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This QRP thing is just like fishing. Yesterday, it was like I had magic bait. Every time I cast my call out upon the waters, I had a hit.  Every time I called a station, I had a hit.

Today was the antithesis of yesterday.  No one answered my CQs and also wasn’t able to raise anyone that I called.  Reverse Beacon Network said I was getting out just fine …. no strikes, though.  The difference between yesterday on today?  Nothing except that yesterday was Sunday and today is Monday.

As much as we would like it to be, this Amateur Radio thing is not an exact science.  I think tomorrow I will head out somewhere nature like and will try the EFHW.  I had good luck with that “fishing pole” last year.

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

Posted by Todd., W7TAO on the KX3 e-mail reflector.  Todd, like Steve WG0AT is also quite the portable ops devotee. He also has pack goats that he brings along on his adventures; but not this time.

The sheer beauty of this SOTA site is magnificent.  I think you will agree

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

I participated in the QRP-ARCI Summer Homebrew Sprint for only a very little this afternoon.  But thankfully, quality is not defined by quantity, so the QSOs, while few in number were great in fun.

I began by operating on 20 Meters.  The Buddistick was set up with two 11 inch arms, the coil and the super long whip atop the Jeep on the magmount.  With my coil tapped in the normal 20 Meter spot that I am accustomed to, the Autek analyser displayed an SWR of 1.4:1.  I hit the ATU button anyway, for a very short “Brrrrp” and got a 1:1 match.

While on 20 Meters, as I was calling “CQ QRP” for a bit, and much to my surprise I was answered by Fred G4HOM out of Birmingham, England.  He was much louder than the stateside stations that I was working; so I immediately thought “tower and beam”. Nope!  Fred was using his K2 at 10 Watts to a simple wire – propagation, being what it was, favored a QSO between Lake George and Birmingham.  Signal reports were good both ways.

Shortly thereafter, I switched to 40 Meters by undoing the tap from the coil to take advantage of the entire Buddistick coil, and I added two more 11 inch arms.  After a bit of a scare that I won’t go into here (due to my own stupidity), the KX3 had matched the Buddistick to 1.4:1 on 40 Meters. I had several QSOs down around 7.030 MHz, including one with my very good friend Bob, W3BBO.  This was our first QSO while I have been at Lake George.  He had a good 579 signal and gave me a good report as well.

The Buddistick on the magmount, using the vehicle as a ground plane is great combination.  Thanks to W3BBO for getting me to try that.  It works so well that I may just forego using the EFHW wires unless I am on the hiking trail later this week.

Oh, I don’t remember if I mentioned this; but I decided to leave the Lead Acid battery home.  I am going strictly with the Lithium Ion this week.  It held up very well this afternoon.  I never dropped from 5 Watts output throughout the couple of hours of operating time this afternoon, including a few prolonged “CQ QRP” sessions.  I think “The Little Blue Guy” will be quite adequate for my needs.

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

Well, this afternoon and tonight. It starts at 4:00 PM Eastern and lasts until 8:00 PM. And this will be the first big test of the KX3 in the portable environment.

We are up here at the Lake (George); and what a difference location makes. When we got here, I called my friend who is staying at our house and is dog sitting for us. He told me that back in South Plainfield, it was 102F (39C). Up here at the lake, it was a beautiful 78F (26C).

So the plan for today will be to operate from right near the cabin. I think I will go with the Buddistick attached to the magmount using the Jeep as the ground plane. That arrangement has worked well in the past. I will probably stick to 20 and 40 Meters; but may also give 15 Meters a try. According to the latest solar-terrestrial chart, 15 Meters should be in good condition today.

I brought the Autek antenna analyzer along to help quicken the process of setting up the Buddisitck. Thinking about it, I probably could have left it home. Using the Buddistick on the magmount is actually quite easy to set up. All I really have to do is set up the “standard” configuration, set the tap on the coil for loudest receive noise and let the KX3’s auto tuner handle the rest. The analyzer comes in real handy when setting the BStick up in the field and for dealing with finding the best length for the counterpoise wire.

So hopefully, i will hear some of you on the bands later today. Please give a listen for ol’ W2LJ.

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

I freely admit that I am more of an operatin’ kind of guy and not a techno-wizzy type Ham.  I got my KX3, put it together, marvel at its abilities and am on the air with it, a lot. And excuse my language, but I am enjoying the hell out of it.

I look at the KX3 e-mail reflector and I’m seeing all these “wish list” posts, with guys wanting this and that added to the next firmware edition.  I shake my head, cause obviously these guys are all light years ahead of me as Amateur Radio operators.  I’m pretty content with the radio as it is.  About the only thing that I would like to see changed, if I could, is how the power level changes.  When I twist the power level knob, I see the output power change in 0.2V steps.  In other words we go from 5.0V to 4.8V, completely skipping 4.9V.  I guess I would like to see that curve smooth out to be a tad more linear.

But that’s it.  No requests for the sun, moon and stars.  Heck, half the things these guys are asking for, I can’t even figure out!  As advanced as this radio is, I remain a humble dial twiddler.  I actually managed to hook the radio up to my netbook and got rig control software to do its thing.

I remained unimpressed.

Perhaps, if I was a contester or big gun DXer, I would appreciate that kind of thing more.  Me, I’m just a ham and egger.  I appreciate the radio, it’s features and the genius behind it – courtesy of Eric, Wayne and the KX3 development team.  And no doubt, I’ll keep downloading future versions of firmware and will keep the radio as up to date as possible.  But the more esoteric stuff, I will leave to those light years ahead of me. I’ll be content to go along for the ride.

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

Wowsers!

Both 20 Meter foxes worked within the first 10 minutes of the hunt.  That doesn’t occur very often, but when it does it’s gratifying.  The K3 (and the KX3) really makes it easy with those dual VFO knobs.  Hit split, listen on VFO A, dial up the transmit frequency with the VFO B knob and got to town.  No more hitting the A/B button and trying to deal with tuning two separate VFOs with one knob.  Probably a minor thing when you consider it, but oh so convenient!

The Maxpedition padded pouch arrived today and it is perfect!  Fits the KX3 just fine and will protect it from anything else that’s in the knapsack.  Not that there’s really that much in there, but I still worry about something jouncing around and doing damage.  I had the K1 in a “Tupperware” container all those years and it stayed looking mint.  I am sure this padded pouch will do the same for the KX3.

KX3
Antenna wire
Small SLA battery (and small gel cel charger – going to charge off the grid this year)
Lithium Ion battery
Paddles
Earbuds
Autek antenna analyzer (to make setting up the Buddistick easier).
Pad and misc supplies
Wrist rocket

Still, that’s enough to carry along when we go to Lake George later this summer – and for the Flight of the Bumblebees and the Skeeter Hunt as well.

The SLA battery is being taken as a back up only.  If the Lithium Ion performs admirably and gives me a decent amount of radio time between charges, the SLA will stay home in the future.  That would certainly lighten things up.

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

A new rig is a thing of beauty. Whether it be Elecraft, Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom or kit built or homebrewed, once you get it on the air, it’s definitely fun! And before the novelty wears off, quite addictive.

After watching some TV with Cara and Joey, I headed down to the shack for about another 1/2 hour of operating time before heading off to the sack.  Most of that time was spent becoming familiar with knobs, functions and controls; but I also did manage to work OZ1HDF and RK3ER on 30 Meters.

Even though I now have microphones for the K3 and KX3, I doubt that I will be spending much of any time with any mode other than CW.  Sending and receiving Morse is still what Amateur Radio is all about for me.

July 15th is the Sussex Hamfest up in Sussex County, NJ – which is the extreme Northwest corner of the state. The Sussex Hamfest is one of the best in the state; and normally I can’t go as we’re usually in Lake George that weekend.  This year I can go and am planning on it.  Some things I will need – 1/4″ to mini jack stereo adapter so that I can use my earbuds on the K3.

With the K2, I had a single, amplified speaker.  I think I will have to get a set of amplified stereo speakers so that I can take advantage of the stereo sound the K3 can provide.  An inexpensive set of computer speakers should do the trick and those can usually be found quite easily (and cheaply!) at hamfests.

Off to bed now, tomorrow is a work day, and unfortunately,  I am anticipating tomorrow and Friday to be as bad as yesterday was.

By the way, it’s 11:30 PM and it’s still 84F (29C) – ugh!  In a few of the QSOs that I had today, the ops on the other end told me that it was well over 100F (38C) at their locations, so I guess I should be grateful it wasn’t that bad here!

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