Author Archive
Not quite Dayton
May 18th, 2013 | 
Author: But I’m willing to lay down a bet that they didn’t have one of THESE there! And no, it wasn’t for sale!
A large one to tack onto the shack door and a small one to slap on my tool box.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
You know it’s Dayton weekend when ……
the traffic on the e-mail reflectors goes down to practically nil.
But the advent of social media, especially Twitter means that we get news and views of new equipment all that much faster.
Jeff KE9V and others have been tweeting great photos of various things all day. TJ, W0EA has been putting video log reports on YouTube.
If you can’t be there, this is almost as good, thanks to the efforts of these fine gentlemen.
So far, I’ve seen great photos of TenTec’s new Rebel, which is a dual band rig featuring open source firmware for experimentation. For comprehensive details, visit “The QRPer” – the link is to the right.
Jeff KE9V also posted images of TenTec’s new auto tuner and some images of the new CrankIR portable antennas. Jeff also tweeted a mouthwatering photo of a lineup of Bengali keys.
With all the goodies available, maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t make it out to Dayton. I probably would have come home a much poorer man.
I am going to get up early and take a ride to the OMARC hamfest in Wall Township, NJ tomorrow morning. It’s definitely not Hamvention, but it will be fun, anyway. There’s not anything that I have a real pressing need for, but it’s always good to stock up on PL-259s, power connectors, and things like that. Who knows? There’s always the chance to find a hidden treasure.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Hello Dayton !!!!
Are any of my readers at FDIM and/or Hamvention?
Do you have anything you’d like to share? Comments, stories, news items?
Anybody not at Dayton that wants to relate a favorite memory or anything else?
Just for this weekend, I’ve taken off some of the restrictions on commenting, including allowing anonymous comments – but please, give your name and call sign! (I will delete offensive or spam comments.)
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
A nice surprise
was in the mail when I got home from work – an envelope from the ARRL. I had recently updated my LOTW log and sent in an application for a bunch of DXCC entities that I had worked. That application put me over the 150 DXCC entities worked mark, so the League sent me a little “DXCC 150” sticker for my basic certificate. I am surmising that you can get an endorsement stickers for multiples of 50 DXCC entities worked, ie 150, 200, 250, 300 and finally 320 and then Honor Roll, I guess.
This submission brought me up to 151 confirmed. I actually have 3 or 4 more in the log with stations that do not use LOTW, so I will have to get their confirmations the old fashioned way.
In addition to those 3 or 4 I just mentioned, you can add another, as I worked SX5KL in the Dodecanese Islands for another new DXCC entity worked. I actually worked him twice (yes, I know I’m a hog) once QRO and then about 90 minutes later QRP. The first time, he was about a 579 here – 90 minutes later, he was blasting through at 599+ and the pileup wasn’t very fierce. So I took the chance and got through the second time with 5 Watts and thanked him for listening to my QRP signal.
On an entirely different note, I’d like to take this opportunity to extend my best wishes for a very safe journey to all of you out there who are traveling toward FDIM and Hamvention. I hope the weather is great for you and that you all have a great time. I wish that I could be with you guys at FDIM, and finally meet face to face with so many of you that I have come to consider to be good friends.
To paraphrase W.C. Fields – “All things considered, I’d rather be in Dayton”.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Do you want a treat? Some “eye candy”? Some really beautiful workmanship and craftsmanship? Do you want to see what really excellent home brewing looks like?
http://aa7ee.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/the-na5n-desert-ratt-2-regen/
All I can say is “Wow, I wish I could build stuff that looks this good!”
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
As seen on TV
Well, actually, as seen on eBay. These are a few things I’ve seen on eBay that made me look twice (OK, maybe more than twice) :
Looking at other blogs
Two blogs that I would like to point out, just in case you haven’t visited them.
The first is the post by Tom K4SWL on the “QRPer” entitled “VA3OOG covers Bowie like no other”. After reading Tom’s account, I have seen this covered on some of the Internet news services. This is a really cool video and the fact that Commander Hadfield is a fellow Amateur Radio op is just over the top. Thanks, Tom, for picking up on that. This should put to rest the notion that we Hams are all just geeky nerds without an artistic bone in our bodies.
The second post appeared in John “K3WWP’s Diary”. Just as I got all pumped up for having successfully worked Z81X on Saturday, I read in John’s diary how he did it quite “easily” (a term he uses more than once) with QRP. For having succumbed to “the Dark Side” and for having used 85 Watts, I bow humbly before the QRP Master. I think I had better send in my QRP credentials to the QRP-ARCI, as I obviously lost the faith and did not fully give QRP the chance it deserved. 😉
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
