AmateurRadio.com

This weekend was a bit out of the ordinary for me. I actually got to spend some time behind the radio, Friday, Saturday and Sunday! This was probably due to the fact that I got our weekly grocery shopping done Thursday night in anticipation of the Nor’Easter that visited us on Friday. Plus the fact that I pretty much stayed put and did not venture out much.

In addition to working just a tiny bit of DX, I also engaged in several nice rag chews this weekend, of which a couple were 2X QRP. I didn’t work any new countries, but did get Senegal, Nicaragua, and Providencia Island among others in the log.

15 Meters seemed to be open on Saturday and a for a little bit on Sunday. I really didn’t hear much of anything on 12 Meters and didn’t hear anything on 10 Meters, either. 17 and 20 Meters were their normal selves.

I also played with both rigs this weekend, the K3 and the KX3.  I am noticing that I am running into more K3s on the air than I have in the past.

I have so many things that I want to accomplish. I need to finish that last 10% of organizing the shack. I would like to hook up the K3 and do some experimenting with WSPR. I’d also like to get started on building my Pig Rig.

So much to do, so little time!

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

I don’t know if it’s like this for everybody; or if it’s just me.

I received two e-mails, that I’d like to share – the first is from Andreas, IZ3NYT:

“Hi dr om,

I built a new beacon on 30 meters, I would like your participation, I hope you have fun. receive the signal if I’d like your QSL card.
the frequency is 10139,2 khz cw wpm 8, power 100mw.

The layout and the pictures you can see on my site http://iz3nyt.altervista.org/.

73 de Andrea IZ3NYT”

Keep a listen out for Andreas’ beacon – this would be an excellent way to know if the band is open to Europe

The second e-mail was from Blaine KØONE, pointing me towards a new Website : MorseFusion.com.  They are touting themselves as a new way to learn Morse Code:

“You begin by listening to a novel (over 20 available) spelled out in English (not in code). Then you select which letters, numbers, and punctuation marks you want to gradually start hearing in code. Proper character speed and word rate are maintained during all stages of training.”

and

“Throughout the learning process you focus your attention entirely on listening to a novel, NOT on learning Morse code. Learning takes place gradually and in the background.”

Interesting concept – but not cheap. A subscription of $19.95 per month is involved.  But, if all other methods of learning the Morse Code have failed for you, this might be something you could look into.

I have to admit, the list of novels that have is intriguing. Classics such as “Pride and Prejudice”, “Moby Dick”,  “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (had to read that in High School) and books that are a bit more fun, such as “War of the Worlds” and “Tom Swift and his Wireless Message”.

The Tom Swift and Hardy Boys books were staples of my youth.

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

There was not much life on 10m this morning but 15m was really hopping. I started off using PSK31 and my first QSO was with a Ukrainian YL named Olga! Her call was US5UFF and her QSL shows that she is (X)YL of UR4UHE. I think the UFF stands for Ukrainian Flora and Fauna which seems to be a popular award scheme over in Ukraine.

I was calling CQ and worked a whole string of east European and Russian stations. Calling CQ is a good way to fill the log but not a good way to work much DX as if any DX did reply it would likely be lost under the strong local stations calling.

As the hour approached lunch time I did some search and pouncing and managed to nab HS4ESF from Mahasarakham University in Thailand. I don’t think it’s the first time I have worked Thailand on PSK but it was nice nonetheless, and he has a nice QSL.

I’ve often noticed from my beacon monitoring that the time around midday to lunch time is a good time to work DX on the higher HF bands. I didn’t work any other DX today but I was pleased to see on Propagation Reporter that my 40W of PSK31 to an attic dipole had been decoded near Sydney in Australia! Perhaps I’ll work VK on PSK31 one day!

PSK31 spots of G4ILO on 15m

I tried JT65A briefly but the band segment was full of the same stations I could easily work using PSK31 so I thought I would try CW instead. I “shook hands” (as John N8ZYA puts it) with Z320K, a special call to commemorate 20 years of the Z3 prefix (Macedonia.)  I then had a real QSO with Bill, WA1HMW who is an ex-Royal Navy. That QSO taxed my receiving abilities a bit so I decided to call it a day.

Well, actually last night AND today were a lot of fun!  And there’s more to go tonight as the 40 Meter QRP Fox hunts start up again tonight.

I ended up working only three stations last night. First, I had a quick 2X QRP QSO with Dave NE5DL down in Texas on 20 Meters to start SKN off.  That was followed by two rag chews. The first was on 40 Meters with N4LZY, Jerry in Tennessee and was followed by a chew with K3OWZ, John in PA.  John was  using a Heathkit Apache and a National NC303 receiver.  Good stuff!

I was on the air off and on for a good portion of today. I worked Dan SM5IMO in Sweden, and had a nice chat with John VE1BA in Nova Scotia.  John was running three Watts and had a killer signal into NJ.  That was followed up by a nice chat with another John – K4BAI in Georgia.  John and I meet up in the QRP sprints and the Fox hunts.  John is a “Ham’s Ham” and a gentleman to boot.  It’s always extremely nice hooking up with K4BAI.

I worked Dave K3Y/2 on 40 Meters.  LOUD signal into New Jersey from New York state.

The I had an experience that was unique.  I was working Stan AEØSL on 20 Meters when the band kicked out on us and we both faded away into the QSB.  From there, I jumped on up to 17 Meters and worked VP2MRV in Montserrat.  After finishing up with Nao, I began to tune around 17 Meters and whom should my wandering ears hear calling CQ?  None other than Stan AEØSL, who I had just worked only minutes before on 20 Meters.  He was much, much louder on 17 Meters and we were able to finish up our busted QSO.  Now how many times has that happened to you?  Dare I say – not many?

I then finished up my afternoon by busting a small pileup to work K1GI/VP9 in Bermuda.  A pileup for Bermuda you ask?  Well, yes.  There were hardly ANY signals on 17 Meters, so in this instance, even Bermuda was like chum to a shark.

Last night and today, the majority of my Morse was sent with my Vibroplex Original that I restored a few years back.  I was surprised how quickly I was able to send decent  presentable code.  It’s like the old adage about riding a bicycle – that once you learn, you never forget.  I didn’t sound atrocious to the point that I was embarrassed to be using it; because believe me, if I was that bad I would not have subjected anyone’s ears to a bad cacophony of dits and dahs.  Also, the Reverse Beacon Network was picking up my CQs, so the skimmers were able to decode my sending.  And if the computers were able to figure it out, then a real live Ham should have had even less trouble.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had the opportunity to spend so much of a day in the shack, behind the radio. I thoroughly enjoyed it and could get quite used to it, given the chance.

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

I was able to get on the air for a bit this afternoon – I guess it would be more appropriate to say this evening, as it was getting dark.  The Christmas lights in the neighborhood, or whatever, were playing havoc with my receiver tonight.  It seems like there’s S9 noise no matter which band I go to and no matter which antenna I switch to.

However, on 17 Meters, blasting in above the noise was JN4MMO calling CQ.  Japan!  I have worked Japan before, but never QRP.  Japan to New Jersey is always a long hop and with 5 Watts, I really had my fingers crossed.

It took some patience to be heard and then a few repeats – but Andy finally heard me!  I gave him a 599 report and got a 539 in return.  It was dusk here and just a tiny bit past dawn in Japan (according to DX Atlas) so I am willing to bet that there was some grayline influence there.

No matter!  I will take a QSO with a Japanese op any day of the week.  Now as far as I’m concerned, that’s DX!  And it just goes to show (at least in my case anyway) that you don’t always have to be good, you just need to be lucky!

I am hoping for a bit more activity on 80 Meters tonight as we get further into the darkness.  I would like to get some practice in tonight with the Bug, in anticipation of Straight Key Night tomorrow evening.

As the New Year approaches, I’d like to take the opportunity to wish all of you a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.  May your days be filled with laughter and enjoyment, love and happiness. And may you always have numerous sunspots and really good propagation when you turn on your radios!

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

I nearly got myself locked out of the WSPR map page today. I must have managed to save the settings to try to display spots for all bands for the last 24 jours, or something like that, because whenever I went to the page the web browser froze up while it tried to render the map and I couln’t get back to the settings boxes to change it. I had to find out how to delete all cached files in Chrome before I could access it again.

10m WSPR spots @ G4ILO 18 November 2012

I lost quite a lot of time trying to sort that out. I also spent an hour or so seeing what I could work on 10m PSK31. I managed to QSO with several US stations including N7WET in Tucson, Arizona and KB5IAV in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

I worked two all time new countries as well. Fabio CU3HN in the Azores has one of those QSLs that never fail to bring a smile to my face.

QSL of CU3HN

Victor, HP1AVS in Panama I had heard before but not managed to work. So I was pleased to add his call to the log as well.

QSL of HP1AVS

I love 10 metres!