For an enlarged view, please click on the Scoreboard
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Soapbox: February 2014 Spartan Sprint
W1PID
Darned near forgot the sprint! Operated for six minutes. 20 was dead.Worked W5ACM, K4BAI, N5GW and K3RLL on 40. Nothing on 80. No matter how bleak... it's still a lot of fun. Ran the Icom 7000 at 5W with an OCF dipole.
K3RLL
Lots of digital signals on 40 tonight but heard more Spartan Sprinters than heard me. Guess I’m going to have to turn that vertical in a different direction.
K5JHP
Prop was not good for this location. Hope for better next month.
AD4J
This was my first Spartan Sprint since 2002. This time, I operated in the Tubby category with K3 and a 67' doublet up 75, but look forward to making a Skinny category entry soon. Thanks to all who participated.
W5ACM
Still using the ATS-3 with three 300 mAh LiPo batteries, providing 5W out to my antique 18AVQ vertical and a final total of 16 QSOs this month. I had a GREAT TIME with excellent 40M conditions. Once again, however, I had ZERO contacts on 20M. The band was absolutely dead from Houston. I parked on 40M for the first hour and had fun, even with KillerWatt station W1AW/0. My ears and earbuds are still ringing! I made 11 contacts on 40M before moving on. Conditions on 80M were also acceptable, but I only managed five contacts there, finishing the event with folks like WB5BKL, K4BAI and K5JHP. I spent a lot of time calling CQ. The batteries survived the abuse, but it was close. When I got to less than 3 VDC per cell, I shut it down - about 10 minutes before the end of the event. Always hoping for more 20M ops!
KG3W
My regular G5RV is KAPUT do to sun damage and cold wx. The feedline just crumbled. Put up a temporary resonant dipole to 40 mtrs. SWR is 1.4 , so I went single band and ditched the 5 oz. T1 tuner I was using. HB1B @ 4 watts. Heard alot more than heard me. HI ! Only worked 5 stations. Worked Ga. Mn. Tx. Fl. and Ms. Couldn't work any locals on 40. Had a good time though. Thanks ! Always FUN.
WA5BUC
Tuned 20. Nothing. 80 was too noisy. Spent the night on a very quite (QRN- & QRM-wise) 40. Thanks to WB0SD, K4BAI, and AD4J. Band must have been somewhat long. Heard no other Texas stations. Rig: FT-817 5w to a 33' end fed wire. Best 72's de Houston.
K4BAI
20M seemed almost dead at the start and my antenna for that band is kaput, so I started on 40M. 25 QSOs in about 70 minutes. 10 QSOs on 80M in the last 50 minutes. Bands were in pretty good shape. Worked CA and NH on 40M and as close in as FL. On 80M, no west coast heard and the NY stations were weak, but closer in were quite strong and noise was low on both bands. Hope to work many of you as W1AW/4 in GA.
WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5W to a 40M dipole or a 40M EDZepp. Only 10 states this time. No luck on 15 or 20M. Curious, since the RBN showed me getting out OK on 20M. Worked only two stations on two bands: N5GW and K4BAI. Had trouble hearing Will, NQ2W who is usually strong on 80M - but got KB8F at 1W from OH! TX stations were pounding in here on 80M. WA8ZBT again had the best signal of the evening. My thanks to all. Had fun.
N5GW
K1 with internal ATU, micropaddles and Sony headphones on 800 mAh LiPO to 50' T and 80' vertical antennas. The K1 had been throttled back to 2W so as to allow the battery to last two hours. 40M sounded pretty good here for a change. After the first hour I moved to 80M which also was in good shape. I was able to work CA on both bands. My 29 QSO's are the most I can remember on SS. I hope to hear you all next month, maybe on 20M.
KFØN
The rig was an ATS-3 powered by a set of 8 AAA cells. The antenna here a random end-fed wire to a maple tree in the back yard. I am still battling a horrific line noise problem and if I missed any of you, that is probably the reason. Only six stations poked above the noise enough to be copied! N5GW had a nice 2-watt signal from Missippi. It was a fun night though; thanks to all who participated!
NQ2W
K1 at 5 W to an inverted vee at 40 ft for 40 m and a ground mounted, home-brewed, near bottom-loaded vertical for 80 m. I should have by-passed the tuner again this month because 20 m didn't produce any contacts...but I didn't, so my weight is back up. I did use a new paddle that I home-brewed from stuff I've been collecting. It uses magnetic repulsion to open the contacts - not too pretty but it seems to work okay. I ended up making 10 QSOs on 40 and 7 on 80. Signals weren't that strong except for AD4J - loud on both bands. Also worked N5GW on both bands. Looking forward to next month. Thanks for the opportunity!
W3KC
Band conditions were not very favorable here, but managed to make a few contacts on 40 and 80.
WA5RML
FlexRadio 1500 @5 wts to G5RV (80/40M); Weight of 15.2 lbs includes laptop, power supply, Vibroplex Code Warrior paddles, FlexControl knob, and AT-100 ATU. First Spartan Sprint this year! 13 QSOs included: (a) 40M – N5GW (Gene), NQ2W (Will), K4BAI (John), NK6A (Don), WB9G (Chris), AD4J (Jim), N8NA (Karl), and KF0N (Larry) and (b) 80M – WA8ZBT (Dennis), N5GW (Gene, again!), K5JHP (Bill), W5ACM (Andy) and WB5BKL (Nick). Seven (7) states - CA, DE, GA. IA, MS, NY and TX. Best signals of the evening goes to WA8ZBT and WB5BKL pounding into the Dallas/Ft. Worth area with true honest-to-goodness 599 signals on 80 mtrs! Most rewarding QSO – KF0N – Larry and I had to work very hard to complete the QSO – lots of repeats. It was neat to see the ebb and flow of signal levels near the noise level on that one! One that got away – Jim, AD4J. I worked him on 40M, and also heard him on 80M, but couldn’t work him! Hope to see everyone next month!
Darned near forgot the sprint! Operated for six minutes. 20 was dead.Worked W5ACM, K4BAI, N5GW and K3RLL on 40. Nothing on 80. No matter how bleak... it's still a lot of fun. Ran the Icom 7000 at 5W with an OCF dipole.
K3RLL
Lots of digital signals on 40 tonight but heard more Spartan Sprinters than heard me. Guess I’m going to have to turn that vertical in a different direction.
K5JHP
Prop was not good for this location. Hope for better next month.
AD4J
This was my first Spartan Sprint since 2002. This time, I operated in the Tubby category with K3 and a 67' doublet up 75, but look forward to making a Skinny category entry soon. Thanks to all who participated.
W5ACM
Still using the ATS-3 with three 300 mAh LiPo batteries, providing 5W out to my antique 18AVQ vertical and a final total of 16 QSOs this month. I had a GREAT TIME with excellent 40M conditions. Once again, however, I had ZERO contacts on 20M. The band was absolutely dead from Houston. I parked on 40M for the first hour and had fun, even with KillerWatt station W1AW/0. My ears and earbuds are still ringing! I made 11 contacts on 40M before moving on. Conditions on 80M were also acceptable, but I only managed five contacts there, finishing the event with folks like WB5BKL, K4BAI and K5JHP. I spent a lot of time calling CQ. The batteries survived the abuse, but it was close. When I got to less than 3 VDC per cell, I shut it down - about 10 minutes before the end of the event. Always hoping for more 20M ops!
KG3W
My regular G5RV is KAPUT do to sun damage and cold wx. The feedline just crumbled. Put up a temporary resonant dipole to 40 mtrs. SWR is 1.4 , so I went single band and ditched the 5 oz. T1 tuner I was using. HB1B @ 4 watts. Heard alot more than heard me. HI ! Only worked 5 stations. Worked Ga. Mn. Tx. Fl. and Ms. Couldn't work any locals on 40. Had a good time though. Thanks ! Always FUN.
WA5BUC
Tuned 20. Nothing. 80 was too noisy. Spent the night on a very quite (QRN- & QRM-wise) 40. Thanks to WB0SD, K4BAI, and AD4J. Band must have been somewhat long. Heard no other Texas stations. Rig: FT-817 5w to a 33' end fed wire. Best 72's de Houston.
K4BAI
20M seemed almost dead at the start and my antenna for that band is kaput, so I started on 40M. 25 QSOs in about 70 minutes. 10 QSOs on 80M in the last 50 minutes. Bands were in pretty good shape. Worked CA and NH on 40M and as close in as FL. On 80M, no west coast heard and the NY stations were weak, but closer in were quite strong and noise was low on both bands. Hope to work many of you as W1AW/4 in GA.
WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5W to a 40M dipole or a 40M EDZepp. Only 10 states this time. No luck on 15 or 20M. Curious, since the RBN showed me getting out OK on 20M. Worked only two stations on two bands: N5GW and K4BAI. Had trouble hearing Will, NQ2W who is usually strong on 80M - but got KB8F at 1W from OH! TX stations were pounding in here on 80M. WA8ZBT again had the best signal of the evening. My thanks to all. Had fun.
N5GW
K1 with internal ATU, micropaddles and Sony headphones on 800 mAh LiPO to 50' T and 80' vertical antennas. The K1 had been throttled back to 2W so as to allow the battery to last two hours. 40M sounded pretty good here for a change. After the first hour I moved to 80M which also was in good shape. I was able to work CA on both bands. My 29 QSO's are the most I can remember on SS. I hope to hear you all next month, maybe on 20M.
KFØN
The rig was an ATS-3 powered by a set of 8 AAA cells. The antenna here a random end-fed wire to a maple tree in the back yard. I am still battling a horrific line noise problem and if I missed any of you, that is probably the reason. Only six stations poked above the noise enough to be copied! N5GW had a nice 2-watt signal from Missippi. It was a fun night though; thanks to all who participated!
NQ2W
K1 at 5 W to an inverted vee at 40 ft for 40 m and a ground mounted, home-brewed, near bottom-loaded vertical for 80 m. I should have by-passed the tuner again this month because 20 m didn't produce any contacts...but I didn't, so my weight is back up. I did use a new paddle that I home-brewed from stuff I've been collecting. It uses magnetic repulsion to open the contacts - not too pretty but it seems to work okay. I ended up making 10 QSOs on 40 and 7 on 80. Signals weren't that strong except for AD4J - loud on both bands. Also worked N5GW on both bands. Looking forward to next month. Thanks for the opportunity!
W3KC
Band conditions were not very favorable here, but managed to make a few contacts on 40 and 80.
WA5RML
FlexRadio 1500 @5 wts to G5RV (80/40M); Weight of 15.2 lbs includes laptop, power supply, Vibroplex Code Warrior paddles, FlexControl knob, and AT-100 ATU. First Spartan Sprint this year! 13 QSOs included: (a) 40M – N5GW (Gene), NQ2W (Will), K4BAI (John), NK6A (Don), WB9G (Chris), AD4J (Jim), N8NA (Karl), and KF0N (Larry) and (b) 80M – WA8ZBT (Dennis), N5GW (Gene, again!), K5JHP (Bill), W5ACM (Andy) and WB5BKL (Nick). Seven (7) states - CA, DE, GA. IA, MS, NY and TX. Best signals of the evening goes to WA8ZBT and WB5BKL pounding into the Dallas/Ft. Worth area with true honest-to-goodness 599 signals on 80 mtrs! Most rewarding QSO – KF0N – Larry and I had to work very hard to complete the QSO – lots of repeats. It was neat to see the ebb and flow of signal levels near the noise level on that one! One that got away – Jim, AD4J. I worked him on 40M, and also heard him on 80M, but couldn’t work him! Hope to see everyone next month!
Sunday, January 12, 2014
January 2014 Spartan Sprint: Scoreboard
(For an enlarged view, please click on the Scoreboard image.)
January 2014 Spartan Sprint: Soapbox
KD5KC
A new year, a new call sign, and a new radio. I have been working on this radio for several months now. I think I can reduce the weight a little more still, but it was time to give it a go. Before the sprint, the radio only had 2 contacts on it. I was surprised that one 350 mah Li-Po lasted the whole contest! Sending with an itty-bitty straight key is tough. I started out on 20m, but there was nothing to hear, 20m was closed for my location. Switched to 40m at about 0215 UTC, and the first station I caught was W1AW/4 in NC calling CQ. Also caught a PV8 down low, and 4 Spartan Sprinters in MS, TX, MD and CA for 6 total before giving up on 40m. 80m was a little rough, but I was able to pull out 7 Spartan Sprinters in TX, TX, GA, CA, OK and TX before working all I could on 80m. With about 10 minutes left, I went back to 40m and caught one non-sprint station in KY calling CQ. I hope the bands are better next month.
NK9G
Just running the new KX3 through the paces. Wished there would have been more participation. Will try next month.
K3RLL
With amazing SFI tonight, I expected signals to be louder but happy for the contacts and the chance to work both old friends and new tonight.
NKØE
First sprint for me in a while, first with my new KX3.
Conditions didn't seem that great tonight--had to work to pull out some weak signals. Love the KX3 receiver, Though! Thanks to everyone on the air tonight!
W5IQS
First try at Spartan Sprint. Lots of fun. Rig was K2 at 5W to a wire fan dipole up 30 feet. Key used is an old Navy flame proof. Made 2 contacts on 20 meters, 8 on 40 meters and 12 on 80 meters. It was interesting to work several old friends. Counted K4BAI and WB5BKL on 20, 40 and 80 meters.
WVØH
SP was fun this month with signals up better than usual. I didn't try 20 but started a bit late (again), so I went to 40 and then down to 80 around 0300Z or so. Good signals from K4BAI on 80 considering all my local noise. W5ACM must have been running his negative two ounce rig suspended with helium balloons! I would like to get an ATAS someday. My 40/80 inverted L seems to be holding out but could use more radials. Never enough radials. I had 17 QSOs with a station weight of 2.2377 lbs.
K50T
I think it was 2006 or 2007 when I last was in a Spartan Sprint. Can it be that long ago? Nice to work some familiar calls along with some new ones too. Thanks for the QSOs.
K6XM
No one heard on 20. QSOs were pretty evenly split between 40 and 80 with several two banders. Many familiar calls and a few new ones. I always enjoy working the QRP fraternity. Thanks to all for a fun evening.
K4BAI
FT1000MP, 5W, dipole, inverted vee. 20M seemed dead at the start of the Sprint except for one Antarctic area station down the band. 40M was long at the start and went longer. Worked everyone I heard except W3KC. We called each other at different times, but made no QSO. Nice to work three CA stations on 40 and one (K6XM) on 80M. 80M was good to everywhere, but there was no activity heard there in the first hour and every one heard there was worked. Totals by band: 40: 12. 80: 14.
Thanks for all QSOs and Happy New Year to all.
N5GW
K1 at 3W with internal ATU and 80/40 board, 800 mAh LiPO battery, Sony headphones, micropaddles, CFZ over big oak limb apex at 50' in inverted vee config. Bands in fair shape, very quiet after big cold front. Battery went down after 1 hr 20 min - next time use 2W and H&P.
W3KC
Good night to be in the shack with wind howling and temps diving. Contacts about evenly distributed between 40 and 80 meter bands with nothing heard on 20. Using IC-703 and zs6bkw doublet.
W5ACM
Still using the ATS-3 with three 300 mAh LiPo batteries, providing 5W out to my antique 18AVQ vertical and a final total of 13 QSOs this month. I had a GREAT TIME but it wasn't easy. Once again, I had ZERO contacts on 20M. The band was absolutely dead from Houston. I found 40M conditions to be adequate and good for eight contacts. Conditions on 80M were also acceptable, but I only managed five contacts there, finishing the event with a very patient WV0H. I spent a lot of time calling CQ. The
batteries survived the abuse, but it was close. As I have noted before, there are no protection circuits on these batteries (extra weight). If you run them down below 2.2 VDC each, they die. I was down to 2.7 VDC per cell at the end. Always hoping for more 20M ops!
KFØN
Wow; an astonishing six QSO’s! I ‘m not sure if activity was this low or my local noise level of +10DB over S-9 covered up most of the guys! If I missed any of you, I am so sorry, but this was probably the reason. I guess from now on I’ll have to put ye old noise canceler ahead of the ATS-3 but I hope I don’t have to include the weight of the thing! Hi, Hi. Conditions seemed decent though. I was able to work both east coast (K3RLL, Florida) and west coast (K6XM, CA) with the 3-watt peanut whistle which surprised me. Thanks to both of you for pulling me out of your local front-end mud! It was a great contest, though, and I hope to see more the gang in February.
NK6A
I had a S5 noise level on all bands. Could only manage 7Q's and five states. I could only hear a few stations out here on the left coast. All on 40M.
NQ2W
K1 at 5 W to an inverted vee at 40 ft for 40 m and a ground mounted, home-brewed, near bottom-loaded vertical for 80 m. Realizing that 20 m would most likely be empty at the start of the sprint, I decided to by-pass my tuner and use the K1's internal keyer to more than halve my station weight. Definitely stepped outside my comfort zone. My homebrewed paddle acted up occasionally and the band conditions weren't that great so, needless to say, it was a challenging sprint. 6 Qs on 40 and 4 on 80 were completed. Had two-banders with N5GW and K5OT. Almost had a two-bander with K4BAI but I never heard him after my exchange on 80 so I don't know if he copied my info. Wish we could rattle up more activity...hope to see everyone next month ...invite a friend!
WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5W to a 20M wire delta loop, a 40M dipole or a 40M EDZepp. 11 states this time. Tried 15 but no luck there. Worked only two stations on 20, 40 and 80M: K5OT who is pretty close and W5IQS who is even closer. One station reported 80W (I didn't count him), another 4W and four others 3W. Best signal by far was WA8ZBT. My thanks and a HNY to all. Had fun.
KA6AIL
My first time on this sprint. Had a great time, and will try it again next month.
WB8LZG
FT 990 @ 7w to dipole @ 35ft.
A new year, a new call sign, and a new radio. I have been working on this radio for several months now. I think I can reduce the weight a little more still, but it was time to give it a go. Before the sprint, the radio only had 2 contacts on it. I was surprised that one 350 mah Li-Po lasted the whole contest! Sending with an itty-bitty straight key is tough. I started out on 20m, but there was nothing to hear, 20m was closed for my location. Switched to 40m at about 0215 UTC, and the first station I caught was W1AW/4 in NC calling CQ. Also caught a PV8 down low, and 4 Spartan Sprinters in MS, TX, MD and CA for 6 total before giving up on 40m. 80m was a little rough, but I was able to pull out 7 Spartan Sprinters in TX, TX, GA, CA, OK and TX before working all I could on 80m. With about 10 minutes left, I went back to 40m and caught one non-sprint station in KY calling CQ. I hope the bands are better next month.
NK9G
Just running the new KX3 through the paces. Wished there would have been more participation. Will try next month.
K3RLL
With amazing SFI tonight, I expected signals to be louder but happy for the contacts and the chance to work both old friends and new tonight.
NKØE
First sprint for me in a while, first with my new KX3.
Conditions didn't seem that great tonight--had to work to pull out some weak signals. Love the KX3 receiver, Though! Thanks to everyone on the air tonight!
W5IQS
First try at Spartan Sprint. Lots of fun. Rig was K2 at 5W to a wire fan dipole up 30 feet. Key used is an old Navy flame proof. Made 2 contacts on 20 meters, 8 on 40 meters and 12 on 80 meters. It was interesting to work several old friends. Counted K4BAI and WB5BKL on 20, 40 and 80 meters.
WVØH
SP was fun this month with signals up better than usual. I didn't try 20 but started a bit late (again), so I went to 40 and then down to 80 around 0300Z or so. Good signals from K4BAI on 80 considering all my local noise. W5ACM must have been running his negative two ounce rig suspended with helium balloons! I would like to get an ATAS someday. My 40/80 inverted L seems to be holding out but could use more radials. Never enough radials. I had 17 QSOs with a station weight of 2.2377 lbs.
K50T
I think it was 2006 or 2007 when I last was in a Spartan Sprint. Can it be that long ago? Nice to work some familiar calls along with some new ones too. Thanks for the QSOs.
K6XM
No one heard on 20. QSOs were pretty evenly split between 40 and 80 with several two banders. Many familiar calls and a few new ones. I always enjoy working the QRP fraternity. Thanks to all for a fun evening.
K4BAI
FT1000MP, 5W, dipole, inverted vee. 20M seemed dead at the start of the Sprint except for one Antarctic area station down the band. 40M was long at the start and went longer. Worked everyone I heard except W3KC. We called each other at different times, but made no QSO. Nice to work three CA stations on 40 and one (K6XM) on 80M. 80M was good to everywhere, but there was no activity heard there in the first hour and every one heard there was worked. Totals by band: 40: 12. 80: 14.
Thanks for all QSOs and Happy New Year to all.
N5GW
K1 at 3W with internal ATU and 80/40 board, 800 mAh LiPO battery, Sony headphones, micropaddles, CFZ over big oak limb apex at 50' in inverted vee config. Bands in fair shape, very quiet after big cold front. Battery went down after 1 hr 20 min - next time use 2W and H&P.
W3KC
Good night to be in the shack with wind howling and temps diving. Contacts about evenly distributed between 40 and 80 meter bands with nothing heard on 20. Using IC-703 and zs6bkw doublet.
W5ACM
Still using the ATS-3 with three 300 mAh LiPo batteries, providing 5W out to my antique 18AVQ vertical and a final total of 13 QSOs this month. I had a GREAT TIME but it wasn't easy. Once again, I had ZERO contacts on 20M. The band was absolutely dead from Houston. I found 40M conditions to be adequate and good for eight contacts. Conditions on 80M were also acceptable, but I only managed five contacts there, finishing the event with a very patient WV0H. I spent a lot of time calling CQ. The
batteries survived the abuse, but it was close. As I have noted before, there are no protection circuits on these batteries (extra weight). If you run them down below 2.2 VDC each, they die. I was down to 2.7 VDC per cell at the end. Always hoping for more 20M ops!
KFØN
Wow; an astonishing six QSO’s! I ‘m not sure if activity was this low or my local noise level of +10DB over S-9 covered up most of the guys! If I missed any of you, I am so sorry, but this was probably the reason. I guess from now on I’ll have to put ye old noise canceler ahead of the ATS-3 but I hope I don’t have to include the weight of the thing! Hi, Hi. Conditions seemed decent though. I was able to work both east coast (K3RLL, Florida) and west coast (K6XM, CA) with the 3-watt peanut whistle which surprised me. Thanks to both of you for pulling me out of your local front-end mud! It was a great contest, though, and I hope to see more the gang in February.
NK6A
I had a S5 noise level on all bands. Could only manage 7Q's and five states. I could only hear a few stations out here on the left coast. All on 40M.
NQ2W
K1 at 5 W to an inverted vee at 40 ft for 40 m and a ground mounted, home-brewed, near bottom-loaded vertical for 80 m. Realizing that 20 m would most likely be empty at the start of the sprint, I decided to by-pass my tuner and use the K1's internal keyer to more than halve my station weight. Definitely stepped outside my comfort zone. My homebrewed paddle acted up occasionally and the band conditions weren't that great so, needless to say, it was a challenging sprint. 6 Qs on 40 and 4 on 80 were completed. Had two-banders with N5GW and K5OT. Almost had a two-bander with K4BAI but I never heard him after my exchange on 80 so I don't know if he copied my info. Wish we could rattle up more activity...hope to see everyone next month ...invite a friend!
WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5W to a 20M wire delta loop, a 40M dipole or a 40M EDZepp. 11 states this time. Tried 15 but no luck there. Worked only two stations on 20, 40 and 80M: K5OT who is pretty close and W5IQS who is even closer. One station reported 80W (I didn't count him), another 4W and four others 3W. Best signal by far was WA8ZBT. My thanks and a HNY to all. Had fun.
KA6AIL
My first time on this sprint. Had a great time, and will try it again next month.
WB8LZG
FT 990 @ 7w to dipole @ 35ft.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Soapbox: December 2013 Spartan Sprint
K3RLL
In order to operate from any room in the house, I was trying my KX3 through RG6 TV house wiring patched to my attic dipole, so my signal may not have been totally ‘thundering’ tonight. Didn’t hear anyone on 20 meters. My thanks to those who pulled me out of the noise on 40 meters. Was delighted to be heard by our Buddies in the
Caribbean on St. Lucia during the Sprint, but AA4W our local QRPer was not the op at this hour.
K7TQ
A tough night! Nothing on 20 and only heard or worked a few on 40. 80 finally had some activity after 0330Z. Got Nick, WB5BKL, and John, K4BAI, on 40 and 80. Ron, WVØH, had a nice 80 m signal. I hope January is better. Catch you all next month.
VE3DTI
Second Spartan Sprint. KX3 at 5W with vertical wire at 43 ft. Just enough to be in the log thanks to Charles W3KC "CQ SP" in 80m. His was the only station I was able to work: nothing heard in 40m and higher bands start to close early at this time of the year here up north.
WA4ZOF
Very noisy at my QTH . Argonaut VI , SLA battery , OCF 160 mtr ant . very heavy iambic key.
N5EM
PSK (interference) really pesky this month. Really glad for narrow filters.
WVØH
This was a weaky squeaky sprint that only produced 10-QSOs for me. 1 on 40m and the rest on 80m. Very weak signals from coastal stations and central U.S. stations were a bit better.
K4BAI
20M almost dead to USA. Two QSOs in TX. 40M pretty good most places, but some TX stations couldn't hear me. 80M quite good, but little activity. Nice to work out to NM and ID on 80M. Hope for more activity next month.
AB9CA
Used the FT-857 rather than the usual K2. Antenna was the usual 100' wire. Due to other activity had only limited time. Did not make the first Q until 0234. Listened on 20 for a couple of minutes but heard nothing and went to 40. Ended up with 10 contacts on 40 and 5 on 80. The noise did not seem too bad but condx did not seem good. Most signals were weak and difficult copy. 80 seemed to be in pretty good shape but not many there. Thanks to all for the fun and see you next month.
K5JHP
Band condx here is south Texas was really bad. I did manage to work K4BAI on all three bands, 80,40, and 20. Thanks, John. Hope to be back next month.
W5ACM
Still using the ATS-3 with three 300 mAh LiPo batteries, providing 5W out and a final total of 14 QSOs this month (down 2 from November). I thought it was going to be a BUST. NOTHING heard on 20M, and most of the 40M QSOs were "local", i.e. TX, MS, AL and NM. However, things got interesting with stations like C6AKQ, N3FCS, W3KC, K4BAI and WVØH. It took a lot of work, but 40M and 80M DID provide some nice contacts. In the end, I had a GREAT TIME! Hoping for some 20M ops next time.
N5GW
K1 with internal ATU and micropaddles plus 800 mAh LiPO battery to a 90' vertical with counterpoise of metal carport roof (my 160M antenna). I made more contacts on 80M than 40M. Didn't even listen on 20M. 80M is getting into good shape this time of year, although QSB was noticeable. I was finally able to work K7TQ out in Idaho, but heard nothing else out west.
C6AKQ (N4BP)
Spending three weeks in Freeport, Grand Bahama. Unfortunately noise levels were very high during the Spartan Sprint and gave it up after a half hour. Using K3 @ 5W to inverted-V @ 80ft.
NQ2W
K1 at 5W to an inverted vee at 40ft for 40m and a ground mounted, home-brewed, near bottom-loaded vertical for 80m. Started on 20 - nothing. Moved to 40 and worked pretty hard to make 3 QSOs. Changed the filter board in the K1 and was able to make 6 more QSOs on 80. Band conditions here were not favorable, to put it mildly. W3KC was strong on 80. Had a two-bander with K4BAI. Hoping for better conditions and more participation to start off the new year! Happy Holidays!
W3KC
A fun and interesting event. QSOs here were about evenly split between 40 and 80 meters with nothing heard on 20 meters.
WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5W to a wire delta loop, a 40M dipole or a 40M EDZepp. 13 states this time with QSOs split roughly evenly between 40 and 80M - except for one lonely QSO with K4BAI on 20M. Got John on 3 bands. Had to work for most of the Qs with only a few strong signals from NM and TX. Best of the holiday season to everyone - and to the Adventure Radio Society. Had fun.
KK4DMT
I believe this may be my second Sprint. I was on for just the first hour. Heard only two stations calling and contacted only one. Was using KX3 at 5watts into an end-fed wire. Hope to do better next month.
In order to operate from any room in the house, I was trying my KX3 through RG6 TV house wiring patched to my attic dipole, so my signal may not have been totally ‘thundering’ tonight. Didn’t hear anyone on 20 meters. My thanks to those who pulled me out of the noise on 40 meters. Was delighted to be heard by our Buddies in the
Caribbean on St. Lucia during the Sprint, but AA4W our local QRPer was not the op at this hour.
K7TQ
A tough night! Nothing on 20 and only heard or worked a few on 40. 80 finally had some activity after 0330Z. Got Nick, WB5BKL, and John, K4BAI, on 40 and 80. Ron, WVØH, had a nice 80 m signal. I hope January is better. Catch you all next month.
VE3DTI
Second Spartan Sprint. KX3 at 5W with vertical wire at 43 ft. Just enough to be in the log thanks to Charles W3KC "CQ SP" in 80m. His was the only station I was able to work: nothing heard in 40m and higher bands start to close early at this time of the year here up north.
WA4ZOF
Very noisy at my QTH . Argonaut VI , SLA battery , OCF 160 mtr ant . very heavy iambic key.
N5EM
PSK (interference) really pesky this month. Really glad for narrow filters.
WVØH
This was a weaky squeaky sprint that only produced 10-QSOs for me. 1 on 40m and the rest on 80m. Very weak signals from coastal stations and central U.S. stations were a bit better.
K4BAI
20M almost dead to USA. Two QSOs in TX. 40M pretty good most places, but some TX stations couldn't hear me. 80M quite good, but little activity. Nice to work out to NM and ID on 80M. Hope for more activity next month.
AB9CA
Used the FT-857 rather than the usual K2. Antenna was the usual 100' wire. Due to other activity had only limited time. Did not make the first Q until 0234. Listened on 20 for a couple of minutes but heard nothing and went to 40. Ended up with 10 contacts on 40 and 5 on 80. The noise did not seem too bad but condx did not seem good. Most signals were weak and difficult copy. 80 seemed to be in pretty good shape but not many there. Thanks to all for the fun and see you next month.
K5JHP
Band condx here is south Texas was really bad. I did manage to work K4BAI on all three bands, 80,40, and 20. Thanks, John. Hope to be back next month.
W5ACM
Still using the ATS-3 with three 300 mAh LiPo batteries, providing 5W out and a final total of 14 QSOs this month (down 2 from November). I thought it was going to be a BUST. NOTHING heard on 20M, and most of the 40M QSOs were "local", i.e. TX, MS, AL and NM. However, things got interesting with stations like C6AKQ, N3FCS, W3KC, K4BAI and WVØH. It took a lot of work, but 40M and 80M DID provide some nice contacts. In the end, I had a GREAT TIME! Hoping for some 20M ops next time.
N5GW
K1 with internal ATU and micropaddles plus 800 mAh LiPO battery to a 90' vertical with counterpoise of metal carport roof (my 160M antenna). I made more contacts on 80M than 40M. Didn't even listen on 20M. 80M is getting into good shape this time of year, although QSB was noticeable. I was finally able to work K7TQ out in Idaho, but heard nothing else out west.
C6AKQ (N4BP)
Spending three weeks in Freeport, Grand Bahama. Unfortunately noise levels were very high during the Spartan Sprint and gave it up after a half hour. Using K3 @ 5W to inverted-V @ 80ft.
NQ2W
K1 at 5W to an inverted vee at 40ft for 40m and a ground mounted, home-brewed, near bottom-loaded vertical for 80m. Started on 20 - nothing. Moved to 40 and worked pretty hard to make 3 QSOs. Changed the filter board in the K1 and was able to make 6 more QSOs on 80. Band conditions here were not favorable, to put it mildly. W3KC was strong on 80. Had a two-bander with K4BAI. Hoping for better conditions and more participation to start off the new year! Happy Holidays!
W3KC
A fun and interesting event. QSOs here were about evenly split between 40 and 80 meters with nothing heard on 20 meters.
WB5BKL
K3/10 @ 5W to a wire delta loop, a 40M dipole or a 40M EDZepp. 13 states this time with QSOs split roughly evenly between 40 and 80M - except for one lonely QSO with K4BAI on 20M. Got John on 3 bands. Had to work for most of the Qs with only a few strong signals from NM and TX. Best of the holiday season to everyone - and to the Adventure Radio Society. Had fun.
KK4DMT
I believe this may be my second Sprint. I was on for just the first hour. Heard only two stations calling and contacted only one. Was using KX3 at 5watts into an end-fed wire. Hope to do better next month.
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