Monday, August 19, 2013

Run for the Bacon - August

I have been a "member" of the Flying Pigs QRP club for a long time, but I have never participated in any of the on air activities that they promote.

Well that all changed last night!  I took part in the monthly "Run for the Bacon" sprint.  This contest happens each month on the 3rd Sunday evening.

Since I don't yet have a shack setup in our new QTH (to many other projects to get to first), I put my portable QRP antenna out back strapped to the deck post and ran the coax inside to the kitchen table.

The propagation forecast looked good - so I was hopeful.  I turned the rig on about 10 minutes before the official starting time, and was somewhat surprised by the noise level on the bands.  Only the strongest of stations were able to be heard.

Either one of two things was going on:

1.  I am spoiled by working portable at the park, where there are not TV's and other assorted electrical devices nearby to generate noise on the bands

OR

2.  The bands were just stinky for me at my little patch of the earth.

I have a feeling that the first reason is more accurate, but a guy can always hope!  This is only the second time I have operated from my home, so I need more experience to really understand the noise level at my house.

I worked the entire 2 hours of the contest - and ended up with 8 clean contacts.  Five of them were Flying Pig members and two were not.  There were a couple contacts that seemed to hear me when I called them, but I could never fully make out their calls - so they are not on the list.

So 8 total contacts and 8 States gave me a total score of 144 points.

I really enjoyed my time on the air, and hope to make it again next month.  I really need to get started on my New Carolina Windom that will be installed in the attic (HOA restrictions).

Here are the stations I worked: N4DU, WB4MNK, KB4QQJ, K7YTE, W0PQ, W0GV, K9PX, WB5BKL - Thanks for pulling me out of the noise!

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