FOBB ’04:
Excitement From Out of the Noise

It was an amazing Flight of the Bumblebees. Before noon I tuned around on 40, 30, 20 and 15 from home. I didn't hear a single signal! So I delayed leaving. I listened at 1 p.m. There were signals. Bees buzzing. Only on the QRP frequencies. The rest was dead. Amzing.

The tiny buzzing of bees was being heard across the country. I packed up and left almost immediately.

I rode my bike into the Pemigewasset flood control area and reached the site around 2 p.m. I put up an 80-foot dipole fed with 300-ohm ribbon between two trees: a linden and an oak. The antenna was up about 30 feet. I used KD1JV's ATS2 and a ZM-2 tuner. Power was from 8 AAs.

I operated about 2 hours and worked 12 stations. Congratulations go to Chris, N3XRV, for pulling me out of the hive. He gave me a 229 but got the whole exchange!

WA9TZE never heard me although I could copy him pretty well. I worked Carter, N3AO, twice. Once for the exchange and once later for fun. NK9G in WI was the best DX. I did fine to North Carolina.

I had a blast! To think of those signals making it through deader than dead propagation. It's awesome. Here's the log. Thanks to all.

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James Cluett, W1PID, is an avid QRPer and outdoor operator living in Sanbornton, NH.