Flight Of The Bumble Bees 2016

The Adventure Radio Society Flight of the Bumblebees is a four-hour event held annually on the last Sunday of July. It is open to all radio amateurs. The Bumble Bees are portable stations operating QRP (5 watts or less) and using CW mode (Morse Code).

This year like 2015 I went to St. Andrew State Park near Panama City, Florida. My BB number was 62. I got my favorite picnic table right on the Grand Lagoon. I put a Chameleon Hybrid base and the whip plus extension up right on shore. We will take any help we can get from the saltwater effect for verticals. Suzy was my buddy like last year.

Elecraft KX2

I had almost exactly the same number of contacts as last year. 38 total of which 32 were on 20 and 6 on 40 meters. 25 were fellow Bumble Bees. This was a hunt and pounce effort for the most part. I did work WB4BLX, K4GXV and the club W4RYZ (Bob WB8PAF operating) who were local. I also worked Jim K4LIX was local and also a Bumble Bee.



This year I used the new KX2 instead of the KX3. The nice thing is the KX2 internal battery lasted for the whole four hour event. This eliminates the external battery. This event shows what can happen when the QRP ops show up. The conditions were not as good as last year due to the waning solar cycle. I didn't hear anything on 15 or 10 meters. Even with the oppressive heat and humidity, this is still a fun event.

Suzy