SOAPBOX: August 2018 ARS Spartan Sprint

AB9CA
Had only a half hour tonight. But it was a fun half hour. Used the K3 at 5w to a 56' Inv V, peak at 40'. This wire is not optimum in that it runs E/W. Would be better from my locale if N/S. 20 was not very productive, only 2 Q's there, CA and ID. The remaining 9 Qs were on 40: PA MN TX GA IA NH ID TX CO. Only 2 bander as Randy, K7TQ, out in ID. Thanks for the Qs. Maybe I'll have more time next month. 73 de dave, ab9ca

KB1M
7 Qs for 5 states only one was on 20m. Reverse Beacon only showed two spots on 40 meters for my call, sprinters seem to have some very good ears! Thanks for the QSOs. 72/73 Walt

W5ACM
I was late to the party this month, but still found some good folks on 40 Meters and reasonable conditions. I made contact with K4BAI, NØTA and WA9TGT. The ATS-3a was remarkably cooperative. My CW was much better thanks to some attention to the brass key contacts. The batteries appear to be running well also. I use a pair of 170 mAh LiPo cells. It makes 3W out, so it is good to go! I promise to be on time next month.

KFØN
Thunderstorms along the Iowa/Missouri border and South American SSB QRM made the contest a challenge tonight.   I heard no signals on 20 meters and QRN from the storms rendered 80 meters unusable so it was a single band night.  It was a pleasure to work the usual gang though.  It is helpful to have many of the calls memorized; it makes it easier to pull everyone out of these high noise levels!  As some of you have stated in your comments previously, it would be nice to see greater contest participation.  Many thanks to all who answered my “CQ SP”.  I hope we meet again in September. Larry, KFØN

WB9HFK
Part-time this month as the nearby thunderstorms were producing a lot of QRN. Don, K3RLL had a booming signal into E. Central IL. Thanks for the Qs and sorry to those I just could not pull out of the QRN. 
72, Mark Prather - WB9HFK

WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5W to a 40M extended double Zepp or a 20M wire delta loop. Back to the repaired K3 (bad chip on I/O board). RBN could hear me on 15M but no one else. Best signals:  20M - NK6A, 40M - K5GQ, 80M - K4BAI. I think I stayed on 20M too long. The QSO with John on 80M was almost a miracle as I had an S8 noise level. Not my best showing, but had fun.

K7TQ
I operated from the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest east of Moscow, ID using a KX2 at 5 W feeding a SOTABEAMS 20-40 m trap dipole suspended at 40 feet between two pine trees. For other Spartan Sprints I have had this trap dipole supported by a 28-foot Jacklite telescoping kite pole which does well for 20 m one hop paths, but not so good for two hops. I wanted to see how much better the trap dipole would work higher up. The result was better performance for the 20 m two-hop paths to the east coast, as one would expect. Worked K4BAI in GA on both 20 and 40. A good first hour on 20, then slow the second hour on 40.  Thanks to all who stopped by.

KØEAP
Once again I had a great time. I made my first contact using 5W and then turned the power down to 2W. I was calling CQ using 2W and had no takers. So I went on the hunt and pounce method. I worked stations in AL, CA, TX and IL, not to bad on 2 watts from Minnesota, I was really happy to finally make more than two contacts like I had done in the last few sprints. I thought the bands were a little tough last night. 40m was very noisy for me, which was a bummer because that seemed to be where most of the action was. Can't wait for next month. Thanks for the fun event. 73, de KØEAP

NØTA
Two contacts on 20m, then 14 on 40m. 40m was a bit noisy but usable. Twofer with K4BAI and K7TQ. Thanks for the Qs! Kx2, Palm key, Gen Log.

K4BAI
Only able to operate for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. 5 QSOs on 20, 16 QSOs on 40, and 1 QSO on 80 (WB5BKL). Thanks for all QSOs and see you next month. 73/72, John, K4BAI

K5GQ
I could not find all the parts for my ATS-3. Static crashes peaking S6, 7. I had a couple of stations call me but could not copy all of the calls.

K3RLL
Started out pretty strong on 40m this evening but then the contacts started spacing out a bit, then a bit more, then a lot more. (Smile)  Really need to get something to operate 80m cuz I think that’s where the party goes when 40m works out.