Flying Pigs on the Greenway!

Greetings All from Clarksville Tennessee North Central Chapter of the Flying Pigs QRP International and QRP rules...

With the arrival of good weather we decided it was time for an outing. The arrival of KF4WK-Lewis's KX3 radio gave us the incentive to go out on a Saturday when several Special Events were going to be operating. Operating on weekends and especially on weekends with Special Events makes contacts a lot more interesting and frequent.

We all have been excited about the KX3 from Elecraft (http://www.elecraft.com/KX3/kx3.htm) and we could not wait to get one on the air. A word to the wise here..... always check the power output on any radio that you are going to be the control operator of..... with that said ....

We started by heading to the local second home of the Flying Pigs.... Donut Delight on Providence here in Clarksville. I got to Donut Delight a little early and waited outside for Richard-KJ4MXI and Doc-NV4T to show up. Terry-N5HOT was picking up Lewis-KF4WK and his new KX3. With the gang here,  we fortified ourselves with all kinds of goodies and then made our way to the local Greenway. The Greenway is part of the Rails to Trails program here in Clarksville and it is coming along great. We made our way to the parking area at the start of the Greenway at the end of Pollard Rd. We found a great parking spot where Doc-NV4T and I parked side by side. Terry-N5HOT  parked near us for equipment removal. We set about putting up the table and chairs then the radio equipment.  The antenna took a little longer because we had foot traffic to contend with and did not want to hit them with the antenna.  Several people kept watching us and asking questions. A lot of them would comment on our antenna. Many military personnel and their family's are familiar with radio and how it works. A lot of them have CW training and other types of experience with radio equipment. Terry-N5HOT usually is our P.I.O. on these outings and  is always kept busy answering questions and giving out information. After finally getting the equipment set up we got down to business.. Working the bands with the KX3.... You can not say enough about the Elecraft radios.  So you just have to buy one or be lucky enough to have a couple of friends who have them.

The second half of that comment is where I am at and I really enjoy using my friends Elecraft radios.... It is great to have good friends...

Today we were looking for anyone we could contact but specifically we were trying to contact Museum Ships during the 2012 Museum Ship Event ( http://www.nj2bb.org/museum/index.html). Our plan was to contact any ship we could and along the way get anyone else we could find. The other event we were hoping to work was the Alabama QSO Party (http://www.alabamaqsoparty.org/). This event always seems to bring out operators so we figured we had a chance to get more contacts by virtue of more people on the air at one time. Good thought.....But..... Getting back to that thing about being the control operator... Well when Lewis-KF4WK got his radio he set it up at his home and normally we run 5 watts QRP power on a outing. Today Lewis set the radio to 500 milliwatts or half of one watt. With that in mind I felt great about the few contacts we made. Always check your power when you operate.... enough said about that.... so here we go working our way across the bands and the first one we hear good enough to copy was NJ2BB-The Battle Ship New Jersey. What a catch.... I call and call and call and no luck.... oh well must be band conditions.... so we changed bands from 40 to 20 and here we go with K1USN-The Watson Museum in Braintree Mass. working on the U.S.S. St. Lawrence DD8. What a great contact we were getting out to Massachusetts with no problem.  So we move to 17 meters and up comes NS7DD-The U.S.S. Turner Joy in Eugene Oregon. We call and call and call and no joy for Turner Joy.... must be conditions... So we go back to 20 meters and up pops WW2DD-The U.S.S. Cassin Young DD793 in Stoneham Mass. wow what another great contact Bob gave us a 599 and he was also a 599 great contact.

Now with enthusiasm up we go back to 40 meters and give WW2LST-The U.S.S. LST 325 in Evansville Indiana a call. He is moving up and down the band like a cat on a hot tin roof. He begins to tune his radio and it moved back and forth from where we were listening.  What fun it was chasing this operator as he tuned his WWII radio. After chasing him a while we had no luck contacting him and we moved on down the band....  

We changed operators and Doc-NV4T gave the KX3 a shot. You guessed it right off Doc had K4ZGB-Bill in the log he was coming in great and he gave us a 599. Now QRZ says he is in Fresno California but his signal was one of the loudest on the air.

Doc gave up the radio to me and I started looking for WW2LST again. I found him tuning up on 40 meters near K4ZGB and I waited for him to stop tuning and jumped on him like a bug. It took several tries but he came back and gave me a 459.... Great to have him in the log book. He was a solid 599. By this time I was tired from chasing the LST around so Terry-N5HOT jumped in and after going to 20 meters he had K3IE/4-Hunter from Birmingham Alabama and he was in the log. He was calling for the Alabama QSO party and doing a great job. It is my turn again and I look for another contact on 20 meters. Right away I find KN4Y-Edward from Florida. Great signal into Clarksville TN. By now all the guys were getting tired from standing around watching us have fun so it was time to hit the road. Lewis-KF4WK had to leave so we shut down the station and called it a day. It was a fun time and we made a bunch of citizen contacts that seemed to spark interest in ham radio. Now about that control operator thing. Just for information it was not until the next day that Lewis-KF4WK called me and told me we were running one half watt, that is 500 milliwatts while we were operating. Now that is really QRP.... more like QRPp.

 Thanks for reading about our KX3 outting and 72 for now from me and the whole gang here in Clarksville. 72 dit dit