Last night was the annual Zombie Shuffle, one of my favorite QRP contests. The QRP zombies weren’t too scary, but the band conditions were frightful.
For the past two years, the Zombie Shuffle coincided with our last camping trip of the year. Since I put my little trailer into hibernation after last week’s trip, I had to operate from home using my meager rainspout antenna.
I tried 20M during daylight hours, but I never heard a single zombie there. The Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) showed I was getting out but not very well. I bagged 4 zombies on 40M, but that was a struggle at times. My noise level was high, signals were weak, and there was a lot of fading. One of those zombies was VE3MGY who was one of the bonus stations with this year’s Titanic theme—MGY was the Titanic’s callsign. I also ran into fellow Polar Bear QRPer, Mike VE3WMB.
Signals were a bit stronger on 80M and I picked up 5 zombies there. For some reason, my rainspout gets out well on that band. Towards the end, though, my KX3 had some issues keeping a match on 80M. I guess that means I need to do some maintenance on the rainspout antenna.
My QRP buddy, Ed WA3WSJ, used the Boschveldt QRP Club callsign (W3BQC) as an MGY bonus station. I was tracking him on RBN but I never heard him. However, I did work a another Boschveldt QRP friend, Glen NK1N. I also ran into an old QRP friend, KA3D. It was great to hear Dan again.
So, with a total of 9 zombies, I didn’t have my best year, but it sure wasn’t my worst. I was only 2 off from last year’s effort in the QRP camper.
Many thanks to Paul NA5N and Jan NØQT for another fun contest.
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 