Here’s what’s happening - in 2021, two operators ( N5HA, Kenneth Bailey & W9AV, Clint Sprott ) managed to work at least 1 park every UTC day. My goal for 2022 is to do the same, and to try and write a short post about the day’s first contact. If you want to play along, feel free - I’ll be sharing updates about it during the monthly POTA updates that I prepare for the various ham radio media outlets.
now that you’re in the know about the Baily-Sprott Challenge, here’s the scoop for today:
Bailey-Sprott Challenge Update
There was lots of talk of strange propogation today on the various internets where hams hangs out. I didn’t get a ton of radio time today , but I can share colloquially that what I would consider the usual ‘easy contacts’ of 40 meters, out a couple hundred miles, just didn’t seem to be there today. I did however, manage to work a couple stations early in the day, by essentially being patient and waiting through some local noise. The first one of those that I managed to snag was Chris, KN4IUV who was at K-3842.
An interesting take away today, that is really another ‘learning by doing’ thing - because I have this goal of working a park every day, I’m finding myself really starting to -use- some of the knobs on the radio other than the big one. I’ve always fiddled with the various things, but I’m finding that having a goal is really motivating me to try and work for a contact that I otherwise might have just spun past and said “eh, its not very strong I’ll skip it.” With proper motivation, I’m actaully finding myself tweaking around the receive bandwitch, shift, RF gain, and even fiddling with the mixer, to try and find and peak on the frequency of the voice for the op I’m chasing. It’s definatly good practice at using some of the features and capability I have, that I don’t generally mess with much. In fact, I’m twisting all those same knobs as a write this, trying to get day 18 in the bag early :-)