As a new member of the Straight Key Century Club, I have tried my hand at the Weekend Sprints they sponsor. Most of the time, due to church activities and antenna restrictions, I’m not able to operate with the exception of the last few hours of the event. May’s theme was the “new antenna” and we were encouraged to try a new antenna and got extra points. I had a 154 foot long wire I wanted to try as a random longwire antenna. It was a special bronze/copper braided wire like we used in the military at times. When I took it out to the site and started unwinding it, it sprang into a tangled mess and it took me 90 minutes to untangle. Then my slingshot antenna launcher failed to work properly so I went to plan B… using my 20 foot Jackite pole to elevate the longwire antenna. But the weight of the antenna was too much for the fiberglass pole to handle so I lost more time repacking my station and returning home to get another antenna to use. YIKES! Time’s a wastin’.

With a 40 meter dipole fed with twinlead hastily thrown together, I tried again and managed 2 whole qso’s with my humble station. The event manager and his team had mercy on me and sent me this nice award for my efforts! I love it when a plan comes together!

My first ham radio award as K4UPG