Tuesday, August 6, 2013

W2LJ & SOTA Bonanza!

On the way out to my lunchtime portable operating location I dropped just over 30 QSL cards in the mailbox.  Can't wait to see if I start getting more back now that I have sent some.

Today was a fun day on the radio.  20 meters was nice and quiet.  17M had lots of noise at my location, and really only heard one QSO, so I stuck with 20 meters and was rewarded with several nice contacts.

With one eye on the SOTA Goat iPhone app, it is always nice to see some SOTA spots.

W4TZM - Tom was activating W3/SV-004 Ritchey Knob in Pennsylvania.  He was only 229 here but he gave me a 599.

W2LJ - Larry, the blogging and lunchtime portable legend was calling CQ and I got lucky enough to grab him!  He was 449 and he gave me a 559.  Larry operates with a Buddistick on top of his Jeep from the parking lot at his office over the lunch hour.  He also keeps a great blog at http://w2lj.blogspot.com/.  Great to work you today Larry! 2xQRP and 2xKX3 QSO.

K1JD - John answered my CQ - he was sending faster than I liked.  John was in Santa Fe, NM and mentioned something about SOTA.  I asked if he was on a peak, and he never responded.  Either I couldn't hear him or he got tired of me asking for QRS repeats :) 2xQRP and 2xKX3 QSO.

K0JQZ - Frank was activating W7Y/PA-103 Notch Mountain in Wyoming.  He was 559 here and he gave me a 559.

KU6J - Eric was activating W6/NS-211 with no name, just a number Pt. 7481 in the Northern Sierras of California.  He was a 449 here and gave me a 549.

I would call that a good day!  3 SOTA stations at least and W2LJ who's blog I read everday - can't get much better than that.

5 comments:

  1. Good morning Burke, very nice blog always nice to see another QRP blog out there! I have had plans for some time now ( not yet have done it) to bring my KX3 into work. I am not able to get out at lunch to get on the bands but I can get a good hour in before work starts.
    Mike

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  2. Thanks for checking in Mike! The key for me was finding an antenna that could be put up in just a couple of minutes. When I first tried this I would go to a park and throw a line in a tree and pull up the wire. This was simply a hassle, but with my new setup it only takes about a minute and I am ready to attach coax to the rig.

    Let me know if you ever give it a try, and thanks for reading!

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  3. Burke I have not as of yet done the toss an antenna into the trees thing....I have the Alexloop and when close to the car I have a host of mono band whip antennas I put on the car.
    Mike

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  4. Burke, thanks for the QSOs and QSLs. I will be returning some to you shortly. I did want to point out that on 6 Aug I was on two summits but the one we had a QSO on was W7Y/PA-163 vice PA-103.

    It is great to hear a new callsign in the mix while activating summits. I hope to hear you acyivate a summit soon, it is a thrill. Also, I am interested in your antenna design that your are using portable.

    73
    Frank
    K0JQZ

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  5. Thanks for checking in Frank! I have updated my chaser log, I appreciate you letting me know. I think I copied that location from SOTA GOAT - not always sure how accurate that is. Looks like fun to be an activator - definitely on my bucket list!

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