Tuesday, April 18, 2017

QRPTTF this weekend

This coming Saturday, the 2017 "Summer" Outdoor QRP Season begins with QRP To The Field. This event, put together and sponsored by Paul NA5N is one that I always look forward to. Sometimes, I even get to participate!

The extended weather forecast for the day is still somewhat ...... meh.

Overall, an overcast day with temperatures reaching a high of about 64F (18C).  The chances for showers increase as the afternoon rolls on.  The weather that day will be a big factor.

This year, the theme of the event is "A River Runs Through It".  The idea is to get out and operate from the nearby vicinity of a river, creek, stream, brook or what have you.  There are various possibilities around here ...... depending.  "Depending on what?", you may be asking.

Depending on ease of access, location, and name of said body of water.  The name of the estuary is part of the exchange.  I can go a bit farther from home to a nice park and have "Raritan" as part of the exchange; or I can stick close to home and have "Bound Brook" as part of the exchange. Obviously, the name of the river is a heckuva lot shorter than the name of the brook.

This might be one time that I may be sorely tempted to load a "canned" exchange into one of the KX3's memories, so I don't have to pound out "Bound Brook" all day long. I don't like doing that, as for me, that seems a bit too "automatic" for my tastes.  I know, I know ....... all the die hard contesters do that with their N1MM logging program and all they have to do is hit the F1 key all day long and make a ton of contacts to take the top places.  I'm old school.  I like making the exchange by myself and doing it the "old way". Of course, that's another reason that I rarely ever get beyond the middle of the contest pack.

The other factor, as mentioned before, is the weather. If it really looks like rain, I'll be tempted to stick closer to home.  If it's a gray day; but seems like it will most likely stay dry, I might be more inclined to go to the park farther away from home.

Hopefully, nothing will come out of Left Field (as it so often does) to make all the above a moot point - and for all intent and purpose ..... spoil the day.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!


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