AmateurRadio.com

This weekend was a bit out of the ordinary for me. I actually got to spend some time behind the radio, Friday, Saturday and Sunday! This was probably due to the fact that I got our weekly grocery shopping done Thursday night in anticipation of the Nor’Easter that visited us on Friday. Plus the fact that I pretty much stayed put and did not venture out much.

In addition to working just a tiny bit of DX, I also engaged in several nice rag chews this weekend, of which a couple were 2X QRP. I didn’t work any new countries, but did get Senegal, Nicaragua, and Providencia Island among others in the log.

15 Meters seemed to be open on Saturday and a for a little bit on Sunday. I really didn’t hear much of anything on 12 Meters and didn’t hear anything on 10 Meters, either. 17 and 20 Meters were their normal selves.

I also played with both rigs this weekend, the K3 and the KX3.  I am noticing that I am running into more K3s on the air than I have in the past.

I have so many things that I want to accomplish. I need to finish that last 10% of organizing the shack. I would like to hook up the K3 and do some experimenting with WSPR. I’d also like to get started on building my Pig Rig.

So much to do, so little time!

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

I am not a Weatherman.

It was snowing lightly, all day yesterday.  Actually, alternating continuously between snow, sleet and freezing rain.  I left work for home and even had a somewhat easy commute.  Everyone got scared by the ominous Nor’Easter forecast and must have left work early.  By the time I left for home, the roads had a mere shadow of the normal drive time volume of traffic. Interstate 287 was sloppy and local roads were worse as there was an accumulation of probably just under an inch of snow, sleet and ice. 4 Wheel drive came in handy on the local back roads.

After dinner, I decided to go outside and clear the cars and the driveway, the back deck and the front walk and porch.  It was heavy, slushy accumulated precipitation, but by the time I had finished nothing was falling from the sky. I thought to myself that maybe once again, the weather people had gotten it wrong.  Sometimes, it seems they tend to forecast the sensational, “worst case” event.  I thought that this might have been another one of those times.  So after a session on 30 Meters last night (see my previous post), I checked out the weather radar one last time for the night.  Our portion of New Jersey was at the extreme lower part of the storm. It appeared that within a short amount of time, all would be past us and the little accumulation we had gotten “was all she wrote”.  I went to bed, smug, snug and happy.

The one thing I didn’t take into consideration – counter clockwise rotation.

During the night, while I laid happily snoozing away, the storm did indeed move in a NorthEasterly direction. But at the same time, it was spinning in a counter clockwise direction, bringing around another bout of snow. So this is what I woke up to:

Six inches of fluffy, white powdery snow.

I don’t know if it’s like this for everybody; or if it’s just me.

The “Freeze Your Buns Off” contest was held last Saturday.  And no, I did not get a chance to operate.  Well, actually I did try. I went out at about 3:00 PM local time and set up the portable station in the back of the Jeep in the driveway.  KX3 to Buddistick mounted on the magmount of the car, 7 Ah SLA battery that had been charged via solar panel.

I turned on the KX3 only to find 20 Meters had S9 noise all across the band.  That, and the fact that it was 30F with a wind chill caused me to just say “Nuts!” and forget about it for 2013.

So, instead I live vicariously through K6BBQ:

Thanks, Rem!

Oh, and by the way ……. they say it’s a sign of good mental health when you can laugh and joke about yourself.  Take a gander at this (fake) news story about QRPers from The NoiseBlankers Website. Hopefully, it will make you smile – just a little bit!

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

I picked up the office chair that I had ordered from Staples on Saturday. It is their Lockridge Manager’s chair which is currently on special. It normally goes for $89.99, but is $50.00 off for an online price of $39.99.

It is definitely filling the bill. I spent 90 minutes behind the key tonight hunting Foxes on 40 Meters. Not only did I bag two pelts, but when I got out of the chair to head upstairs, my back and hips gave nary a whimper. This sure is a far cry from that folding metal chair that I was using. When I would get out of that thing, I felt like I was ready for either a walker or a chiropractor.

Band conditions were so-so. Both Foxes were loud for a good portion of the hunt, but at times the QSB was tough to deal with.  I am also pretty sure both Foxes had high local QRN to deal with as each one was asking for multiple repeats of exchange information. Once again, persistence paid off and both Foxes were worked. Hats off to Paul K4FB and TJ W0EA.

I am going to be placing an order in the next few days with either Mouser or Jameco for some parts.  There are plans in the latest Sprat for a rather simple 40 Meter WSPR transmitter. I don’t plan to get too involved with the mode, but it looks like a rather easy build, and I am itching to really homebrew something.

I haven’t built anything in a while that wasn’t pre-kitted. I enjoy the process of buying and gathering the parts. From the looks of the article, this seems to be a project that lends itself well to perf board construction. I already have an ample supply of NE612s, so this will be a purchase of various needed resistors and capacitors, depending on whatever is not already in my junk box.

The final cost should be way under what I have seen some kit prices going for.

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

Link sent to me courtesy of my good friend, Marv K2VHW:

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