Wednesday, July 06, 2011

All righty, then!

Tomorrow evening from 9:00 to 10:30 PM EDT, begins the 20 Meter Summer QRP Foxhunt season for 2011.  And although I did not volunteer for Fox duty this year (the young whipper snappers need to get THEIR feet wet!) I will be participating, as a Hound as always!

That's ONE smart Fox, Dude!

The Foxes for tomorrow night's hunts are Jay KT5E in Colorado and Jim K9JWV in Utah.  Off the top of my head, I'd think that I stand a decent chance to nab two pelts. After all, 20 Meters ...... Utah and Colorado from New Jersey ...... right?  Well, one thing I have learned from many years of Fox hunting is  - throw common sense and general rules of thumb right out the old window!  When you think it's going to be easy, it ends up being darned near impossible and visa-versa!  But the one thing it always is, is FUN !!!

Now, what's that you're telling me?  You're afraid to give it a shot?  You fear your code speed is not up to snuff?  Fear not, gentle reader!  The exchange is standard ..... RST, state, name, power out.  So you know right off the bat, for instance, that if you call Jay and he hears you and calls you back, that you'll hear something like this "TU W2LJ 559 CO Jay 5W" In turn all you have to do is send back pretty much the same thing just giving his RST (real RST, please - not the auto 559 if he's better or worse than that!), your state, your name, and your power out.  Even if you're not up to the standard Foxhunt speed of 20 WPM, all you have to do is listen for your own callsign.  And any Fox worth his pelt will QRS (slow down) for you, if he hears you send to him at a slower speed.

Plus I'll let you in on a dirty little secret !!!! Psst ..... make sure no one is around to overhear us ..... if you call the Fox at a code speed that's slower than the rest of the Hounds, you might just stick out from the pack and be heard earlier than the others !!!  You just might have a built in advantage!  Just telling you what I noticed from years of Fox duty.  When you have 20 Hounds calling you all at the same time - out of the ordinary stands out!  But hey ... you didn't get that from me - OK? (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

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

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