Flight of the Bumblebees 2015. N4HAY. Jordan Lake NC

I really enjoyed the FOBB this year. Unlike last year the bands were in good shape and the wx was beautifully mild. I set up in roughly the same spot as last year only this time I deployed a far superior antenna system. My operation did not involve a major trek since I merely walked from the car park to a nearby picnic table. Oh well perhaps next year I will commit to more of an adventure hi.

The FOBB was held on Sunday afternoon from 1pm - 5pm Eastern time zone. Check out the following link for The Adventure Radio Society Flight of the Bumblebees details of the contest rules.

I set up at the Ebeneezer State Park at Jordan Lake North Carolina. This is about a 20minute drive from my QTH. I arrived on site at noon. First I had to build a 40m dipole. I was not well prepared for this contest! I then deployed my 20m and 40m dipoles. This turned out to be more of a challenge than I had judged. Thus I was only QRV an hour into the contest. However once my antennas were deployed they were very effective. My 40m dipole was beaming N-S and was up about 55 ft agl. My 20m dipole was beaming W-E and was up about 45ft. I used my trusty slingshot to launch the antennas to this height.

Rig was a K2 running on the internal battery. I ran a frequency and S&P about 50/50. Battery indicated voltage on the K2 was down to 11volts by the end of the contest.

Band conditions were good and I was able to work almost all stations that I heard. I had the feeling that I could have done better with a W-E facing 40m dipole. Lesson learnt here was to stick to a simple inverted-vee doublet center-fed with ladder line next time. Ideally deployed in such a way that I could change the orientation easily. I am sure I could have done better if I had been better prepared.

I also had problems with my pen that would not write properly! This brings to mind the reason why early astronauts used pencils on their early missions hi!

I was unable to copy my fellow Knights from the Knightlites QRP club Sirs Derek W4FI, JP AB4PP and Paul AA4XX indicating that the 40m band was long.

I look forward to next year's adventure with much anticipation. Many thanks to all stations who worked N4HAY. 72 de Dick.

Log of N4HAY. FOBB 2015. Jordan Lake

N4HAY. FOBB 2015. Suffering no pain!