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This has been a bad week for me as far as the QRP Fox hunts go.  On Tuesday night, I was only able to hear both Foxes at ESP levels.  I “knew” where they were; but they were much too weak to even bother calling – no way they would have heard me. Tonight is a rare QRN free night on 40 Meters, but alas, same problem as Tuesday night.  I can’t hear the Foxes for anything.

So instead, I headed down the lower part of the band and was picking off Caribbean stations that are flexing their CW muscles for this weekend’s big DX contest.  I got Curacao, and Bonaire and Aruba among others. And I even got a “brandy-new” entity for me via QRP. I worked PZ5RO in Suriname on 40 Meters.  I heard him call “QRL?” and he gave out his call and I nabbed him on my first shot. Sweet!

If you’re new to QRP and you’re hesitant about jumping into this contest, don’t be.  Have no fear, jump in and have fun.  But (there’s always a “but”, isn’t there?) you have to be sensible about it.  For the first half or so of the contest, don’t get frustrated if you don’t get the results that you want.  Remember at the beginning, you will be competing with a ton of QRO stations.  As a beginner, you might want to stay with “hunting and pouncing” and working the loudest stations.  If you try and try; but can’t get an answer within a reasonable amount of time – move on.  Work what you can.  As Kenny Rogers sang, “You have to know when to hold ’em, and when to fold ’em”.  Contests like this will really help you learn the capabilities and strong points of your station.

QRPers stand a better chance during the last half of the contest, if my experience means anything.  Towards the end, stations that are still hungry for points seem to hear sharper as they eke out those weaker signals in order to inflate their point totals.  On Sunday afternoon, I would try working just about anyone that you can hear.  At this point, even the weaker stations without super antenna arrays seem to respond to QRPers.

Don’t be surprised when you find out you can work a lot of DX with low power and modest antennas.  A few years ago, as a personal experiment, I decided to get on Saturday night and work the loudest DX stations that I was hearing, while the K2 was turned down to 1 Watt.  I think I earned the “1000 Mile per Watt” award about thirty times over that evening – and that was when we were in the middle of the sunspot doldrums.

And speaking of the “1000 Mile per Watt” award – you should be able to earn that this weekend without breaking a sweat.  And if you’re working on your DXCC – just starting,  in the middle, or near the finish line, this is always a great event for that.  Also keep in mind Diamond DXCC for this year. I am hoping to inflate my country total big time towards that award.

The contest is also a good way to increase your code speed a bit.  Don’t get frustrated with the guys who seem to be sending at 50 WPM,that sound like a buzz saw.  Pay them no attention – move on.  But don’t fall into the trap of only working slower speed guys either.  Work the ones who are a bit faster than you’re comfortable with.  It may take you eight or nine times to get their call correct; but what they hey – it’s not like you’re in this to take the whole shebang, right?

Bottom line is to have fun – be a “Giver of Points”, relax and have a good time.

On quite a different; but sad note ……. I heard on the radio, on the way home from work today, that Gary Carter passed away, losing his battle with cancerous brain tumors.  Gary “Kid” Carter, along with Johnny Bench may arguably have been two of the greatest catchers the National League has ever seen.  His coming to the NY Mets in 1985 was a catalyst that started a series of winning seasons that lasted until the early 90s.  I had the great fortune to meet him at a baseball card show after he had retired from the game.  Not only was he a great baseball player, totally worthy of his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, he was also a total gentleman.  The world of baseball (and NY Met fans) is poorer today for Gary’s passing.  But I’m sure he’s being more than welcomed on Heaven’s All Star Team.

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

Thanks to all of you here and on AmateurRadio.com who were so kind as to express condolences and kind words upon our Sadie’s passing.

This is going to take a while to get over – but life does go on.

So …… on an Amateur Radio note, the bands did not seem to be active at all today.  For a few brief minutes this afternoon, I was able to get on and listen.  I heard and worked EI4AA on 12 Meters and was surprised by the fact.

Bernard was pretty weak hear – 569 or there abouts, maybe a little louder – 589 on QSB peaks, maybe?  As I called him, I thought to myself, “There’s no way I am going to get an answer here.”  But sure enough, I did and on my first call – and I received a 559 report for my efforts.  And I was very happy to receive that.  Then I went down to 20 Meters and worked a station in Texas who was working the SKCC Weekend Sprint.

After that, I had to QRT as my daughter Cara (holding Sadie above), who is a member of the children’s choir at Church, was part of a free concert this afternoon.  The theme was “A Night on Broadway” and the children’s choir, the adult choir, the hand bell and hand chime choirs all participated, performing various Broadway tunes. It was a very enjoyable two hour event.

Today was very windy and cold – winter has come back to New Jersey with a vengeance.  Yesterday, the forecast was for 1-3″ of snow, but that forecast was a bust.  We barely got a dusting – and please don’t misunderstand – I am in no way complaining!

As soon as it turns to 2/13 UTC, I am going to head downstairs to see if I can get a daily QSO or two in and then off to bed.

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

Now this is REALLY Freeze Your Buns Off / Polar Bear Moonlight Madness !!!

QRP’ers – are we dedicated or just plain crazy?

Gatineau Park and the Wolf Trail sure look beautiful!  Thanks Martin, for sharing, you have shown us the quintessential FYBO / PBMME effort.

FYI, the HK0NA DXpedition ended today.  Thanks to the crew and its supporters for their efforts.  I got them exactly once and that’s plenty for me.  According to the Team, even after 190,000 +++ QSOs, the pileups were still very deep.  Hope all of you were lucky enough to have worked them, if you were trying.

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

Since it’s Friday, it must be date night.  20, 30 and 40 Meters are spectacular!  Not a bit of local neighborhood QRN – the local Plasma TV watchers must be out to dinner or a movie.

The FOC is all over lower 40 Meters with their contest, so I switch over to 30 Meters and while quickly scanning, I hear a pileup.  I have no idea who it is, but by listening carefully, I can tell that they are listening up 2 kHz.  Abiding by the rule, “Work first, worry later”, I nabbed them on my third try.

They eventually gave their call and it turns out to be the HU2DX DXpedition down in El Salvador.  The fact that they were able to dig me out of the pileup is no wonder.  Here’s what they’re using:

For SSB and CW, two K3s and a K2.  Digimodes will be done through a Yaesu FT-840. The antenna on 30 Meters is a Spiderbeam.

Not only did I snag a DXpedition, but I score another country for DDXCC!

Sweet!

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

As most folks know, we had the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US last week. It’s a tradition to not only eat turkey with “all the fixin’s” but also have have some leftovers for a few days after that. I’ve got the same for my blog mostly with respect to things that were still around after Thanksgiving. So, in no particular order:

I did my usual “playing around” in the big CQ World Wide DX contest this past weekend. This is one of the “main events” in the ham radio contesting world, and while I didn’t really have time for more than just a few hours of making contacts, I did note a few interesting/amusing/annoying things. In this contest, you get points for working stations in other countries (not your own) with what’s called a “multiplier” based on the country and something called a zone. (The term “DX” refers to a station from another country.) Without going into too much detail, it’s relevant to know that there are 3 zones within the US. Your score is calculated by multiplying your points (number of contacts with stations outside your country) by the zone and country multipliers. You are allowed to work stations in your own country for the multiplier value, you just get zero points for doing so. It’s important to note that while you can get the 3 zone multipliers that are available for the US by working stations in Canada, if you want the country multiplier credit for working the US you must work a station in the US. Since it’s a zero-point contact, what I try to do is to find a US station that’s not busy and work them, since I don’t want to take them away from working their DX. Most operators understand this and have no problem with it, but on at least one occasion I called a US station who was CQing (repeatedly) with no responses only to have him respond “SRI ONLY DX”. In other words, he was telling me that he would not make a contact with me.

As noted, I only work US stations when they aren’t busy which was the case here. A complete contact with both stations exchanging information during a CW contest (which this was) takes around 20 seconds or less. So instead of helping me out by just completing the contact, he probably saved maybe 10 seconds by sending that other information. So much for good sportsmanship. (For what it’s worth, I noted his call and will avoid making contact with that station in the future, even in contests where non-DX contacts “count”.)

Also during the contest, I was working stations on 20 meters just calling stations and tuning up the band to find the next station. It’s not unusual, while doing this, to have another station that is doing the same as you are, and depending on what band you are on and the propagation conditions, you’ll sometimes be able to hear the other station. Sometimes, you wind up moving with that other station (sometimes more than one) and working the next station up the band either just before or just after that station repeatedly. Normally this isn’t a big deal, but I got stuck behind the equivalent of tractor-trailer truck on small road doing 20mph below the speed limit:

There was a station that would usually call the DX station before me and work him first. No problem. However, unlike the normal orderly contact sequence (which for this contest is very simple: a signal report, normally 599, then your zone, which is 5 for me, meaning my half of the exchange is send in CW as “TU 5NN 5”, with “TU” meaning Thank You, acknowledging that I got the contact information from the other station) he’d send something like “TU 5NN 4 4 4 TU DE (his callsign) (his callsign) (his callsign) 73″. You might send your callsign if you think the DX station didn’t get it, but the accepted way of doing it is prior to the other information and only if you think the other station might not have gotten it correctly. What wound up happening is that the DX station (who is normally working stations very quickly; remember that I mentioned it normally takes 20 seconds or less to complete a full contact) would hear the “TU 5NN 4 4” then assume that the other guy was through sending and send his “TU QRZ?” (meaning he got your info and is moving on), only to realize the guy was still sending. In one case I heard the DX start to send his final sequence 3 times “TU …  TU … TU” before the other guy finished.

The problem with doing this is that you slow everyone down, and while it’s not against the rules to do this, it’s another example of poor sportsmanship. The station doing this had to know that he was slowing everyone down. (And before everyone jumps on me, this was definitely not a new contester, so it wasn’t a case of “not knowing better”.) I’m not sure why he was doing this, but finally I just gave up and jumped far enough up the band so that he was no longer “in front of me” anymore. (In fact, I went way up the band and started tuning down, meaning that while I might cross paths once more, it would be in opposite directions.

I’ve got a few more leftovers to go, but I think I’ll just put them back in the ‘fridge for next time.

I often think of amateur radio as if I’m on a hunting or fishing expedition.  I know for younger and perhaps less patient individuals, this thrill may or may not be shared with the same excitement and enthusiasm.  When I walk down the fourteen steps into my basement ham shack or drive up to the mountains for a few hours of portable, outdoors operating….I don’t always know what is waiting for me on the bands. 

I’m reminded of an interview I did with Duncan McLaughlin, KU0DM back in episodes 28 and episode 29.  I hope you’ll listen to those two older episodes.  Duncan and I discussed the possible challenges of attracting todays youth into the hobby.  The youth of today are growing up in the information age where everything is instant and immediate.  Want to talk to someone on the other side of town?  They probably have a cell phone.  Want to talk to someone on the other side of the planet?  They probably have Skype.  Duncan believed the possible ice breaker was in the area of Radio Sport or contesting.  Duncan described his philosophy as the difference between fishing and fish sticks.  One can take a fishing pole to your favorite lake, pond or stream and may or may not catch a fish….but chances are the local grocery store will be well stocked in boxes of fish sticks.  This simple, yet truly interesting way of looking at things is really what amateur radio is all about and in my opinion what makes it special.   

While amateur radio requires a license in order to operate on the bands, what amateur radio gives us in return is a license to learn.  What we learn might fall into the category of electronics, antennas, solar propagation etc. and these are all important.  However, just as important, I enjoy learning more about the geography of those new DX stations I’ve been working. 

Of course, when I see a station call sign such as a M0, ON or JA I do recognize them being geographically located in England, Belgium and Japan respectively.  However, I’ve also really enjoyed learning more about the callsigns I’m not as familiar with such as UT, CT3 and my most recent DX entity of T32.

Yes our planet is large, but our wonderful hobby of amateur radio can make it much smaller if we let it.  As most have probably heard, band conditions are getting better and better.  Even for US technician class operators, the 10 meter band has been booming with lots of excellent DX opportunities.  Go to your ham shacks and get those rigs fired up and enjoy the thrill of the hunt.

Until next time….

73 de KD0BIK (Jerry)