The Zombie Shuffle was somewhat of a let down this past Friday night. Granted, I got a very late start. The event begins at 4:00 PM local time and runs till Midnight, local time. Due to a series of events, I was not able to get started until 8:00 PM local time.
I was not prepared for the lack of activity. 20 Meters was absolutely void of Zombies, which was actually not all that surprising considering the hour. I was mystified by the lack of activity on 40 Meters. It was dead - pun NOT intended. I called "CQ BOO" for quite a while and received nary a reply. I checked RBN and I was getting out, so it seems like there were no Zombies on the band to engage in a QSO.
I got all three (Yay - 3!) QSOs on 80 Meters. One was in reply to a CQ and the other two were answers to my CQ. I ended up with a paltry score of 10, 659 points - which is inconsequential. I wasn't in it to win it, I was in it to hopefully score a bunch of QSOs to fatten up the log book. I remember past Shuffles when it was common to work 20 - 30 stations in just a couple of hours. This was tough business just pulling 3 out of the aether. I finally gave up when I actually did start nodding off at the key.
I am sincerely hoping that this is just the result of bad propagation and not due to a lack of interest. The Zombie Shuffle, sponsored by Paul NA5N and Jan N0QT is one of the most fun and light-hearted QRP Sprints on the calendar. It would be a shame to see its popularity fade.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
20M was dead for me too but 40 and 80 were pretty lively. I ended up with 31 QSOs (three of which were bonus stations). Most of them were made early on. I did hear several that I tried to answer but they couldn't hear me. I think the Zombies were out there but it was just tough to work them.
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