Today was the Adventure Radio Society annual Flight of the Bumblebees QRP event. I like to get out and play for a few hours in these; it’s a good excuse to get out and CW a little.
As usual I went to the city park in my neighborhood. I set up in the empty pavilion (no tables, sit on the floor with the bugs); I need to consider taking a picnic table by the softball field next time as nobody came to that end of the park. I also need to scout two riverfront parks that are an easy bike ride, to see if there are good options for mounting an antenna.
It was pushing 90F so I left the dog at home and brought a big bottle of Gatorade instead. Setup was uneventful, and I quickly found a mess of operators on top of each other at 14.060. Eventually things spread out and I made a few QSOs.
QSB was fairly fast, and I lost one QSO to QRM (someone started keying up almost on top of us). I worked Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri on 20m. Heard Tennessee, Massachusetts, and North Carolina on 40 but couldn’t work them. Heard a good call from Washington at the end but he disappeared immediately.
My wife and son dropped by to say hi, arriving just as I was in QSO. A tree branch fell shortly afterwards, fortunately not the one holding my EFHW.
After about 90 minutes operating I got tired of the bugs crawling all over me and my gear, so I packed up and walked home.
Thanks to the ARS for this event. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to scout out the riverfront parks before the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt next month.