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Ol’ Man Murphy seemed to be my constant companion today!  I foolishly thought I had everything under control.  I was given yet another lesson in humility today.

I got to the park right at about 12:45 – a lot later than intended.  Some home things came up, and I had to take care of them first. Really no biggie, but still, an unintended delay.

So I get to the park, and get out the wrist rocket.  Load the pouch with my 1 ounce fishing weight, pull  back and aim for a convenient branch. Instead of “BWWWWAAAANG”, I got a loud “SNAP”. One of the elastic bands broke.  OK, take a deep breath, examine the situation. Thanks to the Swiss Army Knife that I always carry, I was able to make some field repairs that would hold me over.  I finally got the wire up like I had it last year.  I hooked up the KX3 and could not get a decent match!  I have no idea why; but I figured I would worry about that later as I was already seriously into the first hour of the contest.

ALWAYS have a back up!  I ran over to the Jeep and pulled out the Buddistick.  W3FF’s antenna literally saved my bacon this afternoon.  I got it set up and got going, one hour into the proceedings.

After that, the afternoon went well and was a success.  I’m never in these things to win – just to have fun and rack up some QSOs.  In all, I made thirty contacts. Twenty six were on 20 Meters and four were on 40 Meters.  I was a bit disappointed with the lack of activity on 40 Meters.  I thought there would be a lot more, especially as the afternoon wore on.  I kept checking 7.040 MHz as well as 7.030 MHz, but except for the four QSOs that I made, there was nothing to be heard.

Something to do before the Skeeter Hunt in two weeks.

Figure out why the wires wouldn’t match.  AND, make new wires out of something more flexible and light.  I was using some wire that I had gotten from an SK’s estate sale that would have been more appropriate for a permanent wire antenna.  I need to get something better for portable ops.

The little blue LiPO battery held up great!  No problems with it going low voltage on me.  By making sure the KX3’s LCD backlight was off, I was able to stay at the full “QRP Gallon” of 5 Watts out for the entire time I operated.

The filtering in the KX3 made an easy job out of working stations that were right on top of each other.  In fact, at one point, John K4BAI came back to me informing me that we had already worked each other. John, if you’re reading this, I was working someone else who was so close to you, it was ridiculous. Yet, the KX3 was able to single the other op out for me with no problem.

Even though there was some frustration, the day turned out well.  And, no more than a half hour after I got home, the skies got dark, the lightning and thunder started and we had real heavy downpours.  But by that time, I was already adding my QSOs to AC Log on this netbook.

Hope you had a great time with FOBB today!  Looks like Jim W1PID did – here’s his report:

http://www.w1pid.com/fobb12/fobb12.html

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

The battery is charging and my Lowepro 150 with the KX3 station is ready and raring to go for FOBB tomorrow.

I sincerely hope the weather is better tomorrow, compared to today.  We’ve had heavy, gray, overcast skies all day.  It was threatening to rain all day and in fact, did. from about 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM or so.  No heavy downpours; but if I were outside operating, it would have been enough to force me indoors.

This afternoon, I was able to break the pileup and work 2012L, the Olympics Special Event station on 17 Meters.  I heard them again tonight on 30 Meters; but their signal was not as strong as on 17 Meters this afternoon.

So I decided to frustrate myself for a while and try to bust the pileup working CY9M on 30 Meters.  The pileup covered a 10 kHz patch of spectrum and after a while, I realized I wasn’t going to cut it this night with 5 Watts.  I have worked St. Paul Island years ago; but never QRP.  They’re there till Wednesday, so I have a few more times to give it a shot.  I have them for DXCC credit already, so if I don’t get them in the log, I won’t lose any sleep.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

I tell ya!

I had a virtual pipeline into Northern Europe tonight on 20 Meters.  I worked Latvia, Denmark and a whole bunch of Ham friends from European Russia.  I was consistently getting 579 reports, and I will take those at face value.  Whenever I don’t get that automatic “599”, I figure any other report is probably pretty honest.

Hey, 5 Watts to the Butternut and I’m getting 579 from over across all that water that’s separating us?  I’ll take THAT any day of the week! If I wasn’t so tired from work, I’d do the Happy Dance.

I’ve got a bunch of yard work planned for tomorrow, so that I can have Sunday free for Flight of the Bumblebees.  Fresh air, trees, sunshine, wire and a radio.  You can’t beat that with a stick!

Since portable ops seems to be the thing that a lot of folks associate with QRP, I’m attempting to boil the essence of that down into a design for a T-shirt.   This is what I’ve come up with so far:

I’ve put this design on some stuff at Cafe Press.  I think I’ll order myself up a few shirts so that I can wear them while I’m Skeeter hunting (too late for FOBB).  I’ll have to see if I can’t find a real graphic artist who can improve on the execution of my idea – but for now – not too shabby (at least I think so!)

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

I still seem to be getting e-mails asking me if I would issue Bee numbers for Flight of the Bumblebees this coming Sunday.  Once again, I am NOT “The Beekeeper” this year; but this is how you go about getting one:

1) Visit http://bit.ly/LsxX2Y to check out the database of Bee numbers already issued.

2) Come up with a number you would like to use, with two alternates.

3) Send an e-mail to: [email protected]

4) Include your Bee number choices as well as your first name, your callsign, and where you plan to be operating from.

5) Keep checking the database, because if you’re like me, your callsign will just show up with your Bee number.  I didn’t get an e-mail back from KI6SN with that information, I saw it on the database after it was issued.  (BTW, my Bee number is 17, in honor of Keith Hernandez, one of the best 1st Basemen to play the game of baseball).

Good luck and hope to hear you on the air on Sunday!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

as the old song goes. And thanks to Amateur Radio, I have a bunch!

Here’s what some of them have been up to:

Bob W3BBO has put up his new Cushcraft R6000; and reports that it is working fine.

Jim W1PID had another great portable QRP outing (this one is complete with a video):

http://www.w1pid.com/dam2/dam2.html

And my friend Brian KB9BVN reported on Facebook that his Indianapolis Colts tickets arrived.

Good things DO happen to good people!

By the way – don’t forget that Flight of the Bumblebees is this coming Sunday. I am really stoked!  The forecast for Central NJ (so far) is for sunny weather with temps in the high 80s, with a chance of thunderstorms as the afternoon progresses.  Hope it’s not like it was a couple years ago when boomers shortened my outing and I came home to find the neighbor’s pine tree on fire from a lightning hit.

There’s still time to get your very own Bee number. Don’t be part of the last minute rush!

http://arsqrp.blogspot.com/2012/07/adventure-radio-society-2012-flight-of.html

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Read all about it and apply for your FOBB number here:

http://www.ARSqrp.blogspot.com

Thanks to Rich Fisher KI6SN and the Adventure Radio Society for keeping this fun Summertime QRP tradition going!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Today I received the following e-mail from Bill W4ZV:

“Hi Larry, FYI on the WRO live blog Richard KI6SN just confirmed that he will be doing FOBB this year and promises results within 2 weeks. Said he would be making an announcement on QRP-L next week. Great news! 73, Bill W4ZV”

End

OK – that’s all  the news I have.  I have not received any answers to my inquiries about FOBB, so I would suggest you keep your eyes peeled on QRP-L for the next couple of weeks.  I do not know if FOBB numbers will be issued; or who will be doing the issuing.

This is a great event, and I’m glad to see that it’s not going the way of the Dodo.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!