Freeze Your Butt off at Port Royal

Greetings once again from the Flying Pigs QRP group of Middle Tennessee. We have again defied the cold weather (not so much this year) and ventured out into the wilds of Middle Tennessee to forge new contacts in exotic places all over the world. At least that was our plan. On this outing we drug, I mean we brought along a couple of new prospective members of our intrepid group. KK4DWU-Jeff and KG4YGX-Tommy decided to tag along and laugh.... I mean get valuable instruction in emergency station operation. We always strive to get new hams involved so that they get a feel for how easy it is to put up antennas and set up a radio station.
Along with KF4WK-Lewis, NV4T-Doc, N5HOT-Terry, K4BLE-Richard, AA4AE-Frank and myself KM6NN-John we decided to go back to one of our favorite operating locations at Port Royal which is located just outside Clarksville Tennessee, Port Royal State Park.
On our last visit to this location we operated in less than comfortable weather conditions..... this year when we arrived around 11:00 am local time we and had almost spring like weather greeting us. As always Terry and I went to work setting up the antenna and getting the radio equipment sorted out and set up. Our hope was to make radio contacts with other hams who were going to be operating in a yearly event called "Freeze your Butt off" put on by the Arizona ScQRPions QRP Club ( http://www.azscqrpions.com/ ). We set our antenna into the trees so we could work west and east. This would give us the best advantage of working the most stations.....

we thought....

In the past we have gone out just after coffee around 09:00 am local time..... that always seemed to result in only a few contacts. After several hours of operating we were some very cold old men.
This year we held off until 11:00 am so that the people out west could wake up and the ones to our east would be up and running at full speed. Well the best laid plans always seem to get muddled up and as it turned out we made most of our contacts with a couple of other contests that are going on at the same time as the FYBO contest.
Six of our eleven QSO's were from the Minnesota Wireless Association QSO Party (http://www.w0aa.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8&Itemid=7).
One was from the British Columbia QSO Party (Orca DX and Contest Club -- BCQP Rules ). Only one was from the FYBO contest and the others were random radio contacts.
We started off a little different this time out and I made the first contact with WB9NFD-Dick in Kindallville IN. After Dick I searched for someone calling CQFYBO and came up with K0WTZ-Bob near Fulton, MO. He was running a bug for a key and had a strange sounding signal but we were able to make out his report of 50 degrees after some general discussion. Great fun to have all the guys listening in just in case you miss something.
We almost felt bad giving our weather report of 52 degrees......
After Bob, Doc took over and found W0ZQ-Jon in Bloomington, MN with a straight key no less....working the MN QSOP. Next up Terry got on and in no time he had two more MN QSO Party stations.... We had changed to 20 meters and that band seemed hotter than 40. I once again took over and worked WH6LE, Pete in Waxhaw, NC. He was working SKCC numbers and had a great signal. I was able to get four more stations working the MN QRP Party and a Canadian station in Vancover British Columbia.... On this outing the weather was great and we had new blood coming out to get a little training in radio operation..... all that said we called it a day and signed off with our last contact WB0CFF-Carl in Belle Plaine, MN.
It can not get much better than today and we are looking forward to going out soon. Thanks for taking a look at our outing and we hope to work you on the air....

72 from WA4PIG and the Flying Pig gang...