Results came out a few weeks ago - I forgot to mention this. This is how SPARC placed in our category:
You can't come in any more "middle of the pack" than SPARC!
I was looking at the 1st place holders, the NE TX QRP Contest Federation and I was thinking how do only three guys make 730 QSOs? That is phenomenal! But then again, from their description, they are contesters. Most likely very experienced contesters. We're not.
I'm sure their antenna setup is probably significantly better than ours and we were curtailed by thunderstorms and the educational activity that we put on this year. And there was a lot of "meet and greet" with visitors going on at our site this year, which I guess is really part of the purpose of Field Day. But all that took time away from the radios.
Marv K2VHW jokingly commented that his goal for SPARC is to equal those 730 Q's next Field Day. In response I told him that several things will be necessary:
1) No educational activity - took too many people away from the radios.
2) No food. there will be no time for eating.
3) Unlimited coffee. Need to keep going full bore for then entire 24 hours.
4) Ample supply of "Depends" You know why - no time for Nature breaks, either.
5) Defibrillator on site. Because one or more of us will probably have a heart attack.
This is all in good humor, of course. We don't take Field Day as a contest that seriously and we realize that a major purpose of Field Day is to educate the public about Amateur Radio and its role in Emergency Communications.
But still, it would be nice to finish 1st Place in our category one of these years. So on the drive to work this morning, I was thinking about a possible way to increase our QSO count. Since we're limited to 5 Watts by our battery category, we've relegated ourselves to being Hunters and Pouncers. But after a few times of going up and down the band, say 40 Meters, it seems like you've worked everyone you can hear. Then it's time to switch to a different band .......right? Maybe instead of changing bands, it might be a good strategy to go up the band, find an unoccupied frequency, and call CQ for a while. It might not generate a lot of QSOs, but it's better than wasting time hunting on a band that you think you've pretty much fished out. And if we find ourselves calling CQ with no takers, say after 10 minutes or so, THEN we can switch bands.
Now, for my duty as one of the 40 Meter Foxes last night - it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, although QSB was really bad. I'd have a Hound call me at 579 and I'd give my half of the exchange and then they'd come back to me at 449 or even 339. Wow!
According to the Reverse Beacon Network, this is where the skimmers were picking me up last night:
And sure enough, the s/n figures for Europe were pretty pathetic - only a computer or Superman was hearing me there!
If you count the two Foxes, KR0U and myself, then there's 51 Hounds in the log. There were a couple of dupes that I edited out. I don't think I did too badly for being a rusty ol' Fox. I posted a preliminary log to the QFOX iO Group. Let's see how many corrections come back. I am not like the other Foxes. I do not use N1MM. I still log with pencil and paper. Were I to attempt to computer log, by the time I would type in the call signs, I'd probably only work 1/2 the stations I ended up working. I'm not multi task capable in that regard. I'm lucky i can key and write at the same time!
There is one thing about being a Fox that I dislike. The Hunts here on the East coast are from 9:00 to 10:30 PM. When Fox duty is done for the night, I'm so wired that I generally can't fall asleep until around Midnight. When you have to get up at 5:00 AM for work the next day, that makes it a bit tough.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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