I operated in the Peanut Power Sprint for the first time today. This sprint is sponsored by the good folks of the North Georgia QRP Club. It’s a short, two-hour sprint, which works nicely with my short attention span.
I headed out to a nearby park to operate portable. Since the Peanut Power Sprint is a short contest and I was pressed for time anyway, I kept my setup simple. I used the same setup I have used for some recent NPOTA activations. I operated from my truck with a 29.5-foot vertical wire supported by a 31-foot Jackite pole on my bike rack. I fed the vertical wire with a 9:1 unun and 18 feet of coax. I set up my KX3 on the passenger seat of my truck.
Before the sprint started, I worked AB7RW who was doing an NPOTA activation from the Curecanti National Recreation Area (RC06) in Colorado. So, it looked like the antenna was working.
Propagation on 20 meters was a little flakey and 40 meters was plagued by wall-to-wall RTTY contest stations. Despite the challenges, I ended up with 19 contacts in the log. Even though my operating location was along the Schuylkill River and I didn’t have the benefit of altitude, I managed to work the west coast (WA). I also worked N8XX and WD8RIF who were both operating from the North Country National Scenic Trail (TR04). My last contact was with Greg N4KGL who was operating pedestrian-mobile from Florida.
I’m glad I decided to operate in this year’s Peanut Power Sprint. It was a fun way to spend a beautiful Fall afternoon.
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 