Even though I didn't think it was going to be possible, I did manage to put in about another hour's worth of operating time in the QRP ARCI Spring QSO Party today. In all, I completed 54 QSOs in the time I spent yesterday and today - perhap about 3 hours total.
The highlights were working EA2LU yesterday on 15 Meters and 20 Meters today, as well as HA7UG on 20 Meters yesterday. I also worked a few really low QRP-ARCI numbers. I managed to get KR3E #85, K2UFT #447, W1XH #59 as well as K6JSS/4 for #1 in the log. I always enjoy working the really low numbers, guys who have been at this way longer than me.
I didn't hear any activity on 15 Meters today and not much at all on 20 Meters, except for EA2LU. Today was totally on 40 Meters - all around 7.030 MHz and environs. It seems that the argument about the 40 Meter QRP calling frequency, that was so contentious just a few years ago, is now a moot point. It seems most weekends (at least in this part of the world) that 7.040 MHz and the immediate vicinity is covered in wall-to-wall RTTY and other digital signals, and is virtually unusable for QRP or any CW, for that matter.
There were a lot of contests happening simultaneously this weekend. The Polish contest, the MO QSO Party and a few others that I wasn't able to decipher. It was veritable alphabet soup at times with stations calling all sorts of special "CQ"s depending on what contest they were in.
The K2 and both antennas performed as or better than expected. My two EA2LU QSOs were my entries in the Club72 QRP Marathon.
It was a fun weekend.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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