AmateurRadio.com

The first day of Summer came as a prototypical Summer day – hot and humid!  The high temperature did reach 96F (35C) and is expected to be about the same tomorrow (maybe a little higher) and in the 90s on Friday. A heatwave is defined as a period of at least three days with temps in the 90s – so Summer is starting off with a bang!

Unfortunately, our air conditioning unit picked a heckuva time to give up the ghost!  We have a repairman coming tomorrow and I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will not need a new compressor.  Our Central AC unit was not brandy new when we bought the house 14 years ago, so it may be time for a new one. Eeep!

On the CW-Bugs Yahoo group, Donnie WA9TGT posted a picture of a beautiful (and I mean beautiful!) picture of a bug that he fabricated himself.  I would love to post a copy here; but the original is in his picture folder on the group, so  it is not public property.  If you are a member of the group, however, you can take a  look-see for yourself at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cw_bugs/photos/recent/1291589982/view  It is a thing of beauty and I wish I had the talent to make things like this.

Now for something not radio related: If you have a kindle and are also on Facebook, here’s a site to “like”:
http://www.facebook.com/EreaderNewsToday

Over the past few months I have been able to “buy” about 30 or 40 books for FREE.  There are all types of genres available and there may be days when it seems that nothing good is being offered except for a bunch of turkeys.  But then the days come when there are a lot of good mysteries, suspense novels, thrillers, etc. In true Ham fashion, stuff that’s offered for free can’t be all bad, can it?

This weekend is Field Day and the weather here in the Northeast looks to be perfect for it. I will not be participating this year as my sister and I have to finish clearing out my Mom’s apartment before the end of the month.  We’ve gotten a lot taken care of so far; and are about halfway done.  I think all the small stuff will be boxed up and moved out this weekend.  Whatever furniture is left over will be donated to charity and will be picked up next week.

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

I looked at the weather forecast for the next two days – 96F tomorrow (35C) and 102F on Thursday (39C). Wow! I guess it is no coincidence that tomorrow is the first day of summer.

And wouldn’t you know it ?!?  Band conditions seem to be headed right into the toilet as Field Day weekend approaches.  The Sunspot number is 66 and declining. We’ll get to see of Amateurs create their “own” propagation this weekend.  Maybe with that much RF heating up the ionosphere, we won’t need so many Sunspots.

The past few nights have been very good on the bands.  Tonight, the noise floor seemed to be higher and it sounded like there was less activity.  FG5FR was booming into NJ from Guadeloupe; but I worked Frantz about a week ago, so it’s time to let other stations have at him.

Looks like some reading tonight and then sack time.

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

I hate “stealing” material from my fellow bloggers.  I saw this referenced on John N8ZYA’s extremely good blog and I thought that it could withstand repeating:

This is such a good video for promoting Amateur Radio!

It not only shows some of the “cooler” things you can do with the hobby; but it also stresses that Amateur Radio still serves as an important communications back up role.

A very big tip o’ the hat to John N8ZYA – cool beans, John!

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

we are celebrating Father’s Day tomorrow.  So from W2LJ to all my Ham friends around the world who are dads – Happy Father’s Day!

Being a dad has come a long way from what it was when I was a kid.  Not to say that my Dad wasn’t involved, he was.  But back in the day, Dad’s primary role was “The Provider”.  He put in his time at work and when he came home, Mom made sure we didn’t bug him too much!  He did his share of chores (yardwork and such) but Mom always made sure he got a chance to unwind and relax at the end of the day.

Today, I find myself way more involved with my kids, than my Dad was ever involved with me.  This IS NOT a complaint, as I wouldn’t have it any other way – but it can be exhausting, especially when a school project or a game or whatever comes up after a long, hard day at work.

But you know what? This is exactly what I signed up for when I said, “I do”.  My kids are the apples of my eye and I don’t ever want to go back to the life I had before they came.  Not to say that it was bad, as it wasn’t; but the two of them have made life so much better.

Getting back to radio, that double CME that was foretold by Spaceweather.com didn’t seem to really put any damper on the bands.  After a multitude of chores were completed, I got to relax at the end of the day down in the shack.  I worked David MI0VKO in Northern Ireland on 17 Meters and on 30 Meters,  had a very nice rag chew with Jeff, K8CQ who lives down on St. Simons Island, GA.  The KX3 continues to impress, especially its ability to really dig super weak signals out of the background.

I did something the other day with it that really surprised me.  And it was something very simple.  I plugged in ear buds instead of using the internal speaker.  Wow!  The difference was amazing.  I can only liken it to listening to a broadcast radio in the “old days” and switching from AM to FM. The change in fidelity and richness of the audio is remarkable.  I’ve never experienced this with any other rig, including my K1 and K2.  Eric and Wayne HAVE hit a home run here, and I’m tempted to say it was a Grand Slam.

Again, to all of you who are dads out there – Happy Father’s Day!  And of course, my prayers go out to all the Dads who have gone before us and can’t be with us tomorrow.

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

tonight, because according to Ron WB3AAL and a post he made to the Polar Bear reflector, band conditions might turn into a mess this weekend:

Space Weather News for June 14, 2012
 http://spaceweather.com 

DOUBLE CME: Active sunspot AR1504 is facing Earth and hurling coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in our direction. A fast-moving CME that left the sun on June 14th is expected to scoop up another CME already en route and deliver a double-blow to Earth’s magnetic field on June 16th. Weak-to-moderate geomagnetic storms are possible when the clouds arrive. Check http://spaceweather.com for images and updates.

Tonight, band conditions are nice and I am having a blast.  I had a very brief QSO with TJ W0EA and this ended up being my first KX3 to KX3 QSO.  I am also hearing a lot of European stations and am able to work quite a few.  But this just goes to show you ………..

My QSO with TJ was very brief because my signal to him was exceptionally crappy.  I looked down and realized that I was still on the EDZ for our QSO.  After signing with him, I switched over to the Butternut, called CQ again and got a 559 from OM7DX in the Slovak Republic.

The other night was a first for me.  I heard my very first VU station – ever!  For whatever reason, I have never even heard a station from India before.  Hearing one the other night was an exciting first for me.

Ah, yes …. it’s Friday night, the work week is done, the weather is nice and I get to go on the radio.  Great way to start Father’s Day weekend!

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

I kept the radio tuned to 20 Meters for the evening and had a variety of QSOs.

The first was with CO6RD, Reynaldo in Cuba.  This wasn’t a long QSO as Reynaldo was working “contest style” racking up the QSOs. But I did get him on the first shot, even though a lot of stations were calling.

Next up was a busted QSO with Mike AA6WQ, who was operating from TN.  We got through the QSO basics, only to have the band pull the rug out from under us.  One minute we were going at it, next minute we couldn’t hear each other anymore. I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles, sometimes.

With two short QSOs under my belt, I was thinking that might be how the evening was going to go. But my fears turned to be for nothing as the next QSO was an almost hour long rag chew with Paul W4KLY in Stone Moutnain, GA.  This was an Elecraft to Elecraft QSO.  Paul was using his K1 and (of course) I was on the KX3.  QSB had a role to play; but in all honesty, when the band was not in fade mode,  our signals were 599 both ways.  We talked about rigs, portable ops and antennas and summer vacation plans.  It was very enjoyable and it is truly amazing to see how fast an hour can go by on you when you’re having fun.

The last QSO for the night was with Rumi LZ2RS in Bulgaria.  He was calling “CQ QRP” and I was lucky enough to be heard on my first call.  Rumi was at 5 Watts; but what really made the QSO was his Yagi at 12 meters up, pointed my way.  I was on the 88′ EDZ pumping out 5 Watts from my end also.  Signals were a legitimate 559.

The bands have been so good lately!  Not the best I’ve ever witnessed; but after the past few pitiful years, this is like Heaven (comparatively).  I sure hope it stays this way for a while and doesn’t take a fast dive off a cliff into oblivion.

On another note, this new 9 cell battery that I got for the Acer is fantastic!  I got it Monday and attached it to the netbook for charging.  I’ve used it Tuesday, Wednesday, and tonight – about two to three hours per night.  The indicator says it still has about another two hours left in it.  Of course, I have Windows set for “Max Battery Life” through the control panel, but even so, this is way outlasting the old battery.  That one gave me about two hours computer time, tops.  This battery should be able to get me through a four hour sprint (outdoors) without breaking a sweat.

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

Got QSOs on four different bands tonight – they all seemed to be in decent shape.

CN8KD in Morocco on 20 Meters
UA3TCJ in European Russia on 17 Meters
UT6UD in the Ukraine on 30 Meters
EW7LO in Belarus on 40 Meters

No rag chews tonight – just quickie kind of DX contacts.  The QSOs on 17 and 20 Meters were completed through the Butternut HF9V and the QSOs on 30 and 40 Meters were made through the 88′ EDZ antenna. As per the little NA5N propagation box, conditions on all the bands I used were pretty good.

Just for the heck of it, I hooked both antennas up to my coax switch and then to the KX3.  You could actually hear the signals being attenuated by the switch.  The difference between direct hookup to the rig and going through this crummy switch was like night and day.  I’ll have to try and see if I can find a good quality coax switch at the hamfest this weekend to replace this piece of junk.

It would be nice to be able to switch real quickly.  Take the QSO with CN8KD for example.  When I first heard him, I was on the wire.  I called and called and called with no result.  I switched over to the vertical and bingo – first try resulted in a QSO.  Maybe it was coincidence, but in my mind, in this case the vertical made all the difference in the world.  The wire is a much better performer on 80 and 40 Meters.  It sure would be nice to be able to switch at the flick of a button.

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