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Over the past few days if not weeks I have been getting updates on my Iphone of the solar conditions and it seemed solar flares were a dime a dozen!! Here at VE3WDM it's QRP all the way and max power is 5 watts. This evening I turned on the K3 and was not expecting to hear all that much and maybe just log some "local" QSO's. I was able to hear S573DX  and he was about an S9, I tried to make the contact using 1 watt but was only met with "VE3?" I then doubled the power and that did the trick with 2 watts for a 5NN and 2,222 miles per watt contact. I then spun the dial again and came across H70ORO from Nicaragua and was able to work him with 3 watts. I have for some reason always had trouble with South and Central America from my location but was thrilled to work him with only 3 watts for 729 miles per watt. That's not bad at all considering that part of the globe on a real good day is very hard for me to hit with a contact. Finally I was able to just at one point pick out Z33Z from the noise floor but as I was writing this post and listening Z33Z from Macedonia became an S5 signal. I decided to crank the power to a full 5 watts and give him a go. I made it but with a few repeats and Z33Z is in the log. That was it for the evening with ham radio I was very happy with the contacts that were made.
YOU GOTTA LOVE QRP!!!!

There are things in our daily lives that we acknowledge as being true, even though technically they aren't. There are all sorts of phrases that just don't make sense, but we say them all the time. I've played a lot of baseball and I am a big fan. There are phrases in that sport that confound logic. For example, when your team needs a rally and the batter at the plate takes a big swing and misses, how many times have you heard the phrase, "Okay , we don't need a homerun, just get on base.......really, you don't need a homerun? When, in any baseball game, do you not need a homerun? Yet, its a common phrase and if you are a baseball fan, I'm sure you've said it. Or, you yell at the pitcher who is having control problems, "just throw strikes". Now do  you really think the pitcher is thinking anything different? Do you think he is intentionally walking the opposing batters just to irritate the crowd? Or if you are a basketball fan, "They need to quit shooting so many three pointers". What you really mean is that you wish they would quit missing three pointers. How can you make a three pointer, if you don't shoot it? For the non US readers, I'm sure there are similar phrases in other sports that confound logic when you literally interpret the phrase.

So, that brings me to the term "QRP Key". We've all seen it, an advertisment or solicitation for a small morse key or paddle. Phrases like, "a nice compact morse key suitable for QRP operation" or the key is "QRP" sized. Now this brings a few questions to my mind. QRP in the technical sense means low power, so can you only sent 5 watts with this key?  I suppose QRP operators are not suppose to use full sized keys or bugs as obviously you wouldn't be QRP any longer. Does using a full size key boost your signal? Does this mean that this small key cannot be used for QRO operation, will this "QRP key" degrade my high power signal? What are the specifications for a "QRP" key?

What about the QRPp operator? What are they to do for an appropriate key? Surely if you have QRP keys, QRPp keys must be even smaller and only those with very small hands can be successful, QRPp operators.

All of this is very confusing from a literal sense. If I am new to QRP must I get a new key? Dare I mix my QRO and QRP paddles or will I have problems if I do? I have this nice desk paddle that I love, but surely I couldn't use it with my KX3, or could I? Since the KX3 is larger than my KX1 maybe I could use my big paddle with it, but definitely not with the KX1. Surely you understand the dilemmas here. What to do?

Now, a few more descriptive terms for these small keys is the term "portable", "small "or the phrase "for field use". These terms, from a literal pespective, seem to make more sense. Certainly these "QRP keys" make sense for the QRO operator on an expediton who doesn't want to carry around a heavy key. Begali uses the term "adventure key", which seems to be self explanatory and doesn't invoke a QRP only use.

So, be careful and use your own judgement on when and where to use your QRP key, someone may be watching.

The Saturday afternoon sky

Not sure why but I have never taken part in any field day, I can remember there have been some years were I was busy. I have often seen field day setups as I drove from here to there but as I said I have never been involved in one. Well 2013 field day was my first I was not with a group from a club but did it on my own. Not because I'm not into clubs but was not sure if this year I would be busy doing other things as Julie's

Saturdays operating position

relatives are in from England. It turned out I was able to get some time in on Saturday and Sunday and I had a blast. I was operating search and pounce and was using my KX3 on battery power only. I did bring along my spare battery but did not have to use it either day. My antenna was a mobile whip and I stayed on 20m for the contest. I was reading on twitter how 10m and 15m were dead. Funny thing too I was also reading other twitter posts of how this was a field day with very little action on the bands. I found things to be very busy and I was always able to make a contact....well hear them but maybe not make the contact. It sure was a change to not have my PC with me during a contest. I was hand writing my log and also having to run down my contact list to see if I have worked the station already. I did get a few "worked B4" but that was due to the fact I was not able to see them in my log sheets. At the start of the contest I was getting asked to repeat my category almost every contact!! That told me I was for sure messing something up, turns out I was

Sundays spot...lunch time

Sundays weather

sending B1 and not 1B as a category....sorry to all those who I threw off at the start of the contest. Once I got the exchange sorted out all was going very well. The weather on Saturday was touch and go there was very severe weather clouds moving overhead all the time. I must say for the time I was out on Saturday I did not have rain at all. On Sunday it was once again very humid and HOT HOT!! The nice thing about Sunday was the bad weather seemed to had taken a good long break. On Sunday I went to a different spot, it was a nice park just north of me. I did have some folks stop by to see what I was up too but none hung around to long. When the contest was over I was on the air for only a total of 4 hours and I made 50 contacts CW only. I was operating at 4 watts on the internal batteries of the KX3.  I had a nice time and was able to give the Elecraft KX3 a good workout. So as I said this was my first ever Field day and I will for sure be putting this contest in the calender for next year.

Busy making contacts

The idea was floated earlier this week about going to the beach on Thursday. The weather looked great I had Thursday and Friday off so the decision was made! There is a nice spot that Julie and I go to all the time called Port Dover on lake Erie. This town is famous for it's Friday the 13th motorcycle gathering. Thousands of  bikes head to Port Dover for a massive get together.  On most weekends the beach is packed so going during the week we were not expecting huge crowds and hard to find parking. Turned out the crowds were small and I was able to park right at the beach with only a 10 pace walk to the car to get anything we needed. The wheels started to spin in my head on Wednesday evening about making this an HF/beach day. I have the Elecraft KX3 and it's all charged up this time, but I also have my extra battery I purchased. Julie thought it was a great idea as long as HF did not take over the day. So with moderation in mind I packed up the KX3 along with the extra battery. The antenna was going to be my mobile whip antenna with coax out to my rig. The Alexloop would have been nice but not knowing how crowed the beach was I left it at home.

back on the beach

I set up the rig, antenna and the lawn chair just beside Julies car....oh as a side note we had to bring both our cars as Julies relatives are in from England for a few more weeks. Our cars would not fit us and the beach gear........... I drifted a bit back to radio. The antenna was on the back of my car and with the pressing of two buttons on the KX3 the HF adventure began.
I was calling CQ at the 20m QRP watering hole and I first had N0FKC come back to me Piether was just outside Minneapolis I gave him a 559 report but once I gave it back to him the conditions had drastically changed. He was in at the noise floor and I must had been the same to him. He was in the process of sending me 73's. So that QSO did not last long at all.

View from the patio

I then put my call out again and KA3LOC came back to me with a 599 signal. We were able to spend more time in a QSO. Eric was in Kansas  and also gave me a 599 report. He was running 5 watts compared to my 3 watts. We said 73's and it was time then for me to pack things in and go back to reading and relaxing. Then it was off to the local watering hole for the famous Lake Erie perch dinner on the patio that looks out over the beach.  I was nice I had about a total of 2 hours on the radio and some great beach time.

My portable mobile by the river.

It was another great day  here and I wanted to get all the house chores done and get on to some radio stuff! I wanted to get out and about with my KX3 so today I decided to operate from the car with my 20m whip antenna. Not sure how charged up the KX3 battery was I took along with me my new external battery just in case a low battery issue came about. The All Asia contest is on so the bands could be busy with DX and I wanted to be there to make some contacts. I found a nice place in town along the river were I was able to stay in the car as the bugs are very bad at this time of year. The bands were alive with DX, the first station that was booming in was JH4UYB from Japan then came RN3F from Russia, OH2BV from Finland, LY6A from Lithuania and finally UP2L who was 17 years old by the way from Kazakhstan. All GREAT DX but none of which could hear my 5 watts from the portable setup. I then moved on to just

A view down the river

calling CQ at the 20m watering hole. I did get a response from W5ESE from Texas but conditions changed very fast and he was still trying to pull out my call form the mud. The 2 hours went by very fast without really one confirmed contact! It was now time to pack up and head for home and try to make some contacts on the Elecraft K3  this evening.
On a side note.......last night I did make contact with a new DXCC 7Z1HL from Saudi Arabia! 

The car with the mono band 30m whip

I have been reading on some blogs how op's have been able to fit in some operating time during lunch hours and been successful at making some contacts. For me lunch time is not an option as I am out and about during the day and no where near my car at the lunch hour....BUT.....I do get into work about an hour or so early and that would be my ideal radio time. I would be operating from around 5:30a.m. for an hour or so. I feel that either 40m or 30m would be my best bet around that time. When in my mobile I use mono band

The mount

Final SWR on 40m

whip antennas. To prepare for my morning mobile operating time I had to tune both my 40m and 30m whip antennas. I took with me my trusty MFJ antenna analyzer and this thing is great as I find I can tune a whip antenna to the lowest SWR on a desired frequency in about 10 minutes.  With the size of my car being very very small (Scion IQ) the ground plane is very small. For this reason I was only able to tune both antennas down to about 2.2.1 and 2.3.1. Thats ok as I do have in the KX3 an antenna tuner that will make the rig see a flat match. It was a nice sunny day with perfect temp's as well for this little project. When I was done and starting to pack up a gentleman came up to me and introduced himself. He saw my license plate (VE3WDM) and connected that call to my blog. He was a ham as well and a reader of my blog.....kinda cool. We had a nice conversation for about 15 minutes exchanging ham talk and he had to get back to eating his lunch and heading back to his job. (as for me I had the day off) I am hoping if the weather is good this coming week that I will get my CW out on 30 and 40m in the early mornings.

Final SWR on 30m

OM7RU

This evening 20m was once again rather slow but I was able to catch EI3KG from Ireland, Michal was 599 into Canada.  It was a very fast QSO with just the exchange of reports but I was able to raise Michal on my first call to him. I then came across LZ1IQ from Bulgaria and he was not able to pick me out from the noise floor. I did try a few times but gave up as there was a pileup waiting to work him and I did not want to hold him from working other stronger station.  Then came OM7RU Ricki from the Slovak Republic and I was refreshed to get a report of 569. I did mention to him that I was /QRP this is something I don't often do. Ricki was more of a relaxed DX op with giving out his name, RST and wanted the same along with the traditional TU 73.
It was time to shut the radio down for the evening and get on and  blog about the great contacts. As a side note my XYL's mom and aunt are over from England for a 4 week visit. This means the Plasma TV down in the living room is on. I get terrible interference on the rig from this TV. Its great that I have the MFJ 1026 noise cancelling unit when adjusted properly I lose any sign of the Plasma TV. This unit is great.