SKCC 5123T----- FISTS 14979----- Flying Pigs 2331----- NAQCC 3610-----QRP ARCI 14176-----Polar Bear 257

Monday, September 29, 2014

The 2014 Peanut Power Sprint Goober Entry

The Peanut Power Sprint is sponsored by the North Georgia QRP Club. It is only two hours long and is concentrated fun. This is the second year for the sprint. I decided to enter the Goober category again. That is one watt or less portable.
The curious thing is at 1 watt I do better in this sprint than any other.

The weather was no fun. It was overcast with a light drizzle. My set up was the KX3 and a 40/20 meter fan dipole. At one watt it is not the time for a compromise antenna. I do have some advantage as I am in NVIS range for Georgia stations and there are a lot of them.

I had a total of 29 contacts 20 on 40 CW and 9 on 20 CW. 15 of the 20 on 40 CW were Georgia stations. The scoring was

27 nuts X 7 = 189
2 non nuts X 3 =6
QSO points = 195
Number of S/P/Cs = 9 (GA FL AL NC VA NY TX IL NJ)
Total score = 1755

The funny thing I had more contacts but a lower score than last year as I had fewer S/P/Cs.  Perhaps I should have spent more time on 20 meters to reap more SPCs.

The lesson to me is that one watt is plenty power. I only had one QSO that they struggled to copy me. It just helps that 100 stations are clamouring to work you.

Oh yes, it was nice to contact Larry W2LJ in NJ. His famous blog is http://w2lj.blogspot.com. Also fellow RaDAR operator Myron WV0H had 41 contacts as a Goober. I think he will take first place.

72s,

N4KGL

There were 3 31 foot poles and two 20 foot poles for the 40/20 fan dipole.

The center pole

The KX3 and straight key