Flight of the Bumble Bees 2014 Report

This annual QRP event usually fits in with a trip to my Parents in Dothan, Alabama. It also is a opportunity to fly with Tom WD0HBR who lives in Dothan. We do a flight to Solomon park about four blocks from my Parent's house. This year I wanted to make up for past mistakes of packing too much gear. I chose my most minimal rig the Wilderness SST-20 paired with the Hendricks SOTA Tuner feeding a half wave for 20 meters. All this fit in an over the shoulder pack but I had room left over, so I also packed the YouKits HB-1B. My new Bioenno 3 ah LiFePO4 battery worked well for a minimal pack up.

There was a happy buzz on 20 meters with /BB stations. I worked 6 using the SST-20 and six more with the HB-1B. That was a dozen over the course of three hours which is my four contacts per hour hunt and pounce rate. The End Fed Half Wave did an nice job. It was curious that seven of the twelve contacts were in Colorado. I was pleased to work Shel KF0UR who is on the QRPWorks team that makes the HCT. I met him in person at the last Orlando Hamcation. Likewise, it was great to work Myron WV0H who is a member of the Google+ RaDAR community.

The weather was hot but comfortable in our shady spot. There were no showers to thwart us this year. This is a excellent QRP Portable event that I will look forward to every year.