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At the urging of my friend Bob W3BBO during our weekly Saturday Echolink BS session, after we were done, I went down the basement shack and removed the Butternut from my K3. In “Antenna 1”, I hooked up the 88′ EDZ and in “Antenna 2” I hooked up the W3EDP.

I then proceeded to go to 160 Meters to go listen to the contest traffic there.

Switching between “Antenna 1” and “Antenna 2”, I was able to make some comparisons between the two.  First off, there was virtually no noticeable difference in the receive quality of any of the signals I heard.  Both antennas gave me loud, strong signals to listen to.  Neither was noticeably weaker or quieter than the other, and switching back and forth was instantaneous. The comparison in reception was easy to make.

On transmit, it was a different story.  The best match I was able to get with the EDZ on 160 Meters was between 2:1 to about 1.6:1.  And to get that match, the K3’s autotuner took it’s good sweet time – I’d say about 5 seconds or longer to achieve that match (seems like much longer while those relays are chattering away!).  The W3EDP?  A quick little “brrp” lasting about a second or two at the most, and a match that was 1.0:1.

In the space of a matter of a few minutes, I made contest QSOs with K8NVL in Ohio, WA1BXY in Rhode Island and NX2X in New York. All of them with the W3EDP.

Is this the solution I am looking for for 160 Meters?  No, I’m not that stupid.  But it will allow me to have some 160 Meter fun this winter until I get something dedicated built. Of course, that project has been on my radio project horizon for two years now.  Next spring/summer I am really going to have to follow through.  But for now, this will do.

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

Wow – what a difference a different wire makes.

I signed on to the 40 Meter QRP Fox hunt tonight and spotted Dave AB9CA pretty much right off the bat.  He was a bit on the weak side – and then I switched on over to the W3EDP from the EDZ  Dave went from super weak to 569 – easy!  To say I was amazed by the increase in his signal by changing wires is an understatement.  I went from thinking that I might not have a chance to getting in the log.

Drew K9CW in Illinois is even tougher.  No matter which antenna I switch to, this is going to be tough. I am hearing him the best on the W3EDP, though. Right now about 339 at best.

Fingers are crossed for an improvement in propagation.

Addendum – Got Drew ……… using the Butternut HF9V!  Didn’t think the vertical was the best club in the bag for 40 Meters; but it did the trick.  So much for conventional wisdom!

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

I just finishing lofting the W3EDP antenna into the sky.  I guess it is guaranteed to work, because:

A) I decided to do this on the day that a major DX contest if underway, and

B) I waited for the coldest day of Thanksgiving weekend to do it!  Temperature is only 42F (5C) and the very gust winds are causing wind chill factor, making it feel like the low 30’s (closer to 0C).  My fingers were freezing while tying knots in the antenna rope and untying knots (tangles) in the antenna wire.

Just to make sure that I did in fact, not waste a good portion of the afternoon, I made two quick contacts. One was a contest QSO with C6AQM on 20 Meters and the other was a short rag chew with Bob N1MFW on 30 Meters.

So the antenna works!  How well will remain to be determined as I use it more and more.  So currently the antenna set up is the Butternut HF9V as Antenna 1 and the Antenna 2 outlet of the K3 goes to my antenna switch, where I can pick either the W3EDP or the 88′ EDZ.

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

I really like Thanksgiving – it is my favorite holiday.

I know that I have many readers that are not from the US, who might have heard of Thanksgiving; but might not be familiar with the history behind the holiday. Here’s a short and by no means authoritative version, of the US version of Thanksgiving. Our Canadian friends also celebrate Thanksgiving (on the second Monday of October); but the historical basis behind their celebration is different than ours.

In the year 1620 a small ship named the Mayflower, left Plymouth, England and headed for “The New World”. The passengers were mainly a group of people known as Pilgrims, who had left England to come to a new land where they could practice their religion publicly without oppression or harassment. The rest of the passengers were people who wanted to come and settle a new land and make a life for themselves.

The Mayflower landed at what is now known as Plymouth, Massachusetts in November of 1620. Shortly after landing, the settlers came in contact with an Indian (read – Native American for the PC crowd) who was a member of the Abenaki tribe. A few days later this Native American returned with a friend named Squanto, who was a member of the Pawtuxet tribe. Earlier in his life, Squanto had been kidnapped by an English sea captain who had sold him into slavery. Squanto escaped and managed to get to London for a time, where he was able to successfully find a way to get back to America (and learn the English language in the process). Squanto introduced the Pilgrims to the nearby Wampanoag tribe. With Squanto’s help, an alliance was formed between the Wampanoag and the settlers which lasted for a period of over 50 years. If this alliance hadn’t been formed, the settlers probably would have totally perished that first harsh Winter. Even though the Wampanoag chief, Massasoit had donated food and provisions to the settlers to see them through that first brutal and snowy cold Winter, almost half of the passengers of the Mayflower perished from scurvy, malnutrition and other disease.

The following Spring, Squanto and the Indians taught the surviving Pilgrims where to fish, how to catch eels, how to plant corn, barley and other crops, which indigenous plants were poisonous and which were not, among other things. The planting and growing season of 1621 proved to be exceptionally good, ending with a bountiful harvest that would, without a doubt, be more than enough to sustain the Pilgrims through the next Winter. The leader of the settlement, Plymouth Plantation, declared that a feast be held that November. It lasted three days and the Native Americans were invited to celebrate the bountiful harvest; and 90 came. The Pilgrims had just completed a “Fowling mission” and the Wampanoag brought five freshly killed deer – so the menu from the First Thanksgiving feast (according to written records) consisted of venison, turkey, goose, duck, various fish (cod and bass among them), eels, clams (quahogs), and fruits and vegetables. As the Pilgrims stores of sugar were used up, there was probably not much in the way of pies or cakes!

Days of Thanksgiving have been proclaimed on and off throughout our history, beginning during the Revolutionary War. But Thanksgiving, as we come to know it, came into its own when a national Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday of November was proclaimed by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. And since that time, it has been celebrated annually.

On a radio note – last weekend, I tried hauling up the W3EDP without much success.  Trying to bring down the short end of the frayed and snapped Zepp was futile as it is unmercifully snagged in my neighbors trees and bushes.  So a new plan evolved, which I will try to implement this coming weekend.  Instead of using the mast on that side of the yard, I will run the W3EDP from the house to the maple, horizontally (actually sloping slightly upwards).  Then from the maple, I will allow it to slope down towards the privacy fence post in that far corner of the yard and will tie it off with however much antenna rope I will need – probably no more that 5 -6 feet worth.

I am hoping that the old saying will hold true – “Where there is a will, there’s a way!”

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

A lot has taken place since I first began thinking W3EDP back in October – family events, weather events, work events. In fact, so much has happened throughout this past year, that I am really looking forward to New Year’s Eve and waving 2012 a hearty “Sayonara”. This is one year that I will not miss.

But I digress.

After mulching the leaves yesterday and then raking and bagging the remainder that the mower couldn’t reach, I took the time to grab a spool of 14 gauge wire that I had sitting in the basement.  I had intended to measure out 67 feet and cut it for the construction of said W3EDP.

Guess what – there was EXACTLY 67 feet of wire left on the spool!  Exactly what I need to solder onto the  end of the window line – no need to cut.  How’s that for coincidence?

The extended forecast for this coming weekend is a nice Saturday and a crummy Sunday.  I hope to spend a portion of Saturday getting this wire airborne. The added bonus (if you will) is that since most of the leaves are down, it should be a tad easier to see exactly what I need to do.

The HF9V and the 88′ EDZ are both working well; but I figure it never Hertz (sorry, I couldn’t resist!) to get more wire up in the air.

It seems whenever I want to get something like this done, something always comes up to deter me from completing the project.  I am hoping that I will luck out this weekend, and finally finish!

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