Soapbox comments: November '09 Spartan Sprint

KF6U
Was my first Spartan Sprint. 20 and 30 meters were dead. Weak signals weren't doing well on 40. I had a high noise level on 80, but did manage to work 2 stations who busted through. Was it fun? YOU BET! I'll be back. It can only get better.

KB7MBI
After about an hour of hearing and making only one contact on 40m I then resorted to calling CQ with 100 watts and finally after 30 minutes made 4 more contacts on 40m. As soon as I would get a call back I reduced the power to 5 watts for the exchange. Noise level here was S6. Antenna was a GAP Titan DX vertical.

KE5TC
This was my first Spartan Sprint and all the contacts were on 80 meters. Lots of fun, Thanks.

W5ACM
Activity on 40M was slow, but provided three QSOs from CA, UT and NJ. 80M was noisy, but the only game in town. Nice 80M contacts were made with stations in the south east, and even one with K8DD in MI. Where are the sunspots? The AT-Sprint 3a did very well with the new pair of 200 mAh LiPo batteries. While the power output started at 3W, it only dropped to 2.5W when the sprint was over. The antique multi-band vertical continues to perform. It was challenging, but a lot of fun. Thanks to all I contacted!

NG7Z
Slim pickings tonight. Started out on 40M and only 4 contacts in 16 minutes. No answers to continued cq's so switched to 80M and picked up 4 more in 25 minutes. Again no answer to CQ's so I listened for a few minutes and gave up. Came back at 0330 and picked up 4 more and that was it. Where was everyone?

K5JHP
5W Strange night on 40 meters here on the Gulf Coast. . .

N5PJ
I made 1 contact using my "tubby" station. I ran 5 watts on my TS 480SAT and my 40 meter dipole (Buddipole) was the antenna for the evening. It made the trip to Maine from Oklahoma. I worked AA1MY.


K8DD
Somehow I was late and only got in the last 30 minutes!


KS4L
ATS 3b.1 to 80m inv. vee at 45'. Heard nothing on 40, and no one answered my CQs. All contacts on 80m. QRN was bad, but it was fun anyway. My first time in the Sprint in a long time!

AB9CA
Rig was K2 to OCF 80m dipole run over the top of an oak tree. Not much heard on 40 - only 2 contacts and those were WA and UT - not a good omen for my run as Fox in about 10 days. But 80 was pretty good, 18 Q's there but almost all were east of the Mississippi river. A couple in TX were the only ones west of there. There was some noise but not too bad. 80 should improve for the next few weeks. Ought to be in good shape for next month. Thanks to all who stopped by and see ya' nex time 'round . . .

N7RVD
Rough contest. 45 minutes work on 40 meters netted one contact. Skipped down to 80. Locally heavy QRN in Memphis, TN was deafening. With the K2 IF filters narrow and the noise blanker and DSP set to max, I could barely hear any signals. That I made 14 qso's is a testament to how hard you guys worked. I needed fills and repeats from just about everybody. Thanks. See u next month.


K9IS
Pretty much all on 80. 40 was disappointing, only 2 Q's.

KB5JO
2W, SW+40, ZEPP, GUD CONDX, FEW QRP STNS.