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Working HF is definitely like fishing – or maybe like the proverbial Forrest Gump “box of chocolates”.  You never know what you’re going to get.

Last night, I cast my net out upon the waters and was fortunate to have two nice QSOs on 40 Meters. One was with Rick KC4KNN and that was immediately followed up with a nice chat with Scotty KG3W.  I have worked both ops before, Rick once back in 2006 and Scotty several times in various QRP events.  It’s always nice to run into someone you’ve worked in some contests. The chance to QSO and talk for a bit longer than “559 NJ 5W” is very pleasant.

Tonight, I was tuning around 30 Meters and heard a loud station way down near the bottom at 10.103 MHz.  Loud, calling “CQ DX” and not getting many takers.  I listened for a bit to find out it was ZB2FK.

ZB2 – that’s Gibraltar!  Hot chocolate, that’s a new one for me!  I have heard Gibraltar several times in the past; but was never able to break the pileup.  This time, Ernest was not all that busy. I waited until he was done with the station he was working and threw out my call.  As I finished unkeying, I heard several others also calling.  I thought to myself, “Here we go – from nobody to pile up in 60 seconds” but he answered ME!  Little, puny ol’ 5 Watt me – and on the first call! Talk about being at the right place at the right time!

There’s nothing quite like the exhilaration of netting a new DXCC entity.  And I’m a lucky kind o’ guy, as I seriously doubt I’ll ever make Honor Roll, I have close to 200 more chances to feel that exhilaration again!

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

Ten metres has been wide open today. Stations have been heard or worked in just about all directions. I ran 2 watts of WSPR during the periods that I wasn’t in the shack and the program screen resembled 30m!

WSPR spots on 10m at G4ILO, 26/9/2012

After a short period of WSPR I switched to voice mode and made a nice SSB contact with Ken, JA2FJP near Nagoya (nothing to do with cheap Chinese antennas!) After a rubber-stamp contact with R100BG I found phone a bit hard going with all the QRM and pileups so I retreated to the more restful pastime of working digimodes.

Digital stations hrd/wkd at G4ILO, 26/9/2012

I made one more Japanese contact – with JI4POR – and made my first-ever China contact – with BG8GAM – all on PSK31. I heard several more stations from those countries and also one from Korea (South, presumably) and one from Indonesia but didn’t manage to work them. Better luck next time!

A session of calling CQ produced an endless succession of Russian stations. Where do they all come from? There is no chance of working interesting DX unless you search and pounce on the DX stations. Even when calling a specific DX station I was being called by Russian stations! Why do they do it? I lost the chance of a couple of first contacts because of it.

As the afternoon wore on many stations from North America and Canada started to be in evidence. My final PSK31 contact for the day was with Bob KZ0G in Missouri which is probably a first for that state for me.

Not a bad haul for a few hours listening / operating using a maximum of 40 watts PSK31 to an attic dipole. I wish there were more days like that!

The weather was sunny, and mild – not hot. A gorgeous Autumn day with crisp, blues skies and big, puffy white clouds.  We spent the early afternoon picking apples at a nearby “pick your own” orchard.  We got some great looking Red and Golden Delicious, Winesap, Jonathan and Macintosh apples.  Probably about 15 pounds of apples all told. Great snacks for a person (yours truly) who has sworn off junk food in an effort to drop some poundage.

After returning home, I spent some time on the radio and worked some DX as the bands were open. 20,17, 15 and 12 Meters were active and I even heard some stations on 10 Meters, too. I managed to snare the following:

PA6XX on 15 Meters
PA3FQA on 12 Meters
S57DX on 17 Meters
EA8DO on 12 Meters.

I heard a ZL1 station on 10 Meters; but from listening, it was apparent he was running QRO and was only about 569/579 here and there was quite a pileup.  Getting him in the log would have been nice, and I gave a few tries; but decided that hanging around too long was not going to bear fruit.  As the song says, “You’ve got know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em.”  And sometimes you do “just know” when it’s not going to work, and sometimes perseverance also means “not today; but some other time”.

I also worked two stateside stations. One was Terry WA0ITP, on 20 Meters, who was working portable from Pioneer Ridge County Park near Ottumwa, Iowa.  Terry self posted onto QRPSPOTS and sure enough, I was able to get into his log.  That was fun, as I consider Terry to be one of the better known QRPers and it’s always a delight to work a QRP “celebrity”.

QRPSPOTS is (if you’re not already familiar) a QRP Spotting site, sponsored by the Four States QRP Group..  QRPers who are going portable will often spot themselves in advance of their outing in order to let everyone know that they are active in the field.  There are a lot of spots posted for SOTA activities and many QRPers will spot juicy DX that they have been able to work with low power.  Nothing like spreadin’ the wealth, man!  QRPSPOTS is a boon to QRPers and many thanks to the Four States QRP Group for the service they make available to us.

The other QSO was after dinner with Adam N0SSS who answered my CQ on 20 Meters. Adam is a younger Ham (relatively speaking) at 32 years of age and only 4 years as a Ham.  But I have a feeling that Adam will go a long ways in the QRP world.  He was using his KX1 at 2 Watts with a Moxon antenna that he built himself this summer.  When he turned the antenna so that I was in his sites, his signal went from 559 to 599+.  We had a very enjoyable chat that lasted for over a half an hour.  I sure hope we run into each other again sometime.

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

If you are a QRPer and are serious about it, especially when it comes to working DX or participating in the QRP Fox hunts (or any radio contest, for that matter) then the following IS A MUST READ.

http://www.ae5x.com/blog/2012/09/07/from-sardine-sender-to-dxcc-honor-roll-in-10-years-qrp/

This post on John AE5X’s blog, is an absolute gem.  I have rarely read posts that are more pragmatic, to the point, that are dead on and hit the ball over the wall.

Pay particular attention to the passage that begins with, “There is a common misconception that the heavy lifting in a QSO containing a QRPer is done by the non-QRP station” and then ends with, “rather than using a strategy, are simply calling on unproven frequencies within the split range, thereby eliminating themselves as valid competitors.”

This part is what I consider to be the “meat and potatoes” of this post, and I can think of no better words of wisdom to impart upon ANY Ham, let alone a budding QRPer.

John, thanks so much for writing this and sharing it with the radio and QRP community.  Words to live by!

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

A tip o’ the cap and a smart salute to NS8R for making me aware of The American Legion Amateur Radio Club.

http://www.legion.org/hamradio

If you’re a US Armed Forces veteran and belong to the American Legion – please be sure to check it out.  It looks really, really nice.

Oh, and if you’re a veteran and a Legion member or VFW member, or not a member of any organization at all – thanks for your service!

On another note, QRP DXing can be a mixed bag.  Some days, when the band conditions are right, it can be like shooting fish in a barrel. Other days, when the bands and the sun are not very cooperative, it can be akin to having a root canal.  But either way, it’s fun. Hey, even trying for “the one that got away” is more fun than being at work!

But I really have to give credit to my brother and sister QRPers who go about it using SSB.  They have just that smidge more of patience and endurance than most of us. Sometimes, it seems like it just can’t be done – but here’s proof that it can.

Thanks, John K7HV for posting to YouTube.

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

Worked a new one for me.

I heard 5N7M from Nigeria on 30 Meters and it took a little doing; but I got an answer for my efforts. Nigeria is a new one for me – never worked ’em before – via QRP.

This brings me up to (I believe) 112 DXCC entities worked via QRP and somewhere in the neighborhood of 138 DXCC entities worked over all.  I really have to do a serious recap accounting one of these days.

As hot as 12 Meters was on Saturday, the bands seemed pretty crummy yesterday and today. And that was matched by the weather here in Central NJ.  I participated, along with my CERT Team, in providing communications for the South Plainfield Annual Labor Day Parade and got downpoured on twice. And like the Ham that I am, I was more concerned about the radios getting wet than me! Fortunately, that was quite early in the morning; and by the time the parade kicked off, it was only overcast, with no precipitation.

Our annual fireworks display should kick off in about an hour and a half, really signalling the end of summer.  While it’s been a pretty crummy year so far, personally, I still hate to see summer come to an end.  It’s my most favorite season of all.  But the nights are getting longer; and the maple in the back yard is already starting to shed its first leaves.

Time stands still for no man.

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

On this next to last weekend of “Summer” 2012, my wife Marianne suggested we take the kids down to the shore for the day.  The last time we were down there with them was when they were just babies, and they don’t even remember that trip. Since then, both Joey and Cara have learned how to swim (even though their Dad never learned) and they are both excellent swimmers.  With dangerous rip tides and undercurrents, it was a priority of ours that they be excellent swimmers before allowing them to venture into the surf.

So today, after Sunday Mass, we went down to Belmar, NJ.

And while Marianne, Joey and Cara enjoyed the surf, I did “Dad Duty” and played sentry, watching all our “stuff” on the beach.  Not a tough job, mind you, sitting in beautiful sunshine, enjoying the salt air and sea breezes and the view.

And it’s the view that ALWAYS get me when we go anywhere near the ocean.

Inevitably, as a Ham, I look at the ocean differently than most folks. I look at that vast expanse of water and that flat horizon, and in my mind’s eye, I can picture the far off countries that lay on the other side of all that water. And I think of my 5 Watts of RF energy crossing all that water and reaching out to all those far away places and it just boggles my mind!

We’ve become jaded. Today’s technology – heck, the technology of the past 40 or so years has shrunken the world and we take so much for granted.  Satellites, cell phones, the Internet have all done their part to shrink vast distances and make the world seem so small.  Communications are instantaneous and we can find out about just about anything, anywhere on the globe in the blink of an eye. And now, it’s come to the point where we demand and expect that instant communication.

But then you take a trip to the ocean.  You feel the warm sand beneath your feet and the cool water lapping at your ankles and you look out upon ALL that water.  And you look, and you look and all your eye can see  is water and horizon.  And it hits you how small you are and how big this world really is.

Then you think of the QSOs – OK1DX, EA6UN, HA5AGS, D3AA, 2012L and it goes on an on. All those places on the other side of all that water – as far as the eye can see.  And those QSOs all happened with 5 Watts of power. Less power than the night light that each night illuminates the upstairs bedroom hallway in our house, zipping across that vast expanse – dits and dahs forming letters and words – making acquaintances and friends.

Awesome – truly awesome to think about it.  I can’t help but thinking that if Mr. Marconi were alive today, he would be a QRPer.  Once the airwaves were conquered, I think it would tickle him to no end to see just how far he could go with lesser and lesser power.  If anyone was thrilled by “The Magic”, it was him.

On another note, I received a nice e-mail this morning from none other than Steve WGØAT.  He included a link to a video of his 2012 Skeeter Hunt effort.

My sincere thanks to Steve and to all of you who partook in the Hunt this year.  And thank to all of you who have sent logs and summaries so far, it’s so gratifying to know that you enjoyed the Skeeter Hunt as much as I did.  The results are racking up, and very shortly after the September 12th deadline, I will make a full posting of scores, sopabox comments, photos and videos.

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