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It was a good day to be a “Giver of Points”.

I worked 44 stations in the QRP ARCI Spring QSO Party in various little spurts of operating time today.  I also handed out a few points to Polish stations in the Polish DX Contest.  And I grabbed a few other DX QSOs in order to keep up with the Club 72 QRP Marathon.

Regarding the QRP Marathon, in a field of about 33 stations, I am currently sitting in 9th place.  How long do you think that’s going to last?  But here’s a thought – to qualify, the two stations have to be separated by 500 kM.  So, if I get back into the QRP ARCI QSO Party again tomorrow using 1 Watt or perhaps QRPp, maybe I can score some good QRP Marathon points!

The high points today – working Jorge EA2LU on both 15 and 20 Meters, working HB9DAX on 20 Meters – both of these were QRP ARCI QSOs, so they were all 2X QRP.  And this evening, I worked W1JSB on 80 Meters.  You might know W1JSB better as Hans, Jim W1PID’s hiking buddy.  Hans was running 1.5 Watts and had a killer signal.  I also worked Ann K1QO up in New Hampshire – Ann is one of my Fox hunting buddies.  She is a superb op with a great fist and a great signal – it’s always great to hear her on the air.

I also scored two QSOs on 160 Meters – the W3EDP is still doing great in that regard.  Even though it’s only April, 160M seems to be in full Summer time mode – static crashes galore!

I’m beat – going to hit the hay for now!

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

I would encourage you all to take part in the Club72 QRP Marathon.  I am having a blast!

After work and dinner, I came down to the basement once again, to try to find some decent DX on the bands. Each day for the month of April (that’s how long the Marathon runs) my goal is to try to work one DX station on each of the bands. Tonight I was successful on 20, 17, 15 and 10 Meters, before the clock turned to 00:00 UTC.  All QSOs were made with the KX3 at 5 Watts

20 Meters – G6PZ in England – HF9V antenna
17 Meters – FG5FR in Guadeloupe – HF9V antenna
15 Meters – CM2YI in Cuba – EDZ antenna
10 Meters – ZL1ALZ in New Zealand – HF9V antenna

And you could have knocked me over with a feather with regards to ZL1ALZ.  I was tuning around 10 Meters just to see what I could hear.  John was quite audible about 579.  I figured he was running at least 100 Watts, possibly more.  I put out my call thinking that he would never hear my 5 Watts. Boy, was I wrong!  First shot, John came back to me!  John has one set of really fine business ears, that’s all I have to say!

According to QRZ, John is 9,088 miles away from me – so that makes this QSO 1,817.6 miles per Watt. And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, made my day!  10 Meters is so wonderful when it’s open and conditions are good. Oh, and by the way, this was my first time working New Zealand using QRP – a very good day, indeed!

The SSN is at 119, and the Solar Flux is 131.  The K Index is 1 and the A Index is 3 – that spells for good DX conditions with a low noise floor.  I sure hope these good conditions last over the weekend.

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

There! That sounds like the beginning of an Alcoholics Anonymous story, doesn’t it? I’ll explain my confession about being a Lid in just a little while.

Actually, the evening started well. After dinner, I was able to get on the radio for a bit and found some activity. My first goal was to work some QRP DX. Now that I have entered the Club 72 DX Marathon, I don’t want to be the only US station entered and show up dead last. To that end, I was successful and worked PP1CZ from Brazil on 17 Meters. To my delight, I found activity on 10 Meters also, and I was fortunate enough to get 6Y5KF from Jamaica and LU1FAM from Argentina into my log. I entered the PP1CZ and LU1FAM as official QSOs for the day.

Now, onto the 80 Meter QRP Foxhunts and my liddiness issues.  The first Fox was easy. I was easily able to find Jim K4AXF. Since Jim is located in Virginia, that’s a real easy shot from New Jersey on 80 Meters. Using the KX3’s Dual Watch feature, I had Jim’s pelt within 16 minutes from the beginning of the hunt.

The second Fox was Jerry N9AW. Normally, Jerry is an easy catch for me. Most Wisconsin and Minnesota Foxes are. Sometimes I think I have a pipeline to that part of the country. But this time his signal was weak, so I waited for a while before calling. Sure as anything, Jerry’s signal started improving. Again, using Dual Watch, I was able to figure out rather easily where he was listening. I began calling, but for some reason, I just wasn’t making it.

That’s when I discovered my error! I looked down and noticed that after I had worked K4AXF, I had turned the split function off. Horror of horrors! I had forgotten to turn the split function back on and I was calling N9AW on his calling frequency!  The “Prime No-No” of Foxhunting! If I could have dug a hole, I would have jumped in and closed it up after myself. I had probably angered a whole bunch of my brother and sister Hounds. Imaginary mutterings of “Lid” stung my ears. My deepest and sincerest apologies, my fellow Foxhunters. I have violated the sacred Foxhunters Code of Conduct. I will accept the 40 lashes with a wet noodle that I am entitled to.

After rectifying my mistake, though, I got Jerry in the log in very short order. In fact, it only took one call. Amazing how well things can go when you use the equipment properly.

My fellow Fox hunters are a kind and magnanimous group, so I doubt anyone will give me grief. But that won’t be necessary, as I will give myself plenty, and will do my best to make sure I don’t make the same mistake a second time.

Being a Lid is no fun.

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

I had a meeting to attend this evening, so I wasn’t able spend too much time behind the K3. But after I got home, I did run downstairs to fire up the rig. 30 Meters seemed active, so I camped out there for a bit.

In short order, I worked 9A6C in Croatia and CN8KD in Morocco. I nabbed both these stations with QRP power levels. I threw out my call a few times for A45XR in Oman. But by that point, he had been spotted on the Cluster and the pileup was enormous. Even though I have never worked Oman before, I did not up the power and jump into the fray. I was just too tired.

A little bit up the band, OK did hear ER1OO, Wlad in Moldova. I tried him a few times, but I kept on getting “W3L?”. It was obvious that he was having difficulty hearing me. Not wishing to torture Wlad any further, I pulled the Big Switch for the night.

No commitments for tomorrow night, except for the 80 Meter Fox hunt, which is the very last one for the 2012/2013 Winter season. Maybe I will hear some more good DX before the hunt begins.

I’ve done pretty well this season. I am going to miss the hunts, and will eagerly await the 20 Meter Summer season.

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

April marks the beginning of the Club 72 QRP Marathon. This is not a contest, but is a QRP DX operating activity. In a nutshell, it’s basically a friendly competition to see how you can do against other QRPers on a sort of a “miles per Watt” basis.

I had two QRP DX QSOs tonight. One with EA8BVP on 20 Meters, which was a 2X QRP QSO, and one with HR9/WQ7R on 10 Meters, where I was the lone QRP station.

QSOs are permitted on any HF band, 160 through 10 Meters. You can enter your best DX QSO per band, per day for the entire month of April. All the calculations are figured out for you. All you need to enter is the QSO date and time, the calls (yours and the station you worked), the Maidenhead locators for both stations, and the output power of both stations.

So far, out of 16 stations competing, I am in 11th place. I think it’s pretty obvious that the leaders need not fear me. So far, I am the only stateside station competing.

This is more than anything, a personal challenge to get on the air and work as much QRP DX as possible. I have no idea how I will end up, but it will be a fun and interesting journey.

You do not have to be a Club 72 member to participate, but membership is free, so why not look into it. You can simply Google “Club 72 QRP” and you will get the hyperlink to the Website. Normally, I would provide the link for you, but I am typing this on my Android tablet, and providing a link is not as simple a task as it would be were I at my desktop computer.

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

This appeared on their Facebook page today:

This is the EFT-10/20/40, which is a “Trail Friendly” version of their popular EF-10/20/40MKII antenna.  The one shown above comes in at a weight of 3.5 ounces.  The EF-10/20/40MKII, which I have, is already no burden to carry. But if you’re one of those guys who are into serious hiking (can you say Appalachian Trail?), where every quarter of an ounce makes a huge difference, then you may want to look into this baby.

I love my EF-10/20/40MKII.  I tuned it so that I don’t need to use the KX3’s autotuner. It didn’t take long and only needed a minor adjustment – it was THAT close right out of the package.  Using one of these is simplicity in itself – get one end up in a tree, hook the other end to the radio and go to town! And you make contacts – plenty of them.

The LNR Webpage can be found by clicking here.

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