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to the 2013/2014 Winter Fox Hunt season.

Tonight’s Foxes were Tom KV2X in Upstate NY,  and Jim N0UR in MN. I was wary about even hearing Tom. NY to NJ on 40 Meters at night is a stretch. Usually the band is way too long for that, and tonight was no exception. But I was hearing a lot of the Hounds that were chasing Tom, especially the ones located in Wisconsin. To me, that indicated that working Jim was a high probability.

Except that it appears that Jim didn’t make it to the dance tonight. I didn’t hear him, and it appears (according to the e-mails that I am seeing on the QFOX reflector) that no one else did, either. I sure hope that nothing befell Jim and that he’s OK.

So I ended up getting skunked right out of the gate. Not the best of outcomes. On the bright side, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” was pretty good tonight. You have to take your consolations where you can get them.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Happy Hallowe’en everybody.  Be safe and don’t forget to brush your teeth after all that candy.  What was your favorite Hallowe’en candy as a kid?  I loved getting Mary Janes and I also loved those caramel popcorn balls.

By the way, the name “Hallowe’en”, for those who don’t know, is actually a kind of contraction or shortening of the proper “All Hallows Eve”.  It is the vigil of the Catholic Holy Day of All Saints, or All Saints Day.  Just thought I’d throw that bit of trivia out there – impress your friends!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

It turns out that I discovered (after the fact) that my lunchtime session netted me three Toms and one Sam.

was quite packed today at lunchtime!  Which was absolutely, positively fantastic!  In fact, it was just a little difficult to find an empty frequency. So for a change, I listened for a CQ instead of calling, and I ended up having a nice QSO with F5LAW, Yann who lives near Lille, France. Yann was using his Kenwood TS-480SAT at the 5 Watt level.  He was pushing those 5 Watts into a 4 element Yagi antenna.  I gave Yann a 549 and he gave me a 559.  There was some QSB, but the entire QSO was solid copy!  And on his last exchange, Yann’s signal had peaked to a solid 589.

Yann had commented that he had survived Autumn storm Christian with no damage to his property, although some of the surrounding area was not as lucky.  That reminded me that it was just one year ago today that Hurricane Sandy did her number on New Jersey and the rest of the Mid-Atlantic coast:

Another Zombie Shuffle in the books and unfortunately, I missed most of it.  Operating hours were from 6:00 PM local to Midnight, local. First, I ended up working until 6:00 PM last night, instead of my normal 5:00 PM.  Then, on top of that, I had my local radio club meeting, which is always at 8:00 PM on the last Friday evening of the month.  That gave me an hour (roughly) to get home, get changed out of my work clothes, wolf down some dinner and then get to the meeting. Not good – Shuffle-wise.

I ended up getting on the air for the Shuffle at approximately 10:00 PM local.  By then you could tell that the cork had popped and the air let out of the balloon.  Activity was way down by then. 20 Meters was a lost cause on the East coast and 40 Meters was full of SSB QRM in the background.  80 Meters was a bit better than 40 Meters.

I ended up making 13 QSOs – I know, somehow that’s an appropriate number for the Zombie Shuffle, right? My score was a paltry 66,451 points.

Some visitors came by the while I was operating:

I didn’t mind the witch, the ghost or the Jack-O-Lantern so much, but that skeleton that insisted on “hanging around” my monitor made logging just a wee bit difficult!  At least I was able to lure the gremlins off my feedline by throwing some Snickers bars at them!

PS:  As of Monday morning, according to the results at:  http://www.zianet.com/qrp/ZOMBIE/zombie_006.htm, I have come in 17th in a field of 38 entries.  That’s a lot better than I thought!

72 es Boo de Larry W2LJ
BooRP – When you care to send the very least!

On the HF bands – 10 Meters was great again during lunchtime and I had no problem working Serbia, Italy, Belarus and Germany.  All the QSOs were great; but I had two in particular that were gems.

The first came at lunchtime on the 10 Meter band.  After working some DX, I decided to go to the watering hole of 28.060 MHz.  There I heard a weak CQ – DF7IS, Klaus in Kandel, Germany.  Klaus was running 5 Watts from his Icom IC-703 to a sloper.  I just love 2X QRP QSOs, especially 2X QRP DX QSOs!  We gave each other 559 signals and copy was solid, even though QSB was a little trying at times.  But the KX3 pass band tuning really helped me notch Klaus’s signal and I had great copy throughout.

The second gem came after I got home.  With dinner done and a Harold walk yet to come, I decided to hit the KX3 in my basement shack before the sun set.  10 Meters was a bit disappointing.  I heard a station from Guinea- Bissau, but the pileup was intense, and his signal was dropping like a lead balloon. 10 Meters did not seem as promising as last evening, so at that point I decided to switch over to 15 Meters.

At 21.020 MHz, I heard JA1NUT calling CQ.  I knew that this was Shin, because my bud W3BBO just worked him a few days ago, and I have heard of him many times before. Shin has the reputation for being a top notch CW operator, a sort of Amateur Radio celebrity, a Ham’s Ham.  Nobody was answering him, so I threw out my call.  Shin came back to me, and I gave him a 589.  His signal was warbly, like it was coming over the pole.  I’ve heard polar flutter before, and this sounded exactly like that.

Shin was running 500 Watts to a 4 element Yagi, and said he was trying to study the effects of the CME.  I knew immediately what he was talking about.  I learned about yesterday’s CME from Fr. Z’s blog of all places.  We exchanged other pleasantries and when it was my turn, I told him I was using an Elecraft KX3 to a vertical.

That’s when I got “KX3 THATS 5W RIGHT?”

I answered “YES 5W QRP TO A VERTICAL”

Shin came back again “AMAZING 5W UR 549 BUT SOLID CPY ALL THE WAY. ENJOY UR MIGHTY 5W LARRY”.

Wow – how cool is that?  Another walking on air moment! Amateur radio doesn’t get too much better than this.

Before I close for the night, I leave you with a video that was mentioned on the CW Ops e-mail reflector. Can you imagine having an antenna farm like this?  I have passed K3LR’s aluminum ranch several times on the way to and from Dayton. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a grand view like this!

72 de Larry W2LJ

Sorry for using the “Tony Soprano” vernacular, but that’s a question often asked by budding QRPers, or those looking to dip a toe into the pond, wondering what QRP signals sound like.

To answer the question truthfully – just about everywhere!  Anywhere we have frequency privileges given to us by the FCC, you will find QRPers.  But I know that’s not the spirit in which the question was asked. Because, yes Virginia, there are “special” frequencies where QRPers tend to congregate.  Not that there’s anything magical about them, they’re just frequencies that QRPers have come to know as “the watering holes”.  Just like animals from the African savanna meet and greet each other at the local pond, lake or stream, so QRPers tend to congregate at certain frequencies where the odds are good we will meet others of our species.

For CW, they are as follows:

160 Meters ~ 1.810 MHz
80 Meters ~ 3.560 MHz
40 Meters ~ 7.040 and 7.030 MHz
30 Meters ~ 10.106 MHz
20 Meters ~ 14.060 MHz
17 Meters ~ 18.080 MHz
15 Meters ~ 21.060 MHz
12 Meters ~ 24.906 MHz
10 Meters ~ 28.060 MHz

And for SSB:

160 Meters ~ 1.910 MHz
80 Meters ~ 3.985 MHz
40 Meters ~ 7.285 MHz
20 Meters ~ 14.285 MHz
17 Meters ~ 18.130 MHz
15 Meters ~ 21.385 MHz
12 Meters ~ 24.956 MHz
10 Meters ~ 28.885 MHz

In fact, the Long Island QRP Club has a very nice .pdf that you can print out and laminate and keep close by for easy reference. You can find it here.  You will notice their list also lists other frequencies as well, because there’s no hard and fast rule, written in stone.  And more than likely, you will hear QRPers clustering around these neighborhoods and not on these frequencies EXACTLY (although it often feels that way during a QRP contest!).

Now, when you get to those frequencies, you will undoubtedly hear some weak signals.  But if you get blasted by a 599++++ signal, don’t automatically assume that it’s a QRO station intruding.  It just may be that due to propagation and band conditions, that powerhouse signal you are hearing just might be generated by a transmitter putting out 5 Watts or less. Don’t assume that QRP always equals “weak”.  Just ain’t so!  If there’s one thing the QRP Fox hunts will teach you, is that QRP equals Low Power, not necessarily Weak Signal.  Yes, you will work your share of 339 and 559 stations, but if you get involved with QRP and hang with it long enough, you’ll hear your share of eardrum blasters, too.

Now to a different matter. I got an e-mail this morning from my good friend Bob W3BBO telling me about how good propagation was on 10 Meters Sunday afternoon.  I didn’t get the chance to get on yesterday, but you can sure as all heck guess where I went to during my lunchtime QRP session today! Yep, 10 Meters and it was hopping today, too.  I worked Denmark, Italy and Croatia with no problem at all – no repeats, practically armchair copy both ways – although QSB did rear its ugly head now and then. Oh man, I wish 10 Meters was like this everyday!  I am hoping this lasts for a couple of weeks (or months) – fingers crossed!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!