SOAPBOX: February 2020 ARS Spartan Sprint

K3RLL

As they say, life begins (and ends) on 40m due to antenna restrictions here, and 40m was ripe with QSB this evening. But eight very skilled ops with good ears made it fun. Tried the KX3 tonight with the attached paddles that were acting up. My apologies.  RBN reports were dismal so was very pleased to make some contacts.  My appreciation to the entire staff of A.R.S. and good QRP ops for keeping the Spartan Sprint alive and well.  72/73 ... Don

NØTA

2 Q's on 40m, 9 on 80m. K3@5w, doublet at 25', GenLog.

K4BAI

Activity better tonight than recently.  Both 40 and 80M were in very good shape.  Worked from CO to NH on both bands.  40M was long and WB9HFK couldn't hear me calling him.  But 80M had pretty good short skip to AL and also good signals from CO, TX, NH, IL.  Thanks for all QSOs.  73/72, John, K4BAI.

K3JZD

40m propagation keeps killing me.  Gets crazy for me after  0100 zulu.  I had a long N-S path this time.  Heard and worked Don - K3RLL in FL.  I was hearing Don on 40m for about an hour. But I could not hear anyone else on 40m. During the second hour I slid down the 40m band and used my lightweight 3 watts to work a Dxpedition in El Salvador and then a DXpedition on Cocos Island. But they were not giving out Spartan Sprint exchanges, so I did not count them. Did I mention that my path was a long N-S path? QCX - 3w - 40m dipole.   Jody - K3JZD

NØAR

Good to hear a bunch of familiar calls. 40 and 80 were both loaded with QRN. Signals were overall poor with some serious QSB at times. Only heard one call West of me! Rig 590sg and rx loop, 43' vertical and lots of radials. 73, Scott, near St.Paul, MN

WB9HFK

Icom 7300 @ 5W. Antenna: 40M - OCF Dipole, 80M - 150 Ft. Random Wire

WA4AAK

Enjoyed contacting 7 Sprinters! 5 on 80m, 2 on 40m.  72, Evan WA4AAK - Huntsville, AL

WB5BKL

3/10 @ 5W to a 40M extended double Zepp. QSOs on 40 and 80M. Heard K4BAI and AB9CA/7 on 20 but not worked.  Best signals: 40M - K4BAI, 80M - W5ACM. Doubles with K4BAI and W5ACM. Both 40 and

80M seemed in good shape here.  No stations west of me except AB9CA/7 in AZ. Had fun.

KA5HZV

Had fun using my newly built QRP LABS QCX tranceiver at 3 watts into a (semi) mutiband dipole. Thanks to NØAR, K4BAI and N4SO for picking my little signal up. While working K4BAI I bumped something in the rig and jumped to another part of the band instantly. My apology was accepted by K4BAI and I was able to complete the QSO. Looking forward to next month and better condx. Ron

KB1M

Nothing heard on 20 and 40 seemed to be nearly dead, 3 QSOs, worked FL, GA, and AL. 72/73, Walt

KØNXV

First try using 5W to a multiband endfed - heard a number of calls on 40M but only got 2 contacts. Wasn't sure just what frequencies are considered QRP on the bands. For 40M I thought it was 7030 ad 7122 khz and probably spent too much time there but it seemed that everyone was in the 7138-7148 range. On 80M I tried 3560 khz but heard no one. Took me quite a while to figure out just what 72 meant! :)  Was very fun and I hope to get more people involved in the future. Thanks! Don - K0NXV PS - next time I'll use my 40M qrp rig and battery.

W5ACM

It was great fun to get back in the Spartan Sprint for me this month. WB5BKL sent a reminder via the Houston QRP remailer, and I had no time conflicts!. All contacts were on 40M or 80M. I had a few mechanical issues with the ATS-3a enclosure, but I burnished the homebrew key contacts, and had almost quality CW. The batteries are holding in there and the antique vertical is doing well! I think this is the longest run for a pair of the small LiPo batteries I have had… No complaints!

AB9CA/6

Still on the road. Have a noise issue in this location. For the first hour it was gone but then came back. When it is on it is about S8. Unless you are at least S5 to S6 I doubt I could hear you. After it came back I spun the knob for a while but then shut down. Made no contacts on 20 although did call there for a few min. 6 Qs on 40 (CO AL CA TX) and 2 on 80 (TX). Then the noise returned. Rig was FT-857 to an Inverted V on 40 and vertical on 80. Hope for better condx next month!  73 de dave ab9ca/7

K1QO

I made sure I was turned down to 5W this month!!!  2 on 40M and 4 on 80 M for me.  Thank you John, K4BAI for the two bander, and I’m sorry I had so much trouble...operating in the dark and being rusty was a bad combo for me, my apologies!!!  I promise to do better next time....I hit the wrong key on 40M so I sent an agn by accident, then on 80 I know my signal was very weak and I had a lot of noise.  It’s really great to have a contest like this to try out new things and I’m working on a new antenna for 80M this gave me the opportunity to test it out. I was shocked to hear N0TA booming into northern NH on 80M wow...and KEØTT was also pretty loud in MN.  The fourth contact was WB9HFK on 80..I’m pretty sure I heard Larry, W2LJ in there at some point but never made a contact.  I only had two contacts on 40M, John was one and the other was WA4AAK, however I missed out on W5QLF...I did hear but left or faded before I could try.  Many thanks to KI6SN for continuing this sprint!!!!   72/88 de K1QO, Ann

N4SO

Thanks to Spartan Sprint operators: AB9CA/7, NØAR, WB9HFK, W5ACM, KA5HZV and WB5BKL. KEØTT on the heard and failure to work list. Ken N4SO