Hi Jim,
Great RR! I'm glad it came together for you.
Actually, I wasn't *quite* 100% certain that homebrew beer was not part
of homebrew hamming culture...
Regarding the time frame, we did do a split session event last time but
some people were confused by it. Plus, the event announcements are kind
of a hassle to explain it.
I was a little concerned about the 9-hour length of event #3 but seems
like there may be enough ops to mostly fill it. That time frame covers
Saturday morning in the OC/AS regions and reasonable evening times for
West Coast NA and for EU.
I don't have a sense of the final two hours activity because I had to
bail out. If the time needs to be shortened I suppose it would come off
that end.
The KPH Crypto portion was a bit of serendipity, quickly implemented
into RG in the previous couple of days. Many thanks to Kevin K6TOP for
getting the Enigma code groups for RG. You can see the KPH results here:
/g/RandomGram/message/5973,
Drew
AF2Z
On 07/23/23 16:10, Jim KK0U wrote:
Back in the days of Usenet News Groups, those of us on alt.mountain-bike
used to post RRs -- Ride Reports -- any time we'd been out moutain
biking as a way to share the fun.
Here's my RG RR.
Having noticed that Drew did *not* take the bait on homebrewed beer for
Team Homebrew, I had to quickly scramble to get a homebrewed rig on the
air.? So, I pulled out my trusty old NorCal 20, which I built somewhere
around 1995, if memory serves.? I attached a 12V gel cell, plugged in my
old Bencher paddles and my Dipped In Pink headphones, and away I went!
I called and called on 20m, but my 4W just weren't making it.? I copied
several 5L groups from others, but something was amiss.? K0RO,
absolutely BOOMING into STL couldn't hear me.? Hmmm.? Checking the
output frequency against another rig, I discovered that I was a couple
of kHz off (the old rig needs a little alignment).? So, adjusting the
RIT, I netted the TX frequency and got on again.
Voila!? People could work me!? First on 20m was K0RO, then N6EV (we
worked a bunch of times), then some others and finally DF7TV.? The last
one was tough.? I did poke around on 20m on and off later (as it was
open), but there either weren't many takers or I wasn't getting out.
Took a break around 2330Z as we had friends coming over for a BBQ.? Got
back on the air around 0100Z.? Since my NN1G 40-40 rig is still laying
in pieces on my bench (refitting the MJF CW filter), I recruited my KX3
at 5W for 40 and 80m.
Forty was really the money band, and worked plenty of ops plenty of
times on that band.? Only had two Qs on 80m (both with Tony, KB9LLD), so
that was a bit of bust.? I hung around 40m, and tried not to work
everyone time after time, but did get plenty of multiple Qs with folks
(the winner on this end was N6EV).
I decided to call CQ until the very end, and literally in the last
minute was called by KB4QQJ -- we got the exchange completed just as the
bell rang!
I have to hand to the ops that used straight keys or bugs for the
entirety -- I used paddles and the built-in keyers in my rigs, but sent
everything by hand.? I can't imagine doing that on a straight key, and
the bug operators were top notch!
As for logging, I used Fast Log Entry, which seemed like the easiest
thing to deploy.? I see now that someone has a plugin for N1MM+, but I
can't see the point in that.? A text file would work, too, but I wanted
something to at least copy the time automagically for me.
So yes, this was a lot of fun, and the other folks on Team Homebrew also
enjoyed it.? We're drumming up interest at the St. Louis QRP Society for
this, as it's not your average contest, and it's a good test of one's
copy and sending skills.
The only suggestion I would have for future events is maybe break it up
into two 3-hour sprints.? One favoring NA/EU/AS (2100-2359Z), the other
favoring AS/EU/NA (0600-1000Z), or something like that.
Thanks again for an enjoyable event!
73, Jim KK0U
Drew AF2Z