Soapbox for the 1998
Flight of the Bumblebees
Thanks to the ARS for another great Sprint. I worked portable from Cannonball Park, Brooklyn, NYC. Had a few friends from my local club come out to enjoy the day. WX was perfect, was able to get the 40M inverted-vee up @ 50' and that certaintly helped my signal.
40M was tough with a lot of QRN and QSB and there wasn't too much activity on 15M or 10M to speak of.
Glad I was able to be BB #4 this year, and look forward to next year's event.
From Chris, KB9LCK
Obviously, still no challenge to the big antenna boys--but love the contesting! Could look at the wishbook and figure out a bigger skyhook, I guess, although I can't complain about results.
Talked to you, Russ, twice, only counted once. Enjoyed surprize w/working om2ww, Tom, who was also QRP. Will definetely send a Qsl after a short contest qso!.
Ran the Sierra on penlite cells. The batteries lasted the whole 2 hours. So, the station didn't weigh much this time--about 2.25 lbs
72 till Sept 'test
From Hank, K3PM
I operated portable from Mt. Desert island in Maine. Had terrible noise level. Found out the next day there was a touch lamp in the rented house When disconnected the noise was gone. Used an Argo 509 and a backpacker antenna (QST June 1994 Pg 68) on a 20 foot Black Widow pole. I am not a cw man but was thrilled to make my 1 contact. Will try to do better next year.
From bob, AD4MZ
Had a great little adventure and looking back would have done a few things differently.
The original plan was to operate from some higher peak in western North Carolina where I live but the plans shifted when our family vacation plans changed due to my wife's work schedule. So off to the coast we went ending up on Ocean Isle Beach, N.C. a barrier island.
This was Saturday, the day before the big event. "What was the plan" I thought. Then it came to me to just dump my son's CD's out of his back pack and take the bare minimum of radio gear and head out hiking along the beach looking for some natural site that offered some advantage. I included my "pride and joy" rig the Sierra, my little 4AH gel-cell, a Bencher Paddle, a hastily constructed dipole for 20m, water, nuts, and most importantly insect repellent.
Sunday arrived and I was anxious to get started. My wife got a good laugh when I announced that the bumblebee was ready to buzz away. My main thought was how to erect a dipole on a flat beach without a support.
Down the beach I went, looking for the perfect spot. I hiked past the last beach house and headed toward the end of the island where the inlet comes in from the Atlantic. In the distance I saw what I thought was the perfect spot. I could see a series of old pilings, remnants of an old jetty, looming above the beach. The tide was receding and when I got closer I felt the regret. There was still water at their bases and I was not about to subject my Sierra to that environment. If only I had brought a 50ft extension of coax, it would have been perfect. Onward I walked as the sun got higher and hotter. Then ahead, I saw my only resort. It was a lone, low and weather beaten ceder tree on the edge of the marsh grass above the beach. I managed to hang the antenna in the inverted vee fashion from the one limb barely 10ft above the sand with the ends of the antenna drooping within inches of the ground.
Just an hour before the start time I checked the power out and found that it was only 700 milliwatts on 20m. Even though the antenna was cut correctly for a "free space" dipole it certainly wasn't in free space now and the swr was much higher than anticipated. I didn't have a tuner and was getting much too hot to experiment with different antenna lengths, so I decided to just see what it would do on the air.
I made contact with Barb, K1IER in Shelton, CT. and received a 569 report. Now that I knew it worked I was ready. Shortly after my first contest QSO's with Ken VE3ELA/ BB and John VE3JC / BB in Ontario, the ants started attacking. They headed straight up my legs. I counter-attacked with a massive dose of repellent. If you have read this much you have the mental picture of my setup. The struggle with the environment continued for the next 4 hours. It went from blazing sun to a couple of short refreshing rain showers. I was able to operate continuously with the rig inside of a big zip-lock freezer bag inside of the backpack.
In summary, it ended well. I had made 19 contacts with the 700 Milliwatts including 10 other brave soles (/BB's). It was very much an adventure. In retrospect, I would have scoped out the area ahead of time and have brought enough coax to use the pilings over the water and done a preliminary antenna setup, adjusting as needed. A makeshift shelter would have been nice, especially to keep the sun off I didn't mind the rain.
I thank all the great ops out there that made it really fun. I hope to do it again next year but it will be a different adventure I'm sure.
From Key, VE3ELA
Kayaked to Beausoleil Island, Georgian Bay. It's a Canadian national park, accessible only by water, and the gateway to our famous "30,000 Islands". Strung the W3EDP wire from a pine tree down to the rocky Canadian Shield, in an E-W direction. Due to my miscalculation, I ended up setting up the rig and sitting on the ground, instead of the natural rock operating desk and chair previously selected. And those pesky red ants were out everywhere, biting with a vengeance. The heat from the direct sun on the case of my HW-9 affected the VFO, so the dial markings were way out!
Still managed 38 contacts, mostly on 20m and 22 Bumblebees.
Found out John VE3JC/BB was operating only 10 miles away, from an old Severn River fire tower site! During the contest, we arranged to meet for an eyeball, but the weather turned stormy, and his only access out was by boat. However, we had a great QRP conversation by telephone, and hope to meet at a Hamfest next month.
Thanks to ARS and everyone who participated. I learned alot and am looking forward to planning next year's challenging Flight.
From Cal, K4JSI
This is a fun event! Sorry 20M was so bad in Maryland; 40M was much better, but only one point per "Q". Ran QRP+ to my attic aluminum foil "center-fed" (through "push-pull" RG-58 and a KW Electronics Z-match tuner). Nye Viking paddle and Whiterook packaged Tick keyer were very smooth. Best DX was KD7AEE in Utah, on 20M. Just wait 'til next year <grin!
From Layton, VE1MT
I hope you had a great time with the Bumblebee Contest, as I did. I did not make very many contacts but sure had a lot of fun.
From Joe, KK5NA
Bumblebee #6: Had a turn out of 4 for the "Flight". We set up in Red Kane Park in Arlington, TX. The temperature was 104+ in the shade of two big scrub oaks. Had a good breeze to keep us going. We operated a HW-9 at 4 watts into a Butternut, ground mounted with 8 radials. We had a great time. Lots of folks on the air. Signals were fading in and out, but 20 held up pretty good. Tried 40M and 15M but found no one there.
Thanks to ARS for another great event!
From Paul, AA4XX
My dog Henry and I operated the BB Contest from Raven Rock S.P. on the banks of the Cape Fear River in central NC. I used my Sierra at 2W and a LL fed 40M dipole at 70'. After carrying my 50 lb duffle bag for 2 1/2 miles down to the river, I decided that next time I'll travel lighter-HI....
The contest was a lot of fun, and I was impressed by the ability of several operators to work signals just above the noise level. See Y'all next year!!
From Jeff, AC6KW
Despite very poor band conditions from my operating site, I had lots of fun. The two weeks of preparation (building lighter weight stuff and antennas) spread the fun out. The day was beautiful, as was the view.
Hope to participate again next year.
From Doc, W0EVZ
Rigs: Main = SST-20 @ 1.87 watts Secondary = Wilderness Sierra @ 1.9 watts
Antenna = Inverted WYE (taped to SD-20 fishing pole, groundplane wires extended off the ground
Tuner = Emtech ZM-2
Keyer = Whiterook MK-88 with Curtis chip (ie older version)
Power = 2.7ah rechargeable motorcycle battery from Batteries Plus
Location was probably nearly ideal. Hiked 4 miles down hard-stand road, then climbed (not too steep, but through brush/trees) 900 feet. Site had clear view in 360-degrees except for trees, etc. Biggest problem was fighting the Minnesota state birds....which insisted on coming around. BTW this "state bird" is actually the mosquito, and they seem more voracious than ever for some reason!
BOTTOM LINE: It was a great day. Let's do it again. Here's my bid to serve as a Bumbleblee again next year. What are the dates?
From John, VE3JC
Well the 1998 "Flight of the Bumblebees" was just as much fun as last year! Since I was vacationing at my sister's cottage in Muskoka, I decided to canoe / hike to a favourite spot of my youth - the site of a firetower on "Lost Channel" off the Severn River. The firetower was taken down years ago (used to love to climb it as a kid), but the concrete steps which remain made a reasonably comfortable operating position, and the high elevation on the Canadian Shield helped improve my results over '97. I have several photos of my BB site on my web page ( http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/7378/ ) I had hoped to canoe out on Monday to meet Ken VE3ELA, whose bumblebee location was only 10 miles "as the crow flies" from mine (after all, Ontario only has 412,000 square miles so we have to crowd in!). Unfortunately, heavy rains and thunderstorms interfered with those plans.
Thanks to ARS for a great contest.
From Mike, W3TS
Got off to a late start. I missed the first 2 hours. But when I got home it didn't take to long to walk to the Halifax Area Reservoir. (Bench Mark 40,27 N lat. and 76,55 W lon. at 573 feet above sea level.) Put up the tuned feeder doublet about 50 feet high and hooked up the homebrew all band cw xcvr to find the bands in poor shape. I used a homebrew keyer and paddle. Power was a 5ah gatescell. During my first QSO I had to ask N0UR to "AS" (standby)because a REAL BEE was trying to attach me!
Managed to struggle through 37 QSOs working 18 bees and 24 spcs.
I didnt read the rules close enough and I was not logging the bees as I thought the bees were to send their number in the exchange. I hope everyone looked at the list to see that I was a bee.
From Joe, AB7TT
Got a very late start, and a recent encounter with a surgeon's knife kept me from flying as far as I was hoping (best I could do was waddle a few laps around the car ;-) ). Was great to be back on the air! Had to stay off of my planned mountaintop perch, but ended up on the shore of a lake at 7500 ft with great views, birds, flowers, and plenty of signals. Used my Sierra and an end-fed 1/2-wave wire, easy setup. Couldn't seem to break the Mississippi RF wall - all QSOs were in the West. Great fun, thanks for a great contest! Next year I'll be sure to be on that mountaintop.
From Dave, KD7AEE
Very interesting contest. Next time I will make better use of the BB list ... didn't realize how important it could be ...
For BB stations only: Suggest consideration of changing BB exchange to 5NN S/P/C and "BB#", and drop name, "BB" is included .... this will eliminate those sending /BB who are not BB ... I have three!
Had a hard time on the RX, no CW filter! The Force 12 C3D at 70 feet played very very well! Heard a whispering "7FS" in my headphones and turned the beam to 330 degs and there was Jim AL7FS at 10/S9!
See you next time! .... de Dave
From Ron, KU7Y
I had to fix the contest computer before I could get on. Then I managed to botch the first QSO! Ed had his bug on 40m sounding good. My little 200 mW was fun but the thunder boomers made life too hard and I shut things down. I was working from the home stations. Ron, KU7Y
From Cam, N6GA
I second the idea of trying 15 and 10 meters on the hour, half-hour, whatever. I chose the parking lot of a now-dormant ski area. Weather was superb, birds causing most of the QRM. Very deep fading on 20 meters, some contacts were really tough to complete because a 569 signal dropped to nothing in a few seconds. Thanks ARS for a fun contest!
From Al, W7SNV
Great contest! Of course, I could have run up a REALLY big score, but I had to run out on the lookout tower catwalk every few minutes to see if any "smokes" had developed. "Duty called!!"
From Howard, K2UD
First time in the Bee thing. Lotsa fun! Only wish I could have gone the whole 4 hours. Ran an Argonaut 515 into a walking stick vertical on 20M. All solar powered. Found 20M kinda fickle, propagation (can I call it that?) came and went in the short time I was on. I'll bee back next year!
From Dave, W9SUL
W9SUL/BB # 28 had "Tons of Fun"... thanks ARS for again hosting this 'event'.
Made 22 contacts all on 20 meters. 18 SPC's... 17 states and BC in Canada.
AK,CA,CO,CT,FL.GA(2),ID(2),KS,NC(2),NJ,OK,OR,MO,TN,TX,UT(2),WA BC
Jim - AL7FS in Anchorage, Alaska being my best DX.
Operated from Wildflower Park in Blooming Prairie, MN.... a beautiful spot.
Was asked by the local weekly paper, "The Blooming Prairie Times" to write an article about ham radio and the day's activities for a future issue. This should be a fun assignment.
I will be creating a 'limited edition' QSL card for all contacts made during the event. They should be ready in a few days.
Again, thanks ARS for another "tons of fun" event.
From Steve, N0TU
Only snagged 18 Qs - but I feel like I earned every one of 'em ...between my bike ride, flat tire, walk back home, drive to the trail head and finally hike to my BB site!! FUN 'test.
The Details: I got a 2 hour late start!!! My mtn bike had a flat tire on the way to the trailhead which turned out to be a double flat or (aka "snake-bike") occurs when the tire rim smashes the tube against hard surface. (Or 20lbs of QRP/lunch/rain gear on the rear of my bike rack bouncing up and down hammered my rear tire...OK, so it was a jeep trail!) Well, luck would have it I only had one small patch left in my repair kit! (arrrRGH!) So I went to plan B - walk bike back home and drive to the trailhead! (costing me several hours!)
Once at the trail head my hike to the site was only 'derailed' by the threat of lightning, which I was constantly re-evaluating as the clouds changed. Decided to play it safe and chose a site less exposed. (stayed away from the ridge.) maybe only 1 s-unit down from the top (hi)
With the 20m dipole pulled up about 30' in a tree and the SST singing out "CQ BB 'test de .VE7CQK" I was finally in the swing of things! (BTW Paul I never was able to snag you - guess my 2W was off the end of the dipole was enough?) Stayed on 20m the whole time not wanting to loose any time messing w/antennas or changing bands. 20m had a really fast QSB. It helped to kick up the WPM or now you hear 'em and the next second they're gone.... Funny too how the WPM increases right before the end of the test! But none the less I really enjoyed the afternoon of seeing how many of my QRP buddies I could put in my log. Kinda embarrased, several times I had to ask for other station's call more than once. Got the exchange going before I had the call down ... QSB/QRM was jamming my mental data base something firece. Need more non-voital gray matter RAM and next time an earlier arrival time would help. ...hmmm seems this is a trend I'll have to work on! Tks ARS!
From Bruce, VE5QRP
This was my first BB event and I'm looking forward to the next for sure. CW contesting makes me "nervous" but thanks to the Bumblebee I'm slowly overcoming this problem. VE5QRP will be back! ...
From Kent, AB7OA
Great time ... the wife decided to come along and just sit beside me, which made the trip more enjoyable!
Simplify, simplify, simplify ... each outing is getting easier :-)
From Bill, KD7S
Like last year, signals were weak on 20 meters but 40 was great. Just not enough stations on 40. Thanks to N6MM for my only 15 meter contact. Worked W7ZOI/AA6QU team on 40 meters also
From Jake, N4UY
I could hear a lot of BB's but couldn't raise them -- even boosted my power from 2 watts to 5 but still no luck. Maybe next year I'll hike out to the Blue Ridge for a little more elevation :-) Thanks for a fun event.
From Rob, KO6KA
Couldn't ask for better hiking weather -- clear with a fresh breeze, and of course it was cooler up on the hill. Got to smell pine and sage while viewing some late-blooming wildflowers. Although I left home early, the day's misadventures kept me off the air until the last hour of the event. Fortunately, a crowd was hanging around 14060 so I got to taste the excitement of being a bee. Thanks!
Both roads to the wilderness trailhead that I planned to used were washed out, so I was closer to Black Mountain (CM95), about 10 miles northwest of my stated goal of Machesna Mountain. I hiked out and back about four miles along the Wilson Canyon trail, and about 20 minutes off trail to my operating site. I remembered the flower patches and tall trees from my last visit, but not so much grass and burrs. (This area received twice the normal rainfall last winter.) I veered off trail to get behind a ridge from Black Mountain, gaining an unspoiled panoramic view and reduced RFI. My kind of QTH, I'd perch there again.
I brought my rather tubby multiband station as used in the Spartan Sprints. If propagation trends had been better, I would have carried only my lightweight 15 meter gear instead. Carrying the load wasn't so unpleasant compared to the frustration encountered while setting everything up.
Starting with my favorite 40 meter dipole, so many times it got tangled in low branches, and I would tug hard, ducking broken twigs until the antenna fell free and I could start over. After the last tug of war the tree kept half, some brush clutched the other half, and I gave up on 40. (The debris was retrieved later.)
By the time I was QRV on 15 meters it sounded closed. After moving to 20 meters, it was obvious that the gear needed troubleshooting. I tracked down two intermittent connections and, finally, this bee was out of the hive. Yes! I love the sound of a QRP swarm!
From George, K4PYM
I was at home. Five Watts to G5RV at 50 feet. Heard some bees that could not hear me! Tnx for great contest. 72
From David, W0CH
The site selected for W0CH/BB was Roaring River State Park in southwest Missouri high on a ridge above the trout hatchery. My son Thomas(KC0AUU) and I along with two YL friends of Tom packed in a HW-8 for the main rig and a NorCal 40A for the backup rig. Easily erected a 20 meter dipole and a 40 meter SLV along the side of the fire tower trail in the forest. Conditions were crowded on 20 with the DC receiver but managed 33 contacts there and another 2 QSO's on 40. Totally enjoyed the Flight and am looking forward to next year for another Flight, but with a lighter rig.
Thanks for the great operating event.
From Steve, W7QC
I was slightly past the end of the road on a mountain in the Washington Cascades. At 6300 feet and big dropoff from East thru South. Could almost see California from there. Seemed like a great contest. Lots of activity.
From Scott, AA5BK
My favorite contest
From Jim, N0UR
Rig: HW-9 @ 3 watts to inverted L and G5RV. I just biked 10 miles to a city park and set up in a unused picnic area (the tables were gone) so I had to sit on ground and set rig on my bike trailer. I was very pleased at condx on 20 meters, got a few on 15, but 40 meters was worthless. Great fun, my first /BB, suprised at all the activity, lots of stations got on for this one
From Randy, K7TQ
I hiked up one of the taller peaks with trees north of Moscow, ID and operated with the new call K7TQ. 20 m was great the entire day. Worked AK to FL. Saw two bear cubs, but no mom. It was a great way to spend the hottest day of the year.
From Ed, WE6W
Is it legal to have this much fun, and with all these fine people! Wow, what a great time I had. Working hams up in the hills and all over sure adds a lot of excitement to the contest.
I used my Home Station, Drake TR-3 from 4 to 5 watts output to my tree supported dipole up 30 feet, fed with 300 Ohm line from the tuner.
I worked with my Les Logan #501 Bug and that was fun too! 40 meters was best here on the West coast, but after two hours the pickins' got slim so I spent the last half up on 20. The QSB was fast and deep but we all seemed to wait it out. Most notable Q was Ron/KU7Y running 200mW! QRP'ers are having waaay too much fun.
From Dean, N2TNN
Operated from Swamp Cove in Mantaloking, NJ. Beautiful day and the view was just as nice. Sorry I could only work one band but a new rig is in the works. Worked many old friends as well as hearing new ones. Thanks to all for such a fine event.
From William, WD8RIF
The "Flight of the Bumblebees" continues to be a great event. I had a blast operating from the forest, and look forward to next year's event.
From David, N2SMH
Great time, beautiful day, pretty good conditions for the most part. Rig used was my Wilderness Sierra with homebrew Z match tuner. Antenna was a 100-foot doublet fed with 300-ohm ladder line at a height of about 45 feet. Location was a hilltop near Round Valley Reservoir in Clinton Township, NJ. Ran 20 meters for the entire contest and listened as the noise level steadily rose over the course of the afternoon.
Highlights for me included working W7ZOI (was that you, Russ?) and my pal Mike, K1MG. Not sure but I think I picked up two or three new states toward my QRP WAS. Thanks to everyone involved in putting the event together... not to mention all the participants. See you next year!
From Rick, KF4AR
Had lots of fun, but between Murphy and the good Lord's lightning storms, the QSOs were few and far between. QRN was horrendous but we sure needed the rain in south central NC.
From Derek, WF4I
I was joined by Steve, AE4YQ, and his son. We made two trips to the summit of Stone Mt., NC; one for scouting (hadn't been there before), one for hauling gear. We found a nice location with a good breeze that afforded a north-south orientation for my doublet. By the end of the second trip up the mountain, I was feeling twice my age - what a grunt! Steve, wearing sandals, offered to scale a pine tree so the center of my 80 M doublet was up about 30 ft. Steve's son made the first bumblebee contact or rather it contacted him - had to shift my operating position - already a bumblebee site. I ended up not getting on the air for the first hour of the contest. Listened but didn't hear any activity on 10 or 15 M, so started out on 20 M - wall to wall Bumblebees (the kind I was looking for). The late start had cost me a choice spot on the band so I went search and pounce up and down the band. My plan was to move to 40 M for the last hour. When I tried to tune up on 40 the Z-match wasn't working. Steve suggested spreading out the remaining 450 ohm feedline. After another spurt of downtime - Viola! SWR under control.
Rig was a modified Wilderness Radio Sierra runing 4 - 5 watts. Also used a ZM-2 and a NorCal paddle. Carried two 4 AH gelcels - way too much weight!
This was my first Flight of the Bumblebees and certainly not my last. Two major lessons learned: 1) scout out your site beforehand & 2) minimize your weight (shoulda learned that from the SS's). Now I know why they call this Adventure Radio.
From Lorraine, AC6XK
I hiked 5.5 miles to my operating site (that's after hiking 4.5 miles at my job!) I was in the Chinquipin Flats area of the San Jacinto Mountains and the view was spectacular. Had some trouble getting the dipole up (what a surprise!) but eventually got it up. I even had some time to spare before the contest started! Had a great time although I quit 45 minutes early because the deer flies were eating me up! This contest should be ARS' signature contest! Sign me for next year!
From Ken, W4DU
I had a great time. Sure wish 15 meters was a bit more stable. The QSB on that band had some guys going from Q5 to the noise in less than a minute. Another flight in October would make for more comfortable condx. Also, my QRP + locked up in the heat - wouldnt transmit! Luckily, I discovered this problem on Saturday, and could keep the + out of the sun on Sunday.
I also didnt realize that the park state park people would want me out of the camp grounds at noon!! Simple soulution was to pay $5.00 for another night!!
Looking forward to the next one.
From Mike, KO4WX
First ARS event. Very nice contest. Terrible band conditions, but enjoyed the contest Also first test run on my new QRP+--absolutely wonderful rig.
From James, NB0Z
Learned of ARS & this contest a few weeks ago after a Web search for "QRP." Used my HW-8 on a gel cell, battery-powered MFJ keyer, Vibroplex iambic paddles, and my home-station 3-el. 20/15/10m Yagi. A fun event.
From Bruce, N7CEE
I operated from Schultz Peak (10,000 ft) north of Flagstaff. Starting at 0630 MST from the road, I hiked cross country up the south slopes. The flowers and alpine meadows were a treat. I arrived at the summit at 0830 and scouted for a good operating location. By 0930 I had my antenna and station set up. The antenna was an end fed 40m halfwave wire, with a quarter wave counterpoise. Using a ZM-2 tuner, the antenna tuned easily on 20 and 15 m. The rig was a Sierra running on an 8 AA pack, and I used my new TeNeKe knee key. I logged with a Hewlett Packard HP100lx pocket computer running TRlog 4.05.
Conditions seemed good on 20 m and I made 19 contacts. 15 m opened occasionally and I ended up with 6 contacts there. 40 m was very noisy and I didn't hear any activity. This being my first (but not last!) Bee contest, I was surprised by the number of Bee'sI worked 13.
I worked stations all over the country, but it was especially fun to work two of the local Bee's, K7ZEN and AB7TT. Great contest!
From Mark, KQ0I
Status - home bound Equipment was a Ten Tec 580 Delta at 5 watts to a multiband dipole through a tuner and fed with open wire feeders.
Lots of fun, Russ, but the bands were pretty bad unless my antenna has a hole in it somewhere. My congratulations to everyone who braved the elements to give us such a nice event.
From Jack, WA8GHZ
Great job, bees. Nice sigs and ops under tough condx. n7xj, wd3p, ae4gx, k0evz, n4dd, plus non-bee kd7aee - all 20M.
Best Sig from k0evz - 579 MN to TX Home stn w TenTec Omni V, Tuner to 30M/40M FanVee, 5W. (Too hot to play outside here - 104degF @ 90%. Great BUBBA Wx).
From Bob, N7XJ
Musinea peak was rained out, so I chose a safer location. I'll still send some pictures of me operating during a "dry" (literally) run on the peak one week earlier. Jim, AL7FS, was booming into Central Utah when I worked him. W7ZOI had a BIG, BIG signal all day, but kept signing his call AA7QU by mistake (it was momentarily confusing, Russ). The event gave me a chance to try out my 33 foot telescoping "walking stick" - which works great. I should have left the HW9 home and used my SST 20. The only band open for me was 20 meters. I worked 18 bees and 66 total QSO's, all on 20 meters.
From Peter, NN9K
Operated fom home, rig MFJ 9020 at 4 watts with 3 element tribander at 50 feet. Other than having problems with RF getting into my key things went well. Good Luck to all.
From Ken, N2CQ
Thanks for a great portable sprint. New antenna for next time. Poor signals to the north west. Thanks for all the Bees and others too.
From John, KG0MZ
Got a late start biking (10.25 miles each way) to the park. Found a spot with ample shade. The tree placement allowed me to rotate the dipole 45 degrees midway through the day. A sheriff's deputy kept an eye on me, but he did not approach. Several picnic-types stared at a distance. A few ants, but otherwise very pleasant. Hot in the shade, the heat index was between 100 and 104F.
40 was near useless with qrn. Lots of qrm on 20. Equipment worked fine with the exception of the BY-1 which gave me fits. I used an OHR-400 with a 15 AH battery (overkill, but it is what I had). St. Louis tuner let me use the 40M coax fed dipole on 20.
Great fun. Not a bad day for an old guy.
From Rick, K0SU
Didn't try real hard, but nice to work a few of the QRP folks I see postings from.
From Jim, AL7FS
As usual, propagation was a big factor from up in Alaska. If I had not stayed glued to the seat and kept tuning, I would have missed many of the QSOs. The QSB would bring signals up and then they would be gone for the rest of the contest.
I worked 5 stations the first hour, 8 stations the second hour, 7 in hour three and only 4 QSOs in the last hour. Hour 1: ID, OR, UT Hour 2: CA, BC, WA, OR Hour 3: CA, AZ, WA, CO (N0IBT snuck in there), OR Hour 4: MN, CA Hour 1 and 2: worked what I heard Hour 3: Missed K0EVZ, N1FN, KC2AFO, AE4GX Hour 4: Had worked most of what I could still hear but did pick up a few new ones. I did miss W0CQC and W0CNL. I came back to CNL's call but I guess he didn't hear me.
Most notable signal for the day was K7TQ, Randy, in Idaho. As usual, I seemed to get better signal reports than I could give out. Many were 339, some 229 and few 449, 559.
Well, that's enough rambling for now. That was fun and I was pleased to hear the buzz of 15 bees today and 24 total QRP stations on a day when there weren't even a handful of QRO stations between 14.000 and 14.055.
Thank you everyone.
From Dan, N7CQR
Sorry for the late report! I had a good time despite the heat and QSB at my same location as in 1997, above the McKenzie river valley in western Oregon. Great contest, and can't wait until next year! Euipment was a Sierra, and a "gusher" inverted vee using a modified 'paint pole' for a mast at 20 Ft overlooking the McKenzie river valley. Elevation was approx. 2000 ft.Hope 15 opens up next year.
From Paul, VE7CQK
Well, had a good time. Our's turned out to be a loaded touring version of the flight of the BB. My friend Dave VE7SGI (sound familiar Chuck?) and I biked to our chosen sight along the Fraser River just east of the fishing village of Steveston B.C.. We got a bit of a late start, so got on the air a bit late. While I started operating Dave finished putting up the 20 meter bisquare. Our other antenna was an offcenter fed wire with 120 feet on one side and 16.5 feet on the otherside of the 300 ohm twinlead. Hooked up my ohr400 at first, but something was wrong with it so switched to the qrp plus, so this was to be a single rig operation. I had set up Dave's laptop to run rigs simultaneously on 20 and 15 but that was not to be. QRN turned out to be a problem from time to time so my apologies to those I was not able to dig out of the noise. Oddly, initially the bisquare was noisier than the offcenter fed. I had hoped to do some serious antenna comparisons, but the conditions prevented getting any meaningful data. Next year I have to figure out how to streatch about 300ft of wire over the river to a small spit of land that looks like it has some useable trees on it... Other than the rig failure, the only other down side was finding out that our shade went away after about 2.5 hours, so today I am imitating a lobster ;-). I would appreciate hearing from anyone else who noticed a problem with my signal.
By next year we hope to have Dave's code to the point where he can operate as well. By the way, Dave did a great job of explaining what was going on to all the passersby.
Thanks to all who called, and apologies to those I couldn't dig out.
This was a great event, even Dave is looking forward to next year.
From Jan, N0QT
Comments: What a great time! We started climbing at 4 a.m. Saturday morning, it started raining at 4:15.... we arrived at the top absolutely soaked. It was a struggle to get everything set up for camp in all the freezing rain. After we got settled in I started setting up the radio gear. Now the first thing that was off-kilter was the antenna. Glaciers don't have trees and I didn't have a lightweight support tower to haul along. So the antenna got thrown out onto the ice. If you don't count the mountain, it was zero feet "up" :). The next Murphy-item was that the display quit on the Argo. Apparently it wasn't enjoying the balmy 28 degree temperature as much as we were (after the triple digit heat wave at home). So the trick was to spin the dial until I could hear pactor signals and work my way back down. This was going to be a for-real hunt & pounce operation! Spin the dial and work 'em -- this has gotta be the ham radio version of The Wheel of Fortune! Well, the fun didn't stop there! The Ten Tec single paddle key kept icing up. This makes for some VERY interesting sending! Had to keep running the blade of my pocket knife through the flame on the Bic lighter and touching it to the metal arm of the paddle to de-ice it every 5 minutes.
Decided to play a little in the IOTA just to see how the gear was working overall. Thought it was gonna be a good time when I worked UA0JQ almost right away. But that didn't last long. That was the funniest behavior I've ever seen on 20m! It was like somebody kept opening and closing a door. 40m was so noisy that I only worked 2 stations in the IOTA, and someone decided to give 15m the weekend off! So that meant my choices for the BB were going to be pretty limited. I spent most of the night freezing and chasing grayline, but it was fun.... I'm sure it was....pain....what pain?
Well, it's Sunday and the day of the BB. Good news! It finally quit raining and my antenna isn't iced over! Bad news! 20m is absolutely dead! No static, no hiss, nada! There's that door-thing again! Well, just be patient, turn the dial.... that's pactor and probably around 065....back down....hey, I found somebody! And so it went. Had a very rough time working stations due to that funny fading. The highlight of the whole event was being able to work AB7TT sitting way down on the desert floor in Arizona. We've been friends for over 2 years, but only via e-mail. So this was a real treat! Then there was a very loud K1MG. If I closed my eyes I could picture him sitting right in my lap, or at least the next mountain over! He was about the only one I heard all afternoon. Heard lots of stations but couldn't work them. Didn't hear any of my friends in Colorado either. I could hear AL7FS loud and clear from Alaska, but he couldn't hear me.
Okay, you're probably thinking that this is a lot of trouble for a little radio contest. Well, sorta. Fact is that the Bumble Bee was just a catalyst for something that was inevitable. In 1973 I almost died on this peak due to an accident when my belay man had an anchor fail and slid almost 100 feet before he could sink in and stop. This caused me to go into a wild spin on the rope below and slammed me head first into a jam crack in the side of the mountain. It took over 8 hours and a full response team to get me down. I suffered a severe case of hypothermia, frostbite, and a closed head injury. My belay man was certain that I was dead. One funny point for the rescue team (certainly not for me at the time) was when they tipped the stokes up a little to go around an outcropping. I happened to come to at that very moment and when I looked out, all I saw was sky and rock. I thought I was falling face first. My bloody scream convinced the others I had regained consciousness. I didn't think it was funny! So several months ago, Kevin and I ran into each other again. Naturally we started reminiscing and the accident came up. Turns out he'd always felt like it was his fault. I couldn't seem to make him understand that I didn't see it that way at all! So I told him about the Bumble Bee contest and that it would be fun to do it from the top of the mountain. We had some good laughs over the idea of hauling our aging out-of-shape bodies up the mountain. Well, a few months later Kevin phoned to say "let's do it!" So we did. We proved to ourselves that we were tougher than that mountain. It was a very cleansing and spiritual kind of experience.
Lessons learned....long wires like to be up in the air... Argos don't like the cold....how can I make a plastic key so it doesn't ice up.....wonder how I can haul a 1956 Buick up there for a ground plane for the Hustler....I did remember what I hated the most about bivouacing....3 days in the same clothes and dehydrated food......ugh! But one of the reasons my pack weighed more than 100 lbs. was the big can of Spaghetti-Os, half a loaf of garlic bread, and a pan of Jiffy-Pop popcorn. That ballooned up top on the popcorn pan was a great way to warm our hands! Now THAT's fun!