Our Kind of Contest?

[cockpitbob]

I know.  The only good contest is a canceled contest.  But,

I stumbled across a monthly sprint that has my attention.  It's the Adventure Radio Society's Spartan Sprint.  As far as contests go, it looks like it does more good than harm.

* It's got a light footprint on the bands:
     -Happens on the 1st Monday of the month (doesn't clutter up the weekend).
     -It's only 2hrs long:  9:00pmest to 11:00pmest.
     -It's small:  seems like about 40 people turned in logs last month.
     -QRP only.
    -Stays out of WARC bands.
* Operating outdoors is encouraged.
* Using scratch built antennas, rigs or whatever is encouraged.
* Here's the part I like:  your score is the number of QSOs divided by the weight of your rig in pounds!
   Last month someone with a 30lb rig made 3 contacts for a score of 0.1.  Elsewhere someone made 16 contacts on a 0.26lb rig for a score of 61.

I just put this one in my calendar.  By then my KX1 will have arrived so the weight penalty will be small. :D   8) .

The ARS also has their annual 4hr long Flight of the Bumblebees in July.  Similar concept except you are either a home station, or if operating portable and you got there under your own power (feet, bike, canoe,...) you are a bumblebee. 
Bumblebees can earn special commendations for:
 

   
• Most interesting equipment
• Most fascinating FOBB venture
• Most beautiful site
• 
  

[NWARadio]

Interesting. I'm going to make a note of this one.

[cockpitbob]

It's on tonight.  9:00 - 11:00 eastern time.

Hang around the QRP calling frequencies for 80/40/20/15.
Exchange is RST, state and power.
Logging is honor system:  number of QSOs and rig weight.  No detailed logs.
I'll be using my KX1 so my total rig weight, including internal batteries, key and ear buds will be 15oz.
Hope to see some of you there tonight.

[cockpitbob]

It's on tonight.  9:00 - 11:00 eastern time.

Reply if you plan to participate.  We can work out some kind of secret handshake.

[cockpitbob]

For the first time in....seems like forever, I got to play this game again.  After a nasty winter, tonight was our first really warm night so I brought the MTR_V2 to the screened porch where I have a wire antenna rigged.  My rig with internal touch-keyer and little pack of 3 AA LiFePO4 batteries plus ear buds and end fed coupler weighs 10oz.  I made 7 QSOs so my score is (QSOs/weight) 11.2 which should put me in the top 5(not that that matters).  Tonight it seemed like everyone doing the Spartan Sprint was on 20M.  While fishing around 40M I had a short QSO with a Russian station 5K miles away, so that's another 1,000 miles/watt contact in the log.

The touch keyer with 2 flat copper plates on 2 corners of the radio's box takes some getting used to.  My sending after the 2nd glass of wine started getting pretty sporadic, but I love that the whole rig weighs much less than most keys.  My goal for this summer is to activate a few SOTA peaks.

[linkclan]

This sounds fun! I have to wonder if the antenna is included in the weight. Also, I have run 12v from my solar batteries to the deck for radio power(it used to be 24v so not really a new run) and that would kill my points if I had to calculate 8000lbs of batteries into the equation.

[cockpitbob]

K6PLE, the weight is the rig, batteries, any tuner or end fed coupler, key and ear buds.  The antenna and feed line are not included.  It would be fun to post your score with your solar batteries.  You would set a record for the most zeros before the decimal point ;D

[cockpitbob]

K6PLE, the weight is the rig, batteries, any tuner or end fed coupler, key and ear buds.  The antenna and feed line are not included.  It would be fun to post your score with your solar batteries.  You would set a record for the most zeros before the decimal point ;D .  Let's see....if you made 10 contacts, divided by 8,000lbs you score would be 0.00125 points. :o

[cockpitbob]

.

[gil]

The MTR works on a 9V battery, though not at full power. Actually, it works down to 6V. I tried small LIPO 3-cell packs but destroyed them all by discharging one cell too low.. Bad quality batteries I guess.. I use a tiny end-fed tuner that weighs almost nothing..

I should be doing a demo for a local preppers group on the 16th at a park, that'll be fun!

To power my MTR and K1 I now use eight rechargeable AA cells, which are very robust and last forever.
When using alkaline batteries I short one to keep the voltage at 12V or slightly below.

I need to brush up on my Morse code, been lazy lately, I haven't been on the radio for a while, missing a lot of words..

Gil.

[cockpitbob]

Gil, be sure to post when you'll be giving the demo.  We can try to work you.  If it's SSB we'll even say what an awesome operator you are so the prepper group can hear  ;D

[gil]

LOL, none of my radios do SSB unfortunately. I do plan on getting an MFJ-9420 for my boat though...

Gil.