SOAPBOX: April 2016 ARS Spartan Sprint

K3RLL
I know I missed a couple, but didn't hear many Spartan Sprinters on 40 meters tonight.  The band sounded good otherwise, however. Hope to see/hear you all next month.  Thanks for the fun.  72/73 ... Don

K4BAI
20M open to New England at start, but no activity and no answers to CQs.  40M was good to most of the country, but not much activity.  Sorry to lose N3FCS in the QSB.  80M had very strong QRN and only two TX QSOs on that band.  QSOs by band: 40M:  10.  80M: 2. Total time about 1 hour 10 minutes.  Other time was spend on CW traffic nets. 73/72, John, K4BAI.

K7TQ
A good first hour with one Q on 20 from ID to IN then 9 Qs on 40 with best DX of NJ.  N9QV caught me on both 20 and 40.  Second hour not so good with only CA on 40 then nothing on 80 for next 55 minutes. Still, it was better than last month.

K9QV
Finally finished homebrew 3 bander.  2 contacts on 20m, 3 on 40m.  Heard K4BAI on 80m, but couldn't catch him.  Lots of QRN on 80m.  Got K7TQ on 2 bands.  Fun!  ... 72 de Drew

KB1M
No QSO's on 20 mtrs. On 40 managed to pull out out 4 stations from the QRN, one being non QRP. After an hour my eardrums needed a break. I expect I may have missed calls because of the noise. Thanks 72/73, Walt

KQ2RP
Incoming weather made hearing difficult. 40 & 80m were tough with lots of crashes. 20m seemed dead. Worked all contacts on 40m. Did manage K7TQ in Idaho. Used my KX3 with internal batteries and new QRPGuys iambic paddle attached to minimize weight (my N3ZN comes in at 3lbs!). Hopefully things are quieter next month. Tnx for the fun! 72, Chris

N5GW
The power was off due to storms & nine inches of rain. I had the K1 on a Lipo battery to a CFZ up 50 ft. Only 40M was used, because 20M was closed and 80M was very noisy.

WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5W to a 20M delta loop, a 40M dipole or a 40M extended double Zepp.  Well, better than last month - but just barely. After removing the 2 QRO QSOs, I had 1 on 20M, 3 on 40M and 2 on 80M. Best signals:  20M - N3FCS, 40M - N5GW, 80M - W5ACM. I think I heard at least two others calling me, but they were below ESP level.  I think I heard a 'Q' and later perhaps a 'D'.  I appreciate the efforts of everyone.  And, as always, had fun.

W5ACM
Great to be back with the Spartan Sprint! The ATS-3a was operating superbly with 3W out to the vertical, and my CW was acceptable, even without cleaning the copper contacts. Conditions on 20M were pretty good, but very localized, i.e. only ops to specific areas. The highlight of my brief ops on 20M was a QSO with N3FCS. He was running 1 Watt and sounded really good! 40M was OK, but the coverage was sparse and there were few takers – 3 contacts. Conditions on 80M were noisy but I managed two QSOS with WD5BKL and K4BAI. Hoping for better in May, but glad that we had something happening this month. Need more participants and better conditions!
72 de Andy W5ACM Houston, TX EL29eq