Dan N7CQR posted his log for the 40 Meter QRP Fox hunt for Tuesday evening. I was the only NJ Hound to make it into the log! I couldn't believe my eyes! I even did a CTL+F search on "NJ" just to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me.
Usually I'm the last New Jersey Hound to make it into a Fox's log. I'm gobsmacked that this time I'm the only one. There are three other Hounds who reside in the Garden State - Steve WX2S in Kingston, Charles W2SH in Millington and Glenn NK1N in Hillsboro. Normally, they all get heard before me - I told you all that South Plainfield is an RF Black Hole! But to be the only NJ Hound in the log - this will probably be the first and only occurrence in my lifetime.
It was interesting, because I was able to locate Dan pretty quickly. He had a huge pileup of Hounds calling him. Find the pack, go down one and start listening - that's usually the modus operandi. It was this time, too.
It took a while for Dan's signal to build up to the point where throwing out my call sign was doable. There's no point in QRMing the pack if you can't hear the Fox returning your call. And at around that magic minute 0250 UTC, I made it into Dan's log.
I don't know what it is about 0250 UTC. I looked back at the pelts that I have collected this season and the vast majority of them were all nabbed within 5 minutes, either way, of 0250 UTC. I guess that's when all the louder QRP stations peter out and my pipsqueak signal starts getting heard.
The 80 Meter hunt tonight should be interesting. Mary NR3Z in Pennsylvania, and Tim KR0U in Colorado. My head tells me that I should probably nab Marty and then Tim, if I'm really lucky. It will probably end up being the other way around; or a skunk session if propagation plays head games with me.
On another note, I was "WOW'ed" by John AE5X's blog post about the IC-7300. Wow, wow, WOW!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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