AmateurRadio.com

I’ve been so busy at work.over the last 2 months that I’ve barely turned a rig on. It hasn’t stopped me sending off a rant to the rsgb rag about the lack of focus on celebrating successes that our young and newcomers achieve as well as the price of new gear. That’s another story though. Needless to say I expect a few comments.

Onto more positive things. This weekend is the VHF NFD and a bunch of us will be active on 2m and 6m from corney fell. We’ll be in the single transmitter category and expect a couple of hundred contacts at best and a few gallons of tea and a hundredweight of biscuits. Definitely my kind of contest.

Looking forward to working you all…listen out for MX0WRC

Rich Fisher KI6SN, has begun issuing Bee numbers for the 2013 Flight of the Bumblebees. I signed up this evening, and was awarded Number 16.

You can get your own Bee number, by going to the ARS blog. All the instructions are there. You can view the Bumblebee numbers already give out by clicking here.

Pick out three numbers you would like (that aren’t already taken) and then send an e-mail to: [email protected]

Include your name, your call, where you plan on operating from, and your three number choices.

It’s that easy!

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

Field Day, as it should be. QRP, fun and good friends.  This is a wonderful example of putting out the maximum effort to get the most out “of sending the very least!”

I’ve worked these fine folks individually many times over the years. It’s so nice to be able to put faces and voices to the people “behind the code”.

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

Argh! If my head wasn’t screwed on, I would probably forget that, too!

Rem K6BBQ wanted me to mention that he has added a SOTA category to this year’s inaugural Scorch Your Butt Off contest, coming this July. If you activate a SOTA summit, you can claim an additional 100 points to your SYBO score. Please keep in mind that this has NOTHING to do with your SOTA activation points, this is for your SYBO score only.

I had my last Pastoral Council meeting tonight, so I didn’t get the chance to put any more radials down this evening. I have served on the Parish Pastoral Council for the last four years. Two meetings a month, all year around. That may not sound like much, but there are always many peripheral duties involved, as well as peripheral events where attendance was not mandatory, but desired. The normal term of service is three years, but I was asked to, and served for four. Now that these are going to be over, I will be able to attend Amateur Radio club meetings again. I hesitated to in the past, as I always tried to keep away from being out of the house multiple nights a week. To say my attendance of club meetings was sporadic is being generous. It was, for all intent and purpose, non-existant.

This Friday evening is an Electronic Testing Society of NJ meeting. Fancy name for a repeater club meeting, eh? The group is better known as the Greenbrook repeater group, and the meetings are always the last Friday of the month. Even though this would mean being out two evenings this week, I am going to make a best effort to attend, so as to get back into the swing of things.

I also hope to attend a lot more VE sessions when license exam season starts up again in earnest this September. I have always enjoyed being a VE, going back to the days when I regularly attended and volunteered at the sessions that were offered by the Raritan Bay Radio Amateurs.

I had to go to a remote site at work today, so I didn’t get in my lunchtime QRP session, so no photos today, maybe tomorrow, weather permitting (but alas, it seems there’s a 75% chance of rain for tomorrow).

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

I have been getting a lot of e-mails about the Flight of the Bumblebees, which is understandable, as I managed it two years ago.  However, just a reminder, I am NOT managing it this year.  FOBB belongs to the Adventure Radio Society and falls under the province of Rich Fisher KI6SN.

Rich is a VERY busy man!  He edits and is largely responsible for a lot of the content of WorldRadio and CQ VHF.  So in between running around with his hair on fire trying to meet the deadlines for two very popular publications, he also manages FOBB and the monthly Spartan Sprints. That is a lot to have on your plate!

I would ask for you all to be as patient as possible.  The new edition of QST came out, and sure enough, FOBB is listed in “The Contest Corral” as occurring on July 28th, the last one of July.  I am sure that within the next few weeks (if not sooner), Rich will be making an announcement about FOBB on QRP-L.  My advice to you all is keep your eyes peeled and your stingers sharp.

Speaking of Summer time outdoor QRP operating events – please make sure to keep two others in mind!  The first being “SYBO – Scorch Your Butt Off”, which is being sponsored by Rem K6BBQ.  This is scheduled for Saturday, July 20th.  This is a semi-inaugural event as SYBO is Rem’s current edition of the Bubba event, which went by the wayside.  For all the details, please visit Rem’s SYBO Website by clicking on the contest name in this paragraph.

The second event, of course, is the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt. The Skeeter Hunt will be held on the second Sunday of August – which is the 11th, this year.  You can sign up for a Skeeter number by sending me an e-mail at [email protected].  When you request a Skeeter number, please include your name, call and the state from which you plan to operate.  This years theme is “Bodies of Water” and you can earn bonus points by operating close to a body of water, whether that be a lake, pond, river, brook, ocean, etc.  Rules can be found at the hyperlink above.

Now, the reason that I am bringing up the Skeeter Hunt is that I received an e-mail from someone who informed me in that correspondence that it was his third request for a Skeeter number!  I checked my spam folder and I never found the two initial Skeeter number requests, and that has me a bit concerned.  If you have requested a Skeeter number and haven’t gotten one – it’s not because I have put you on “ignore”.  It’s because I haven’t received your request.  I try my best to respond to all requests as quickly as possible – certainly within 24 hours.

So as a backup – here are three ways to request a number, in order of preference on my part.  If number 1 doesn’t work, try number 2, and then finally number 3.  I’ll get you a Skeeter number if I have to come out to your house and deliver it personally!

Number 1 – send an e-mail to [email protected]
Number 2 – send an e-mail to [email protected] (sometimes the ARRL reports funky things about that arrl.net domain thingy)
Number 3 – Leave a comment on any blog post.  Since comments are on moderation to avoid spam, I have to manually review each one – so that should be a safe “last fallback”.

Last year, we had 123 people sign up for Skeeter numbers, and as of today, number 67 was assigned.  I would like to top last year’s total if at all possible.  Last year over 50 log summaries were sent in and I would like to exceed that, also. The top five scores and the high score for each state/province got a nifty certificate last year, and that will be repeated this year.  And this year, SSB has been added as a category for those of you who prefer not to pound brass.  So there’s truly something for everyone – no reason not to come out, join us and have a blast!

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