Flying Pigs take on the 7 th. Area QSO Party

Greetings from the Flying Pigs of Clarksville TN....

It has been a long time since our last outing and and with the 7 th. Area QSO Party coming up we decided it was time to head out into the field.  Normally the KF4L C.A.T.S.  Tailgate Party happens on the same weekend. During the tailgate party  we have things to sell and this limits our operating time. This year we were lucky.  The 7 th. Area QSO Party was held the weekend prior to the tailgate party. Now we would be free to do nothing, but play radio  (our only worry now would be the weather).  We picked one of our favorite operating spots...Fort Defiance  (http://www.cityofclarksville.com/index.aspx?page=161)  here in Clarksville.

 We are proud to announce a new member who has joined the Flying Pig gang.... Mike-KG4MSR has decided to join our group so he can get a little more CW action in his life.... Also he has been bitten by the QRP bug.... He came along on this outing to try our his new solar emergency station.... using both SSB, and CW.

 Our group of operators on this outing included KF4WK-Lewis, NV4T-Doc, N5HOT-Terry, KT4FQ-Jim, N3BQ-Jack, KG4MSR-Mike and myself KM6NN-John.

 We normally meet on forty meters at 7097 weekdays at 07:55 local time for a QRP CW net... except Sunday. By the way any amateur radio operator is welcome to join in during the net.   On this Saturday we skipped the normal operation and met at Mc Donald's on Riverside Drive then caravan-ed to Fort Defiance. We have operated from this location many times and we have the set up of our antennas fine tuned. We set up our vehicles to get the maximum shade effect and protection from possible passing vehicles running over our equipment. Not to mention the slow moving radio operators. Terry, Lewis, Mike and I went to work laying out our antenna and feed line. Next came to lofting of the fishing line above the trees by Terry and in no time we had the antenna up and ready. while we worked on the antenna the gang pulled out the table and assorted radio equipment for the operation. The sun was shinning on this outing and it was evident that we should have brought out the sun shade.....  After only a short time, we decided we needed to get out of the sun. Lewis came to our rescue and quickly went to his home QTH and brought back a portable pop up room. What a blessing..... Terry's K3 was getting really hot in that direct sunlight.

 The good thing about all that sun was that Mike's solar station was working great. His portable solar set up was an inspiration to us all... thanks Mike.

  We start our outings by having Doc (Boss Hog) make the first contact. Soon after the radio was up and running Doc rolled over to Twenty meters and hit the antenna tune button on the K3.... Right away W7RN-The Comstock Memorial Station in Virgina City Nevada came booming in.... Great signal from Nevada.... Next up was my turn and on the same frequency I worked KN7T-Mark in Snohomish Washington was in the log. I followed up working nine stations on twenty meters within ten KC's of each other. The states included Washington, Oregon, Utah and Arizona. After that I needed a cooling off break so Terry jumped in and three more contacts were added to the log. K7L-David in Yuma Arizona sounded great. The band was strong for Arizona and the next three contact were from that area. It was not long before the sun got to Terry so Doc jumped in and gave him a break.  During the time Doc was on we went over and checked out Mike's station setup. Very good emergency radio station setup. Solar for extended battery life and quick setup out of the back of his vehicle. Well done Mike. Mike's station can run QRO sideband as well as QRP CW. His contacts working as WA4PIG included WY7QP-The North East Wyoming Contest Club on USB and KK9EI in Indiana on LSB. Mike is slowly moving to the dark side of CW QRP..... LOL

During our outing we worked back and forth making contacts and taking breaks..... the sun was really taking a toll on us and by about 1800  Zulu hours we were burnt out..... between us we made 34 contacts during  three and on half hours.... that is a long time out in the sun and we were all happy to get back into our vehicles after taking down the station and turning on the AC..... Great fun and as always a great learning experience.

 Thanks for taking a look at our little story and until next time this is John saying 72 from the Flying Pigs of Clarksville Tennessee..... oink oink