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Feeling “Fox-ish”

July 31st, 2014 |

Tonight is my turn to serve as one of the two Foxes in the 20 Meter QRP Fox hunt. If you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about – they say a picture is worth a thousand words:

No, no, no, no – not quite, but let me give you the lowdown, if you’re not quite familiar with the concept of QRP Fox hunting, and want to give it a shot. For the “official” rules, please check out: www.qrpfoxhunt.org/

Tonight, Don NK6A and I, W2LJ will serve as the two Foxes. We will both be hiding in the 20 Meter woods, somewhere between 14.050 and 14.070 MHz. One of us will be the “lower Fox” hiding between 14.050 and 14.060 MHz. The other will be the “upper Fox” hiding between 14.060 and 14.070 MHz.

Your job, as one of the Hounds, is to find us and work us – both. Don and I will both be working split, that is, transmitting on one frequency and listening on another. Just like W1AW/XX and DXpeditions and rare DX do. Once you find us, you have to figure out where we’re listening. Once you think you have the spot – and ONLY then, I might add, you will throw out your call sign. Please! Only once or twice – not over and over until the cows come home! The QRP Fox hunts are a great place for learning and practicing pile up discipline.You know ….. the DX Code of Conduct.

The Fox will announce the call sign he has heard and will send his exchange to that station like in this example – let’s say I pick out AB9CA’s call from the pack of Hounds. I will send:

AB9CA DE W2LJ TU 559 NJ LARRY 5W BK

I am saying that I have heard you, AB9CA, your RST is 559, and that I am in NJ and my name is Larry and that I am transmitting using 5 Watts. Once AB9CA hears my half of the exchange, he will come back with something on the order of:

BK DE AB9CA TU 559 DAVE AL 5W BK

He’s telling me that my RST is also 559, that his name is Dave, that his QTH is AL and that he’s also transmitting using 5 Watts. ONLY when I acknowledge him with a “TU” and then send a “QRZ?” asking for the next station, is the exchange completed. If he does not hear my “TU”, then he either has to listen for my fill request(s), or try again later as the exchange was not completed. Only when both Fox and Hound receive their exchanges, is there a valid QSO. This is known as “grabbing a pelt” amongst us Fox hunters. If you work only one Fox, you have a “One-fer”, work both and you have a coveted “Two-fer”. And believe me, due to band conditions, there will be times you will walk away with a “One-fer” and will be quite happy with it!

That being said, you really do have to try and work both Foxes in a 90 minute period, from 0100 – 0230 UTC. Here on the East coast, that’s from 9:00 to 10:30 PM. If you’re located in the middle of the country, you probably stand a good shot, as I am in NJ and Don is in CA. East coast stations may not be able to hear me, especially if the band is long. West coast stations may not hear Don. BUT ….. the theory has been known to go out the window compared to reality – so who knows? Even though it shouldn’t happen, I just might be able to hear up and down the East coast as well as the rest of the US and Canada. It’s happened before! And don’t give up just because you might not hear either one or both Foxes. Band conditions have known to change at the last minute. I can personally tell you that there have been times that I have not heard a Fox for 80 of the 90 minutes of the hunt, only to have him pop his little fuzzy head out of the woods for the last 10 minutes. If I had QRT’ed early, I would have been out of luck. There have been a time or two where I was the last Hound in the hunt to grab a pelt. Persistence can pay off here – big time.

Foxes tend to send Morse at a speed around 20 WPM. But please don’t feel intimated by that. If you are comfortable sending and copying at 15 WPM, 12 WPM or even 5 WPM – please call me anyway! I will slow down for you.

Why should you join in on the QRP Fox hunts? First off, they are fun! Lots of fun. Secondly, participating will increase your skill sets (buzz word alert!). You’ll find your Morse Code speed increasing and maybe more importantly, your skill in dealing with pile ups will increase dramatically. I have been participating in the QRP Fox hunts since my call sign was N2ELW – and after a hiatus, have been participating as both a Hound and a Fox continuously since 2003. My ability to work DXpeditions, special events, scarce DX has increased by light years. The success I have in DX chasing as a QRPer, I owe directly to the training ground of the QRP Fox hunts.

Ahhh! The sweet smell of QRP DX!

So don’t be intimidated by the pileup or the code speed. Jump in and give it a go. The fun you will have and the sense of accomplishment from “grabbing a pelt” or two is worth the effort you’ll put in.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP – When you care to send the very least!

The USA vs Europe

July 30th, 2014 |

Author: Larry W2LJ

Disclaimer – this is meant to be a bit of humor – let’s not all get offended!

There are many differences between the USA and Europe:

First off, Europe would fit inside the USA.

You call it petrol, we call it gasoline.
You call them chips (or whatever), we call them fries.
You use the metric system, we’re still on standard.
You use Celsius, we use Fahrenheit.
You call it the cinema, we call it the movies.

And so on, and so on, and so on ……….

But as a Ham, I’ve noticed a big difference in the way we approach special event stations. Here in the US, for the most part but not always, we apply to the FCC through the ARRL for special 1X1 call signs. For instance, when the Piscataway Amateur Radio Club celebrated the tri-centennial of the founding of Piscataway, we applied for and used W2P.

The 13 Colonies special event used call signs such as K2I for New Jersey, K2E for Delaware and so on. The special event station that just celebrated the 45th Anniversary of Apollo 11? W4A.

But in Europe, you guys take the opposite route! Special event stations from European nations can be a mouthful. DM200TSV, SF2014ECC, E72NATO, 3E2000PC, LZ1437MGS and my all time favorite, SV2013ATGM.

What I like about these European call signs is that they try to bear some significance towards the event they are commemorating – SV2013ATGM was about Alexander the Great, E72NATO celebrated membership in NATO and so on. A lot more descriptive than 1X1 call signs, that’s for sure.

I’m just waiting to hear one some day that has all the numbers 0 through 9 and all 26 letters of the alphabet. THAT would be a special, special event call sign – a bear to copy, but special, nonetheless!

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

Same callsigns?

July 30th, 2014 |

Author: Roger G3XBM

One of the drawbacks of WSPR (currently) is you tend to get spotted, or spot, the same stations over and over again. I am even seeing the same stations being spotted on 10m and on 6m.

It would be very nice if there were a lot more active stations, so spots came from a variety of stations. I am even seeing this on JT65 and JT9-1.

Perhaps people think these “new fangled” digital modes are hard and so only a limited number of people (currently) use them. Let me say, if even I can use these modes then anyone can! All these modes are great with low power and have really opened my eyes as to how far very low powered signal can be detected.

10m unique WSPR spots this afternoon (duplicates not shown)

Overpriced KX3 options

July 29th, 2014 |

Author: Roger G3XBM

Steve G1KQH has spotted the price of “after-market” mics on eBay. Under £5.

“The price of a Microphone:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171263089606?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Someone is having a good laugh at stitching folk up with those KX3 Mics. The whole KX3 price is through the roof but there are plenty on the bands?”

I stand by my assertion that, sadly, the KX3 is overpriced, certainly over here in the UK. I know that it is a truly exceptional radio with a first class specification but, as I have said before, for my sort of operating – mainly from home and occasionally /P, the FT817ND is FAR better value and it covers 432MHz all modes too. I cannot fault the FT817 although I appreciate the KX3 is better on RX. My FT817 has worked the world on SSB and always with simple wire antennas. I have worked a lot of continents with whips on the rig indoors too.

Near miss – 11742km on 10m JT65

July 29th, 2014 |

Author: Roger G3XBM

This evening CA3SOC (Chile) was calling CQ on 10m JT65. I called and called him – he called CQ about 14 times – but I was unable to raise him. At the start he was -16dB S/N but in the end was down to -22dB S/N. I was copied in Sweden at the same time, but that was no compensation.

Earlier in the afternoon I worked an E74 on PSK63, my first ever QSO on PSK at that speed. I am finding real-time keyboard operating in PSK modes quite “challenging”. Whenever I use the keyboard e.g to write this blog, I make lots of errors that need correcting. This is hard on PSK31 and PSK63 in real time. JT65 and JT9-1 are a lot easier. Currently I am using Digipan software which is simple and basic for PSK modes. I am using WSJTX V1.3 r3673 for JT65 and JT9-1.

FOBB 2014

July 28th, 2014 |

Author: Larry W2LJ

I ended up staying home, working from the shack and forgoing my bumblebee number. The weather was partly a factor as one minute it was sunny and five minutes later it looked like it was going to downpour.

The real issue was my back. I woke up this morning with a stiff lower back. Nothing incapacitating, but sore enough that hiking to my FOBB destination while carrying all my gear, and then setting up would have been no fun. Added to that was the fact that my sore back has also slowed me down somewhat, so if I would have had to dismantle the station in a hurry, it would have been a problem.

Even from home, on the good antennas, band conditions seemed to stink. I didn’t hear a lot of FOBB’ers, and those I did hear were pretty weak. Giving out a 559 was generous today. I managed to work 15 stations.

I sure hope band and weather conditions and my back are better for the Skeeter Hunt!

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

Continuing JT65/JT9 today

July 27th, 2014 |

Author: Roger G3XBM

When we get back from shopping I shall return to JT65-HF and JT9-1 modes hoping to work more stations. Yesterday, staying on 20m, I worked 4 Europeans running 2.5 or 5W. JT65-HF is very intuitive and works well. Althought I have had JT9-1 QSOs on 10m in the past, I suspect the rig stability is “challenging” and JT65-HF gives me a better chance. JT65-HF is some 4dB worse than WSPR but the TX period is only 48 secs (1 minute TX period but actual TX is less) so may be better with QSB? JT9-1 is a narrower bandwidth mode than JT65-HF and is about 2dB worse than WSPR. Of course, JT65 and JT9 are proper QSO modes.

Sunspot count today is 76 (decent) and 20-30MHz conditions are supposed to be “normal” so there could well be some F2 (as well as Es) on 10m today. JT65-HF and JT9-1 on 10m are calling I think.

The great advantage of WSPR is you can set the rig running and monitor things in another room. JT65 and JT9 seem to require “hands on” operation, which is fine.