Pearl Harbor Remembered 2012
Greetings and God Bless America....
The Flying Pigs of North
Central Tennessee have made a tradition of going out on special events in
history that have affected America. December 07, 2012 was another of those
events. I want to let it be known that our and all Americans ability to enjoy
our life and liberty is the direct result of the armed forces of the United
States of America. Let us not forget the sacrifices of those who have gone
before us. With that said I was happy to have the pleasure of getting together
with my fellow veterans on this special day and enjoying our hobby of QRP CW
radio communication. We planned to hold our event to be held at the Liberty Park
here in Clarksville Tennessee. Our fair city has developed a new marina and park
here in Clarksville and it is a great venue for all who wish to use it.
www.cityofclarksville.com/index.aspx?page=165 Terry-N5HOT, Doc-NV4T,
Lewis-KF4WK and Ralph-KG4CSQ were all present and accounted for on this great
day for QRP. The weather report said we had a chance of thunder storms and
possible showers but the rain went away around 09:00 a.m. and did not return
during the whole time we were operating. We started around 10:00 a.m. by putting
up our antennas and setting up or station. We chose a covered area near the
Cumberland River and in no time Terry and I had our dipole antenna up between
two trees. Today we invited the C.A.T.S. Club members to join us and get on SSB.
Anything to expose operators to CW..... LOL. Ralph joined us and put up his own
antenna system. We supplied his with one of our Yaesu FT-817ND radios to try to
make a few contacts.
After setting up our antennas we set about setting up our operating station.
Terry brought his K3 Elecraft.
www.elecraft.com and assorted equipment
to operate it and I brought all the paperwork needed to cover logging and
licensing. On this day not too many people were coming by as the weather could
have changed in a heart beat and you just never know when the rain would come
back.
We started looking on 40 meters and soon found WD4LZC- Larnelle in Louisville,
KY. This guy is coming in great and he gave me a 579. He has a real history and
a greater QRZ page. Give it a look see and check out what a great guy he is. We
checked 40 up and down but no one seemed to be working so 20 meters was our best
bet. Terry started moving around the band and soon had C6AUM-Mike Cotton was
working the band in the Bahamas getting ready for the CQ WW DX CW contest, what
a great contact. After that Doc took over and contacted KE4DYX-Vincent in Tampa
Florida, he was coming in great. After Doc, I jumped in and found
W0RW/Pedestrian mobile-Paul in Colorado Springs. We have worked him before and
had a great QSO with him about pedestrian mobile and Flying Pigs. Moving right
along I found PJ5J-Island of Sint Eustatius known as “Statia or Statius” (IOTA
NA-145). Not sure who the operator was but it was great to contact them. A
picture of the operators is attached to this story. We moved down the band and
found J6/N7QT-Robert Fanfant was on the band coming from Saint Lucia. I can
understand him operating from where he was because his home QTH appeared to have
a large amount of snow all around. As we looked around we discovered it was
19:11Z and almost past our nap time.... LOL We were all getting tired and a
little chilled so we decided to call it a day. We had a couple of visitors while
I was operating and Terry as always gave them the information about our
operation. Thanks Terry for being around to block out the QRM so I could track
down those great DX contacts. As always 72 and God Bless America. CU on the
air... so long from John-KM6NN and the Flying Pig Gang.
oink oink
PJ5J-Island of Sint Eustatius known as “Statia or Statius”