Weekend of Dec. 7th and 8th

Hey, Santa! Is that RTTY or FT8?

Contests:

Wake-Up! QRP Sprint - http://qrp.ru/contest/wakeup/333-wakeup-eng

PRO CW Contest - https://proradiocontestclub.com/PCC%20Rules.html

INORC Contest - https://www.inorc.it/wp/2023/09/12/xlii-contest-i-n-o-r-c-memorial-sauro-tonelli-iz1cla/

FT Challenge - http://www.rttycontesting.com/ft-challenge - Digital, so you'll hear this in the CW portions of the bands.

QRP ARCI Holiday Spirits Sprint - http://qrparci.org/contest/holiday-spirit-sprint

4 States QRP Group Second Sunday Sprint - http://www.4sqrp.com/SSS/sss_rules.pdf

K1USN Slow Speed Test - http://www.k1usn.com/sst.html

ARRL 160-Meter Contest - http://www.arrl.org/160-meter

Special Event Stations:

12/01/2024 | QCWA Annual Special Event - W2MM 77th Anniversary

Dec 1-Dec 7, 0000Z-2359Z, W2MM, Sandpoint, ID. Qyarter Century Wireless Assocation, Inc.. CW: 3.540 7.035 14.040 21.050 28.050 SSB: 3.810 7.244 14.262 21.365 28.325 FT8/FT4 . Certificate. QCWA Activities Manager, 1613 Poplar Street, Sandpoint, ID 83864. Stations will be active from around the country with this call sign www.qcwa.org

12/06/2024 | Chicago Suburban Radio Association 100th Anniversary

Dec 6-Dec 8, 1800Z-2359Z, W9SW, Berwyn, IL. Chicago Suburban Radio Association. 7.240 14.240. QSL. Andrew Martin (K9ASM), 1627 East Avenue, Berwyn, IL 60402. https://csraham.com

12/07/2024 | Christmas in Bethlehem

Dec 7, 1400Z-2300Z, W9WWI, Bethlehem, IN. Clark County Amateur radio club of Indiana. 28.400. QSL. Clark Co. ARC, PO Box 201, Sellersburg, IN 47172. The Clark County Amateur Radio Club of Indiana wishes all a merry Christmas from Bethlehem Indiana with this special event. Operating all band and modes. A special QSL is available. n9dprh@gmail.com

12/07/2024 | Pearl Harbor special event

Dec 7, 1000Z-1700Z, WA4USN, Charleston, SC. Charleston Amateur Radio Society Inc. 14.250 7.940. QSL. Charleston Amateur Radio Society, PO Box 70341, North Charleston, SC 29415. From the USS Yorktown (CV-10). At Patriots Point in Charleston Harbor. wa4usn.org

12/07/2024 | Flight 19, The Lost Avengers

Dec 7, 1300Z-2100Z, K4P, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Parrot Amateur Radio Club Inc. 14.240 7.210 18.150 21.315. QSL. Gerald Deitch, 2621 nw 105 lane, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33322. fogdaddy1@gmail.com

12/07/2024 | Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

Dec 7, 1800Z-2100Z, N3TAL, Lanham, MD. American Legion Post 275 Amateur Radio Team. 7.275 MHz (+/-) LSB. QSL. American Legion Post 275 Amateur Radio Team, 8201 Martin Luther King Jr Hwy, Lanham, MD 20706. N3TAL275@gmail.com or www.qrz.com/db/n3tal

12/07/2024 | Remembrance Of Pearl Harbor

Dec 7-Dec 8, 1400Z-2100Z, N4WIS, Norfolk, VA. USS Wisconsin Radio Club (BB64). 7.264 14.264 7.064 14.064. QSL. USS Wisconsin Radio Club N4WIS, One Waterside Drive, Norfolk, VA 23510. We will be spotting ourselves on the reflector to make it easy for stations to find us on the bands. Will be on other HF bands as conditions change: 21064, 21264, 10.164, 28064, 28264. 10.125 All Frequencies +/- QRM Thank You! contactleaders@n4wis.org

If you ever get interested in working a special event station or two - a good tip is to download the HamAlert app and put the special event call sign on as a "trigger". Whenever that particular call sign is spotted or appears on RBN, you'll get a notice on your device.

I did exactly that for the Edmund Fitzgerald Special Event Station this past November. I put W0JH into HamAlert as a trigger. I received notifications on my phone when they were on the air and I hauled my butt down to the shack and worked them. I got a nice certificate via e-mail, which I'm posting here:

Is it "cheating"? Some might think so because you're not spending time twirling the dial, or looking on your waterfall display looking to see whether or not they are on the air. But it's not a contest, so IMHO, you work them any way you can. And look, I even took a deep breath and worked them on SSB. Unfortunately, most special event stations these days are only SSB or maybe SSB and digital. CW special event stations seem to be going the way of the Dodo.

I did get elected to the office of President of SPARC last night (as I feared), but the highlight of the night was that we had an 11 year old Scout and his Dad come to our meeting. The young man is working on his radio merit badge and seems interested in getting licensed.  He had questions and we took great pleasure in answering them and talking with him about Amateur Radio.

I got home from the meeting just after 9:00 PM. I debated about 80 Meter Fox Hunt or bed. Fox Hunt won. I worked Earl N8SS at 02:44 UTC. At that point he had given up working split and was working simplex. Brian K0DTJ - couldn't hear him, and I really didn't expect to. I heard Jack N2RK in upstate NY calling him, but nothing of Brian. When I heard Jack, I tuned down 1 kHz thinking Brian would be there. When he posted his log this morning, he had indicated that he had gone simplex early - so I was listening in the wrong spot.  It didn't make any difference, however, as Jack was the only Hound east of the Mississippi that nabbed his pelt.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Mixed bag weekend

It was a mixed bag weekend, radio-wise.

I got a late start with the Zombie Shuffle. Due to not getting home from work until 6:00 PM and then dinner, I did not get started until a bit after 7:00 PM.  As the official start time was 4:00 PM local, I missed the first three hours and probably most of the activity.

I ended up working only three stations - AB9CA, NK9G on 40 Meters and N9AW on 80 Meters. I could tell there were some stations on 20 Meters, but they were at ESP level. I knew they were there and that was about it.

While talking with Bob W3BBO on Saturday evening, he informed me that he worked ten Zombie stations. He was wrapping up his operating at just about the same time I was beginning - so that right there tells me I pretty much missed the Zombie boat this year.

On Saturday, we set up at a local park in South Plainfield for JOTA - Jamboree on the Air, the annual Boy Scouts of America QSO Party, if you will. We had success working stations, but alas, no local Scout Troops came by to participate.

I think part of that was the weather - it was heavily overcast, at times misty, breezy and quite chilly for most of the time. I think the other part was that we could have done a better job publicizing that we were out there. I think for the next JOTA we will post to South Plainfield's two Facebook groups as to what we'll be doing. All the Troops in town knew, as one of our members, Harry KC2PGX, is a Scoutmaster, but perhaps social media might draw more people.

Dave KD2FSI brought a Jeep full of his portable equipment; and I brought forth my venerable portable backpack.

My KX3 set up at one of the tables under a pavilion. I think the most essential piece of the day was the thermos of hot coffee! To start, the coax was running out to the QRP Guys portable vertical, but after a while, I switched over to the PAR END FEDZ thrown up in a tree. I was not getting me the results I wanted wit the vertical. I should have used my Buddistick. My Jeep was close enough to where I could have just popped it on the roof with the magmount, and with a barrel connector and some extra coax I would have made it to my operating position. That setup has worked  so very well for me in the past. Too bad I didn't have the presence of mind to think of that on Saturday morning.  One of the hazards of growing old, I guess.

Dave KD2FSI making contacts on 20 Meters. We switched back and forth so as not to interfere with each other, but for the most part Dave stayed on 20 Meters while I stayed on 40 Meters.

Dave's Jeep Wrangler, on top of his drive on mast. This supported his 20 Meters Buddipole configuration. For 40 Meters, Dave put up his Jackite mast with the EFHW wrapped around it. In this case, he added a Buddipole HF coil and an elevated counterpoise wire.

You can't see it (at least I don't think you can) in this photo, but the PAR is going from my radio which was located toward the right hand end of the pavilion to the tree at the right hand end of the photo. In addition to a few JOTA stations, I also worked DF8CX with QRP power.

Much to my chagrin, I was not able to detect or hear any JOTA stations on CW on either 40 or 20 Meters. I brought the microphone along and used that to work the few JOTA stations that I was able to. Even though I was kind of out of my element, it was fun talking to the Scouts and I was even able to speak with a couple who were close to attaining their Eagle Scout status.

For the heck of it, I worked a couple NY QSO Party stations with the paddles, so it wasn't a total loss. And of course, as we were packing up for the afternoon, the sun started peaking through the clouds and began to warm us up. Just in time to go home.

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