Tuesday, November 03, 2009

The time change

is kicking my butt. The older I get, the more I notice it. What really gets to me is that now, as I get in my car for the drive home from work, the sun is already setting. When I pull up in front of the house, it's advanced darkness. The only bright thought is that in less than two months we will experience the shortest day of the year; and the days will begin getting longer again.

Well, maybe that's not the ONLY bright thought. The darkness does mean good night time band conditions on 80 and 40 Meters. And with the cold weather approaching, it's building time in earnest again. And I just remembered - tonight is 80M QRP Fox Hunt night!

I got the latest edition of QRP Quarterly today. As always, another good issue; and another fantastic job by my friend and fellow Flying Pig, Brian KB9BVN who is now the editor of QQ. I have published several amateur radio club newsletters and have done this blog and my own Webpage. Putting things down in printed form is not the easiest thing in the world to do. Brian makes it look easy, which is the hallmark of a good editor.

Looking at the results for the Hoot Owl Sprint this past Spring, I see that I came in at 7th place. Seeing my call sign closer to the top than bottom of the results always makes me smile. Whenever it's a major sprint, that's usually not the case - so I enjoy it when I can.

My friends Bob W3BBO and Neal W3CUV have both created several homebrew projects which I think are prime material for QQ articles. I'll have to keep bugging them about that! Not only are their ideas great; but I think they would be widely accepted a "good stuff" by the QRP community at large.

I got a note from Steve WGØAT today. He is going to be putting out a video soon of his experience last night working the ARS Spartan Sprint. He was at the base of his tower in the 38F chill working fellow QRPers with his IC-703 and his Brown Brothers paddles. To get a "preview" visit here: http://www.youtube.com/user/goathiker

That's it for now!

73 de Larry W2LJ

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