Nuts!

Oh boy! Today was fun! The North Georgia QRP Group held the inaugural Peanut Power Sprint, as detailed here in previous entries. I have to extend the group my most sincere thanks, because I had an absolute blast.

I set up in the backyard again, similar to how I set up for QRP Afield last weekend, but I made one major change.  Last weekend. I set up so that the KX3 was in the NorthEast corner of the yard and the PAR was at the South end.  I reversed that this weekend, placing the PAR at the NorthEast corner and setting up the KX3 on the patio table which is on the South side of the back yard.  In addition, I bungee corded my Jackite pole to the top level of my kid's old (and now unused) play set/swing set.  That gained me some additional altitude, and the top of the PAR was at about the 40 foot level.

For whatever it's worth, it seemed to make a big difference.  I was busy from the get-go and was actually able to call CQ and hold a frequency for a while.  20 Meters was the band to be on.  I tried listening and calling CQ on 15 Meters for a while, but for me that proved to be fruitless.  40 Meters was wall to wall RTTY - all the way down as far as 7.030 MHz!

When all was said and done, I had made 38 QSOs.  35 were with other Peanut number holders and 3 were with "non-Nut" stations. A quick glance tells me that I worked 12 different states.  I probably could have worked more, but I had to leave at 2030 UTC to go handle a chore.  When I got back at 2054 UTC, some 25 minutes later, I was still able to work stations; but it seemed like the good rhythm I had going earlier was lost.  I was working stations, but not at the same snappy pace. At around 2144 UTC, I shut down about 16 minutes early, as it was time to start dinner and I wasn't hearing any new stations, anyway.

Once again, thanks to Jim W4QO and the NoGAnauts!  This was a real good time and I hope they decide to have another next September.  The Peanut Power Sprint was a great way to wind down the 2013 outdoor Summer QRP contest season!

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