

AB9CA
We can tell that summer is approaching as 20m is picking up. Breakdown of contacts by band is 14/14/5 on 20/40/80. Noise was not too bad although it was something of a problem. Prop seemed to be fairly good but when I checked my RBN spots after the Sprint was over I found that I had not been spotted all that much. So prop was kinda weak. SPCs on 20 were MI OK TX-2 CA ME-2 IA VA NH-3 ID PA. On 40 they were MI SC NH TX-2 AL IA KY AR MN GA CA NM ME. And on 80m they were IA GA FL TX NM. No 3-banders but WB8LZG, W5QLF, NK6A, KFØN, N1IX, K0ZK, K4BAI, AA5B were 2-banders. Good to hear all the familiar calls and especially the new ones. Welcome to all of the new sprinters. Hope to hear everyone again next month. Always an enjoyable evening on the radio. Rig for the early part was an IC-7200 at 5w to 100' wire. Took a break and when I came back switched to the K3, also at 5w, for the remainder. 73 de Dave, ab9ca/4

K4BAI
FT1000MP, 5W, TH6DXX, dipole, zepp, inverted V. Band conditions good on all three bands.  QSOs by band:  20M: 15. 40M: 25.  80M: 9.  Activity better this month than it has been for the past several years.  Let's continue the upward trend in coming months. Could have used more activity on 80M toward the end. I could work from GA to NM and ME, so could have made many more QSOs if stations had come to 80M after working out 40M. 73/72, John, K4BAI.

N5GW
I had the K1 at 2 watts hooked up to the 800 mAh LiPO using internal ATU to CFZ , microkey, and Sony earphones. 20M was in good shape allowing 11 QSO's. The other 19 were on 40M, as the K1 four band board does not cover 80M. Signals were generally moderate to strong, with more participation than usual. It was fun. Hopefully even more ops will join in during coming months.

N1IX
Nice to hear so many new callsigns during last night’s sprint! Thanks to my friend and neighbor K1QO for 3 bands. Thanks to fellow foxhunt foxes AB9CA (two bands), K4BAI (two bands) and NK6A. Also, thanks to N5GW and W4VSH/4 for two bands. Nice to hear Arn, KØZK! Hope to see you all next month. 73 Dave

KFØN
Station:  ATS-3 and an 80M loop antenna.  My first contact of the evening was Jim, W1PID on 20M.  We certainly see an improvement on 20 with more sunlight on the northern hemisphere. I worked two of the gang on three bands: Bruce, AA5B and Nick, WB5BKL. Thanks for pulling me out of your local noise, fellas.  Best DX of the evening was Don, NK6A who always has an outstanding signal here in the Midwest. I even worked my home state of Iowa, WØPWE, which is unusual! It was great to see the participation up from previous contests. I had no pileups, but just a steady QSO rate until my little LiPo battery began to sag.  If anyone needs IA for 2XQRP credit, I’m good for it. Many thanks to all who took time to participate. A fun evening, indeed! 72s to all, Larry, KFØN

WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5W to a 20 wire delta loop, a 40M dipole or a 40M extended double Zepp. Tried 15M first, but apparently only the RBN heard me. 13 states this month. Best signals:  20M - K4BAI, 40M - N5EM, followed closely by N5GW @ 2W!, 80M - KD5KC/W5ACM (tie). Four 3-banders this time:  KFØN, W0PWE, AA5B, K4BAI. Best DX:  KØZK.  Very 
nice to work several new-to-me calls!  My thanks to all. Had fun.

NK6A
Nice to copy NH and ME on 20 plus on the back of my beam Hawaii. Nice surprise.

WA5BUC
Rig: Yaesu FT-817 5w to 40 Meter EFHWA. 3 QSOs. Tnx AB9CA, AA5B, & WB5BKL. Heard N5EM. 72s de Houston

N5EM
Great to start 1 hour earlier and get a FB 20M band.  At one point on 40M, my manual logging became quite exciting with a run after a couple CQs.

AA5B
Ten hours before the Sprint, I had no functional antennas. It has been very windy here the last couple of weeks, and everything except the 17/30 meter antenna was damaged. I repaired the 80-meter inverted L and its SpiderBeam pole by lunchtime. Got the 20-meter inverted V back up in the air a couple hours later after I finished mowing the grass. And then I found some time just before dinner to fix the 40-meter inverted V. I also set a laptop on top of the radio so I could keep track of the score of the NCAA champiohip basketball game. Glad to be able to work the Sprint again after a pretty long absence, and nice to hear so many familiar call signs from the QRP gang. Many thanks to Richard KI6SN, for running this event! 20 meters: 27 QSOs; 40 meters: 25 QSOs (26, but one was a dupe); 80 meters: 7 QSOs (the band sounded okay, but not much activity). Total: 59 QSOs. 73, Bruce AA5B

KØZK
This is the first contest I've been in for a while. My antenna is a 1/4 wave vertical for 40. The bands seemed to be in good condition. Highlights included K4BAI on three bands, 20/40/80, and John was my only QSO on 80 meters. Other two banders included, N5GW, AA5B, WA4ZOF, W5QLF, KFØN and WØPWE. After the contest I worked Bulgaria and the West Sahara on 40. Thanks for the contacts and fun, Arn.

W5ACM
Still using the ATS-3a with two 170 mAh LiPo batteries, providing 3W out to my antique 18AVQ vertical and a final total of SIXTEEN QSOs this month. I had SEVEN contacts on 20M, and 40M was good for SIX. My ATS-3a was not working properly when the event started, but with some careful contact cleaning it came to life after 15 minutes - didn't lose much time. The bands were really a LOT of fun this month! I heard and worked stations on 20M that were certainly new for me. I had THREE contacts on 80M. The ever-present WB5BKL was his usual 599 - great signal from Austin. The batteries survived the abuse - just barely. Wow! More 20M ops!! 72 de Andy W5ACM - Houston, TX

WA8LZG
I ran the big rig @ 5w, 30 lbs. 20m was open nicely to the SW . Seemed to be fairly good activity for the first 1/2 hr then not much. Gud fun, 73 Gregg