Santa Clause on the Radio

Santa Clause should be moving full speed now with the holiday season fast approaching. Two years ago, I found him testing his wings and the new rig on a pre-flight in the skies over Finland. I'll be listening closely this year for another broadcast. I hope you will be able to make a contact too. 

Special Event from Cedar Lakes in WV

Steve Ashcraft (KC4URI) met me yesterday at the Cedar Lakes Conference near Ripley WV. We operated a NAQCC Special  Event Station and worked fourteen stations between 10:30 am and 1 pm. I used an end fed PAR antenna up about 40 feet and my Icom 703 during the event.

It was comforting to hear and work stations from the South of Georgia and North to New Brunswick in Canada. Thirteen of the fourteen stations I worked were NAQCC members and I talked the lone station in Indiana into joining our group. I considered it a great day!

I found our club member F6HKA, who lives in France, talking to a couple of QRP hikers here in the United States. I patiently waited for the end of his QSO and threw out my call sign. He came back to me, on the first attempt, and gave me a 569 report.

We had a very nice QSO about operating from a picnic table here in West Virginia. I knew he was a club member but he proudly informed me of his membership in the NAQCC Club. We talked about the beautiful day with temperatures near 24 (C) and the joy of operating QRP from a picnic table. I needed to return to Charleston and he needed to eat dinner so we ended the QSO and wished each other a great evening.

This little critter seems to enjoy listening to CW. Time after time again, it walked across the radio or my hands as I sent CW.

Stations worked yesterday were: KI4KXO KD2JC KA0ENU N2CX W8GDP K3JZD N2JJF K1AVE WA4SPJ AJ4SB KM3D W9PP VE1MAM F6HKA