[CW] The 2025 FOBB has Come and Gone

[Jody - K3JZD]

The Annual Flight of the Bumblebees Event Happened
 
I think that a successful Outdoor QRP CW Event needs three key components:  Participants, Decent Weather, and Good Propagation.   One could argue that a great location is also needed.  But I think that if we have the other three, a marginal location will work well.
 
The FOBB certainly had good Participation: 268 Bumblebees signed up to operate portable.  They were in 53 different SPCs.  While I’m sure that many BBS had Decent Weather, I had severe thunderstorms forecasted for the whole four hours of the FOBB.  I reverted to using a safer location.  Then the expected storm went past to the South of me.  But Better Safe than Sorry.  However, from what I didn’t hear. I think that we all may have missed out on having Good Propagation.
 
In the WPA area, I found no one on 10m.  I only made one contact on 15m.  20m was only open to FL for me.   40m had really fast QSB, making QSOs really tough to finish.  I never heard anyone on 80m.  Although I listened a lot, I also called CQ a lot.  On all five bands.  After four hours of calling CQ, I only got ONE RBN Spot, and that was on 40m from just 154 Miles Away.  That’s not my idea of Good Propagation.
 
It will be interesting to read the comments on 3830scores.com to see if anyone had more ’normal’ Propagation.
 
I did work a number of Home Stations as well as a number of Bumblebees.  To all of you Home Stations, thanks for participating and keeping the Bumblebees awake.
 
Please submit your results on 3860scores.com.  Home Stations and Bumblebees both.   It is very easy to do.  No score is too low to publish.  I have a feeling that there will be a lot of low scores.  Breaking it out by band is optional, but it is nice to see where everyone made their QSOs  Enter Total QSOs per Band then Total Bumblebees per Band.    Bumblebees, be sure to comment on where you ended up operating and how well it worked for you.
 
Bumblebee photos may be emailed to fobb-pictures at ars-qrp.com.  No more than three per Bumblebee.  The photos received will be added to the ARS-QRP ’2025 Pictures’ web page as time permits.
 
To all who signed up to be Bumblebees, and to all who participated from home, thank you for making the annual Flight of the Bumblebees one of the premier Outdoor CW QRP events.   I’m already looking forward to the 2026 FOBB.
 
In the meantime, remember that there is a Monthly ARS Spartan Sprint.  Small “skinny” lightweight rigs will score the best.  But full-blown heavy “tubby” rigs dialed down to 5 watts are always welcome - (you can list your heavier rigs as 30 pounds - no need to weigh them - they get scored separately).
 
Now you can prepare for the 2025 Skeeter Hunt on August 17th.  This is another great outdoor QRP CW event.  Get your Skeeter Number now and plan to go out.   Go to:   https://w2lj.blogspot.com/p/njqrp-skeeter-hunt.html for details.
 
72,
Jody - K3JZD
ARS Trustee 

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