From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Sun Jul 27 17:21:37 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA13542 for ; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 17:21:36 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35573-36974>; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 17:21:25 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35468-28528>; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 17:20:05 -0400 Received: from vader.inow.com (root@vader.inow.com [205.158.32.10]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA48661 for ; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 17:19:56 -0400 Received: from paulie.inow.com (du15.inow.com [207.88.41.114]) by vader.inow.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id OAA03521 for ; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 14:19:54 -0700 Message-Id: <33DBBB7C.263B8E19@inow.com> Date: Sun, 27 Jul 1997 14:19:58 -0700 Reply-To: pmaciel@inow.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: Paul Maciel To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Bumblebees! MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.01 [en] (Win95; I) X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Hello All, My thanks to all who made it so much fun today. I managed to find seven of the bees buzzing around and a few others listening in. I even made a couple of contact on 15 meters! Special thanks to: Russ AA7QU 40&20 Joe AB7TT 20 Lori AC6XK 40 Richard KI6SN 40 Dave N0IBT 20 Wayne N6KR 20&15 Jack W5TFB 20 Power: 5 Watts Antenna: Butternut HF6V 72, ---Paul AK1P From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Sun Jul 27 21:04:34 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id VAA19112 for ; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 21:04:33 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35685-34674>; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 21:04:13 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35673-34674>; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 21:03:32 -0400 Received: from admin.cyberenet.net (mail@admin.cyberenet.net [204.213.252.6]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id VAA82643 for ; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 21:03:22 -0400 Received: from jsielke.ppp.cyberenet.net [206.106.174.44] by admin.cyberenet.net with esmtp (Exim 1.62 #4) id 0wseDX-00074j-00; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 21:03:20 -0400 Received: (from jsielke@localhost) by jsielke.ppp.cyberenet.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) id SAA07418 for qrp-l@lehigh.edu; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 18:15:34 -0400 Message-Id: Date: Sun, 27 Jul 1997 18:11:06 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: n4js@amsat.org Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: n4js@amsat.org To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Bumblebee #45 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: jsielke@jsielke.ppp.cyberenet.net X-Mailer: XFMail 1.1 [p0] on Linux X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Just back. Boy, now I remember why I never go to the boat on weekends! Everything went well. I was puzzled that after several good reports, suddenly AA1IK, who had a good signal, gave me a 229. Took a while, but found that the alligator clip holding top wire to SLV coil had come off! Boat rocking from some idiot going by like he had somewhere to go! Worked 20 Qs with trusty SST, putting out 1.7 watts with my gel-cel. All contacts on 20M. Only worked about 6 other BBs. Mainly gave out the BB multiplier. Good news...worked WV (hi Eric!) for new state. Sent at 18:15:34 on 27-Jul-97 _ _ _ _ _ ___ John L. Sielke n4js@amsat.org n4js@pobox.com | \| || | | _ | |/ __| n4js@qsl.net NJ Grid:FM29LN | .` ||_ _|| || |\__ \ http://www.qsl.net/n4js NJ-QRP #57 QRP-L #884 |_|\_| |_| \__/ |___/ QRP-ARCI #9328 CQC #443 CQrp #50 NE-QRP #507 G-QRP #9544 NorCal #1989 QCWA FISTS #2781 ARS #243 WIMPS Qs=029 30m=26 17m=3 12m=0 States=09/02/00 Countries=15/02/00 From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Sun Jul 27 21:27:42 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id VAA19936 for ; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 21:27:41 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35686-28528>; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 21:27:31 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34984-34674>; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 21:26:21 -0400 Received: from mtigwc03.worldnet.att.net (mtigwc03.worldnet.att.net [204.127.131.34]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id VAA62097 for ; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 21:26:14 -0400 Received: from LOCALNAME ([207.146.36.87]) by mtigwc03.worldnet.att.net (post.office MTA v2.0 0613 ) with SMTP id AAA14040 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 01:25:42 +0000 Message-Id: <19970728012540.AAA14040@LOCALNAME> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 01:25:42 +0000 Reply-To: SSLYON@worldnet.att.net Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: SEAB&SHARON LYON To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: BUMBLE BUMBLE TOIL AND TROUMBLE Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Sender: SSLYON@postoffice.worldnet.att.net X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.2 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO I'll just call this a learning experience, I guess... rather that the complete horror it felt like by 4:30pm. Without delving too deeply in the honeypot of fate, let me just say that 90F/90% WX, overstressed wire and 60yr old bod, and over ambitious lead acid batts make for heat exhaustion and no beeeez. Sincere apologies to all who were looking for CT. It was close... but just couldn't make it after six hrs of strenuous effort. I'm avail. for scheds if CT is needed. QSLs are batch processed each month or so, but DO get out.... really. Now back to the tub & aspirin. 73 =s= "Seab" Lyon -- AA1MY Bethel, CT; USA FN-31-HJ ARCI #9253; QRP-L # 574 NEQRP# 511; ARRL; QCWA; C.A.R.A. From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Sun Jul 27 22:42:35 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id WAA21553 for ; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 22:42:34 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35109-34674>; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 22:39:40 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35432-28528>; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 22:38:46 -0400 Received: from m12.boston.juno.com (m12.boston.juno.com [205.231.101.194]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id WAA34995 for ; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 22:38:42 -0400 Received: (from n4oln@juno.com) by m12.boston.juno.com (queuemail) id WsJ20923; Sun, 27 Jul 1997 22:38:05 EDT Message-Id: <19970727.223559.8742.0.n4oln@juno.com> Date: Sun, 27 Jul 1997 18:23:26 -0700 Reply-To: n4oln@juno.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: n4oln@juno.com To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Bumble Bee Contest X-To: russ@natworld.com X-Cc: n4oln@juno.com, qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU X-Mailer: Juno 1.38 X-Juno-Line-Breaks: 0-1,3-36,38,40,42-64 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Hello to all and here are my results: BAND CALL TX/RX RPT STATE NAME UTC 40M N4IR 559/569 TN JIM 1703 40M K3WWP 449/449 PA JOHN 1715 40M N2TOX/BB 559/559 PA KEVIN 1718 40M N2UY 559/55N VA JAKE 1722 40M W4DU 449/439 GA KEN 1725 20M W5SB 559/559 TX BILL 1759 15M VE3JC/BB 559/559 ON JOHN 1813 15M N2CQ 559/569 NJ KEN 1815 15M N3IUT 559/569 PA BUD 1818 15M K3NVI 449/569 PA DENNIS 1820 15M W3TS 559/559 PA MIKE 1823 15M KA3WMJ 449/559 PA KEN 1827 15M N6GA 339/339 CA CAM 1833 15M WA8GHZ 449/539 TX JACK 1840 15M AA5BK 449/449 TX SCOTT 1843 15M WD3P 559/579 MD LARRY 1853 15M K2JT 449/579 VT JOE 1905 10M KF2S 559/559 NY RAY 1953 20M N3LAZ 559/559 PA DON 2006 20M W0CH 449/339 MO DAVE 2017 15M K2IS 559/559 NY RON 2038 15M W2JEK 339/359 NY DON 2041 15M N2VRK/BB 339/339 NY MARK 2044 40M K3CGY 449/559 MD JIM 2058 40M N2TO/BB 449/559 PA KEVIN 2059 Rig used was a Yeasu FT101B coax fed to a 40M dipole up about 25 feet at the center. Keyer is a MFJ Keyboard Keyer MFJ-451. The rx translater is the gray matter between my ears. hi hi. Power out was 5 w. Suprised I got out on the other bands with that 40meter resonant antenna. ************************************************************************************ 40M=7 20M=3 15M=15 10M=1 (7+38) x (4x3)= (45)x(12)=540 Had a great time and look foreward to another opportunity. 72/73's, Gary-N4OLN n4oln@juno.com I use to be a Bobwhite and a good old Bobwhite too. From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Jul 28 08:40:44 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id IAA19394 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 08:40:43 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35098-24234>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 08:28:56 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35060-24234>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 08:25:23 -0400 Received: from OBIWAN.ENDOR.COM (BABIARZ@obiwan.endor.com [199.103.183.1]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id IAA70364 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 08:25:15 -0400 Received: from Gregoire.endor.com [199.103.183.143] by OBIWAN.ENDOR.COM with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 08:28 EST Date: Sun, 27 Jul 97 19:19:52 PDT Reply-To: gregoire@endor.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: gregoire@endor.com To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Bumble Bee's sweet success MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-To: Low power amateur radio discusion X-Mailer: Chameleon V0.05, TCP/IP for Windows, NetManage Inc. X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Message-Id: <97Jul28.082856edt.35098-24234+54@fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU> Status: RO Hello Gang, Yes I know that Bumble Bees don't make honey. But this contest was a honey of a contest. I had a ball. I even got a maritime mobile contact. He gave his state as "on a ship". Also got an XE1/ QRP just didn't go to coast to coast today. Can't wait till the next BB test. 73 -------------------------------------------------------- WIMPS 12 M ST/PRV,DX 17 M ST\PRV,DX 30 M ST/PRV,DX 00--00 01--00 03--00 -------------------------------------------------------- de AA1IK, Lead by example. Ernie Gregoire It is better to pull a string, than to push it. R.R. 1, Box 221, South Rd. Fists # 2644, N.E.QRP # 202 Canaan, NH. 03741 QRP-L # 95, Fly fisher & tier, Promise Keeper. E-mail address: gregoire@endor.com packet address: AA1IK@WA1WOK.FN43FE.NH.USA.NA ------------------------------------- 07/27/97 19:19:52 From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Jul 28 09:22:49 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA22984 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 09:22:48 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35185-16560>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 09:22:34 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34877-16560>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 09:21:38 -0400 Received: from beall.tenet.edu (bdenton@Nadine-Ruth-Beall.tenet.edu [198.213.2.11]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA18463 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 09:21:29 -0400 Received: (from bdenton@localhost) by beall.tenet.edu (8.7.6/8.7.3) id IAA01975; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 08:21:27 -0500 (CDT) Message-Id: Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 08:21:26 -0500 (CDT) Reply-To: bdenton@tenet.edu Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: Bill Morris Denton To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Bumblebees contest MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO The BB contest was a nice way to spend a hot summer afternoon. I logged a total of 9 Bees and 56 total Q's. I was somewhat disapointed in the number of Bee's heard. I know there was some in the muck that I didn't hear. Had good time anyway. I am pretty much a closet QRPer and CWer so it's kinda of nice change of pace. K1OJ OJ and K5ZTY Bill have been working on me to give it a try. So I did. OJ was at my side most of the time to bail me out. My rig is a FT-990 with an external neg. variable power feed into the ALC plug on the back to bring the 990 down to 5 watts. 10w is the lowest it will go without some help. My antennas are a pair of Stacked W8JK's total of 8 elements NW/SE and another 8 NE/SW. I also have a pair of 6 element collinear monobanders on 15. Everything wire. In addition I use my 160 meter (250ft) dipole on 40. It's up at about 60-70ft and flat across the top. I couldn't find a way to detune my amp down to 5watts so I didn't use it. Here is my results: 10m-1 15m-6 20m-49 Total 56 9 Bumblebees Enjoyed it, Bill W5SB From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Jul 28 09:54:23 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA25513 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 09:54:22 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35430-16560>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 09:52:26 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35204-24234>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 09:50:57 -0400 Received: from acatst01.cos.cst.titan.com ([198.232.129.1]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA75435 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 09:50:41 -0400 Received: from tcos102.cos.cst.titan.com by acatst01.cos.cst.titan.com with ESMTP (1.40.112.12/16.2) id AA161257810; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 07:50:10 -0600 Received: from tcos102 (tcos102.cos.cst.titan.com) by tcos102.cos.cst.titan.com with SMTP (1.39.111.2/16.2) id AA017217809; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 07:50:09 -0600 Message-Id: <33DCA390.1A1B@codenet.net> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 07:50:08 -0600 Reply-To: jaevans@codenet.net Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: John Evans - N0HJ To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Re: BUMBLE BUMBLE TOIL AND TROUBLE References: <19970728012540.AAA14040@LOCALNAME> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Sender: jaevans@codenet.net X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (X11; I; HP-UX B.10.10 9000/712) X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Me too Seab only worse, I backpacked halfway up Pikes Peak to Barr Camp on Saturday. I was concerned about my condition form the start, but thought the heart and lungs would give out first - no way - the legs were rubber after only 4 miles. I had to drag myself the remaining 3 miles to Barr Camp. My camping partners and I set up camp. The remaining folks decided to hit the Peak while I watched things and setup the antenna. All was fine, had a nice test QSO with Doc in MN and a few others thru the afternoon. That evening, things looked great, getting mostly eastern stations (I think the Peak was blocking my pattern west) and also copied a nice QSO from our friend KH6AFS to a midwest station. Then, for no apparent reason, everything died. Could detect some voltage at the battery terminal (the ole tongue test) but my buds are not calibrated, so true debugging will have to wait for the bench. So, this BB missed out on the fun but had a nice time anyway on the side of the mountain. Maybe next time both the rig and I will be in better shape. 73 - john -------------------------------------------------------------------- John A. Evans Chief Systems Administrator Office: (719) 528-1800 x164 Titan Software Systems Fax: (719) 528-1888 1115 Elkton Drive, Suite 200 email: jaevans@cos.cst.titan.com Colorado Springs, CO 80907-3535 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Norcal #262 QRP-L #219 QRP-ARCI #8303 NE-QRP #213 CQC #045 CQrp #15 NJ-QRP #50 AK-QRP #52 NW-QRP #454 FISTS #3184 Personal Web Page: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/9773/ -------------------------------------------------------------------- From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Jul 28 10:26:10 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id KAA28486 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 10:26:09 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35523-36270>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 10:23:06 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34980-24234>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 10:17:38 -0400 Received: from dancris.com (user1.dancris.com [204.177.80.10]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id KAA68354 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 10:17:21 -0400 Received: from ki7mn.dancris.com by dancris.com (8.8.5/DANCRIS-1.2) id HAA04876 for <>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 07:17:26 -0700 (MST) Message-Id: <199707281417.HAA04876@dancris.com> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 07:17:26 -0700 (MST) Reply-To: ki7mn@dancris.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: Bob Hightower To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Re: Bumble Bee's sweet success Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-To: gregoire@endor.com X-Cc: qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU X-Sender: ki7mn@dancris.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.2 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO At 07:19 PM 7/27/97 PDT, you wrote: >Hello Gang, >Yes I know that Bumble Bees don't make honey. > >But this contest was a honey of a contest. >I had a ball. I even got a maritime mobile contact. >He gave his state as "on a ship". > >Also got an XE1/ > >QRP just didn't go to coast to coast today. >Can't wait till the next BB test. > Ernie, you had a good strong signal into Northern AZ yesterday, but I couldn't get back to you with my 2 watts. Only made 5 contacts before the thunderboomers and time drove me off. 73, Bob KI7MN (ki7mn@dancris.com) Chandler, AZ Grid DM43bi Lat 33.334500 Long -111.87260 NorCal #1221 ARCI #8918 Qrp-l #271 CQC #274 AK QRP #30 ARRL http://www.dancris.com/~ki7mn WIMPS: QSO's=18 30=18 17=0 12=0 States=15/0/0 DX 0/0/0 QSL's=5 From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Jul 28 11:26:40 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id LAA03768 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 11:26:39 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35620-36270>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 11:25:57 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35582-16560>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 11:24:34 -0400 Received: from flash.tibco.com (splash.tibco.com [192.216.111.239]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id LAA62517 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 11:24:27 -0400 Received: by flash.tibco.com (4.1/1.37) id AA12590; Mon, 28 Jul 97 08:23:43 PDT Received: from tssgate.tibco.com(160.101.20.20) by flash.tibco.com via smap (V1.3) id sma012584; Mon Jul 28 08:23:39 1997 Received: from zermatt.tibco.com by tekbspa.tibco.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA17854; Mon, 28 Jul 97 08:23:38 PDT Message-Id: <3.0.32.19970728082141.009fb9b4@tekbspa> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 08:23:29 -0700 Reply-To: tavan@tibco.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: Rick Tavan To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: N7TN Bumblebee Report Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Sender: tavan@tekbspa X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0 (32) X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO The flying part of my bumblebee expedition didn't work out so I had to drive to Truckee and the trailhead on CA SR 40 at Donner Pass at 7000 feet, about 10 miles west of Donner Lake. Hiked quickly up the Pacific Crest Trail to the north summit of Mt. Judah at 8200 feet with clear shots in all directions except south. Found a beautiful site for the MMA SLV, 15 square inches of soil between granite boulders right at the top, and two scrub oaks to support a sunshade nearby. Got everything up and ready with 30 minutes to spare but signals were disappointing. Struggled mightily to find and work stations with bursts of success between long dry spells, as if the activity were turning on and off with some kind of ethereal switch. Ended up like this: 20m 10 QSOs 2 Bees = 20 pts 40m 12 4 12 -- - -- Total 22 6 32 x 6 x 3 = 576 All contacts were in the West except N4EO in TN who was active and loud throughout the event. After a solid hour (1931-2030) with only 1 QSO and 30 minutes to go in the contest, a thunderstorm moved in so I had to disconnect the rig. The static discharges from the SLV were continuous and loud! The sun shade served well as a rain fly. The storm moved out a few minutes after the end of the contest, so I packed up and left just about on schedule. Made it back to my office in Palo Alto, four hours away, only 10 minutes late for a Sunday evening meeting (!). Nice hike, great site, lousy results, much fun. 72, /Rick N7TN ------------------------ Rick Tavan TIBCO Software, Inc. 3165 Porter Drive Palo Alto, CA 94304 +1-415-846-5000 tavan@tibco.com From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Jul 28 16:14:59 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id QAA16429 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 16:14:57 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35338-16560>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 15:39:40 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35523-24234>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 15:14:24 -0400 Received: from usr05.primenet.com (vole@usr05.primenet.com [206.165.6.205]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id PAA70064 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 15:13:10 -0400 Received: (from vole@localhost) by usr05.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id MAA19356 for qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 12:13:07 -0700 (MST) Message-Id: <199707281913.MAA19356@usr05.primenet.com> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 12:13:07 -0700 (MST) Reply-To: vole@primenet.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: Joe Gervais To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: (Long) BB Flight de AB7TT/BB X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO (NOTE: Ft. Tuthill Tales to follow soon - Lots to write about! FUN FUN FUN!) BUMBLEBEE FLIGHT LOG DE AB7TT/BB (Subtitle: What am I, a human lightning rod?!?) In today's adventure our anti-hero faces Antenna-Eating Trees, sinister Ankle-Chomping Rocks, Nibbly Bugs, rebellious water bottles, rain and lightning to get on the air for 2-1/2 hours o' fun. Howdy Folks! Man, what an adventure. Humbling. I was supposed to operate from Kendrick Peak (10,000'+) outside of Flagstaff. But quirky wx and a bit of curiosity had me charging off to Mingus Mountain. Heck, you've gotta love the name. Sounds like a hideout for evil villains in a Flash Gordon episode. :) Mingus is a 7600'+ peak on a large ridge. The appeal? Precipitous drops to the east/northeast. That spells GAIN, folks! My fan dipole and I have been wanting to try that spot out for quite a while. So Sunday AM, packed up my gear at Ft. Tuthill (did Jay WA5WHN mention how much FUN we had? :) ) and walked around to say goodbye. An hour later I drove out, heading for the old copper mining town of Jerome, gateway to Mingus. Driving up the Verde Valley, I saw those lovely dark clouds forming over my destination. Today I would get wet. More adventure - whuh whuh whuh! (Much thumping of the chest) Go forth, brave bumblebee! Jerome is a neat ol' town. It's built into the side of a mountain, almost like a modern Anasazi village. Copper mining was its creator and nearly its destroyer - when the mine shut down, Jerome dwindled nearly to ghost town status. Then the artists in nearby Sedona noticed it and started buying all the houses. :) Tourism is the lifeblood of the place now. Good reason - pleasantly rustic atmosphere, sweeping views, narrow roads winding idly past restored homes that cling improbably to the rock. Neat. After winding through the streets of Jerome, up to the ridge and along the last several miles of dirt road, I finally reached the Mingus campground. Loaded up my pack ASAP and headed off on the trail, where I eventually found a nice overview. 2000' steep drop - perfect! Then came the Antenna-Eating Trees. You know the kind. Too many furry branches. Support lines go up and never come back. Ack! *Finally* at 11:00am, an hour into the contest, I had my fan dipole up. Time to rock! Plugged in the Sierra's 40m module. Hmmm. Sounds dead. Call CQ BB a few times. Nada. On to better hunting - go to grab the 20m module which is... AAIIEEEEE... back in the car! !#$!%^&!!&@! Sprinting down the rough, rock-strewn trail, I think Mountain Goat. I am the Mountain Goat. I am... OW... in pain. Twisted ankle. Not too bad. Ow. Not that great either. Onward, brave bumblebee! Back at my site again. Fire up the Sierra. Yes! Sigs! 11:25am and I'm on the air. First bite to my CQ BB is Randy XE1/K8ZAA/BB - Cool! (NOTE: He's not on the Bumblebee List though, or was he? Could swear he was signing /BB...) It was really nice working everyone. I still need to get better with calls/names (Clif AB5UA - sri for thinking you were Tim! ;-) ). Stayed on 20m the whole time, mostly calling CQ. QRM was *awful*. Lots of zero-beat stuff. Apologies to those I lost - I just couldn't sort it out. Many thanks to those who slugged it out to get me your info. Even managed to work Bumblebee #1 (thanks Lorraine!). Farthest QSO was ol' Bob AE4IC in NC, just before my path to the east coast fizzled. Sure wish I hadn't missed the first 1.5 hours of the test!!! So I'm scootin' along, stayin' on 20m since the rate is pretty good, when I notice my ink is running. Oh wait, that's a raindrop. Big one. Oh look, more of 'em. ACK!!! Frantically pull the poncho out of the pack and try to cover everything up (gel cells and Sierra first!). So there I am, huddled under a makeshift poncho tent, looking like a Bog Monster from some long-forgotten Celtic myth, getting very strange looks from the stray hikers heading back for shelter. Hah! If only they knew - this was FUN! I wish it sucked MORE! BWHAHAHAHAAAA! Then the open water bottle dumped in my lap. It meant to do that. Premeditated. Hah! It was STILL fun! Then the thunder started.... First it was the nice, baritone rumblings from far away. Then louder. And sharper. Hmmm. 30 minutes left. Already started late. Gotta bag a few more! Ed (WE6W), Glen (AE0Q), 20 minutes left. Worked fellow ScQRPion/BB Kent way down in the noise. He was 70 miles away on another peak. (Wow! What kind of path was that?) More lightning. 15 minutes left. Just one more... *CRAAAAAAAACK*... In the blink of an eye, the coax was disconnected and tossed far way. Then the rig went into the pack. The soggy logsheet. The batteries. The Power Bars (apple-cinnamon flavor, of course). The rebellious waterbottle. The antenna was ripped down in an instant, damaged in the process, but better it than me. Scurried back to the campsite and dove into my car. Warm and dry. Ahhhh....... yes! Drove home, back to the humid 107F valley that I love. Wife and Rugrats happily hugging a grimy, whiskery Bumblebee. Paradise found again. :) So humbly I submit my Bumblebee results. Just lost too much time trying to get to my site. But *next* year.... Bwooohahahahahahah! States Worked: AZ, CA, CO, ID, LA, MO, MT, NC, OK, OR, TN, TX, XE1 Rig: Sierra @ 2.5 watts Ant: Fan Dipole Total Q's: 35 (all 20m) Total Bees: 11 (35x2) x (11x3) = 70 x 33 = 2310 points. Needed more bees! Thanks again to everyone! Great hearing all of you! Cheers de AB7TT/BB, -Joe, vole@primenet.com, AZ ScQRPions (Phoenix) "Veni Vertical Vamos - I came, I radiated, I left." - AB7TT From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Jul 28 17:16:41 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA19292 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:16:39 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35842-61486>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 16:44:25 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35863-61486>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 16:27:15 -0400 Received: from uucp.primenet.com (root@uucp.primenet.com [204.245.3.11]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id QAA61055 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 16:26:29 -0400 Received: from icarus.UUCP (uucp@localhost) by uucp.primenet.com (8.8.2/8.7.1) with UUCP id MAA28649 for qrp-l@lehigh.edu; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 12:03:38 -0700 (MST) Received: from [192.91.202.41] (powermac2) by sicom.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA03788; Mon, 28 Jul 97 12:03:16-070 Message-Id: Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 12:02:22 -0700 Reply-To: torell@sicom.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: torell@sicom.com (Kent Torell) To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: The Tale of Busy Bee and Lazy Bee Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Sender: torell@icarus X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Another tale of qrp bumbleing bees-nis, this one set in the high ponderosa pine forests of Arizona, during the summer 'monsoon' thunderstorm season. Joe, AB7TT, and Kent AB7OA were amongst the qrp'rs selected to be bumblee ops ( the selection comittee clearly didn't check the resume references). Joe, (the busy bee) has years of hiking experience, including near-death experiences with lightning, wind, rain, and other natural hazards. Kent, (the lazy bee) has read alot about these experiences, and actually did some hiking in the past dim-time. Being a true Walter Mitty type (ok, who is old enough to have read Thurber?), Kent dreamed of proving himself as a true outdoorsman. Months were spent building and testing portable antennas, feedlines and rigs. Portable to the back yard, anyway. But, where to go? A close relative has a house in the cool pines of Prescott, away from the typical scqrpion heat of Phoenix. But, curses!!, other visitors from the heat and humidity of the midwest were visiting that weekend. So, maybe he'll just tag along with Joe, claiming it will enhance safety if two are close by. Meanwhile, Joe is all set to climb another gazillion feet to the pinacle of a mount outside Flagstaff. Wanting a few more dB of performance, he purchases a new 'hot' transistor at the Ft. Tuthill hamfest, and, with less than 24 hrs to go, swaps out the final from his trusty Sierra transceiver. Working with only a soldering iron and pliers, he sweats the mod, and tests into a dummy load. Only partial success...it still works, but the power level has dropped from 2 watts on 20 to 1/2 watt :-( poor Joe...but, being busy bee, he quickly enlists the aid of the scqrpions top designers/rig builders to analyze the problem. After an afternoon and evening of scrounging and discussion, they determined that Joe should put the old transistor back! So, a reversal of the surgery, and the rig was re-tested about 2 hours before the bumblebee operation. Busy bee Joe was all set. That Saturday afternoon at Ft. Tuthill had a nice early thunderstorm, with enough lightning to make Joe (Mr. laugh-in-the-face-of-death) question the wisdom of his mountain peak choice. A quick consultation of the maps led to a plan for both bees to head to Mingus mountain, down by Prescott, with what looked to be fairly close access by car. About 1 1/2 hrs from Flagstaff. So, Joe was all set. But, lazy bee's spouse wasn't to keen on the idea of having her husband several hours away (this was their first camping trip) and strongly suggested he find a closer location. So, a half hour of recon around the campsite found a ridge with a nice drop-off to the ENE, where the antennas could be set up. Lazy bee's spouse further sweetened the choice by offering to bring fried chicken up around noon :-) So, the choices were clear...busy bee would start driving at 8 am to Mingus Mountain (prepared to do battle with the native minguses) and lazy bee would sleep in. Busy bee had an inspiring time, complete with 45 minute hike to the peak. Finally, at 1130, he was on the air! (1 1/2 hrs late) To add to the heroism, the thunderstorms had moved from Flagstaff to Mingus, and he was assailed by rain and lightning. Persevering under his poncho, he handed out AZ/BB contacts all across the country. Lazy bee, waking up late, hiked up to the ridge and started to put up his fishing-pole dipole. Alas, the cheap plastic he used (emphasis on cheap) for the guy wire ring quickly proved itself below capability, and the horizontal dipole support came crashing down. The backup antenna, an elevated 1/4 wave vertical, was quickly hoisted, and he managed to get up and running about 1020. Now, lazy bee likes qrp contests because there arn't that many people on all at once, and he only has to decipher a single return call at a time. Horrors...wall to wall signals, and they were all pouncing on the poor little bees! Plan bee: call the strongest and hope :-/ This worked fairly well, and operations proceeded until a small thunderstorm drifted overhead, and lightning got a little close. Lazy bee quickly shoved the radio and accessories into the back pack and ran back to the campsite and shelter. After buzzing around with other qrpers, eating chicken, visiting with long lost friends, etc., he struggled back up the ridge for the last 1/2 hour of the contest. At the end of the contest, his spouse hiked up the trail, and congradulated lazy bee for his good efforts. She then pointed up a tree to several hunting arrows imbedded therein ... 'this doesn't look like too safe a place!' Having thus inadvertantly proven his bravery, lazy bee packed up and hiked back to the campsite, complete with happy spouse. (who wouldn't be happy, spending a few days out of the heat?) Now, busy bee is looking for more neat peaks to hike up, and lazy bee is looking at motorhome brochures.... Kent Torell torell@sicom.com 602-607-4852 SICOM 7585 E. Redfield, #202 Scottsdale, AZ 85260 AB7OA scQRPion 6,qrp-l 57,ARCI 9075 DM33xn 33.55 N 112.078 W From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Jul 28 17:54:52 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA20790 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:54:51 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35762-71984>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:53:48 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35347-36138>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:47:51 -0400 Received: from endeavor.flash.net (endeavor.flash.net [209.30.0.40]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA52628 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:43:15 -0400 Received: from rbe-1 (atlasc1-57.flash.net [209.30.101.57]) by endeavor.flash.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id QAA16736; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 16:37:46 -0500 (CDT) Message-Id: <33DD129A.2703@flash.net> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:43:54 -0400 Reply-To: w4ed@flash.net Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: "Bob Edwards, W4ED" To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: W4ED, BB, backpack 'n (longish) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-To: qrp-l@lehigh.edu X-Cc: "Ron Pace, AA4RP" , "Ray Sanders, KS4EG" , "Nick Dempsey, KK5MM" , "Bob Hanrahan, K4ZD" , Jon at Work X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0Gold (Win95; U) X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Despite the +90 degree heat, the hike was nice and I was operating only ten minutes late. I located 50 feet off of the Southern approach to the Appalachian Trail between Amicalola Falls and Springer Mt, Georgia. The trail was mostly shaded and felt cool vs in the sun. Another positive, for me, was my 1st use of a sling shot. It worked the first time. I'm converted. Was hooked on the fish'n pole trick before, but not any more. It was interesting to watch the reaction of other hikers when they discovered someone was sitting out there doing something with a little black box. Some never saw me - they seemed focused on the trail ahead. Not much traffic though, about every 30 minutes. Those that did see me waved and looked close, as if to figure out my nonsense. One couple stopped long enough to ask. So I gave them a short 30 second description. They wanted to know how far up the trail was the other guy. I couldn't resist and said, "Well he's in CA and another is in TX". They mumbled something, smiled, and walked on. Probably that this guy is crazy for sure.. I agree with Rick/N7TN, he comments "Struggled mightily to find and work stations with bursts of success between long dry spells, as if the activity were turning on and off with some kind of ethereal switch." That was very noticeable on my rig, which lacks AGC. Had one contact where the other op told me my name, state, 72 and was off on another contact while I was still working on his call. Seems like that ought to count for him. He probably did send his info to me, somewhere under the QRM. But then he may score the most points too. There was heavy QRO/QRM and QRN static that made copy very difficult the entire time. Sorry that I didn't make more /BB contacts. But next time ... -- /| Bob 72/73 / | | / |\ http://www.qsl.net/w4ed /| / E | \ W4ED nr Atlanta @EM73wt /_|/____|__\_ ...."QRP", more from less.... [\--======-/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Jul 28 17:50:58 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA20716 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:50:57 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35168-71984>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:40:19 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35095-71984>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:31:12 -0400 Received: from x11.boston.juno.com (x11.boston.juno.com [205.231.100.26]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA52687 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:29:30 -0400 Received: (from aa4xx@juno.com) by x11.boston.juno.com (queuemail) id RYU23440; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:27:46 EDT Message-Id: <19970728.173118.3246.1.aa4xx@juno.com> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:31:14 -0400 Reply-To: aa4xx@juno.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: aa4xx@juno.com (Paul T Stroud) To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Re:Bumblebees blown off the Mountain References: <199707101708.KAA16580@guppy.pond.net> X-To: arsinfo@natworld.com X-Cc: qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU, klqrp@acpub.duke.edu X-Mailer: Juno 1.38 X-Juno-Line-Breaks: 0-1,7-8,13-14,19-22 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Hi Russ, Despite our best laid plans, Mother Nature blew our antennas off the mountaintop early Sunday morning. Our group set up late Friday night on the summit of Black Balsam Knob in the Shining Rock Wilderness area of western NC and had a good time Saturday fine tuning the antennas and making contacts on 20 and 40M throughout the country. Then I had to make the remark that we had obviously beaten Murphy this trip. Wellsir, AE4YQ woke KS4DU and me at 5AM Sunday morning to show us a mighty display of lightning skirting us to the north. Two hours later the wind gusts had picked up to around 50 MPH. One wind burst took down our 30' mast along with the inverted vees that it supported. Lacking any trees in our area, we had to concede that round to Murphy. We did get some pictures of our operation on Saturday, which we'll forward to you in the near future. It was a bitter disappointment to have to go home empty handed this past weekend, but we'll be back next year, a little wiser (maybe??) and certainly a lot humbler. Mother Nature has a way of letting us know who's the boss every now and then. 72, Paul, AA4XX/BB From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Jul 28 18:32:15 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA21887 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:32:14 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35370-71984>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:31:15 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35370-61486>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:24:34 -0400 Received: from emout07.mail.aol.com (emout07.mx.aol.com [198.81.11.22]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA53637 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:23:57 -0400 Received: (from root@localhost) by emout07.mail.aol.com (8.7.6/8.7.3/AOL-2.0.0) id SAA04357 for qrp-l@lehigh.edu; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:23:25 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <970728182051_139448568@emout07.mail.aol.com> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:23:25 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: K4NK@aol.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: K4NK@aol.com To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: BB rpt frm S.C. X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Bzzz-Bzzz; Well my first ever trip up a mountain to operate is history. I can tell you now I made several mistakes like...it's only a few hours who needs water and heavy stuff like that, or how about trying 8 times to throw a pair of pliers with my antenna attached into a tree. Any way I found a great looking spot...a hugh rock about 20 ft. diameter and flat with a quiet little stream flowing next to it. thought it would be ideal , well let me tell you every bug in the state of So. Carolina lives near that rock .Think i'll try the other side of the mountain year. Great Fun. 72 Les K4NK From owner-qrp-l@lehigh.edu Mon Jul 28 18:51:36 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA22578 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:51:34 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <34829-36138>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:49:33 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34984-61486>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:48:24 -0400 Received: from emout01.mail.aol.com (emout01.mx.aol.com [198.81.11.92]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA61832 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:48:13 -0400 Received: (from root@localhost) by emout01.mail.aol.com (8.7.6/8.7.3/AOL-2.0.0) id SAA04846 for qrp-l@lehigh.edu; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:47:43 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <970728184520_-489318681@emout01.mail.aol.com> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:47:43 -0400 (EDT) Reply-To: DYARNES@aol.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@lehigh.edu Precedence: bulk From: DYARNES@aol.com To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Bumble Bee Bash X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Hi All, The Ft. Tuthill hamfest was a great success, especially for us QRPers. Anyway, Doug Hendricks and I capped off a great weekend with a leisurely trip through Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona, Arizona and some Bumble Bee action. This was somewhat impromptu, but we set up my W6MMA/SLV and Sierra and managed to both grab several nice contacts. Where were we? Our choice of location was most apropos. O.K. you sleuths, get out your maps (it will take something slightly better than a Rand McNally Road Atlas) and check out 34 degrees 12 minutes North latitude, and 112 degrees 9 minutes west longitude (approx.). Hint: We had to stay close to Interstate 17 because Doug had a plane to catch! Remember, we were coming from Flagstaff and heading for Phoenix (and then I continued on to Tucson). Find it yet? Pretty cool, huh! By the way, I was using a prototype of NorCal's next project. A little different from prior projects, but a REAL WINNER! I'll let Doug and Jim do the "official" announcing. The plan is for availability at Pacificon, soooooo, get your room reservations and plane tickets! Finally, in honor of what seemed to be a very successfull Bumble Bee event, let me close with one of my favorite limericks (Chuck hates these things!)--one that you used to see in novelty shops printed on a nice shiny piece of myrtlewood! AHEEEEEEM! (That's me clearing my throat) THE BEE HE IS A BUSY SOUL-- HE HAS NO TIME FOR BIRTH CONTROL-- MAYBE THAT'S WHY IN TIMES LIKE THESE-- THERE ARE SO MANY SONS O' BEES! (W. Shakespeare) 72 de David W7AQK (Bumble Bee #35) From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Jul 28 18:53:57 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA22645 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:53:56 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35252-61486>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:51:21 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35095-36138>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:49:56 -0400 Received: from mh004.infi.net (mailhost.infi.net [208.131.167.6]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA25906 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:49:51 -0400 Received: from 4708 (pa3dsp23.nr.infi.net [208.128.85.95]) by mh004.infi.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA32684; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:49:47 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199707282249.SAA32684@mh004.infi.net> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:22:52 -0400 Reply-To: ae4ic@nr.infi.net Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: "Bob Kellogg" To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Re: Thanks and BB comments. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-To: , "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Priority: 3 X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail 4.70.1155 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Hi Russ, It is you and the Adventure Radio Society that deserve the thanks. It was a great contest, although the bands seemed to have a mind of their own. I worked first one part of the country, then another as they faded in and out. Sometimes a loud signal would almost disappear before the exchange was complete. I like the contests where we exchange names. Made 22 contacts on 20M and 19 on 40m, worked 14 Bees for a total of 2646 points. I'll submit a paper log. Thanks again for another great contest idea and execution! CUL, Bob Kellogg, AE4IC, Greensboro, NC Prolably, but not nececelery. -- Benny Hill ---------- > On behalf of the Adventure Radio Society and my co-founders Richard > Fisher, KI6SN, and Wayne Burdick, N6KR, I want to thank all of you for > your support and participation. From owner-qrp-l@lehigh.edu Mon Jul 28 19:49:19 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id TAA24260 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 19:49:18 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35575-36138>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 19:44:31 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35552-36138>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 19:43:44 -0400 Received: from smtp1.erols.com (smtp1.erols.com [205.252.116.101]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id TAA60987 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 19:43:08 -0400 Received: from LOCALNAME (dam-as10s11.erols.com [207.172.139.74]) by smtp1.erols.com (8.8.6/8.8.5) with SMTP id TAA00938 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 19:43:09 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <33DD56CF.4217@erols.com> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 19:34:55 -0700 Reply-To: w6toy@erols.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@lehigh.edu Precedence: bulk From: bruce muscolino To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Buzz, Buzz, Bzzzzt! MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-To: QRP-L@lehigh.edu X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01C-KIT (Win16; I) X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Well we experienced our first ever power failure in this house yesterday! It was off (and on sporadically) for almost four hours! Bummer. Next year! 73, W6TOY/3 From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Jul 28 20:56:06 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id UAA26169 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 20:56:05 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35599-61486>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 20:55:33 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35559-71984>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 20:54:59 -0400 Received: from hpfcla.fc.hp.com (0@hpfcla.fc.hp.com [15.254.48.2]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id UAA43908 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 20:54:43 -0400 Received: from artemis by hpfcla.fc.hp.com with SMTP (1.37.109.20/15.5+IOS 3.20) id AA242287679; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:54:40 -0600 Message-Id: <33DD3F50.2F61@artemis.fc.hp.com> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 18:54:40 -0600 Reply-To: dalea@artemis.fc.hp.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: Dale Anderson To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: [Bumblebee] My Day in Hell (LONG!)... Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Sender: dalea@artemis.fc.hp.com X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (X11; I; HP-UX A.09.07 9000/750) X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO It was just 3 hrs before the start of the BB event when I was finishing breakfast and studying the topo'map of the region I had planned to operate. The sky to the west was dark with threatening clouds. The NWS predicted some severe WX for that region. My eyes frantically scanned for a safer location to operate. Just then, the XYL came in and said, "I wanna go". Well, that meant the kid would be joining us too. Suddenly, my plans for just me, nature and radio were gone. Knowing the wife couldn't backpack either my gear or the weight of the kid to over 12K' and the WX could be VERY dangerous, I new I had to find something lower and quickly! Continuing my study of the map I looked to the EAST of the mountains. That's when I saw it. The Pawnee National Grasslands, and within them is the "Pawnee Buttes". That's it! I said. 2.5mi hike in and out with only a 250' alt delta. I'll hike in with the gear and the XYL can lug the 40 pound, 2.5 yr old in her backpack if she wants to do this... So, I packed up the car with my preloaded backpack, food, water, and threw in the kid and off we all went. After 50 miles East on HW 14, we took a left onto a dirt road. Took some rights and lefts from there, and after 25 miles on dusty bumpy dirt roads, slowing only to avoid the "open range" cattle and antelope who shared the road with us, we arrived at the destination. I left the XYL with the kid (sleeping in her carseat) and hiked the trail. Eventually getting to a great location to operate. While setting up the antenna, it started to rain. Yup, RAIN. Our three months of drought finally broke just in time for the BB event. Just my luck. And me without rain gear. Why would I bring it? After all, it hadn't rained out there in 3 months! Was a steady but light rain, not too bad. Just enough to keep me wet and shivering. Not one to be easily discourraged in my life's passions, I finished the antenna. Naturally, that's when the wind picked up. Great, I thought. What else is going to happen! Then as if in answer to my query, one of the legs on the antenna (a sloping VEE) snapped. I hadn't calculated the wind loading of the 20' PVC support when determing the wire size. A quick strip, a twist, and some tape had it up again. Well, 'till the next 40mph gust. Thru the day, that connection broke 4 more times. I won't make that mistake again. I finally turned on the rig and put the headphones on. My heart sank at what I heard. What few signals I was hearing were very faint and dropping into the QSB. If not for the deafening QRN, I would have thought the antenna wasn't connected. The QRN was absolutely constant as the storm-front pushed over the divide. I was at least thankful I wasn't up THERE as I had first planned. 30 minutes late, I was on the air. I called CQ. On my 3rd call, W0CQC came BOOMBING into my headphones, (I had the volume cranked too high for a sig that strong). Big deal, I thought, a line-of-site contact. Not exactly what I had hoped for, but at least I knew the setup was working. During that exchange, I became distracted (sri Dick) by a couple of beavis-n-butthead types who walked up to me and asked, "whoa dude, wahcha doin'". I explained the event and it being a ham radio thing. They just stared blankly at me, said "cool antenna", then walked off. Ahhh yes, America's budding future... After they left, I couldn't help but wonder what the hey those two guys were doing out in the middle of NOWHERE! I mean this site isn't exactly "on the way" to anwhere, and (IMHO) not worth the drive to see. 'least not this time of year. Anyway, the QSB was pretty severe. There were times when the band (40m) seemed completely dead. That would last for up to 15 minutes or so, then it would improve to fair. I only made a few more contacts throughout the day, being at the mercy of the few QSB "openings", the steady QRN and all the time spent repeadidly rebuilding the antenna after the wind gusts would tear it apart. The day's effort wasn't a total loss, tho'. I felt privilaged to work some fine members of this group. I'll not forget this day soon. REALLY! (keep reading) The wife, with kid in her backpack, showed up just in time for me to tear things down. So at least I had some help there. We hiked back to the car and hit the road. As the vehicle shuttered over the 25 miles of washboard dirt road, I reflected upon the day's events. I learned a lot about needing to be prepared even if I have utmost faith in my equipment and WX. As I struggled to find the levity in my misfortunes, we finally reached paved road. I felt comforted knowing that in just 50 miles we'd be home. Yup, NOTHING else could go wrong with this day. We were home free... That's when I heard it, a wet gagging sound from the back seat. Quickly glancing back I saw my daughter projectile spewing what looked like a gallon of bile with partially digested chunks of her breakfast and lunch all over herself and the back of my car, instantly filling the passenger compartment with the heavy pungent aroma of vomit. Upset, she started in with her deafening wail. An inconsolible wail that lasted thru every damn excruciating inch of that 50 mile ride in our vomit filled car. I tried to wake up from this nightmare but I couldn't. It was REALLY happening! AAaaaargh! How can so many things go wrong for one guy in the same day? I was SUPPOSED to be ALONE under beautiful sunshine, high along the Continental Divide. The bands were SUPPOSED to be wall to wall CW. My equipment was SUPPOSED to operate flawlessly. Instead, it became a "family event", in the rain, in the wind, on the plains, with inadeqate equipment, with extremely poor band conditions, topped off by a ride thru parenting hell. What did I do to deserve this? 72, -Dale KB0VCC/BB #37 From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Tue Jul 29 02:07:10 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id CAA04009 for ; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 02:07:09 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35074-63156>; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 02:06:13 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34983-20914>; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 02:05:23 -0400 Received: from ivic.ivic.net (root@ivic.ivic.net [207.51.248.2]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id CAA26614 for ; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 02:05:20 -0400 Received: from lizard (ivic-dyn40.ivic.net [207.51.248.40]) by ivic.ivic.net (8.8.4/8.7.2) with SMTP id XAA29494 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 23:05:12 -0700 Message-Id: <3.0.1.16.19970728225954.2e57b2d0@ivic.net> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 22:59:54 Reply-To: AC6XK@ivic.net Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: "Lorraine Y. Aubert" To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Greetings from Bumblebee #1 In-Reply-To: <97Jul28.190401edt.35101-36138+66@fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Sender: AC6XK@ivic.net X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.1 (16) X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO After reading about other Bumblebee adventures of lightning, rain, blown away antennas, and tired bodies, I thought I'd go ahead and post my humbling "flight!" I started on Friday by climbing 1/2 mile to the ridgetop above the ranger station where I work to install my newly constructed fan dipole. Having an abundance of trees, I was determined to have a horizontal dipole, abandoning the easier inverted vee. First rock went over first tree like a charm much to my amazement. Second rock over second tree? Well, I won't elaborate but it wasn't as successful. When I finally did succeed and began to pull up the dipole, I pulled a bit too hard causing the other side to fall down. (I'm now a believer in tying off good...) The rock over the first tree didn't go over as easy as the first time. When it did and I pulled the antenna up for the second time, I noticed a dipole leg missing. When I inspected it, I found that the ring lug had detached itself from my wire. Oh NO! Well, there was nothing to do but climb back down the ridge and return to the ranger station to do some resoldering. Back on the ridge with my newly soldered leg....I raised the dipole again ( I did this so many times I lost count!) This time a tree branch snapped and down came everything. I really need to learn the definition of gentle. I battled the tree awhile longer, this particular tree ate a good 20 feet of my line, only to break two more dipole legs. This time I'm in tears. I would have paid big bucks for some match solder! I never understood why a friend of mine always carried it. Now I know... Of course, I had no choice but to return to the station a second time. I walked into the station slouched and depressed. A fellow ranger, KF6KWY, tried to encourage me and helped me with the soldering. We made sure they were good connections. Discouraged, I returned to the ridge for the third time. I placed the mended legs on the center insulator and slowly raised each side of the dipole. I tied off each side and prayed that nothing else would go wrong. Saturday night was extremely windy and I was afraid to return to the ridge on Sunday morning. With my previous luck, I just knew that my dipole had blown off the mountain. I was very happy and relieved to see that my dipole had lived and only suffered a slight sag in the middle. I briefly thought of raising it but quickly decided not to attempt fate and jinx it. I left it alone! Bzzz Bzzz Bzzz....I worked 5 bees (Was N6WG a Bee??) and had a great time. I had a total of 22 QSO's. I had hoped for at least 25 but with conditions the way they were, I was pleased. On my end, 20 meters was very weak. Thanks to all those I worked. Can't wait for next year. I love being a Bee!!! From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Tue Jul 29 11:32:38 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id LAA29698 for ; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 11:32:37 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35065-61878>; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 11:30:44 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34991-63156>; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 11:23:26 -0400 Received: from mail.tcjc.cc.tx.us (mail.tcjc.cc.tx.us [205.165.201.8]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id LAA55211 for ; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 11:13:41 -0400 Received: from so-nur01 by mail.tcjc.cc.tx.us with esmtp (Linux Smail3.2.0.92 #1) id m0wtDxL-002CzXC; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 10:12:59 -0500 (CDT) Message-Id: <33DE07C9.8DAF26DA@tcjc.cc.tx.us> Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 10:10:02 -0500 Reply-To: bspencer@tcjc.cc.tx.us Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: barbara spencer To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: BumbleBee Report MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.01 [en] (WinNT; I) X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Don, N5YAK, Barbara, KK5QA, Janet, KB5RPV, James,N5VBK, and Joe, KK5NA of the Radio Active Camping and Contesting Club, operated K5RAC out of Red Kane Park in Arlington, Texas (between Dallas and Ft Worth). Using an MFJ 9020 and a Butternut vertical we had a total of 26 contacts and worked 3 other bubblebees. Total of 468 points. We had a great time although the temperature was about 100 degrees and the heat index was 105+. Luckily we did have plenty of shade and lots of bottled water so were able to stay out for the duration. We worked several stations in Colorado, but we also got CA, MI, FL, LA, GA, AZ and several other states. Also worked Mexico as our lone DX station. Didn't hear anyone in the northeast or the northwest. We all hope to participate again next time and several of us are working on getting our code speed up to be able to copy some of the faster stations. It was great. Thanks to the Adventure Radio Society for a great event. Barbara KK5QA From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Tue Jul 29 18:56:51 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA25004 for ; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 18:56:50 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <34928-63156>; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 18:47:58 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35090-20914>; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 18:37:52 -0400 Received: from hpfcla.fc.hp.com (0@hpfcla.fc.hp.com [15.254.48.2]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA51835 for ; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 18:26:05 -0400 Received: from artemis by hpfcla.fc.hp.com with SMTP (1.37.109.20/15.5+IOS 3.20) id AA048965159; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 16:25:59 -0600 Message-Id: <33DE6DEF.1B5@artemis.fc.hp.com> Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 16:25:51 -0600 Reply-To: dalea@artemis.fc.hp.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: Dale Anderson To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: [Bumblebee] KB0VCC Followup Post... Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Sender: dalea@artemis.fc.hp.com X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (X11; I; HP-UX A.09.07 9000/750) X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Hi All, Just a quick followup to my previous posting. Despite my operating challanges, misadventures, etc., I want to say that I enjoyed being a part of the BB event. I'm glad I had the opportunity to work some of QRP-L's most prominent personalities under such unique circumstances. I would do it ALL again. Is that dedication or just nuts? I took only one photograph at the site. In it should be my excuse for an antenna with the Pawnee Buttes in the background. I'll post it to my WEB page http://www.qsl.net/kb0vcc when I get it developed. Sorry, no mug shots of myself yet... ----- Here's who I worked between antenna repairs. KB0VCC's Bumblebee Event Log ============================ UTC CALL NAME RST(s) RST(r) STATE ==== ======== ===== ====== ====== ===== 1800 W0CQC/BB Dick 559 559 CO 1834 KI7MN Bob 339 339 AZ 1917 W7AQK/BB Dave DNL 449 AZ 1930 AA5TA (LOST in QSB) 1958 WA5WSM/M (LOST in QSB) 2000 N6MM Harvey 229 DNL CA 2022 AB7RU Mike DNL 549 WA ------------------------------------------------------ Gee, what's that work out to? Oooh a whopping 30 pts! ------------------------------------------------------ Others (barely) heard calling but not worked: KD6YD, AC6XK, W9JN, KQ0I, KC7VCY, N4OLN The rig was an OHR 100 (40m) running 5 w into an inverted VEE (that refused to stand up to the merciless 40mph gusts). I keyed the rig using a VERY cheap J-38 style handkey, screwed to a clipboard and sitting on my lap amongst the grasses, cactus and cow patties. Ahhh, the aroma. Ouch, the biting flies! Consider yourself LUCKY if you worked me. I spent MORE time twisting antenna wire and restaking down rope guys than I did operating. :-( Thanks to ARS and to all participants for making this event a reality and one I'll not soon forget! 72 es 73, -Dale, KB0VCC / BB#37 Fort Collins, CO QRP-L #91 / CQC #251 ARS #234 / FISTS #3172 From owner-qrp-l@lehigh.edu Wed Jul 30 00:08:34 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id AAA03256 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 00:08:33 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35039-20068>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 00:07:54 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34994-74598>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 00:02:10 -0400 Received: from ice.onlinesys.com (root@onlinesys.com [199.45.70.2]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id AAA59675 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 00:01:56 -0400 Received: from default (mp6-150.wwdc.com [207.200.132.150]) by ice.onlinesys.com (8.8.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id AAA16535 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 00:10:45 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <33DEBB5D.5E95@wwdc.com> Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 23:56:13 -0400 Reply-To: jbcumming@wwdc.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@lehigh.edu Precedence: bulk From: VE3JC John To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Bumblebee Report from Southern Ontario (long) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (Win95; I) X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Well the muscle aches from the 41 km solo paddle to my Bumblebee site have finally subsided, so I'll share a few thoughts regarding a very enjoyable event... The way it started out, I suspected it might be a "weekend in hell" (a la Dale, kb0vcc/bb!). Rain and threats of thunderstorms prevented an early departure, but by 10:30 am Saturday my wife had delivered me to the Middlemiss bridge and I was on the river. Now the Thames River meanders 163 miles through SouthWestern Ontario. I had not paddled this section before, but I had the topo maps and knew that there were four bridges between my entry point and the Conservation Area where I planned to camp. What could possibly go wrong? Three hours later (still under overcast skies) I reach the first bridge! Examining the map, my calculations tell me that I may not get to my destination until after dark. The thought of navigating the river, trying to find the conservation area, and pitching a tent in the dark, in a thunderstorm fills me with some anxiety. Two hours pass and I make the second bridge. Bends in the river seem a bit different than on the map - now I'm confused and anxious. Wishing I'd brought more drinking water, in case I have to set up camp before the conservation area. Did I mention the hordes of deer flies that were making it impossible to maintain steady paddling? To make a long story not quite as long ... I'm delighted to reach the third bridge in very quick time, and ecstatic (but still very confused!) when at 6:30 pm my destination comes into view. What happened to the fourth bridge??? Apparently one of the bridges which still shows on the topo map was removed some time ago - they must have done a good job, because I don't recall seeing any remnants of the footings! This missing bridge really mixed me up and made me worry unnecessarily. However, I did enjoy the countryside, and spotted 3 deer, many hawks and blue herons, and one bird species that I have never seen before. So I haul my gear and the canoe up to the camping area, get my tent pitched, and brew a hot cup of coffee on the single burner stove. I am the only person in the camping area - anticipating a good night's sleep in complete solitude, and a pleasant morning raising antennas. Then I see a familiar van coming down the access road... It's my brother Peter and his family, plus my brother Stephen from the North West Territory (who had just flown in that morning). They've decided to camp and share in my bumblebee expedition. We have a wonderful campfire under what is now a clear star-lit sky. After a great breakfast Sunday morning, Stephen helps me with the wrist rocket, and climbs up a tree or two, until we finally have the 450 ohm ladder line-fed dipole up at a respectable height (about 35') oriented east-west. The qrp+ and tuner are ready to go - signals aren't all that strong on 20, and 15 seems dead... If I had not made a single contact, it would still have been a great weekend. But I did manage 46 QSO's, mainly on 20 but a few on 15 and 40. Fellow bumblebees were scarce - only worked 5 (including Dan N4ROA on both 20 and 40). Guess that's a whopping 276 points (is there a multiplier for insect bites?) Thanks to ARS for organizing this great event, and to those who shared their adventures on qrp-l. 72 / 73, John ********************************************************************* VE3JC - JOHN CUMMING 192 WELLINGTON ST. DELAWARE, ON CANADA, N0L 1E0 From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Wed Jul 30 09:58:25 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA28536 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 09:58:24 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35032-74598>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 09:54:21 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35012-74598>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 09:53:07 -0400 Received: from ifu.ifu.net (ifu.ifu.net [206.152.20.2]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA67591 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 09:53:01 -0400 Received: from ifu.ifu.net (ip34.ifu.net [206.152.20.34]) by ifu.ifu.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA06832 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 09:53:10 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199707301353.JAA06832@ifu.ifu.net> Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 09:51:58 -0400 Reply-To: n2tnn@ifu.net Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: "Dean Marzocca" To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: BumbleBee report (long) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-To: "QRP-L" X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Priority: 3 X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail 4.70.1155 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Hey gang, What a great event! I waas looking forward to this for quite sometime because it was a chance for dedicated radio time. The day started out with getting the boat loaded and all the antennas on-board. I had tested out a new vertical with wound rubber radials the day before. The Hustler vertical was mounted on top of this new mast and all checked out just fine with my AEA ant analyzer. Ready to go. With my entire family aboard with heade south on the Metedeconk River, into Barnegat Bay and the through the Point Pleasant Canal, which is about 2 miles long. I then entered the Manasquan River which is the direct link with the Atlantic Ocean about 1 mile to the east. We turned west and slowly floated around the back side of Treasure Island. The island is named after the book, or should I say that John Lewis ??? wrote the book after viewing the island for the main land. This location was selected for several reasons. The trees will block the wind, the water is calm from waves generated by passing boat traffic and the most important one is that the kids had a place to go and play for a few hours. The water is only 3 feet deep, about 75 degrees F and there is a very large oak tree which supports a long swinging rope. Only problem is that the rope swings out over the sand and not the water. maybe back in the pirate days it was out over the water. All I know is that they were gone for about two hours. The vultures came back on a feeding frenzy and they left me a few crumbs. The vertical went up quickly and I was all set to go about 5 minutes before 1pm. I brought along the QRP+ and companion. I'm starting to get a bit more relaxed with this rig. Usually it is under lock and key but I brought it along for FD, which is the first time it was out of the shack, and now on the boat. I just wanted the multi band coverage. The only problem was about 3pm my son comes back to the boat and says I should look at the antenna (sad look on his face). Now, you have to visualise the set-up, one vhf marine antenna, one loran antenna, one 10 meter whip and the 4 ft vertical with 3 radials and a 40 meter vertical on top of that. All are mounted on the hand rails on the hard top. So I jump up and look ocver the side and I see the vertical swing by and then it's gone. With each roll with the waves I see the antenna again. Well, I guess what happend is that the wind picked up considerably (concentration blocked out all extraneous environmental inputs(well not exactly, you should have seen the crew on the boat 20 ft from me!)and other conditions) and the waves started rolling. The weight of the antenna started the swing and it looked like one of them time keepers you put on a piano, only this was about 20 feet tall. There were times that the vertical was a horizontal. Talk about NVIS. I had to go up and dismantal the antenna system and the re- tighten all the connectors. Guys will be in order next time around. I never thought about this sort of problem because it was tested at the dock where the boat was guyed betwen four poles in the water, no shake here! I finished with a single band vertical and changed the radials when needed So now the details. QRP+ and Companion tuner, battery 4 watts output into antenna described above total travel distance 8 miles elapsed time took 45 minutes Number QSO 26 40 meters 19 20 meters 6 10 meters 1 BB contacts 7 Score (19 + 14) x (7 x 3) = 693 points WA1QVM/BB 579 MA JOEL WJ8E 589 MI WALT K7SZ/BB 559 PA RICH AD4MZ 569 NC BOB N2TO 599 PA KEVIN KB2JE 579 NJ WALT N2VPK/BB 559 NY MARK N4UY 559 VA JAKE K3WWP 559 PA JOHN N4TN 579 TN DON W2WWP 569 NC CLARK KA3WTF 599 PA FRAN WD8RIF/BB 479 WV RIC W2KJ 559 NC JOE N4ROA/BB 439 VA DAN KK1S 599 CT NON W3TS 599 PA MIKE KB8OFO 589 OH TOM KE4IZH 599 VA RICK N8EAG 589 WV ARCH N3LAZ 449 PA ON W4QO 559 GA JIM W4DEC 589 AL LARRY N4TN 589 TN DON W4QO/BB 529 GA JIM K4KJP 539 FL TERRY Thanks for the fun and hope to do it again next year. 72/73 Dean N2TNN NJ n2tnn@ifu.net From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.Edu Wed Jul 30 17:34:02 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA25280 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 17:34:01 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <34990-68712>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 17:33:00 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34865-74598>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 17:04:59 -0400 Received: from ifu.ifu.net (ifu.ifu.net [206.152.20.2]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id QAA59422 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 16:32:56 -0400 Received: from ifu.ifu.net (ip40.ifu.net [206.152.20.40]) by ifu.ifu.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id QAA19277 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 16:33:03 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199707302033.QAA19277@ifu.ifu.net> Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 16:31:54 -0400 Reply-To: n2tnn@ifu.net Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.Edu Precedence: bulk From: "Dean Marzocca" To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: BB reflections MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-To: "QRP-L" X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Priority: 3 X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail 4.70.1155 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Hi all, Just a final thought on the BB test. I have read all the postings about this event and am inspired by the variety of locations and elevations. Some have climbed rock hills, mountains, deserts and parts unknown. Some had fought off dangerous wx, big wind, rain, lightening etc. My location which I forgot to mention was 2 feet above sea level, sun and wind. The view was also on the FB side, foggy glass once in a while but I could still fee the paddles....... Also, disregard my posted score. Brain warp when it was calculated. Russ will tell me what it really is when he adds them all up. 72/73 Dean N2TNN NJ n2tnn@ifu.net From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Wed Jul 30 17:57:33 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA25991 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 17:57:32 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <34956-74598>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 17:53:22 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34842-68712>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 17:42:23 -0400 Received: from motgate.mot.com (motgate.mot.com [129.188.136.100]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA64350 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 17:32:06 -0400 Received: from pobox.mot.com (pobox.mot.com [129.188.137.100]) by motgate.mot.com (8.8.5/8.6.10/MOT-3.8) with ESMTP id QAA28017 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 16:31:50 -0500 (CDT) Received: from azbx.mot.com (azbx.mot.com [129.188.127.40]) by pobox.mot.com (8.8.5/8.6.10/MOT-3.8) with ESMTP id QAA13722 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 16:31:49 -0500 (CDT) Received: by azbx.mot.com (1.37.109.24/16.2) id AA298038305; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 16:31:45 -0500 Received: from MOT; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 14:27:00 -0500 Message-Id: Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 14:27:00 -0500 Reply-To: Bob_Tellefsen-CNSE97@email.mot.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: Bob Tellefsen-CNSE97 To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Chasing the Elusive Bumblebee X-To: qrp-l@Lehigh.Edu X-Mailer: Worldtalk (4.1)/STREAM X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO I had forgotten the FOBB was Sunday, but fortunately had the receiver on 7040 and heard a few weak signals. Reminded me to get going, only 45 minutes late. Operated from my home station with my QRP+ and DSP filter. Gave ol' Kenwood the day off. Antenna was my 40m diamond loop. I found band conditions to be very thin. Worked a total of 18 QSOs, including 7 BB. A whopping total of 378 points. Somehow not as impressive as those contests with lots of multipliers and scores in the thousands :-) I owe an apology to several stations. Without thinking, I tacked BB at the end of a CQ, like we sometimes do with FD during Field Day. I seem to have given the impression I was a BB, which I wasn't. I hope this hasn't screwed up too many scores. Oh, well, it was fun and a learning experience. I have a related question. I found myself consistently giving much lower reports than I was receiving. Some even gave me reports of 599, "just thumping in here". But not at my end. Anyone else have this experience? Now, what new mischief can we get into? 72 to all, Bob N6WG From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.Edu Wed Jul 30 18:28:43 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA26792 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:28:42 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <34861-68712>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:27:11 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34838-20068>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:25:43 -0400 Received: from ns.mounet.com (ns.mounet.com [206.151.76.2]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id SAA51006 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:25:36 -0400 Received: from pm122.mounet.com by ns.mounet.com; (5.65v3.2/1.1.8.2/18Dec95-1202AM) id AA13584; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:25:59 -0400 Received: by pm122.mounet.com with Microsoft Mail id <01BC9D16.060A2220@pm122.mounet.com>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:25:57 -0400 Message-Id: <01BC9D16.060A2220@pm122.mounet.com> Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:25:00 -0400 Reply-To: n4roa@mounet.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.Edu Precedence: bulk From: Dan Wolfe To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Another "Plight of the Bumblebee" Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-To: "'Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion'" X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Howdy to All, I have been reading the posts on the Bumblebee event with much interest. All during the event, I thought I was the only one having to overcome such horrible obsticals as I have seen posted. The adventure of the event has made it a "keeper" in my book even if you do not make a contact. My day started much the same as most others. Got everything packed and took off for my particular spot in the wild jungle. My spot was an old Fire Tower on Clinch Mountain and to get there, I had to travel an old logging road. If all went well, I would drive most of the way then hike a short distance. I'm now on the logging road and about 1 mile into my journey. As I round a curve, the first obsticle comes into view. A nice log that was blown down by a storm early Sunday morning. I only have a small bow saw with me which is not nearly enough to clear my way. Oh well, give it a try anyway. The log is about 12 inches through and my saw will take care of about 4 of that. Saw around the log as much as I can but it won't break. Back to the vehicle to see what I can find to help out the situation. Wait! here is a 9/16" wrench and a screwdriver. That should do it. I think I have outsmarted the log. I will just make another cut with my saw beside the other and use the wrench and screwdriver to chisel out the wood. This worked fine and after only 35 minutes and half gallon of sweat, I managed to use a large tree branch to lever the log to the side of the road. On towards the top, park, and on to the Fire Tower. Hastily remove antennas from pack and start to get them suspended in the trees. Tie a rock to some nylon string and hurl the rock up only 5 times before success. Tie one end of string to antenna. OK, stretch out the antenna and affix coax. Hey! There is a string hanging up in the tree. Oops, forgot to anchor the other end of the string. Oh well, start over(mumble,mumble,mumble). Finally on the air and only 15 minutes late. Not bad for what I have been through. First contact, N4TN, a friend of mine in Tn. followed by a host of other friendly operators. This has turned into a day I will never forget. Thanks to all for the adventureous day and so much fun. It could only happen in QRP. I hope we can have another one, anyway, I am looking forward to it. 73/72 de Bumblebee #32 From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.Edu Wed Jul 30 18:54:24 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA27473 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:54:23 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <34889-68712>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:53:31 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34855-20068>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:51:20 -0400 Received: from midas.millcomm.com (midas.millcomm.com [208.135.176.12]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA54476 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:51:08 -0400 Received: from localhost (pugrad@localhost) by midas.millcomm.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id RAA28049 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 17:46:16 -0500 (CDT) Message-Id: Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 17:46:15 -0500 (CDT) Reply-To: pugrad@millcomm.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.Edu Precedence: bulk From: KG0ZT To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Bumblebee # 47 Overcomes "Murphy" (long) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-To: "QRP-L --> Post to list" X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO How can "Murphy" be in so many places at the same time? Like so may other QRP'ers, he came to visit me this past weekend trying his best to ground Bumblebee # 47, Dave - KG0ZT. But this Bumblebee won... or at least partially won. The QRP 'hive' for this Bumblebee was a hilltop in a local apple orchard in southeastern Minnesota near Rochester (home of the Mayo Clinic). I had planned to erect the New England 20-30 Antenna Mast on Saturday evening and put up a fan inverted vee using the PVC Gusher II setup. But Murphy had other plans... at 6 pm the XYL (KB0YAE) called from a local supermarket saying her vehicle would not start. Much later after replacing the battery, in the parking lot, it was dark and the antenna party was history... Murphy won that round. Not to worry, just go out earlier on Sunday. Murphy and company again visit... have to wait for the rain to stop Sunday morning. Yes... a break in the rain... off to the orchard. We, XYL and I, get the antenna up and I turn on the rig... lots of signals on 20 meters but heavy QRN and quick signal fading. I've missed the first 50 minutes but I'm airborne. Four quick contacts... this is going to be fun!! Murphy returns yet again... rain drops, lightning, then monsoon. We grab the electronics, cover the end of the coax and retreat down the hill to the vehicle. This is no brief shower. Two hours later the rain and a couple of possible funnel clouds move out and we go back up the hill with electronics in hand. Still same bad band conditions but again wall to wall signals on 20 meters. Immediate success... tough to keep a determined Bumblebee grounded. I was only able to "log" 1 hour and 15 minutes of air time, but made 15 contacts, all on 20 meters, which included 12 different states (AR, CO, GA, IN, LA, MI, MO, MT, NJ, OH, OK, TX), and 5 other Bumblebees. Score calculation for 75 minutes of operating time: (15 QSOs x 2 pts/QSO) X (5 BBs x 3 pts/BB) = 450 points total Rig was a Ten Tec Scout at 5 watts (checked with an OHR WM-1). I had hoped to work (try) 40 m, 15 m, and 10 m also. Had wires for them. But with very limited operating time... stayed on 20 m as it was 'hot'. I've made-up a special QSL card for this event which I'll be mailing out soon. Thanks to all of you who participated. I now know what it's like to be on the receiving end of a pile-up!! A special thanks to The Adventure Radio Society and to Russ, AA7QU, for his coordination efforts... no simple task! I look forward to the '98 Flight of the Bumblebees... and Russ if you're accepting inputs... put me down again as a Bumblebee if repeats are allowed. 72 to all Dave - KG0ZT ******************************************************************* * * * 72 / 73 KG0ZT Dave Cary Rochester, MN * * ARRL VE QRP-L # 979 * * * * pugrad@millcomm.com * * * ******************************************************************* From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Thu Jul 31 00:20:32 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id AAA05750 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 00:20:31 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <34915-73252>; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 00:20:22 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34843-73252>; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 00:19:18 -0400 Received: from mtigwc04.worldnet.att.net (mtigwc04.worldnet.att.net [204.127.131.33]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id AAA26675 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 00:19:03 -0400 Received: from LOCALNAME ([207.116.42.4]) by mtigwc04.worldnet.att.net (post.office MTA v2.0 0613 ) with SMTP id AAA28450; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 04:18:30 +0000 Message-Id: <19970731041828.AAA28450@LOCALNAME> Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 04:18:30 +0000 Reply-To: SSLYON@worldnet.att.net Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: SEAB&SHARON LYON To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: BUMBLE BEE THERAPY LETTER: LONG, but necessary. Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-To: Russ Carpenter , qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU X-Sender: SSLYON@postoffice.worldnet.att.net X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.2 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO At 06:46 PM 7/28/97 +0000, you wrote: >Sure, I'd love your story. One of the neat things about operating in the >wilds is that it teaches us lessons--every time. We can learn a lot from >each other. > >Russ O.K. RUSS... YOU ASKED FOR IT! >VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV Way back when the Bumble Bee thingie was first mentioned it was nice and cool out... no problemo says I...piece of cake! Spent leisurely time strategizing, then building the KILLER antler kits: Half-Square on 40, Sterba Curtains on 20 & 15m, no wuss wire here! Huffy Mountain Bike cleaned, pumped & saddled up for the FIRST trek up Sunset Hill to Huntington Park (~900') to recon and cast up the ant. support lines. 5.5 miles and 450 ft. higher was well... trying but o.k. CT will be on the map! Do-able, right? Um Hum. Sat. A.M., lines up -even after an encounter with Mr Protector Of The Wildernes who materialized for the first time in more than 10 years of visits to this park. Polite, mind you, but unwilling to allow the effort until Papal Bull wert bestoweth. Thus bless-ed the holy threads were cast upon the pines and all was good. Good that is until the '706 failed. Don't panic, says I alternate Plan B to the rescue; just borrow another battery-powered multi-band marvel, right? Um Hum. The ONLY thing that could be obtained as of 9:00PM of the 26th was a TS-850. O.K., 25 lbs now instead of 5, - let's see about batteries. 2 amps @ idle mumble mumble zzzz 2 x (?) at 5watts.... that means I'd better bring two of the 36 AH sealed lead acid puppys just to be safe. Let's weigh things and see how the bike will do with the load.... OH-OH... this looks like at least two more trips at 1.5 hr/round trip! O.K.,O.K. all in the name of the game... grin and bear it. The ride back down-hill will be time enuff to rest. Start tomorrow at 8:30 instead of 11:30 AM. Do-able, right? Um Hum. 6:30 AM Sunday the 27th dawns hot and humid, already. Smiling weather personage wishes us a great day for the hammock and/or the pool ... "whatever your pleasure!" I think back on that saccarine smile -that vacuous, insipid know-nothing-of-real-life smile as I stand in a pool of my own making alongside a supposedly mobile burden of QRP BEAST... with a Barney-sized blood blister doing the Macarena on the meaty part of my right thumb. A fourth cup of coffee and three Motrin later I'm on my way. Hey!... 3/4 mile done, -pedigreed white-eyed tire-biter down the street let me pass un-bloodied... do-able, right? Um Hum. Three miles later began the last of three steep grades, and of my rational processes. No parts of me or Huffy are dry and it feels like I'm breathing with one of those produce bags over my head. Utillizing each wheeze to click off the years I check to make sure I'm not really eighty years old. Can't ride, have to push up the rest of the grade to the blessed flat at the top and finally flop in the grass below the bronze sculpture of the coyote family howling, maybe at the moon. Somehow I relate at a deep level. They seem so life-like as I stare upwards into the sodden haze I can almost... smell them! Then, as with many of my cardinal moments lately, the magic was transmorgafied by the revealation that my flop on the grass was among the favored spots of those who rebel against such beaurocratic assaults as pooper-scooper laws. My very last rational act was to cut, rather than pull off over my head, my treasured Duckman T-shirt. No mindless slave to propriety here, Dude. The trip back down the hill was indeed restful, if not cool until I got to the 1/2 mile stretch of road thru East Brook Swamp where upon a swarm of sweat-crazed, green-eyed, delta-winged deer horn flies did a credible re-enactment of Pearl Harbor on me. Afraid of making a scene with an exploding Barney on my right hand I took a series of energetic slaps at my tormentors with my left hand... which, unfortunately is adorned with a 1.5 oz. wedding ring. The effects of being hit hard and fast on the side of one's sweat-drenched head with a hard metallic object?... you know, with that sound only heard when a #1 wood slices a golf ball into a hickory tree deep in foul territory? Don't you even ask. Stupified with rage now, visions of napalm blasts in the swamp dance on my eyelids, -and of sculptured creations made of Huffy, Kenwood and Coleman Thermo-Pak... you know, those tortured assemblages featured so proudly in trendy museums. I make it to the driveway with nausea and shrinking peripheral vision. I hear Good Wife say: "you look terrible! -hot, huh? -what's that on the side of your head?" Twenty minutes of cool shower with a quart of pinkish Gatorgag later and I'm able to process minor mental tasks. Can't do that swamp/hill again... ring won't come off... gotta cheat -or give up... hams counting on CT rep... Good Wife says "hey, I don't need the insurance THAT bad, let's just load those batteries and Huffy in the car, do your thing and you can bike back for the car later?" With reluctance only partly feigned to preserve the ghost of honor remaining, I load the stuff an we take off. I'm hoping Russ has a "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" philosophy re rules. 12:25 and back among the dog-doo I note that the wire is down. Bad but not THE END. Work up lathery sweat just pulling it down and see wire sticking out of a ring lug, strands stretched and broken. "WHAA?!..." New lug crimped and bolted on (can't solder here) the Half-Square is gently hoisted back up. While tying the coax end down it suddenly goes slack and I hear wire slapping against the roof of a pick-up parked by the coyotes. Another wire break at a lug! This IS bad, must be a whole section of that used #16 from the loop that got strained when the tree fell on it in March. O.K., don't panic. Just put up the 20 m Sterba and load it like a long wire on 40 m. By 1:45 Mr Sterba is up and stable in the swealtering calm and I'm gulping another Gatorgag when slap of wire on tin roof is heard again. Employing every ounce of skills learned in that 12-step program I fight back waves of incendiary urges as the pile of tangled wire is taken down, re-organized, re-lugged, (yeeees, another break at a lug), and begin re-hoisting. Mr Sterbas' bottom hasn't even cleared the ground yet and I note with horror that the support line has somehow formed a tight, resin-coated loop around a pine branch maybe 40' up. Climbing is definitely out due to renewed nausea and interesting visual special effects. Can't even break the branch off with help of mountain bike rider in Chartruse synthetics who smells like a sweat lodge for Sasquatchae. He stepped in one of the A-B-C-Ds', (Anti-Beaurocrat Cannine Deposit), and quit in a hail of unfamiliar vituperations, maybe Hungarian. I may be wrong but suspect that he won't be showing up at our ham club meets any time soon. Well, I won't bore you with the rest of the day except to say it was all down hill from there. Not one Q. It's now four days later and I'm pretty much back to normal except when I rake that lump over my ear with the comb. I'm not to the point yet where I can return to Huntington Park to retrieve the entangled line. Maybe next week or so. Haven't even turned on the rig. Dr Katz recommended I write this all down and bring it to Group next Tuesday "as a way to facilitate the process of letting go". I'll let you know how it goes. =s= "Seab" Lyon -- AA1MY Bethel, CT; USA FN-31-HJ ARCI #9253; QRP-L # 574 NEQRP# 511; ARRL; QCWA; C.A.R.A. From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Thu Jul 31 00:41:57 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id AAA06215 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 00:41:56 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35053-25384> convert rfc822-to-8bit; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 00:41:22 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34878-25384>; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 00:39:18 -0400 Received: from smtp.pe.net (root@smtp.pe.net [205.139.56.34]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id AAA62201 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 00:39:10 -0400 Received: from ki6sn (ki6sn@arlington [205.139.56.7]) by smtp.pe.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id VAA15862; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 21:39:02 -0700 (PDT) Received: by ki6sn with Microsoft Mail id <01BC9D30.D7FB6860@ki6sn>; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 21:37:56 -0700 Message-Id: <01BC9D30.D7FB6860@ki6sn> Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 21:36:58 -0700 Reply-To: ki6sn@pe.net Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: "Richard E. Fisher" To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: ARS Report: KI6SN/BB (long) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT X-To: "'QRP-L'" X-Cc: "'Richard Fisher, PE.net'" X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO 1997 Flight of the Bumblebees Report Richard Fisher, KI6SN/BB Location: Rancho Jurupa Park, Southern California Mode: Mountain bike, 14 miles round trip * * * * * * * * * * * * Suddenly, a pack of wild dogs came running across the operating site. . . But I'm getting ahead of myself. Adventure Radio Society's 1997 "Flight of the Bumblebees" was my entree into portable, minimalist QRP, and it was as exciting and educational as it was fun. Mountain biking was chosen as the mode of human-powered transport. It was a perfect Southern California day for pedaling QRP -- both literally and figuratively. >From our home in a neighborhood on the edge of Riverside's citrus greenbelt, the 7-mile ride to Rancho Jurupa Park outside Riverside took me through the city's downtown, across the Santa Ana River to the outskirts of the little town of Rubidoux (RUE-beh-doe). The transformation from asphalt and traffic lights to split rail fences and wide open space isn't too hard to take on a Sunday morning. I pedaled out old Seventh Street (now Mission Inn Avenue) which in its day was the main road from Los Angeles to Riverside and Palm Springs. The avenue skirts Mount Rubidoux, renowned for being set ablaze each Fourth of July when the city's fireworks fall into the hill's tinderbox-dry brush. But that's another story. The Santa Ana River separates the city from the country. Once across, you're on the fringes of rural Rubidoux and only about a mile from Rancho Jurupa Park, nestled in a greenbelt area off the main road. On the night before /BB, I set up the station in the back yard at home to test a new antenna and transmatch built specially for the contest. Tearing down the gear and putting it piece-by-piece into my backpack assured that all the cables, headphones, batteries, and so on, would be there when I set up for the real thing. Equipment included two SSTs (40- and 20-meters); a TiCK-2 keyer in a very small box; Paddlette iambic paddle on a knee-mount; 2 aH gel cell; new homebrew Z-match tuner; dipole with custom-made center insulator; 450-ohm ladder line; slingshot, assorted cables, notebook, pencils, etc. On the backyard picnic table the gear look lightweight enough. Jammed in the backpack, though, it tipped the scale at 10 lbs. Amazing how little things can add up. On Sunday morning a thick marine layer provided a nice, cool canopy for the ride to the park. It was chilly as I pedaled past the famed Mission Inn, historic Riverside homes, around the base of Mount Rubidoux and out of the city. A beautiful ride, even under a leaden sky. In a little less than an hour I had arrived at Rancho Jurupa Park's entrance, where a ranger listened patiently as I explained I was a radio amateur and that I'd like to put an antenna in a tree using a slingshot. My speech (rehearsed during the last mile) was met with glassy-eyed bewilderment. "You're a what?" Thankfully there were no further questions. Into the park I pedaled. A stand of four tightly-clustered trees in the distance seemed the perfect spot for operation. Good support for an inverted V, and lots of shade. Marine layers do burn off, you know. What struck me immediately was the quiet and peacefulness of this place. Coming out of a city of 250,000 people, little Rancho Jurupa Park is a bit of heaven. Roosters crowed in the distance. A mourning dove traded calls with a crow. A skunk was neither seen nor heard -- but certainly smelled. I was a most humble visitor. A Y-shaped crook in the top branches of one of the trees was the bullseye for the apex of the inverted V. I aimed the slingshot, fired and split the uprights on the first try. Almost too good to be true. Next came assembly of the antenna and hoisting it to about 30-feet. It was all going smoothly until strings I had set out to tie off the ends of the V became a tangled mess. To make matters worse, they were soaked in dew. Fifteen minutes of mind-numbing de-knotting solved the problem. Up went the center of the antenna. One leg of the dipole was tied off on a barbed-wire fence -- which, naturally, I managed to cut myself upon. The other leg drooped into an open area, but there was nothing to tie it on. Rooting around for a good-sized rock or piece of wood yielded nothing. Then I saw my mountain bike leaning against the tree. Ah, there's the answer. I wheeled the bike over and laid it down. The second leg of the V was tied to the crossbar. Who says bikes don't make good antenna hardware? An old picnic table covered with ants would have to do for an operating table. Everything connected as planned -- no missing cables or accessories. What a relief. It would have been a l-o-n-g ride home to get them. Applying power brought a rush of audio, and more relief. Things were working. Tune-up seemed to go according to plan. Things dipped where they should dip and peaked where they should peak. Minutes before /BB's start, W6LFJ was pounding in on 40 meters from Alcatraz Island. He returned my call, but I was a bit disappointed with only a 559 signal report. Afterall, he was S-9 plus a zillion, running 50 watts. I was expecting at least a 579 or 589. Alas, that was the story of the day. Even loud stations didn't seem to be hearing me all that well. It could have been my location -- in the shadow of Mount Rubidoux -- or conditions. But I think the antenna and feed system need more study. Things just didn't feel right. For /BB's kick-off, I worked 20 meters, snagging K0SU in Colorado (439), N7GS in Montana (539) and KG7OM in Washington in quick order. But things dried up quickly. My 20-meter SST tunes only to the low side of 14.060 MHz (about 14.058), so I suspect some /BB contesters may not have been operating in my SST's frequency range. Lesson learned: Make sure your radio sweeps to either side of the standard QRP frequencies. Shifting to 40 meters there was a relatively good run of California, Arizona and Idaho stations through the morning. Signals were reasonably good, but I was still receiving RSTs below expectations. Too bad. It's testament, though, to what great operators QRPers really are. They pulled me out of the mud, and I'm very appreciative. Back on 20, Idaho and Oregon were added to the states list. At about 10:40 a.m., just as the sun started burning through the marine layer, a four-pack of wild dogs came racing through the operating site. Scared the heck out of me. Looking dirty and grouchy, they seemed most interested in harassing the bicycle -- which was just fine. I only hoped they didn't grab the leg of the inverted V and run off with it in tow. They eventually got bored and raced to another campsite. On this day, we didn't need dogs in the QRP ranks anyway. Just bumblebees. Activity ebbed and flowed on both 20 and 40. I had mini-QSOs with N6WG and W7AQK/BB when things slowed down. With a sigh of relief, at 2 p.m.Pacific, I tallied KI6SN/BB's score: 16 QSOs on 40 meters (16 points); 6 QSOs on 20 meters (12 points); Bumblebees KD7S, N6GA, N7TN and W7AQK (X 12). Total: 336 points. Take-down and packing took about 20 minutes. By 2:30 p.m. I was back on the road, tired and elated. A great day. A great adventure. This bee would pedal QRP just about any day. From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Thu Jul 31 11:39:18 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id LAA05502 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 11:39:17 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35172-33830>; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 11:34:37 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <35130-73252>; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 11:31:56 -0400 Received: from guppy.pond.net (guppy.pond.net [205.240.25.2]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id LAA51727 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 11:31:44 -0400 Received: from [205.240.25.104] (p2p27.pond.net [205.240.25.104]) by guppy.pond.net (8.6.12/8.6.9) with SMTP id IAA07138 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 08:31:42 -0700 Message-Id: <199707311531.IAA07138@guppy.pond.net> Date: Thu, 31 Jul 97 08:32:03 -0700 Reply-To: russ@natworld.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: Russ Carpenter To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: An Embarassing Bumblebee Story Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" X-To: "QRP-L List" X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO I've been reading the Bee tales on the QRP-L and on the soapbox comments we've been receiving in the BB logs. Harrowing adventures of all kinds, including arduous hikes, death defying bike rides, and encounters with weather of a serious kind. I'm embarrassed to report that my Bee venture was a little wimpy. A pleasant hike, perfect weather, incredible mountain scenery and 58 Qs. Oh well, I guess these things average out. During the past several years of QRP adventuring, I've had my share of learning experiences. It's a good thing that the rest of you had more substantive adventures. We've got a reputation to keep up. I'll be on a hiking trip next week, so I'll be a little late responding to ARS email. Thanks again for your participation and story writing. Russ Carpenter, AA7QU Contest Manager for Adventure Radio Society From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Aug 4 03:28:45 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id DAA20558 for ; Mon, 4 Aug 1997 03:28:44 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <35065-51692>; Mon, 4 Aug 1997 03:26:54 -0400 Received: from nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.26]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34918-51692>; Mon, 4 Aug 1997 03:25:57 -0400 Received: from kim.teleport.com (kim.teleport.com [192.108.254.26]) by nss2.CC.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id DAA62996 for ; Mon, 4 Aug 1997 03:25:54 -0400 Received: from [206.163.125.125] (ip-pdx04-28.teleport.com [206.163.123.125]) by kim.teleport.com (8.8.6/8.7.3) with SMTP id AAA13641 for ; Mon, 4 Aug 1997 00:25:45 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: Date: Mon, 4 Aug 1997 00:28:45 -0700 Reply-To: talljazz@teleport.com Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: talljazz@teleport.com (Dan Presley) To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Bumble bee from Or Mts. Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Sender: talljazz@mail.teleport.com X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO A little late, but here's my adventures from a 2000 ft. ridge high above the McKenzie river valley in central Oregon. First, my thanks to Russ Carpenter for the info on the site-it's a spectacular vista overlooking a series of ridges and valleys facing east for about a 30 mile view. I believe that Russ & I were about line of site about 40-50 miles apart. I allowed myself (or so I thought) about 1 hour to erect an antenna & prepare the gear for the contest, yet 10:00 AM (PDT time) came & went with me still trying to untangle the mess of guy lines & antenna wire from every stick and rock within 100 yards. Lesson #1-NEVER PUT GUY & ANTENNA WIRES ON THE SAME ROLL! I should know better, but there you are! I used my SLV pole as a support for an inverted V fed with ladder line, and this seemed to be going together fine until I erected the pole with center insulator attached, and a 'fan' dipole for 40 & 20-one leg of the 40 M wire promptly snapped off the center insulator!Already being 1/2 hr behind, I yanked off the other leg in disgust, and stuck to 20-maybe with open line I could QSY to 15 & retune, I thought. BTW, the SLV worked pretty well for a lightweight center support, though the center insulator did bend the top part fairly well-next time lighter center.One thing for end supports-small aluminum tent pegs work very well. Another nice discovery is that my "Plano" (brand name) field box that I pack most of my gear in works very well as a stand for the Sierra-just flip the handle over all the way, and it's like a flip-up bail to tilt the radio up about 30 Degrees. Gear was Sierra, St.Louis tuner, and SST-20 to V fed with ladder line and whiterock key. I am now a full believer in Russ Carpenters preaching about using "terrain for gain"- I was on a ridge with ground sloping away to the east, and with the inverted V was able to hear many ,many signals from all over that I never heard prior. The theory is all laid out in Les Moxon's antenna book (RSGB) and Russ has sites modeled on a very slick terrain map with lobes of radiation and also signal strength for many parts of the US from a fixed location. Next time you go afield, give serious thought to the terrain and how it enhances signals. I had a great time, learned a lot, and almost got a shot of a big fat bumble bee buzzing around the SST-keep your eyes on the ARS page for a "Bee mascot" Dan N7CQR