Archive for the ‘dx’ Category
A day late and a dollar short
February 10th, 2014 | 
Author: And that seems to be my story regarding FT5ZM, and I’m sticking to it. Last night, I heard them well and couldn’t work them. Tonight, I’ve gone back to not being able to hear them. According to the DXCluster, they are active on 14.023 MHz. They might as well be on the other side of Jupiter, for all that I can hear. I’m not hearing any activity on 30 Meters, either.
Ironically, tomorrow is their last full day of activity before going QRT. And tomorrow is the day my KXPA100 kit is due to arrive from Elecraft. What a coincidence, eh?
I am fairly confident that if I had 100 Watts last night, I would have been able to break through the pileup. There’s no way that I can be 100% certain of that, but you can’t be in this hobby for 35 years without building up an innate sense of these things.
No use crying over spilled milk. Keep your ears open on the bands every day this coming week, QRPers. Next weekend is the big ARRL DX Contest, CW portion. I am already hearing some familiar calls in some familiar places as folks set up and gear up for the big event. Working these stations as they get ready, and then working the contest itself is a great way to earn yourself a QRP DXCC Certificate.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Addendum: I went back to the basement to find that FT5ZM came up nicely on 20 Meters. I heard them work my buddy, Bob W3BBO, and fellow blogger and QRPer, Chris KQ2RP. Still no joy for W2LJ, though. I guess tomorrow night will be my last shot, if they’re even on the air at that point.
Getting to be crunch time
For working FT5ZM, and it looks like I may not get them. I spent three hours tonight, trying to work them on both 20 and 30 Meters – no dice. They QRT on Tuesday, so time is running short. I would really like to work them, as most of the QRPers that I know are in their log book. But if it turns out that I don’t ….. well, the sun will still keep shining, the Earth will still keep spinning, and come Springtime, bunnies and birdies will dance on the lawn. And come 500 years from now, no one will know who W2LJ was, or how many countries he worked and at what power. You have to keep your eye on the bigger prize.
That’s like at the VE session that I worked this morning ….. there was a Ham there who was quite disappointed about being a General Class operator. This person has tried to upgrade to Extra, but is having a hard time of it, and is getting discouraged with the whole deal.
Goals are a good thing, but you have to remember that this is a hobby. We’re not looking for a cure for cancer here. It’s high time to enjoy what you have and not worry too much about what you don’t. Once you have fun with where you are, that just may take off enough self inflicted pressure to allow you accomplish what you feel is an impossibility.
As they say, the joy is in the journey, not the destination, whether that be an Extra class license or DXCC Honor Roll.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
FT5ZM with QRP
I can't say enough about the quality of this team and their operating plan. Amsterdam is antipodal to my QTH and yet these guys have been workable on most bands, I have worked them on six bands using my battleship sized station and yes, I worked them yesterday QRP with my FT-817 on 20m. Over 2,000 miles per watt! It's ironic, but there is power in QRP. There was a small pile-up, relatively speaking, covering 2-3 KC's but my 5 watt signal travelled almost exactly half way around to the world to be copied by a station almost 12,000 miles away. Very cool.
The QRP contact was the first good news of the day, the second was a bonus. The common grayline/shared darkness with FT5 and my QTH in W5 is about 30 minutes. Yesterday around 0028z, with still some faint sunlight, the FT5ZM signal came out of the mud on 3.523 listening up 2. I use only an inverted L on 80m at about 55 feet at its apex, so we aren't talking about a superior antenna. Their signal was in the 339 - 449 range. Very light copy, but solid. I was excited just to copy them. I am usually confident when I jump in a pile-up, but not this one, figuring the east coast would drown me out. However on about the fourth call I could hear faintly but solidly, AD5A 599, I went back, de AD5A 599 599 bk.......AD5A 599 599. Oh no, he didn't hear me come back.....de AD5A 599 599 599 bk.......AD5A 599 TU UP.....Yesssss! An unexpected bonus and a short victory dance and another short one when the QSO was verified in the online log today.
There are so many ways to enjoy radio and yesterday was another fun day in this wonderful hobby of ours.
Fickled Propagation, Working FT5ZM
For those trying to work FT5ZM from the states it has been widely chronicled that the signals are coming in via multiple paths, even the indeterminate "skew" path. In other words just rotate your antenna until the signal peaks. I have heard them on such a path which is more east that the SSE short path heading from my QTH. Last evening they were spotted on 12m, 15m and 17m. I swung the beam SP and, as I would expect, nothing but noise. Skew path, same thing. Well, let me try long path and viola, there they were. A very nice signal on 15m, a fluttery signal on 17m and nothing on 12m. The better signal on 15m was also heard very well in JA as that was all the operator was working. So let me try the weaker signal on 17m. First find where he is listening....he is working a W7, good, and I can hear both ends of the QSO, cool,.....I drop my call in figuring other west coasters will beat me out, but what do I hear? ....AD5A 599...jubilation...... and with that another band counter in the log.
They will be there for two weeks and working them should get easier, but don't give up, try some of the sneaky ways into the log, it's a lot more fun.
I must issue a disclaimer: This is not a QRP story, I was hitting on all cylinders on this one:-)
75% Chance of M-class Flares, 30% For X-class
Solar Flare Alert:
Active Sunspot Region 11944 has a 75% chance of producing an M-class flare, and a 30% chance of producing an X-class flare, in the next 24 hours. Smaller flares are also possible.
We are expecting a glancing blow from a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) sometime in the next 24 hours.
The Earth’s polar regions are under a proton event (Polar Cap Absorption, or PCA, event). This is degrading HF communications over polar regions.
(Live data and more info at https://Facebook.com/spacewx.hfradio or http://SunSpotWatch.com/ )
Random Thoughts and a Missed QSO
As I have mentioned before, I am a guitarist for The No Refund Band, www.norefundband.com, and we had a great show on Saturday night. It was one of my better performances, landing all the notes and licks in front of a nice crowd, very satisfying. Check us out on iTunes, Amazon or most any digital outlet.
That brings me to radio. I guess I've been spoiled with the last few expeditions as I have documented here, getting nice band counters from S21 and XZ on the high bands. With higher sunspot numbers long path to Asia has been fantastic here in Texas, with loud signals and relatively easy QSO's. With the VU7AG expedition I expected nothing less than to make contacts on 10m and 12m. However, this chase was very different. Texas and VU7 just don't have the same path as the aforementioned countries. I listened and listened and listened. The long path was working to the US east coast, but stopped somewhere in the mid west. Kudos to the operators who tried to make this path work, but it just wasn't, until Sunday morning. I was in front of the radio, antenna turned to long path, nothing but static. Then I see some spots from W5 stations, still nothing, what gives? I turned my antenna to short path and there he was, a decent signal with a touch of artic flutter, but otherwise a great signal for short path 10m at 8:30 am from India to Texas. Unashamedly, I cranked up the amp, found the station he was working and started calling, expecting a QSO at any minute. After all, I am destined to salvage this expedition on 10m, aren't I? I called for 30 minutes when the signal began to fade and soon there was no signal and no QSO. The expedition is now QRT. Unlike the hunt and the gig, not very satifying.
However, as I said, I am spoiled. I did manage two new bands, 17m and 30m and a new mode, RTTY. As satisfying as those QSO's were, the lack of success on 10m seems to have dulled the accomplishment. But I'm over it. I still have some excitement waiting for me in the future. If we don't have hope, what do we have?
I am addicted
Hello …. my name is Larry and I am a pileup addict.
Or at least that’s the way it seems lately! For the past few days, everytime I have gotten on the air and worked a station, I had to bust a pileup in order to do it. Of course, the Fox hunts are nothing but a big QRP pileup and I snared both Lee AA4GA and Johnny ACØBQ on 40 Meters last night. OK, there really wasn’t much of a pileup on Lee, I have to confess – but there was for a while. By the time I was able to hear him well enough to work him, his pileup had dwindled.
But after the Fox hunts, I swung down to the low end of 40 Meters and busted the pileup to work Jim J6/W4QO, one of the QRP guys who is on DXpedition to St. Lucia. Then, I beat two pileups at lunchtime today. The first was to work another good QRP friend on St. Lucia. This time it was Jerry J6/N9AW on 17 Meters. That was a full blown pileup and Jerry was working them fast and fierce, in a manner that would make any grizzly hardened DXpedition veteran proud. And lest I slight him, Jim’s performance last evening was every bit as good as Jerry’s. Two top notch QRPers and all-around ops in Jim and Jerry.
See, participating in those Fox hunts DOES help! We actually learn a thing or two – not only how to navigate pileups, but also how to manage them.
Later at lunchtime, I busted a pileup to work ZD8UW on 12 Meters – Ascension Island. At 5 Watts out from my end, that came out to just a smidge more than 1000 Miles per Watt.
Working a pileup can sometimes make you want to bang your head against the wall. You’re in there, sending out your call in what seems like a hopeless battle, ala` Don Quixote. But then, you hear your call coming back to you and you complete the exchange for another rare one in the books, and all thoughts of bloodying yourself disappear in the breeze!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
PS: I am working on the finishing touches to a new Christmas story. Look for it here as we get closer to the Holiday.
