80 Meter Fox this Tuesday

I am fortunate to be one of the 80 Meter Foxes in this coming Tuesday night's 80 Meter Foxhunt, along with Drew K9CW. It is always a lot of fun and at the same time, a challenge to see how many contacts can be made in the 90 minutes of the Hunt.

As usual, I will be using my K2 and will be switching between the G5RV and the Butternut HF9V when the situation warrants it. I am hoping for good band conditions with a minimum of QRN and QRM from nets and the like. My goal is 60+ QSOs for the 90 minutes. I'm not a super gun contester by ANY stretch of the imagination; but I feel that if the band is decent, this will be a reachable goal for me.

99 & 44/100ths percent of the time, the Foxes work either simplex or split - listening up. Don't be surprised if W2LJ decides to spice up things a little bit by listening DOWN. It would probably mess up my QSO rate to do that; but one of the reasons for these Fox hunts is pile up training where you should always expect the unexpected, so .......

The other thing to keep in mind is that Thursday night (and all of New Year's Day for that matter) is Straight Key Night. This is the League's yearly effort to get us to dust off the keys and bugs and go "mechanical" for a bit. If you participate; please make sure to send a small blurb or paragraph to the soapbox. The more entries the better. It's a super low pressure and fun operating event; so even if you feel that you're rusty, that's no excuse to prevent you from getting on the air and having some fun. I have noticed that within the last few years, that in addition to using mechanical keys, a lot of Hams are using SKN to wax nostalgic and get on the air using boat anchor or vintage equipment also. It's fun to work Hams who are using the same type or brand of equipment that you may have owned years ago. It definitely makes for interesting QSOs.

I hope to participate fully this year - last New Year's Eve I was in the hospital wracked up with kidney stone pain; and I am hoping and praying for no repeat performances in that regard!

73 de Larry W2LJ