AmateurRadio.com

I just happened to have my tablet with me at work today. During lunch, I sat down and was looking through Google News. In the science section, I happened across an article that was posted from The Christian Science Monitor, written by Peter Spotts.

Peter Spotts?   W1PNS, Pete Spotts?  “From the Key of W1PNS” Pete Spotts – fellow blogger?

So I clicked the little hyperlink that also served as the byline, and sure enough. Besides all the very prestigious accomplishments that were listed in the brief bio, was a mention of an interest in Amateur Radio.

So it appears that our Pete is not only an accomplished Amateur Radio op and QRPer and CW fan, but also a very accomplished author and writer. Some of you might have known that, but I didn’t and I thought that this was the coolest.

Just goes to show, there’s a lot of really talented writers authoring some of these Amateur Radio blogs. I don’t count myself among their number, but there’s a lot of quality reading to be found in the links on the right side of this blog. Don’t deprive yourself of their wordsmithing.

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

I worked a new DXCC entity via QRP tonight, and it was a workout.  The funny thing is, the actual distance? Not so much.  This one was a Caribbean Island. And from the East Coast, the islands of the Caribbean are usually not very hard at all.

But conditions on 17 Meters tonight were soupy.  The QSB was rolling in and out.  My quarry was 599 one second and about 569 the next.  But I finally got FJ/K5WE in the log, and worked Saint Barhtelemy for the first time, using QRP power to boot.

If you look at the map, your first reaction is probably the same as mine. No big deal, right? I mean I’ve worked just about every single island down that way, many of them lots of times over.  We’re talking just a couple of thousand miles – really no big deal even for QRP.  But the pileup was busy and the QSX frequency kept moving.  Once I was able to establish the pattern, it didn’t take long.  But because of the QSB, I couldn’t hear a lot of the stations that FJ/K5WE was working, so it made establishing that pattern just a little bit tougher.

Like I said before, once I was actually able to hear a few of the stations and was able to figure out where FJ/K5WE was listening, I just tweaked my transmit frequency a touch higher and just kept calling until he worked his way up and just kind of fell into my lap.

Conditions are probably just “meh” – definitely not the greatest.  The sunspot number is down to under 100 and the A index is up there.  Not as bad as it was a few days ago, but still not great.  The few Russian stations that I was able to hear were all warbly as if the signals were experiencing polar flutter.  CO8LY was louder than all get out as was H70ORO.  I was surprised that FJ/K5WE wasn’t stronger, considering that Eduardo CO8LY was so strong.  Could be an antenna situation, not sure what K5WE is using down there on his tropical get away.

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

no ……. not the roller coaster at Coney Island – but a new kit from the Four States QRP Group, designed by Dave Cripes NM0S.

“The Four State QRP Group is pleased to announce the availability of the Cyclone 40 Transceiver.

This innovative and simple transceiver by NMØS is an enhanced version of Dave’s QRP ARCI’s 72 Part Challenge Design Contest entry in 2010. This is a complete kit, including the enclosure. The price is a buck a part plus shipping, $104 total, for domestic sales. Purchasing info and more details are on the kit’s home page here  http://www.4sqrp.com/cyclone.php  Here are some of the design features:

.  All through hole parts and easy assembly. NO SMD parts
.  Less than 100 components
.  Superhet receiver with very good sensitivity and selectivity
.  “Perfect” QSK very high speed and absolutely seamless operation.
.  VFO tunes the entire 125 kHZ CW segment of the 40M band at a comfortable
tuning rate.
.  Transmitter output is nominally 4W.  Those built so far are running ~ 4.6W
.  Frequency readout is included so you know where you are at all times.
.  A very attractive PCB enclosure is included, asy to assemble, looks great.
.  All parts are included, jacks, knobs, enclosure, transformers, everything.
This is a complete kit, including a black enclosure with white silkscreened
labels.

We hope you enjoy this high performance transceiver.”

Looks like the Four States Group have come up with another winner. And at the rate these guys are coming out with kits, we’re going to have to change that famous advertising slogan to: “Like a good neighbor …. Four States is there!”

On a side note, this weekend turned out to be even busier than I had first imagined.  Other than my accomplishments of Friday evening, and an 8 minute QSO with Bob W3BBO on 40 Meters on Saturday afternoon to give a listen to his new HF2V antenna, I was not able to squeeze in any on air time at all.  And that QSO with Bob was a bit disappointing as QSB was so deep that it made our QSO more of an adventure than either of us would have liked. Of course, now that I do have time this Sunday evening, we have thunderstorms off the horizon. So for safety’s sake, instead of getting on the air, I have disconnected the antennas.  The past four days have seen 90F (32C) plus temperatures, for the first real bonafide heatwave of 2013.  According to the weather folks, the coming storms will break the heatwave, but will also have the potential for a lot of lightning, heavy downpours and gusty winds.

Ahh summer, you gotta love it!

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

I am a big fan of the men and women who make up our Armed Forces.  They’ve gone above and beyond for our country so many times – from 1776 right up to the present day.  This weekend a really cool super special event is taking place to honor the men and women who have served in the respective navies of all of our countries and the ships that they have served on.

Thanks to the Battleship New Jersey Amateur Radio Station, this weekend has been organized and dedicated as Museum Ships Weekend.  106 restored military ships from around the world, which now serve as museums will be on the air this weekend.

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend in the United States. Originally the day was known as “Decoration Day”, when families would decorate the graves of their husbands, fathers, uncles, sons, brothers and nephews who died in battle.

Today the holiday weekend has become known as the “unofficial start of summer”, and like everything else has taken on more of a secular connotation.  Please take time from your busy weekend, in the midst of your cookout, party, ballgame, travel, or whatever to say a prayer and remember all those who made “the ultimate sacrifice”.

The regular bands were wall to wall WPX tonight.  I tried calling “CQ QRP” for a long time, near both the 20 and 40 Meter QRP watering holes (I even went up to the 7.122 MHz neighborhood for a bit), but netted no QRP sprinters. I just did not feel like taking part in WPX, so I migrated on over to 30 Meters.

Once there, I heard K9DTH, Ron in IL calling “CQ DE K9DTH QRP” near 10.106 MHz. I put out my call and Ron came back to me for what was the beginning of a really enjoyable QSO.

It turns out that Ron was using a K1 that he just got yesterday. 5 Watts to an off center fed dipole garnered Ron a 579 report from me. I received a 599 report in return.

The weather by Ron seemed to be about the same that was here – cloudy and cool. Not exactly the kind of weather you’d expect for the weekend touted as “the unofficial start of summer”. The high for the day here was 57F and there were on and off spritzes of rain all day.

Hopefully the weather will improve over the next few days.

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

Today was a strange day.  It was my last day at my current job at Goldman Sachs. I’ve been there just over six years, managing all the Technology Department inventory (servers and networking and storage equipment) for the offices of the NY/NJ Campus.  I was the manager of the department responsible for receiving, inventorying, warehousing, and prepping for install a multi-billion dollar cache of equipment. I was also responsible for shipping re-purposed equipment both domestically and internationally. Believe me, you haven’t lived until you’ve been tasked with shipping millions of dollars of used equipment to places like Seoul, Sao Paolo, and Kuala Lumpur, and you were told it had to arrived undamaged (even though the original shipping containers had since long been discarded) and it had to arrive “yesterday”. I can proudly attest that in the six years that I was there, my department oversaw that inventory with a shrinkage percentage (loss due to theft, damage or mis-shipping) of less than 0.001%.

Last summer, Goldman felt that they had too many vendors, so they decided to downsize the number that they have on board. Our contract was farmed out to another vendor, and while my team was RIF’ed (reduction in force) I stayed on for six months to basically teach my replacements how to do the job.  My actual employer is Pitney Bowes Management Services, and through them, I will be starting at a new, non-management (actually glad for that, for a change) position with IBM next week.

My co-workers, the other outside vendors (IPC, Scholes, EMC, CBRE) who also serve Goldman Sachs are the best.  Totally unexpected, I walked into work this morning to find this waiting for me on my desk.