Last night we concluded our Technician Class license course with a VE Exam Session. Of the fifteen students who originally started in January, ten kept with it and made it to the end. Of those ten, eight earned their licenses last night.
It was gratifying to see a new class of Amateur operators emerge from all these weeks of study. The two who need a bit more study time have been invited to our next regular VE Session on April 11th.
As satisfying as all that was (as if it wasn't enough), I actually made it home in time to fully participate in the 40 Meter QRP Fox hunt. Wow, wow, wow!
Both Foxes, Todd N9NE in WI and Tom KV2X in NY were both 599. In fact, at times Tom was 599+. And I had the most difficult time working both of them.
Go figure.
There was a high ambient noise level, there was also some VE SSB, and there was the SKCC monthly weeknight sprint to deal with. All those added up for a tough night of Fox hunting. Todd was first in the bag and he turned out to be the relatively "easy" catch. I nabbed Tom with about 10 minutes to go, but am not sure I can really count on his pelt. According to the log he published last night, he copied my exchange perfectly, but he had my call as W2RJO. I don't know if that was a typing error, a transcription error (from paper log to computer log - I've done that plenty of times!), or he just didn't hear me well enough to get it correctly. If it's a case of the latter, and I'm scrubbed from the log, it will probably be the first time in over a decade of Fox hunting that I have failed to make a QSO with a 599+ Fox. Que sera', sera'!
Wacky evening on 40 Meters last night, indeed, and a tip of the ol' call sign cap to both N9NE and KX2X for doing a phenomenal job with the poor hand the Propagation Princess dealt them.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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