AmateurRadio.com

Paul NA5N – Head Zombie and Maya King posted this today:

“I have some exciting news updates regarding the End-of-the-World Zombie Shuffle Friday (tomorrow) night.

First, I was contacted by a ham in Belize who heard about our special event and asked to participate in the Shuffle from the real Maya empire.  Of course I asked him to be a Maya King!

He has agreed and thus will be our real, authentic “High Maya King” on the air, and some nice DX.  (Turns out, his wife is Mayan).  He was assigned Zombie number 1010, so he will be worth 1010+666 = 1676 points.  So listen for a Mayan Zombie who’s calls start with “V31.”  He will be operating QRP. He said he lives about 150 yards from the ocean … so we’ll be the first to know when the Mayan Empire slides into the sea!!!
 
Jan passed 1,000 zombie numbers last night.
# 999 was assigned to Terry K9DXA
#1000 was assigned to Steve W1SGC
#1015 was just assigned.
So there will be a few “4-digit” Zombie numbers on the air.
 
Our friend Ed, W1RFI (who will be in the Shuffle) asked why working Maya Kings aren’t worth “2012” points vs. 666?  All I can say is: “Dang!  Why didn’t I think of that?”  Good going, Ed.  However, I am hesitant to change the scoring rules only one day before the event.  My apologies for missing such an obvious good idea.
 
And, the Central Connecticut QRP Club will be on the Shuffle using their famous club call of W1FB.  This, of course, was the call of legendary QRP ham Doug DeMaw (SK), who authored numerous ARRL QRP related books and articles, and designer of the Tuna Tin 2 and other legacy QRP rigs.  What a great tribute to Doug (who is now a Maya King).
 
So we’ve added two more Maya Kings to the rolls … W1FB and our V31 High King in Belize.  You’ll just have to find out who the others are.
 
It’s almost criminal to have this much fun in the face of the entire destruction of the human race in just hours!    Are we QRPers and Zombies, or what?

72, Paul NA5N
Zombie NR 04
Zombie Shuffle rules and summary sheet at:
http://www.zianet.com/qrp/ZOMBIE/zombie.htm“

Thanks, Paul!  I am looking forward to this tomorrow evening!  And since tomorrow is the Winter Solstice and we have the least amount of daylight, it gives us extra operating time for the Shuffle this year.

72 de Larry W2LJ – For tomorrow night at least – Maya King #858
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Dr. Bob Heil, K9EID, is the founder of Heil Sound and host of TWiT.tv's Ham Nation which streams live each Tuesday at 6:00pm PT (9:00pm ET) at http://live.twit.tv. Contact him at [email protected].

Recently, on one of the email reflectors associated with repeater owners, someone asked how to deal with kerchunkers on the repeater. The term kerchunk means to key up the repeater to see if it is there. It just takes a quick push of the Push-to-Talk (PTT) button on the transceiver to bring up most repeaters, resulting in a kerchunk sound. … Continue reading …
Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

was the title of a catchy tune a few years back.  I am one of those who takes no stock in ancient Mayan prophecies – BUT …….. if there are any Hams out there who are like that that guy in Hong Kong who sold all his stuff thinking that the world is ending Friday – don’t go through the trouble of selling. I’ll be willing to take your Ham gear off your hands for free!

Seriously, though …… don’t forget the Zombie Shuffle is this Friday night, to poke a little fun at those nasty ol’ Mayans, Here’s a little reminder from Paul NA5N:

Zombies and Maya Kings, Gosh. Where has the time gone? Seems it was just summer, then Thanksgiving, Christmas next week … oh yeah, and the end of the world thing this Friday. Hate it when doomsday sneaks up on you like that! 🙂

So a reminder that our special 2012 “End of the World” Zombie Shuffle will be THIS FRIDAY, famous December 21, from local sundown (considered 5pm local) to midnight. Just as the Maya calendar runs out of rock. Early enough to get a little 20M in there before resorting to 40M. Solar flux is 115-120, quiet geomagnetic field, and no big competing contests which should provide fairly decent evening bands.
Rules and other ramblings at: http://www.zianet.com/qrp/ZOMBIE/zombie.htm

NEW TO QRP OR CONTESTING? This is for you. A contest that serves no purpose whatsoever except get on the air and have fun no matter what your code speed or how rusty your fist may be. We all know Zombies can’t crack out 35 wpm in those old blood soaked rags, right? Scoring is based more on serendipity (recording those Zombie numbers) than operating skill. Over the years, we’ve had quite a few new QRPers who accomplished their first real CW QSOs during the Zombie Shuffle. That’s what it’s all about … to give everyone a chance to get on the air and pound some brass.

ZOMBIE NUMBERS can be obtained from Jan if you don’t have one. Zombie numbers are good for life. Or, send your 3-digit telephone area code if you wish. We’re pretty close to hitting 1,000 Zombie numbers assigned (like 35-40 to go). 

ZOMBIE BADGE: It was reported by several that the Zombie badge link wasn’t working on the above Zombie page. I have repaired the link for those who wish to print out their own Zombie/Area 51 badge. 

MAYA KINGS: We have 13 Maya Kings willing to serve you this year fairly evenly scattered across the empire. Plenty of chances to work some bonus points.
For their name, they will be sending MAYA KING, MAYA, KING, or even KING JOE or KING RON (or whatever their name is) as they decide. We even have a special KING ELVIS. Each Maya King worked is worth an additional 666 points. 

I’m sure between sending CQ BOO and KING ELVIS, we’ll drive the QRO folks nuts trying to figure this thing out! 

Whether you get on for 2-3 QSOs, or work several hours, you’ll have fun. And, thanks for participating. After all, the end of the world only comes along every so often. I think the last one was Y2K.

I was listening to Coast to Coast AM radio show this weekend, and one doomsday believer claimed that “every major observatory is tracking the collision course of planet Nibiru with Earth on Dec. 21 – and all observatory employees have been sworn to secrecy.” At the VLA (merely the world’s largest radio telescope), I must have missed that inter-office email! With the internet, Twitter, and Facebook, how on Earth could you keep something like that secret these days?

However, I do feel there’s a chance of a minor earthquake or a volcano might blow its top. Not because the Mayan Calendar says so … but just to prove God has a sense of humor. He can’t wait to drive those doomsdayers nuts! 🙂 

72, Paul NA5N 

OK, so you may have noticed Paul mentioning that you get extra bonus points for working a Maya King.  I happen to be one of those 13 QRP Ops who have volunteered. Just sayin’ ………… you might be able to rack up some extra points for working Maya King W2LJ – so listen for me!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Pat Tice, WA0TDA, is the manager of HANDI-HAM and a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at [email protected].

This blog update on my 2012 Challenge of having at least one QSO per day is late.  However, I’m still very much on track and as I post this update, I have less than two weeks to go.  Barring the Mayan’s were correct or some other catastrophic issue occur, I should easily coast through the remaining time without a problem.

December is always a busy month for me.  My wife and I typically travel down to Texas to visit my family in early December.  This year was no exception.  I carried my Buddipole, Elecraft KX3 and my laptop and was successful at getting at least one JT65 QSO each day.  On the last evening a cold front moved into the area and I had to enlist my darling wife to come and help hold the Buddipole antenna tripod.  While I had concerns I might not be successful at getting contacts with this setup, the stress was for not.  Band conditions were fine and I managed to work many stations running just 5-10 watts out of the KX3.  The picture is my Buddipole setup as a dipole in my grandmothers front yard. 

Anyway, enough about December…here are my results for November. 

The QSO breakdown for November is as follows:

Mode
Number QSO’s

JT65
34

SSB    
19

PSK31 
0

2m FM  
2

Additional notes of interest:

DX Stations Worked in November – 3

New DX Entities in November – 0

Total QSO’s for 2012 – 1392

Total consecutive QSO days – 335

Days left in 2012 – 31

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK

Jerry Taylor, KD0BIK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. He is the host of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast. Contact him at [email protected].