Greetings from the Flying Pigs of North Central Tennessee. This is another of the never ending sagas of our QRP Club here in Clarksville, TN. While sitting around the Pig Pin having a couple of cups of coffee, the gang decided we should heat up the airways with a little RF. We decided to go to Saturn where the air was a little thinner and the RF could soar into the heather both near and far. We met up at the local Pig Pen (Mc Donald's on Riverside Dr. in Clarksville TN) and had coffee and a little meal to fortify us for the long journey to Saturn. As it happened some of our club was unable to attend. Lewis, KF4WK had a meeting he had to attend on Uranus that he just couldn't get out of. Frank, AA4AE was called to active duty holding back the wind and water on the east coast. John, KX6F wound up in a land far far away and just could not get back in time.

So off we went hoping that more Flying Pigs would fly in after we set up or equipment.

When we arrived we set about putting up Terry's, N5HOT home made off center fed dipole. While he was making the shots with his sling shot into the trees I set up the table and moved equipment back and forth from the vehicles to the table. The heat was already getting high and we expected to be baking from the effects of the sun. With the antenna up Terry started moving the batteries to the table and hooking up his K-3. Not enough can be said about the K-3 radio except when can we get our hands on a KX-3. Those rigs are the greatest I have used in all of our adventures. While we were moving equipment around Richard, KJ4MXI arrived and went right to work setting up chairs and other implements of radio destruction. Keeping track of contacts and doing the log work is a big part of radio and is a must for writing stories days later. All of a sudden from the haze of the heat waves coming from the road up drove Kagan, KC0JGF one of our newest members. Will wonders never cease. This guy works all the time and never has time to go to one of our outings. Great day in the morning. Now we just have to get him on the key sending dits and dahs to the outland.

We finally settled down to business and started turning around on 40 meters. Doc, NV4T went right to work looking for someone to jump on and make a contact. We were using a new key that Terry brought and Doc was having a little problem getting the hang of it. After a couple of tries he handed over the operation to me and we started hearing one by one calls coming out of the K-3. It seems that the Kansas QSOP was in full swing and we jumped on the band wagon and started looking for ops calling CQ KSOP. In no time I had N0L, John in the log. John was in Johnson Co. near Olathe KS. Moving right along we found K0W, Dragan also in Johnson Co. boy we were on a roll. We were working 40 meters most of the time and the stations were all within about 10 KC's of each other. I copied a real strong signal KF4GUI, Marvin in Kentucky working W5ZR, Brian in St. Martinsville, LA. I wanted to get in a QSO with either of them when they stopped but as luck would have it when they said 73 they meant it. I called and no one was around. Oh well back to the KS QSO party. I moved down and K0R, Marshall in Kansas City. Great signal Marshall... While moving down I ran upon K4BAI, Jim in Columbus GA. Jim was working another contest and gave me some info. Lucky I just needed to send my RST and Power along with my state. While we were working all these stations it started getting real hot. We decided to make a sun screen out of a front window cover. The pictures tell it all and can be viewed in the pic's area of our story. I am not sure but I think we could have used the screen as some kind of exotic antenna if we had thought about it a little more. I moved over and let Terry, N5HOT take the helm. In no time Terry was working N0N, Nate in Marshall Co. way to go Terry. The rig was heating up with all the direct sunlight (Saturn has thin air so it seemed to be a lot hotter than we thought LOL) Terry got up and I gave it one more shot. This time I went to 20 meters. In no time I had W0A, Lee in Harvey Co. The key was even getting hot so we decided we had enough. Too much sun and not enough shade had done us in. But we had a ball working the stations we did and we even got a couple of our newer members on the air for a little CW practice. Way to go guys. Thanks for reading our little story and come visit us on the air every day at 7125 on 40 meters at 1355 hrs Z. except Sunday. Nice and slow CW for those who love to work straight keys and bugs.

See you soon.... This is John, KM6NN saying 72 for now. OINK OINK, dit dit....