Working the world on a battery!
The Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club is organizing an event called the Lantern Battery Challenge. Buy a set of batteries from the club for $15 and see how many QSOs you can squeeze out of them. The 2011 contest dates were set as 20 October 2011 through 1 March 2012.
I procrastinated and didn't get started until the North American QSO Party (NAQP) CW held 14 January. Then the fun began! I worked 150 Qs first with one of my Elecraft K2s on 10m and 15m for 18 total QSOs, then another 132 QSOs on 20m, 40m, and 80m using my Elecraft KX1. Who knew that little KX1 would be a nice contesting radio--but it was! And, at 2 watts out few complained about my signal strength.
Band QSOs Mults
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160:
80: 34 22
40: 49 25
20: 49 23
15: 7 6
10: 11 6
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Total: 150 82 Total Score = 12,300
A rats nest of wires. A WinKeyer (far left) is connected to a netbook running N1MM. That is plugged into the KX1 key/paddle input. Paddles are Vibroplex Code Warrior, Jr. (I should have brought my nice Begali paddles upstairs for this!)
That's the lantern battery along with a small PowerPole distribution box and a power/ammeter that shows me how much juice I've pulled out of the battery. The KX1 was showing between 10-30mA on receive.