Friday, July 9, 2010
Soapbox Comments: July 2010 Spartan Sprint
K3RLL
FT817 to G5RVjr - Nice to hear some really, really strong QRP signals tonight on 40 meters for the Sprint. Thanks to those who pulled me out of the noise tonight.
K7TQ
K3, Force 12 C4SXL @ 60 feet. Good conditions this month. 20 m lasted over an hour and 40 was decent too. Got K4BAI, NU7T, and AB0CD on 20 and 40 m. Had a couple of non-Spartan Sprinters stop by for a short chat.
WA5BUC
Fun Sprint. Rig: FT-817 2W to a 40 meter EFHWA up about 30'.
KØNWT
PFR-3A for a couple, FT450 for the rest, all 5W;50'Speaker wire EFZ + G5RV; all battery power; Great Fun!
K6CSL
Again tonight I started on 10m with no luck, moved to 15m, no luck their either, then moved on to 20m and 40m. Both 20 and 40 were quite noisey here this evening.
W2VV
FT-817ND @ 5W into an 80 foot zip-cord dipole at 50 feet. I was backyard portable in Ohio, visiting family for the 4th. I got a late start but managed to make seven contacts on 40m and 80m. 80m was very noisy here but 40m was much better. Thanks everyone for another fun sprint.
ABØCD
Rough conditions, but nice challenge for me. Of course, I was fired up for the first summer 20 meter foxhunt and was wondering why I wasn't hearing KT5E or N0UR when it dawned on me it was Spartan Sprint night and the fox hunt was set for Tuesday! 3Qs on 20 and 8Qs on 40. Elecraft K-2 into homebrew 88-foot doublet at 25-feet fed with 300 ohm twin-lead/LDG 4:1 balun.
W5ACM
Band conditions were quite reasonable for the sprint this month. All of the QRN from the stormsaround Houston was gone by 8PM, and although the QSB on 20M was a bit difficult, I still got five contacts before moving down to 40M. The ATS-3A continues to perform well. The two 200-maH LiPo's were charged just before the start time, and held up with no problems, even with a fair amount of CQ ops. There was no need to move to 80M, and I noticed that several stations on 40M were quite active right up to the end. With the exception of a QRO station on 7040 that never ID'ed, and appeared to be testing/tuning an amplifier, it was an excellent Spartan Sprint!
WA3FAE
A little more challenging than Field Day, the noise level was higher and QSB was more prevalent. Everybody seemed to roll down to the next band at the same time. Must have been lousy conditions at their location too! Good time and good perseverance by all operators to make the contact.
K4BAI
FT1000MP, 5W, zepp, dipole, inverted vee. Activity much better this month. 20M was good for the first half hour. 40M was excellent. 80M had high QRN, but still made QSOs as far away as PA and IL. Hope to work many of you in IARU HF contest this weekend as W4AN from the QTH of W8JI.
AB9CA
Rig was ATS-3 at 3w with 8 pack of AA NiMH for power. One pack lasted the whole sprint but they did seem to be getting tired near the end. 20 seemed in good shape - 26 q's there. The band was maybe a bit long with q's from CA, NV, DE, 3 from ON, MA, ME and some other longish ones. 40 seemed to have decent prop - 30 q's - but the noise was pretty bad. Did not find much activity on 80, only 6 q's there. Worked WA8ZBT on 3 bands, think he was the only 3 bander tonight. Worked W2SH, WA3FAE, K4BAI, AF4O, W5ACM, WB5BKL, NQ2W, K4ORD, W9CJS, AE4TC, W4VHH, and maybe one or two others that I have overlooked, on 2 bands. There seemed to be more activity than I've heard for a while. Good to hear so many familiar calls and especially good to hear some new ones in there. If you are new, welcome, and hope to hear you lots more. As always - thanks go to the guys who do the work to make these fun evenings possible!
WA5BDU
Fun! This was my second or third Spartan Sprint. I slimmed down a little by making a paper clip and bottle cap paddle and a battery bank of three small LiPo cells in a box. Rig is an ATS-3. My exchange was RST - AR - 5W. QSOs came about 50/50 on 20 and 40 meters. A fair amount of QRN on 40, otherwise conditions were OK.
K4UPG
My first attempt at the SP. Always wanted to play but being antenna restricted and having a church mission team meeting on the first Monday each month normally restrict my chances. Took advantage of the 4th of July day off to get an antenna up temporarily and give it a go. Wish I could play more and use a real antenna instead of a portable low NVIS type sky hook. Enjoyed the challenge!
N3ZL
Fun two hours, brought back memories of operating in some spartan sprints a few years ago before I was ready to operate in full blown cw contests. Seemed to me as if everyone was staying on 40m and not moving to 80m, but maybe I just missed them when I took a quick break to work a few DX stations on 20m.
AI3G
KX-1 at 3 watts, antenna end fed wire indoors. Had fun again with QRP. Thanks to K4BAI for his patience with my signal.
WA8MTI
This time conditions were much improved. The FT817nd, T1 tuner and LDG 4:1 balun fed my 80m doublet on 80, 40 and 20. I used a 7AH battery for 5 watts. Think next month I'll just use the internal batteries and try 1 or 2.5w and get the weight down to 3lbs 12.5oz. Thanks to all who worked me and my rusty fist. Was using a newAmerican Morse Iambic key and after using a paddle for 40+ years, I just couldn't get the hang of it.
W1PID
I ran a DSW40 with 2 watts to an OCF dipole for about 20 minutes. Later I went on 20 meters with the tubby rig just for fun and to see how 20 was. I made 5 more QSOs, but didn't add them to my score. Thanks all. CU next month.
AF4O
My first Spartan Sprint. I have a place not far from my house on the edge of town behind an unused building at the edge of a long field. Ive been there several times for portable operation where going to the parks was not feasible. I wondered how long it would be before i got a visit from the PD. This time it happened. He said he was just checking out the vehicle. I told him what i was doing and showed him my HB-1A. He asked how far i had talked so far. I asked if i was harming anything and he did not mind at all, even saying he was sorry he bothered me. Of course i said he wasn't bothering me. I guess they have to check on nuts sitting in the back of their trucks behind abandoned buildings near dark :-). Antenna was a long wire about 65' with a approx 30 ground wire and L tuner. A short video on my youtube channel (plantopguy5) soon.
NQ2W
Started out on 10 meters - listened and called - nothing. Went to 15 meters - listened and called - nothing. Went to 20 meters and made 5 Q's. Down to 40 meters and made 8 more. New rig and antennas out in the weather make a big difference - 40/20-meter inverted vee/fan at 40 feet and 2-element phased 10-meter quad at 25 feet on roof mounted, 8-foot, homebrew quad tower - see FD '10 soapbox for picture. Cool set-up but I'm not completely satisfied, yet. Stay tuned as I'm thinking about some improvements...Thanks for hearing me and thanks to everyone that helps make this Sprint possible.
AE4TC
Had a great time. Was able to reduce my station weight this month with a smaller power supply and improved the number of contacts this Sprint. 19 total Q's, 3 on 20 and the rest on 40m with 12 different states. I was using a FT817, 5w into a Hustler vertical. Thanks!
W9CJS
80 M sounded dead but opened up an hour into the sprint. 40M was hopping the entire 2 hours. I use my IC-703 @ 5w. I'm amazed that some of the stations were running near 1 watt and I could hear them and work them. Like most ops I also have a 100 watt transceiver but there's something about the challenge of QRP that I enjoy.
WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5w with 40M EDZepp + 20m delta loop. All my Qs were on 20 and 40m. There were a couple I just could not pull out on 20m - my apologies. Usually, I only make one or two contacts with TX but this time there were 5. Activity seemed up a little - which is always good. Had fun.
K4ORD
Had company so only able to get on for last 46 minutes, nothing heard on 20m , on 40m made 9 QSO'S and on 80m made 1. Best dx was K7TQ, ID & AB0CD, CO. Rig, K2 @ 5W and ant's were 40M & 160M dipoles. Thanks to all, cu next month.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Soapbox Comments: June 2010 Spartan Sprint
K4PQC
Two watts using an A T S -3 and 160 Meter horizontal loop at 30.' Band conditions were fairly good on 20 meters (9 contacts) and just fair on 40 (6 contacts.) 15 total contacts with 8 different States including WA. Even though band conditions were good I was not able to start until just before the beginning of the second hour. Are the Spartan Sprints fun or what? Thanks to all who make them happen!
WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5w with 40M EDZepp + delta loops for 20, 15 & 10M. Nice to have Qs with the four corners: ME, WA, CA and FL. Most were on 20M with a few on 40M and one each on 10 and 15M - thanks to K4BAI. Worked John on 10, 15, and 40M, but never heard him on 20M. 80M yielded zip here. I tried to publicize the sprint locally (HLARC, AQRP, QRPadillos), but only worked one other Texan, W5ACM. I could hear folks working Scott, W5ESE, but I never even heard a whisper of his signal. Had fun.
K4ORD
The bands were in great shape, worked K4BAI on 5 bands and WA8ZBT on 3 20m,15m and 10m pays to check the higher bands this time of year you never know, HI. 80m, 1 QSO; 40m, 15 QSOs; 20m, 15 QSOs; 15m, 2 QSOs; and 10m, 1 QSO. Rig: K2 @ 5W. ANTs: 80m and 160m dipoles and 20m vee. Thanks to all and looking forward to the July sprint.
W5ESE
I used an AT Sprint 3 and a 300' Horizontal Loop this month. All contacts were on 20 meters. Conditions seems to be okay. Thanks everyone for the contacts.
K7TQ
Good time on 20 for first 1/2 hour. My 40 m antenna was down so that was end of this month's Spartan Sprint.
KD2MX
Not much time tonight but enjoyed what time I had to spend. Conditions on 20M were pretty good and signals were strong. Managed one QSO on 15m. 40M was very noisy and I didn't want to play there. Just used my FT-897 @5watts into the home big loop.
K5GQ
Dipole for both 20 & 40m. Signals were up and down on 20M. Just could not get a good run started. On 40 M there were thunder storms in the area; just enough static to make it hard to work stations. Then the rig developed a keying problem. It was an open on one of the legs in the SM connector. (Just when I was starting to work a few calls.) Worked three stations on both bands.
NQ2W
Started out with my Ten Tec 1340 but no one heard me - gotta check the alignment. In desperation I switched to the ole Icom-745 and made three Q's. Unfortunately, my weight more than tripled. Hopefully, next month will be better - most likely will be using a new rig hooked up to antennas that are actually outside.
AE4TC
Using a FT817 at 5w into a ground mounted Hustler 6BTV with 40 ground radials. 7 Q's on 40m and 6 Q's on 20m. I heard someone on 15 but not long enough to make a contact. Had a great time.
K4BAI
FT1000MP, 5W output, TH6DXX stuck south, 88' center fed zepp, 40M half wave dipole, 80M inverted vee dipole. Took 20 minutes out at 0200Z for a CW traffic net. All five bands were open. Thanks to K4ORD for the tip on 10 and 15M. QSOs per band: 80: 2; 40: 27; 20: 9; 15: 3; 10: 3. There didn't seem to be much of a skip zone and I was able to work NC, TN and FL on 20M and another GA station, AL, TN, NC, and FL on 40M. 40 and 80 had a lot of QRN and could find only K4ORD and WA8ZBT there. Had five band QSOs with K4ORD and WA8ZBT and also worked WB5BKL on 10 and 15M. Still could use more activity. Thanks for all QSOs and CU next month.
N4BP
Good opening on 20M. 40M very noisy with local thunderstorms.
W1PID
I ran an icom 7000 at 5W and an OCF dipole. Six QSOs on 20M, six QSOs on 40M and two QSOs on 80m. I operated for about half an hour. The bands aren't great, but the real issue is lack of participation. Thanks all.
W5ACM
Like so many previous months, I was hoping for some 20M activity, and I got it! Conditions on 20M were curious. I started on 20M, made some contacts, thought it was gone, went to 40M, got tired of the noise, and went back to 20M. MORE contacts! Finally, about 90 minutes into the event, I gave up, relented, and headed back to 40M. A VERY patient NF0R tried hard to get my call, but the batteries were headed south... I was down to 1W, and knew that if I kept trying, one or both of the LiPo's would die. That was it! Thanks to all! The ATS-3a and backyard vertical did well, even with some above-average CQ-calling ops. The two LiPo, 200 mAh batteries, held up well. The good news is that they survived, and will be good to go in July.
K5JHP
Bad night, lots of noise and only a few stations on, maybe better next month.
K6CSL
Bands 20 and 40 in very poor shape for this one. Almost every station heard here was weak and unstable with severe QSB.
Two watts using an A T S -3 and 160 Meter horizontal loop at 30.' Band conditions were fairly good on 20 meters (9 contacts) and just fair on 40 (6 contacts.) 15 total contacts with 8 different States including WA. Even though band conditions were good I was not able to start until just before the beginning of the second hour. Are the Spartan Sprints fun or what? Thanks to all who make them happen!
WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5w with 40M EDZepp + delta loops for 20, 15 & 10M. Nice to have Qs with the four corners: ME, WA, CA and FL. Most were on 20M with a few on 40M and one each on 10 and 15M - thanks to K4BAI. Worked John on 10, 15, and 40M, but never heard him on 20M. 80M yielded zip here. I tried to publicize the sprint locally (HLARC, AQRP, QRPadillos), but only worked one other Texan, W5ACM. I could hear folks working Scott, W5ESE, but I never even heard a whisper of his signal. Had fun.
K4ORD
The bands were in great shape, worked K4BAI on 5 bands and WA8ZBT on 3 20m,15m and 10m pays to check the higher bands this time of year you never know, HI. 80m, 1 QSO; 40m, 15 QSOs; 20m, 15 QSOs; 15m, 2 QSOs; and 10m, 1 QSO. Rig: K2 @ 5W. ANTs: 80m and 160m dipoles and 20m vee. Thanks to all and looking forward to the July sprint.
W5ESE
I used an AT Sprint 3 and a 300' Horizontal Loop this month. All contacts were on 20 meters. Conditions seems to be okay. Thanks everyone for the contacts.
K7TQ
Good time on 20 for first 1/2 hour. My 40 m antenna was down so that was end of this month's Spartan Sprint.
KD2MX
Not much time tonight but enjoyed what time I had to spend. Conditions on 20M were pretty good and signals were strong. Managed one QSO on 15m. 40M was very noisy and I didn't want to play there. Just used my FT-897 @5watts into the home big loop.
K5GQ
Dipole for both 20 & 40m. Signals were up and down on 20M. Just could not get a good run started. On 40 M there were thunder storms in the area; just enough static to make it hard to work stations. Then the rig developed a keying problem. It was an open on one of the legs in the SM connector. (Just when I was starting to work a few calls.) Worked three stations on both bands.
NQ2W
Started out with my Ten Tec 1340 but no one heard me - gotta check the alignment. In desperation I switched to the ole Icom-745 and made three Q's. Unfortunately, my weight more than tripled. Hopefully, next month will be better - most likely will be using a new rig hooked up to antennas that are actually outside.
AE4TC
Using a FT817 at 5w into a ground mounted Hustler 6BTV with 40 ground radials. 7 Q's on 40m and 6 Q's on 20m. I heard someone on 15 but not long enough to make a contact. Had a great time.
K4BAI
FT1000MP, 5W output, TH6DXX stuck south, 88' center fed zepp, 40M half wave dipole, 80M inverted vee dipole. Took 20 minutes out at 0200Z for a CW traffic net. All five bands were open. Thanks to K4ORD for the tip on 10 and 15M. QSOs per band: 80: 2; 40: 27; 20: 9; 15: 3; 10: 3. There didn't seem to be much of a skip zone and I was able to work NC, TN and FL on 20M and another GA station, AL, TN, NC, and FL on 40M. 40 and 80 had a lot of QRN and could find only K4ORD and WA8ZBT there. Had five band QSOs with K4ORD and WA8ZBT and also worked WB5BKL on 10 and 15M. Still could use more activity. Thanks for all QSOs and CU next month.
N4BP
Good opening on 20M. 40M very noisy with local thunderstorms.
W1PID
I ran an icom 7000 at 5W and an OCF dipole. Six QSOs on 20M, six QSOs on 40M and two QSOs on 80m. I operated for about half an hour. The bands aren't great, but the real issue is lack of participation. Thanks all.
W5ACM
Like so many previous months, I was hoping for some 20M activity, and I got it! Conditions on 20M were curious. I started on 20M, made some contacts, thought it was gone, went to 40M, got tired of the noise, and went back to 20M. MORE contacts! Finally, about 90 minutes into the event, I gave up, relented, and headed back to 40M. A VERY patient NF0R tried hard to get my call, but the batteries were headed south... I was down to 1W, and knew that if I kept trying, one or both of the LiPo's would die. That was it! Thanks to all! The ATS-3a and backyard vertical did well, even with some above-average CQ-calling ops. The two LiPo, 200 mAh batteries, held up well. The good news is that they survived, and will be good to go in July.
K5JHP
Bad night, lots of noise and only a few stations on, maybe better next month.
K6CSL
Bands 20 and 40 in very poor shape for this one. Almost every station heard here was weak and unstable with severe QSB.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Soapbox Comments: May 2010 Spartan Sprint
WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5w + 40M EDZepp + 20 delta loop. My son helped me hang a 20m wire delta loop which worked well once I remembered to switch to it. Most of my Qs were on 20M. 40 and 80m were not as productive here.I had one late Q (not included in my total) and two that were "odd." Worked K4BAI on three bands. Had fun.
K4PQC
Two watts using an ATS-3 and 160 Meter horizontal loop at 30'. Band conditions were fairly good on 40 meters (18 contacts) and just fair on 80 (4 contacts.) I apologize to K9VIY for failing to make contact, we tried 5 or 6 times calling each other never making an exchange....
W5ACM
Two days before the event, the key paddle on my ATS-3A micro-weight transceiver broke off. Since this 1/32"-thick plywood paddle is integral to the case, it was not something to be replaced, but repaired. A straight pin, some super glue and five-minute epoxy did the job. It was also a good opportunity to clean the copper-sheet key contacts and redo the alignment and spacing. Hopefully my CW sounded a bit cleaner for this Spartan Sprint. It was nice to make a few contacts on 20M prior to the obligatory move to 40M. Power out at the beginning of the two-hour period was 3W, and only declined to 2.5W by the end. The 200 mAh LiPo's are doing well. Four of the 12 stations worked were running less than 5W. That was good to hear!
W9CJS
Used the IC-703 on battery power. The low battery indicator came on just as the contest period ended. I surely enjoy the Spartan Sprints ... thanks to all.
K4ORD
Started on 20M made 11 qso''s in first 22 minutes then seemed to run out of new stations, on 40M made 12 contacts & on 80M made 8. Rig K2 @ 5w ants 160M & 40M dipoles and 20M wire vee beam. Thanks for all the QSOs.
NQ2W
I listened and called. I called and listened. Heard some stations but no one heard me. One station answered my CQ but I couldn't pull him out of the mud. Using a Ten Tec 1340 at 3W to a dipole in the attic wasn't cuttin' the mustard this time - antenna work is in process - maybe next month. Keep listenin.'
W2SH
This was my first sprint in quite a while. Only nine QSOs, but they comprised seven SPCs. Got a late start and 20m had already gone to bed. 40m was noisy but do-able. I managed three QSOs on 80m, but the noise was so bad that my ears hurt. Returning to 40m I found that the band had gone very long. There was Doc, KØEVZ, in NM, a very readable 559. I switched from my 80m dipole to the inverted L (85' up and 85' out, hung from a tall tree) I use on 160m and nailed him. It took me 20 minutes to bag my last contact. I could hear N6VOH in CA fairly well, but stations much closer to him, and not me, were getting answered. I kept calling, struggled through a couple of his QRZs, heard him sending pieces of my callsign, and finally, two minutes before the party ended, the QSO occurred. A big thank-you to Barry for hanging in with me. I went to bed a happy camper after getting my 5 Watts across those 2,428 miles.
K7RE
I used my ATS IIIB and 8 NIMH AA cells. Antenna on 20M was my triband beam up 30 feet. I cranked it down due to our high winds (55 MPH). On 40M I used a simple dipole inverted V up 40 feet at the center. Power out was about 3W. I haven't done this event in many months, and I was really happy getting back into the SP. If you need a QRP SD QSL, please send an SASE, or use LOTW.
KFØN
Rig: ATS-3B at 3 watts to a vertical 240' loop up 35 to 50 feet. The contest started out with some fairly bleak signal strengths on 20 Meters. Signal strengths varied during a single exchange from 579 to just below the noise much of the time and that caused some interesting conditions! I know I missed some guys who I simply could not copy. After a handful of contacts on 20M I QSY'ed to 40M which was the most productive watering hole for the evening. The QRN wasn't bad for May and gave 21 QSO's. My best DX for the evening was WA7OJY and N6VOH in California. Thanks for pulling my tiny signal out of the noise guys; I know it was more like ESP than a contest exchange! NU7T had a great 1-watt signal from Nevada and K7RE had a good 3-watt signal from South Dakota, both very rare states for QRPer's! All in all, a very enjoyable evening. Thanks so much to all who stopped by and made it a great contest. I hope we can do it again in June.
KF7ADB
K1 to EFHW up about 40’. Worked 20/40/80. Biggest signals were K4BAI, K4PQC, and K4ORD. Best DX was ABØCD in CO. Thanks for the QSOs. See you next month.
K4BAI
FT1000MP, 5W output, TH6DXX, zepp, inverted vee, dipole. 20 meters seemed almost dead before 0100Z, but it came alive around 14060 when the contest period started with good signals from New England west to MN, CO and TX. Stations as close as NC were workable, but most sprinters apparently skipped 20M. 8 QSOs in 18 mins on 20. 40 was pretty good all over with little discernable skip zone. QSOs made as far away as ON, NH, MN. CO. 31 QSOs in about one hour on 40M. 80M was noisy, but signals were pretty good. Worked from NJ to MN, IA, and TX. If more sprinters checked 80M, more QSOs would have been possible. 8 QSOs in about 45 minutes. Thanks for all QSOs and look forward to next month's sprint. Hope to meet many of you at Dayton.
W1PID
I operated for a half hour with an IC-7000 at 5 watts to an OCF dipole. Made 3 Qs on 20 meters and 4 Qs on 40 meters. Best DX was Brian K7RE in SD. Thanks to all.
K9UQN
7030 - 7040 filled with PSK-31 signals at my QTH. Makes for a tough sprint.
NG7Z
Got on for a few minutes near the end on 40M and worked K7RE, K6CSL, W7DFO, WB4YZA and VE7DSN. See you next month.
K6CSL
Bands are starting to be in a little better condition. I started out on 10M after hearing an Arizona Beacon there. I thought I might hear something on 15 when I checked there. Then I moved to 20 and worked MN and TX, then moved on to 40 and worked NV and WA. I was very surprized at the solid signal from NU7T in NV with 1W. I'll look forward to the next Spartan Sprint.
ABØCD
Great fun. 7Qs on 20 and 13Qs on 40. Glad to work Doc, KØEVZ. K-2 (S/N #00070) into homebrew 88-foot doublet at 25-feet fed with 300 ohm twin-lead/LDG 4:1 balun.
K3RLL
GA was loud down here tonight in FL, but heard little else.
WA8HSB
Business travel took me and my KX-1 to Elkton, MD this month. Both 20 & 40 were sketchy with a lot of QSB on 40. Thought I had a couple of contacts and then the signals went to ESP levels before we could complete the exchange. Next month will be better. Enjoyed the Sprint!
KB7MBI
Station was a Ten Tec Paragon II, 5 watts, GAP Titan vertical and Bencher straight key. KFØN was strongest station at a 579 most of the sprint. The few stations I heard were at or near the noise floor.
AB9CA/5
Was camped on the beach at South Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi, TX. About 100' from the water. Great place to spend a few days so long as the wind does not get too strong! The little Sony earbuds did a good job of blocking the never ending roar of the surf. You may have peace and solitude there, but you will not have quiet! Station was an ATS-3 at about 3w powered by an 8 pack of AA NiMH. Ant was elevated 20m vert. Did not have an antenna for any other band so stayed on 20 the whole time. The band was long but in fair shape. Ended up with 11 contacts and 11 SPC's. Don't recall ever having no dupes in the SPC list. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Worked everyone I could hear except one. KD6L/5 was copyable but never heard me. Closest was John, K4BAI, in GA. Did get both ME and CA. Obviously no pesky Texans from that QTH on 20. See ya' next month!
K3/10 @ 5w + 40M EDZepp + 20 delta loop. My son helped me hang a 20m wire delta loop which worked well once I remembered to switch to it. Most of my Qs were on 20M. 40 and 80m were not as productive here.I had one late Q (not included in my total) and two that were "odd." Worked K4BAI on three bands. Had fun.
K4PQC
Two watts using an ATS-3 and 160 Meter horizontal loop at 30'. Band conditions were fairly good on 40 meters (18 contacts) and just fair on 80 (4 contacts.) I apologize to K9VIY for failing to make contact, we tried 5 or 6 times calling each other never making an exchange....
W5ACM
Two days before the event, the key paddle on my ATS-3A micro-weight transceiver broke off. Since this 1/32"-thick plywood paddle is integral to the case, it was not something to be replaced, but repaired. A straight pin, some super glue and five-minute epoxy did the job. It was also a good opportunity to clean the copper-sheet key contacts and redo the alignment and spacing. Hopefully my CW sounded a bit cleaner for this Spartan Sprint. It was nice to make a few contacts on 20M prior to the obligatory move to 40M. Power out at the beginning of the two-hour period was 3W, and only declined to 2.5W by the end. The 200 mAh LiPo's are doing well. Four of the 12 stations worked were running less than 5W. That was good to hear!
W9CJS
Used the IC-703 on battery power. The low battery indicator came on just as the contest period ended. I surely enjoy the Spartan Sprints ... thanks to all.
K4ORD
Started on 20M made 11 qso''s in first 22 minutes then seemed to run out of new stations, on 40M made 12 contacts & on 80M made 8. Rig K2 @ 5w ants 160M & 40M dipoles and 20M wire vee beam. Thanks for all the QSOs.
NQ2W
I listened and called. I called and listened. Heard some stations but no one heard me. One station answered my CQ but I couldn't pull him out of the mud. Using a Ten Tec 1340 at 3W to a dipole in the attic wasn't cuttin' the mustard this time - antenna work is in process - maybe next month. Keep listenin.'
W2SH
This was my first sprint in quite a while. Only nine QSOs, but they comprised seven SPCs. Got a late start and 20m had already gone to bed. 40m was noisy but do-able. I managed three QSOs on 80m, but the noise was so bad that my ears hurt. Returning to 40m I found that the band had gone very long. There was Doc, KØEVZ, in NM, a very readable 559. I switched from my 80m dipole to the inverted L (85' up and 85' out, hung from a tall tree) I use on 160m and nailed him. It took me 20 minutes to bag my last contact. I could hear N6VOH in CA fairly well, but stations much closer to him, and not me, were getting answered. I kept calling, struggled through a couple of his QRZs, heard him sending pieces of my callsign, and finally, two minutes before the party ended, the QSO occurred. A big thank-you to Barry for hanging in with me. I went to bed a happy camper after getting my 5 Watts across those 2,428 miles.
K7RE
I used my ATS IIIB and 8 NIMH AA cells. Antenna on 20M was my triband beam up 30 feet. I cranked it down due to our high winds (55 MPH). On 40M I used a simple dipole inverted V up 40 feet at the center. Power out was about 3W. I haven't done this event in many months, and I was really happy getting back into the SP. If you need a QRP SD QSL, please send an SASE, or use LOTW.
KFØN
Rig: ATS-3B at 3 watts to a vertical 240' loop up 35 to 50 feet. The contest started out with some fairly bleak signal strengths on 20 Meters. Signal strengths varied during a single exchange from 579 to just below the noise much of the time and that caused some interesting conditions! I know I missed some guys who I simply could not copy. After a handful of contacts on 20M I QSY'ed to 40M which was the most productive watering hole for the evening. The QRN wasn't bad for May and gave 21 QSO's. My best DX for the evening was WA7OJY and N6VOH in California. Thanks for pulling my tiny signal out of the noise guys; I know it was more like ESP than a contest exchange! NU7T had a great 1-watt signal from Nevada and K7RE had a good 3-watt signal from South Dakota, both very rare states for QRPer's! All in all, a very enjoyable evening. Thanks so much to all who stopped by and made it a great contest. I hope we can do it again in June.
KF7ADB
K1 to EFHW up about 40’. Worked 20/40/80. Biggest signals were K4BAI, K4PQC, and K4ORD. Best DX was ABØCD in CO. Thanks for the QSOs. See you next month.
K4BAI
FT1000MP, 5W output, TH6DXX, zepp, inverted vee, dipole. 20 meters seemed almost dead before 0100Z, but it came alive around 14060 when the contest period started with good signals from New England west to MN, CO and TX. Stations as close as NC were workable, but most sprinters apparently skipped 20M. 8 QSOs in 18 mins on 20. 40 was pretty good all over with little discernable skip zone. QSOs made as far away as ON, NH, MN. CO. 31 QSOs in about one hour on 40M. 80M was noisy, but signals were pretty good. Worked from NJ to MN, IA, and TX. If more sprinters checked 80M, more QSOs would have been possible. 8 QSOs in about 45 minutes. Thanks for all QSOs and look forward to next month's sprint. Hope to meet many of you at Dayton.
W1PID
I operated for a half hour with an IC-7000 at 5 watts to an OCF dipole. Made 3 Qs on 20 meters and 4 Qs on 40 meters. Best DX was Brian K7RE in SD. Thanks to all.
K9UQN
7030 - 7040 filled with PSK-31 signals at my QTH. Makes for a tough sprint.
NG7Z
Got on for a few minutes near the end on 40M and worked K7RE, K6CSL, W7DFO, WB4YZA and VE7DSN. See you next month.
K6CSL
Bands are starting to be in a little better condition. I started out on 10M after hearing an Arizona Beacon there. I thought I might hear something on 15 when I checked there. Then I moved to 20 and worked MN and TX, then moved on to 40 and worked NV and WA. I was very surprized at the solid signal from NU7T in NV with 1W. I'll look forward to the next Spartan Sprint.
ABØCD
Great fun. 7Qs on 20 and 13Qs on 40. Glad to work Doc, KØEVZ. K-2 (S/N #00070) into homebrew 88-foot doublet at 25-feet fed with 300 ohm twin-lead/LDG 4:1 balun.
K3RLL
GA was loud down here tonight in FL, but heard little else.
WA8HSB
Business travel took me and my KX-1 to Elkton, MD this month. Both 20 & 40 were sketchy with a lot of QSB on 40. Thought I had a couple of contacts and then the signals went to ESP levels before we could complete the exchange. Next month will be better. Enjoyed the Sprint!
KB7MBI
Station was a Ten Tec Paragon II, 5 watts, GAP Titan vertical and Bencher straight key. KFØN was strongest station at a 579 most of the sprint. The few stations I heard were at or near the noise floor.
AB9CA/5
Was camped on the beach at South Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi, TX. About 100' from the water. Great place to spend a few days so long as the wind does not get too strong! The little Sony earbuds did a good job of blocking the never ending roar of the surf. You may have peace and solitude there, but you will not have quiet! Station was an ATS-3 at about 3w powered by an 8 pack of AA NiMH. Ant was elevated 20m vert. Did not have an antenna for any other band so stayed on 20 the whole time. The band was long but in fair shape. Ended up with 11 contacts and 11 SPC's. Don't recall ever having no dupes in the SPC list. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Worked everyone I could hear except one. KD6L/5 was copyable but never heard me. Closest was John, K4BAI, in GA. Did get both ME and CA. Obviously no pesky Texans from that QTH on 20. See ya' next month!
Friday, April 9, 2010
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