Howdy all,
I am posting this here because there is a chance for some Pacific DX (maybe VK S2S ???) for an upcoming activation.
Background: there is a fun little sprint contest every 1st Monday of the month called the Spartan Sprint. It runs from 0100 to 0300 UTC on Tuesday morning. We have been remodeling our home, and I still do not have any radios active in the shack. So I decided to run the sprint using my portable gear. And doing it from a local SOTA summit is just a short distance from my home.
My alert is already posted.
I will be operating my super-lightweight ATS-3B, 5 watts out, CW only. The antenna will be my segmented EFHWA set up as an inverted-L. I will start on 15m (if open), then 20m, then 40m and last, 80m. Since my EFHWA is only good from 15 - 40m, I will toss out a radial and make it a 1/4 wave on 80m. I intend to work each band until I have worked it dry. I will try to be near the QRP watering holes.
Since this whole idea was spawned by wanting to work the sprint, please DO call me on every band you can hear me on. Unless something fails, this is going to be FUN. And isn’t that the whole idea?
Just in case the RBN doesn’t get me, I will also self-spot to SOTAwatch and maybe QRPspots.com. Looking forward to working some of you. I have never activated on 80m before - can’t wait to see how it does.
I will be calling CQ CQ SP KD5KC. I will be using a very tiny key made from a microswitch, so if my sending sounds a little choppy, this is why.
Any DX contact would be cool. But a S2S would really cap it off. Thanks all.
Vy73 - Mike - KD5KC.
El Paso, Texas - DM61rt.
W5-SOTA Association Manager.