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in the 20 Meter Fox hunt tonight.

I worked Dave AB9CA first.  His signal strength was a bit different tonight as he is not home in Alabama, but is vacationing in Wisconsin.  Completing Fox duty while on vacation – now THAT’S dedication!

Paul AA4XX was another matter.  I could barely hear him when I did finally find him.  The K3’s APF (Audio Peak Filter) made all the difference in the world.  At ESP levels when I first heard him, turning on the APF feature insured that when I finally worked him, I was able to hear him answer me back!  It took a barely audible signal and boosted it to a 449 to my poor old ears.

Thanks Elecraft, for a real neat (and usable) feature!

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

posting Jim W1PID’s accounts of his portable ops on my blog.

http://www.w1pid.com/hike/hike.html

This is a report on his latest trip to Knox Mountain and the DX he worked while there.

I am sorry for not being original and I certainly don’t mean to steal Jim’s thunder in any way.  He posts these to QRP-L, but these are always so good, they’re worth sharing with those of you who might not be subscribers to QRP-L.

These little reports that Jim posts are a huge inspiration to me; and I hope they serve that purpose for you too.  You don’t need to be stuck in your “normal” shack all day in order to make contacts or work distant countries.  You know it as well as I do – a radio, a battery, a key and some wire is all you need for a passport to the rest of the globe.

Thanks Jim, for sharing again!  These keep me wanting to do the same. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

“There’s nothing better than a QRP radio, some wire and the great outdoors!”

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

Turned on the radio to around 14.060 MHz, hoping to hear some QRPers, only to hear “CQ NA”.  I didn’t remember that the North American QSO Party was this weekend.  Regular readers of this blog know that except for short QRP Sprints, W2LJ is not big into contests.  I have nothing against them; just can’t force my butt into a chair for a long enough period of time to make it interesting for myself.

So instead of kvetching, I pushed the band button on the K3 and took ‘er up the road to 17 Meters.  I love 17 Meters! When the band is open there is usually all kinds of good DX.  Tonight was no different – and since 17 Meters is a WARC band – no contesting!

So, as is my usual routine, I started at the bottom of the band at 18.068 MHz and slowly twiddled the VFO dial upward.  I came to a stop at around 18.074 MHz. D3AA calling “CQ UP” – not too many takers, a small pile up building, but still not bad yet.

Where the heck is D3AA?  I quickly plop D3AA in to AC Log.  Angola.  Hot dog – Angola is a new one!  Never worked Angola – QRP or QRO (100 Watts) before.

I throw my call out a couple of times; but no dice.  D3AA is up and down. One time he calls, he’s 599 – next time, 569. So I’m thinking to myself that he’s going to fade and that I missed the best propagation (as usual).  But no!  As time goes along, he’s actually getting louder; but the pile up is also growing, commensurately.  The K3 makes it pretty easy to figure out where he’s listening as he stated he was listening up.  So I go to where I heard the last few stations he worked and figured out that for the time being, he was staying put and not drifting up after each contact.

Patience and persistence are a big part of QRP and this time was no different.  I stayed at it for about 15 minutes and finally, I interjected “W2LJ” at just the right moment and was rewarded with “W2LJ 599 TU”, to which I responded in return, of course.

Coolest of the cool beans!  A new African country – a new country via QRP (or ANY power level for that matter).  I opened up Chrome on my netbook and figured I would post this to QRPSPOTS. Most of the time I figure that if I was able to work a station with my simple antennas, then a lot of other QRPers should be able to, also.  I posted anyway, but saw that I was beat to the punch by my good bud, John AE5X – Amateur Radio op, DXer and QRPer and photographer extraordinaire

Anyway, that’s the reason for “The Happy Dance” tonight.

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

Courtesy of my good friend George N2JNZ, who sent it along with his Skeeter number request e-mail:

Daunting, isn’t it?  Just goes to show that there were some superb ops up there on CY9M!

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

is the new book out by Don Keith N4KC.  If you haven’t read about it on his blog, then I am going to tell you about it here.

The name of the book is “Riding the Shortwaves: Exploring the Magic of Amateur Radio“

I purchased it the other day, and this book is fantastic, IMHO!

If you have someone that you know is thinking of becoming a Ham, has inclinations about becoming a Ham, or is actively studying to become a Ham, or recently became a Ham – direct them to this book!  Don is an accomplished, published author –  and this book showcases his writing skill.

It is written in friendly, plain language, with just the right amount of Ham jargon infused (fully explained) that is perfect for those who are getting into or just got into the hobby.  And the primary focus of this book is getting on the HF bands.  How many new Hams do you know that get their license and then just seem to stagnate on VHF/UHF, get bored and leave the hobby?

That situation vexed Don N4KC also, and this is his effort to solve that problem.  The first thing he does (and does it really well!) is to inform the prospective or new Ham just how great operating on the HF bands is.  He puts “The Magic” that is HF into words better than I’ve ever read before.  Then he builds upon that by covering how to set up your station, how to choose and set up an antenna, which are just a few of the topics covered in this book. I have to tell you, that in all honesty, I wish this book was out 34 years ago when I first got started.

This book has all the stuff that we OT HF operators learned the hard way.  Now it’s written down in a book that is a delightful and very entertaining read.  Hey, there’s even stuff in here that’s a good review for us OT’s, too!  Learning and having fun while doing it – what could be better than that?

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

Rem K6BBQ sent me an e-mail letting me know about Ham Radio T-shirts available on Cafe Press.  Right now, through August 5th (Pacific Time) Cafe Press is running a 50% off sale. All you have to do is enter the Promo Code “BIYEARLY” (no quotes) when you check out.  Look at some of the cool shirts they offer:

If you like Ham Radio t-shirts (like I do!), just go on over to Cafe Press and search on “Amateur Radio” – there are tons of great designs on there!

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