06/30/2009 | K2PUT & K2QS I loved operating this year! I worked in cw exclusively and had a blast using my vintage original 1913 Vibroplex bug & varispeed! I started out slow and eventually ended up copying and sending code faster than I have ever done before on the air! Unfortunately I wasn't able to operate during the first 8 hours due to a wedding that I had to go to earlier in the day. I volunteered my call sign KC2BNX for use at a GOTA station so no mobile contacts while en-route to and from the wedding!

My father(KC2QFS) and I visited two club sites for fd '09 - one was Pearl and the other was the QSY Society. I worked 6m, 40m, and 160m from about 10 pm Saturday up until about 2:30 am Sunday morning at Pearl. We went home and took a 4 hour "nap" and left, this time with both parents to the QSY site around 6 am and arrived around 7:20 am. From then on I worked 40m using JB's(WA2WMJ) setup almost straight through to the end while my parents worked the GOTA station on & off with other club members - thanks Nick, N2QZ & Eric, N2RRA!

I managed to get a few fellow inactive cw ops on the air and logged for them during most of their contacts. It was very rewarding to see the look on their faces when they broke the ice contacting stations while enjoying amateur radio in their own way. Thank you to all who worked K2PUT and K2QS and for sticking with me & having the patience copying my bug fist! I'm looking forward to working more ops before grad school starts up again this fall!

TU ES 73 E E

- Mike
KC2BNX -- KC2BNX