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I try not to do these “meta-posts” too often, but time has been of the essence lately and it’s been hard to find enough time to sit down and write something coherent when most of my “ham time” has been devoted to DXing or antenna work.  This post covers tinkering and operating from K8GU since January (!!).

I am not at Dayton this year.

Worked 7O6T on three bands (20/17/15) on CW and also on 20-meter SSB.  The only one I spent more than five minutes for was 20CW, which was during the first few days of the operation.  Normally, I would have waited, but since this was in the land of pirates and AQAP, I decided to play it safe in case there was an international incident that curtailed the operation.  My friend Steve, K0SR, gave me a hard time when I bragged about working them with 100 watts and a dipole.  You can do that on the East Coast.  He’s right.  DXing and DX contesting from the Upper Midwest (aka The Black Hole) is hard.

Did not work 6O0CW (Somalia) or 9M0L (Spratly).  XX9E (Macao) is doubtful since it’s a short DXpedition and I’ve only heard them once so far.

My 2011 Sweepstakes “Clean Sweep” mug arrived.  Sarah banished it from the kitchen because it’s canary yellow.  I think it’s hand-wash anyway, so it will continue to hold baby-proofing outlet covers and look good on the top shelf in my shack next to the liquid-crystal painted Jicamarca mug.  Speaking of baby-proofing, Evan is on the move…

I built a gate that fits in the aperture of my shack desk.  An unintentional feature of this is that I can still reach the keyboards through a gap at the top.  It’s a little hard to send CW through there.  But, it keeps curious Evan away from the jungle of wires that make up this “wireless” station.

In January, I took down my VHF antennas from the main house chimney.  I had estimated the wind surface area of the chimney and determined that the wind load of the antennas increased it by 15-20%.  Since I know that the guys (it was built in 1946ish, so yes, guys) who built the house didn’t do any calculations I figured that the safety factor was at least a factor of two.  But, I was growing increasingly uneasy about the torque exerted by the antennas on the chimney, so I took them down.

In March, I had the opportunity to pick up (from K3AJ, who beat me by three QSOs in ARRL SS CW last year…need to be disciplined since I left 4 hours on the table) a M2 2M9SSB Yagi for two meters on great terms (per usual).  This antenna is lighter and stronger than the homebrew K1FO that I had been using.  I cut up the elements from the 2-meter K1FO to make Yagis (also K1FO designs) for 222 and 432 on 10-foot booms.  Need to finish those and put them up.

We have another, shorter chimney on the addition that houses my hamshack.  This chimney has served as the anchor for my 10-meter rotable (by the Armstrong method) dipole for a while now.  Branches from a nearby tree have impinged on the rotation somewhat, but since it’s bidirectional it hasn’t been a big deal.  But, I decided that this might be a good location for the new 2M9SSB, the A50-3S (3-el 6-meter Yagi), and the 10-meter dipole.  I himmed and I hawed.  Then, I climbed the tree and sawed.  It’s a miracle I didn’t end up with poison ivy.

I upgraded the 10-meter dipole using hardware from DX Engineering so it could be mounted to a mast (old method was not mechanically sound, especially for something that would be rotated with a T2X).

A few weeks ago, I assembled and installed the whole mess…see photo at the top of the post.  I’m now using a Hy-Gain T2X (purchased at Dayton in 2005—I showed up at my in-laws’ grinning ear-to-ear with the motor in one hand in the control box in the other—they still love to tell this story) instead of a CDE TR-2 rotator.  The T2X can probably turn the house.

A spring wind storm dislodged the branch that supported my 80-meter wire vertical and one end of the 20-meter dipole.  So, I cleaned that up last weekend.  By “cleaned,” I mean I took both of those antennas down.  I also took down the 160-meter TEE because one of the TEE wires was very close to the new VHF array.  At this point, I was only QRV on the “Technician bands”…minus 80…40/15/10/6/2.  I almost got the 160-meter wire all the way out of the tree except the rope that supported the center (TEE junction) bound up with the junction about 10 feet off the ground.  So, I improvised a hot knife on a stick to cut the poly rope:

It worked great.  As she should have, Sarah gave me a hard time.  There are two types of people: those who watch Red Green and there are those who inspire Red Green.

Taking a wonderful brilliant hint from N4YDU, I replaced my 30-meter coax-fed dipole with a 30-meter open-wire-fed dipole.  While I prefer resonant single-band antennas for contesting (clean patterns and nothing to touch when changing bands), every other kind of operation can tolerate tune-up.  The open-wire-fed 30-meter dipole not only tunes well on 17 and 12 meters, it just has a slightly narrower pattern!  An aside:  After the 2010 ARRL 10-meter contest, I posted to the PVRC reflector that I had been running 100 watts to a dipole at 30 feet.  This prompted my neighbor (who lives about 2 miles away, a neighbor for bands below 76 GHz) K3KU to pay me a visit because I had beat him in every pileup that weekend.  He thought surely I was running a KW to 5 elements at 60 feet!  He runs an open-wire fed 135-foot long dipole on all bands through a tuner.  The pattern of that antenna looks like a sea anemone on 10 meters!

Worked D3AA on the third call on 30-meter CW last night.  So, I guess that antenna is working.  Also worked VP9GE on 6 meters. There’s a certain amount of satisfaction working DX with a transverter you designed (mostly) and built yourself.

I have a wicked RFI problem on 6 meters when I run the amp (150-watt Mirage brick).  It’s probably RF on the power lines, although it doesn’t set off the CO detector like 40 meters does.  So, it could be RF pick up on the audio wiring in my shack.  In any case, need to get that worked out before the ARRL June Es contest.

But it’s been a heckuva week.  Not any Ham radio activity or blogging for W2LJ this past week as my Mom was in the hospital and that was my main focus.

She was having a lot of pain in her right side and it finally got to be too much for her to take. My sister texted me very early Tuesday morning that she was with our Mom and had called 911.  I didn’t go into work that day; and spent most of it in the Emergency Room.  First thoughts were either gall bladder or kidney stones.  All the sophisticated tests didn’t reveal too much of anything.  A thorough “old fashioned” exam by an “old school” Chinese doctor led to a hunch and another X-ray revealed a slight fracture to a rib.

Today my Mom was sprung from the hospital and is currently staying at my sister’s house and should be there for the next few weeks to a month.  She’s looking rested and more relaxed now that she knows what was causing the pain.  I think that finding out the cause of something like this is more than half the battle.  Once you can get a little peace of mind, the rest can fall into place.

I did get a chance to get back on the radio for a bit this afternoon to find not much going on. 10, 12, 15 and 17 Meters were all dead when I listened this afternoon.  I finally worked EA3DD, Manuel on 20 Meters for a brief QSO. He was very loud – 599 into NJ and I was graced with a 549 report back.  I’ll take that any day.

Oh, even though it seems that 2011/2012 will be known as the “Winter That Never Was” here in the NorthEast (I saw robins this morning and the crocusses are already popping up in the front yard), here’s K6BBQ’s homage to FYBO:

Hey, according to the KX3 reflector – the Operator’s Manual will be released on Monday at the Elecraft Website!  Getting closer!

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

It’s been over two months since I last posted, and I realized that part of the reason for that is that I’ve been waiting for something “important enough” to write about. Along the same lines, I’ve skipped operating in a couple of contests recently where I’d done so in the past because I didn’t have enough time to put in more than a couple of hours in the chair. I decided to fix both of those things recently.

Last weekend was one of the “big” contests, the CW version of the ARRL DX contest. In this contest, DX stations work US & Canadian stations, and vice-versa. (As opposed to contests where anybody works anybody, or are primarily US/Canada only.) This is a 48 hour contest, and while I’ve never operated for that entire period, I do usually try to spend time operating both during the day and in the evening to take advantage of different types of propagation at the different times of day. Last weekend, I didn’t have time to do that, but I did have a few hours on Sunday afternoon. I decided to spend the afternoon working whatever stations I could. When I operate in a contest, I like to have some kind of goal for myself. For this contest, I knew that I wasn’t going to beat my own personal best, so I decided that I’d do nothing but work multipliers for my first 100 QSOs.

Generally, this is kind of silly thing to do, especially for person who works in “Search & Pounce” mode, where you’re trying to just make contacts. Multipliers have additional value, and there are all kinds of strategies on working multipliers versus just working stations, but most of those apply to bigger stations who know they’ll be competitive. In any case, I decided that it would be fun to do, and that’s exactly what I did. Once I hit 100 QSOs I started working any other station that I found, but I still managed to work 141 multipliers out of 169 contacts.

My final score was only a bit over 71,000 points, which in this contest, is very low, but I did have a good time doing it, and that’s the point. Hopefully, this will get me “back in the saddle” for both contesting and working on my blog.

For anyone interested, here’s my claimed score:

         Band    QSOs    Pts  Cty
           7      35     105   22
          14      66     198   58
          21      56     168   49
          28      12      36   12
       Total     169     507  141
       Score : 71,487

You can meet up with a whole bunch of buds and combine to form one of those multi-multi teams.  Or you can go solo and operate from your shack in a variety of categories.  You can even go and BE the DX, like some friends that I know – Bob N4BP and John K4BAI come to mind.

OR, you can take a portable rig, a hunk o’ wire, a battery and a tuner and head out to the great outdoors to enjoy some sunshine and some plain ol’ fashioned fun.

Any ideas who that might be, showing us the way?

Sure enough – Jim W1PID – enjoying the DX Contest from the banks of the Winnipesaukee River.

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

Since 0000 UTC Saturday morning (Friday night here) the bands were absolutely humming.  Hard to find spectrum that wasn’t occupied by someone calling ‘CQ TEST” or with two stations engaging in an exchange. It’s now 0000 UTC Monday morning here, and the bands are eerily quiet.

The weekend was like all the others around here – super busy.  I did not get to spend nearly as much time on the air as I wanted to; but I did get a couple of hours last night and then a couple more this afternoon.  I added quite a few new countries to my Diamond DXCC tally.  Not as many as I would have liked; but I should be well on my way now.

The bands seemed to be in good shape and I even heard some activity on 10 Meters and joined in the fun there. My plan of action was to “cherry pick” and work the louder stations I was hearing, thinking that would give my QRP: signal the best chance of being heard.  I didn’t stick with that strategy, however and ended up working quite a few weak ones, too.  It pretty much turned out that I was able to work anyone that I called.  I even got a new one that I have never worked before – QRP or QRO. I worked ZD8Z on Ascension Island for the first time ever.  Unfortunately, the only station that wasn’t able to pick me out of the din was OA4SS down in Peru.  I tried for quite a while, but in the end was not successful.

I have tomorrow off for the long President’s Day weekend.  I am so tired right now that I am going to turn in early and I will get my QSO for the 20th, tomorrow.

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

I went downstairs and flipped the K2 on and tuned around 40 Meters – WOW !!!!!!

After a long and full day of work, my brain is simply not ready to wrap around 40 WPM code.  I worked HG3R who was cruising at about 35 WPM and called it a night. Tomorrow, after a good night’s sleep and after the opening hours pandemonium is over, I will be ready to jump into the fray.  Also, during the daylight hours, stations will be spread out more as other bands open.  Seems like right now, everyone is crammed into 40 and 80 Meters.

I’ve been at this Morse game for over 30 years now; and I really admire these guys who can while away at 40 – 50 WPM.  I would love to be able to attain that kind of speed; but right now, it sounds more like a buzz saw than Morse Code.  God bless them, you have to admire and respect that kind of ability.

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