2014 Blog
(Send Pete Your Comments
and Pictures)
Mac, NN4K
That was fun. I could only operate during the last
hour of the Sprint. Thanks for the QSOs and maybe we can make the event
longer in the future. Lots of good fists and the activity was very good.
Congrats to the leaders and we appreciate the non members participating with
us. Gud luck to all and 72, 73
Kelly, K4UPG
Mike, K4LJG
Although I only managed to make 9 contacts in two
hours (pathetic, I know!) I had a great time.
I wasted some time
trying to make phone contacts. No joy for me. I found that CW was easier to
decode than trying to hear a very weak voice. Next time I will call CQ
instead of the search and pounce method.
Thanks to Jim and all
responsible for all their efforts to make this happen.
Bob, K4BB
Bill, k4yjj
Hey Mike -- I'd have been happy
with nine -- my tally was six on phone most from hunt and pounce. I could not
stir up interest with my CQ calls so late in the game resorted to hunt &
pounce. I'm looking forward to seeing Catherine KK4UBQ's tally - every time I
scanned past her frequency she was chatting away with another contact!
Regardless, I had fun!
Ken, W4DU
Had a very rough start as my
logging software kept locking up and had to reboot it about 10 times.
Finally settled down after about 30 minutes. Made 39 q's mostly other
peanut numbers
Wayne, K4WK.QLF
Larry, W2LJ
That was a blast! Just
under 50 QSOs, which for this "giver of points" ain't bad. Better than
last year
My thanks to W4QO and the NoGA group for a most fun
afternoon.
Phil, W3HZZ
I was at St. Simons
Island set up on my back
deck with a view of the marsh, PAR end fed, sloper. For an 45min I
used the MTR2, then switched to the K2. Larry, N4FD, was here and he
was having fun with the MTR and turning the K2 down to 1 watt to
work Dick Bently and John Laney. He made lots of jokes about how
slow the contest was but then got into it.
When Larry left,
about 5pm, I decided to pack it in and undid the support line for
the end fed. It fell to about 8 feet off the ground, but then I
heard W4DU. I quick worked him and then had a 11 QSO run with the
antenna almost down. I worked a total of 90 minutes.
Total
23Qs in 9 states, all but one nuts. Fun to work NoGaNuts Dick, Ken,
Pickett, Laney, Pavel, Chuck.
Dave, NE5DL
Marc, W4MPS
It was my first event and
I had a great time. We were at the beach that weekend with our
daughter's family so I had a perfect opportunity to run off for a
couple of hours to do the sprint. I found a great spot in Carolina
Beach State Park, right on the Cape Fear River (Grid: FM14ab, New
Hanover County). Beautiful views and great brackish water to help my
QRP signal.
I operated my KX3 powered by a 4.6 Ah LiFePO4
battery pack (A123 cells). My antenna was a segmented dipole cut for 20/40
CW, with the center mounted on a 21 foot telescoping fiberglass pole in an
inverted vee configuration.
Frankly, I was quite surprised to hear all of the
activity. I was busy for the entire 2 hours and wound up with 45 Q's, of
which 38 were "Peanuts". The biggest thrill of the event was being called
by GM0LVI/p Dave, operating QRP from the Isle of Skye. We exchanged 2 way
QRP 559 reports. He was also running a KX3. All QSO's were on 40 and 20.
Only 2 were SSB. I called CQ on 15 several times, but no action there.
Great activity and great event. Hope to join the
"Nuts" again next year. Many thanks for sponsoring.
Marc, W4MPS
Pickett, AD4S
Another incredible QRP
event; thanks to Jim, W4QO, who thought this all up. What fun...!!
I teamed up with Bobby, W4BLB, a NoGaNut that had
not worked this event last year. We had planned on operating at
Lenora Park in Gwinnett County, Georgia but the weather reports scared us
off at the last minute so we retreated to Bobby's basement.
I operated my KX3 at 5 watts and logged with a
pencil. The antenna was a delta loop that tuned up everywhere.
I only got started good in the last hour since Bobby and I were busy
getting both of our stations up and running at the last minute. I did
manage 20 Qs (19 Pnuts) and 7 SPCs.
Pickett, AD4S
Hoss, N2GDS
For my first Peanut
Power Sprint I went hiking in Beaver Dams State Forest (in western NY),
hoping to combine the event with a SOTA activation earlier in the day.
I brought along a lightweight homebrew rig, an EFHW antenna, and a
portable sideswiper. The rig puts out 1W on one of two crystal-set
frequencies near 14.060 MHz, and the receiver uses a simple
direct-conversion circuit. It hears quite well when the band is quiet, but
not when strong signals are only a few Hz apart -- as they were throughout
the sprint! It was a a real challenge just to determine if someone was
answering my CQ, much less make out their call.
Thanks to everyone
who patiently repeated their info for me!
Hoss, N2GDS
Wallace, WW4MSK
Bobby, W4BLB
"Having been a ham for many years but
not involved in operating events I was lucky to team up with Pickett,
AD4S. We are both members of the North Georgia QRP Club and have done some
events together before.
Initially we were going to operate in the "Salty"
category from a large park nearby but the weather reports were all quite
threatening so we decided to operate out of my basement.
My
grandson joined us and seemed to have a really good time. We had been to
Field Day earlier this year and he showed no reluctance to pick up the mic
and start talking.
I originally planned to use Pickett's K2 but the
mic in the bag was defective so I moved to my FT-817. Turned out that my
auto tuner would not respond to 5 watts so I moved on to my IC-706 turned
down to 10 watts PEP and operated phone using an 80m inverted V antenna. We
got a late start but I really enjoyed the event and plan on doing many
more.
Thanks to Jim, W4QO, and the other NoGaNuts who put on this
event. Hope to see you again with the other "Nuts" next year.
Bobby, W4BLB
Myron WV0H
I had a fun time with your Peanut QRP Sprint. The two hour operating time is just right for a nice afternoon sprint.
I went over to the neighborhood park and setup my KX3 and Park Portable Doublet in the grass. My antenna is an open wire doublet supported by three fishing poles. The antenna at the apex is about 31 feet up and the ends are at about 23 feet. The overall length of the doublet is 67 feet.
I ran the KX3 at 1-Watt to enter the Goober category. I logged all my contacts with N3WG's app "HamLog" on my iPad 2. The app checks dupes and allows me to export the log to a CSV file (attached).
My power source could have been just the internal Eneloop batteries but I opted for the repurposed Dell LT 2S2P 11.1V Li-Ion pack. I use an RC battery monitor called a beeper to monitor individual cell voltages to prevent over discharging the pack.
The 20m was the bread and butter band but did manage to eek out a few QSO's on 15m. One QSO K7JKZ was miscopied so I won't count that one in my score. All was good for the contest as the weather out here in beautiful Colorado was sunny at contest start. But around the halfway mark clouds started to roll in and by contest end the threat of rain was eminent. About an hour after the test, it started to rain. Perfect timing.
My antenna is described at
http://wv0h.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-wvh-park-portable-doublet.html
.
Pete, thank you for putting on such an extraordinary event. I am looking forward to next year's sprint already.
72 Pete, that was fun.
Printed on Recycled Data
Click HERE for Myron's Picture Album..!
Marc, W4MPS
Hi NoGa QRP'ers
What an unexpected early
Christmas surprise! Today, Santa delivered my Peanut Power plaque. It's a
beautiful plaque and will be displayed in a prominent place of honor. Many
thanks to everyone at the North Georgia QRP Club for this great event. And
special thanks to Dave, KD4ICT, for sponsoring this plaque category. Looking
forward to seeing all you "Nuts" again next year. Best wishes for a very
Merry Christmas with lots of DX in 2015.
72,
 Marc, W4MPS
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