AmateurRadio.com

Fleets Cove Beach

Yesterday, on a day off from work, I had to head up to the Huntington Village post office to pick up a kit I ordered from China. Why my post office is a 15 minute drive (in traffic) from my home when there’s a beautiful, brand new post office, with a large self-service lobby half a mile from me is a story for another day. As-is the reason why my postal carrier is too lazy to actually leave me notices that I have a package, or ring the bell and ask for a signature. I retrieved the kit, and decided that since I was a few minutes from the North Shore, I would try for some 10 Meter mobile contacts from the beach. I headed to Fleets Cove Beach.

I plunked the mag mount to the old Buick, and plugged in my HTX-10. The band was busy, as it has been lately, but to the point where my 25 watts wasn’t getting through a lot of the pileups. One operator heard me and I logged that contact with Croatia. Not bad, but still disappointing, considering how busy it was. I was beginning to get discouraged, and thinking about calling it a day when I twirled the dial up to the AM portion of the band (29 MHz). Now, keep in mind that my HTX-10 only puts out about 7 Watts AM, and my antenna is tuned for 28.4. I had a nice QSO with M5AFD in Shropshire England. He was surprised at how well I was coming in, but there were a few deep fades. He also complimented me on the audio on the old mobile, and suggested that it would be close to optimal with a punchier mic. I may do just that.

England. AM. 7 Watts. WOW

–Neil W2NDG

I just worked the Russian Research Vessel, Akademik Fedorov, at sea.

It’s always a thrill for me to work ships at sea. This was an ordinary QSO on 12 meters… but not ordinary for me. RW1AI/MM was calling CQ. I answered and we exchanged 599s. Then I asked Mik for the name of his vessel. I looked it up on “ship track” and found its current location off Portugal with a destination of Cape Town. My guess is it will re-supply there and head to the Antarctic.

The vessel is 463 feet long and was traveling at 14 knots. I think I was traveling a lot faster than that! Even though I was sitting in my warm shack, a maritime QSO just brings adventure and the thrill of remote radio contacts to me. Thanks Mik for the nice QSO. Good sailing OM.

I made a quick hike to Knox Mountain this afternoon. It was a typical, bleak November day. But I had a great time working my old friend Jorge EA2LU from Spain. He was also running 5 watts. As I approached the pond three wild ducks took off from the quiet water.

It was a cold misty day. Last night it had snowed a half an inch. The snow had all melted by this afternoon. The walk was invigorating…

Because everything was wet, I set up on the cabin porch. I had tossed a 10 meter wire over a branch and hooked up the KX3 with the internal tuner. There were a few DX stations working split with big pileups, so I went up to 14.060 and called CQ.

EA2LU, Jorge came right back, and it was so good to hear him. We’ve had nearly 20 QSOs since 2008. Most of them were 2-way QRP.

Just as Jorge said his weather was ugly with rain, it started to sprinkle. I could see the rain drops on the pond.

“UR KX3/10M wire are doing a great job,” he sent. He gave me a 569 and he was a 579.

After the QSO with Jorge, I packed up and hiked the mile and a half back to the car. It’s supposed to snow again tonight.

I took a quick hike on Shute Hill today. I worked Florida, Greenland, and Madeira Island.

Most of the leaves have fallen… and it’s gotten pretty chilly. It was 46F today. But it was still a nice day to get out for a short hike. I went to Shute Hill and headed for Will Ellis’s back field.

I threw a 30 foot wire over an oak tree at the edge of the field and sat down. The thermometer read 60F in the sun. I ran the KX3 at 5 watts and used the 9:1 unun and the internal tuner. By this afternoon 10 meters had become quiet. So I started out on 12 meters and heard N4FNG calling CQ from near Tampa. Al was a solid 579 and he gave me the same. He was also running 5 watts… we chatted for 20 minutes. Then I went back to check out 10 meters.

I had a sip of tea from the thermos I brought and tuned around. There was OX3XR in Greenland booming in and working one station after another. Peter came back to me after several calls and we exchanged quick 599s. There a was long pileup waiting for him.

Here’s Peter’s QSL card which, I believe, shows his operating position:

In contrast… here’s the view from my operating position :

I switched to 17 meters and heard Cedric CT3FT calling CQ from Madeira Island. He was strong and there were no takers. He answered my first call. I was 559 and he was 599. “UR QRP is working very well,” he sent when I told him I was running 5 watts. As I was operating, a steady stream of leaves fell on the rig and I swished them away.

The forecast for tomorrow morning calls for a 20 percent chance of snow.

Received this e-mail today from Daniel DO7FOX of QRZCQ:

We’ve been online for two years now! The first day was 2011 Oct 10. We are about 60500 users now and still growing fast!

Some sizes and numbers:

– Calls in database: 2.536.181
– Call views: 14.333.826
– Logbook QSOs: 22.726.374
– All time QSOs processed: 172.480.731
– Monthly visits: 950.000
– DX-Cluster spots with or from our users: 58%
– Video views: 137.995
– Users with picture: 18.237
– DX-Cluster spots via web interface: 69.845
– Max users on DX-Cluster via web interface: 119
– Forum posts: 401 (not much)
– Stream posts: 1.274
– XML lookups: 309.067 (closed test)
– Database queries per second: 2.462
– DX-Cluster spots in database: 8.289.618

Some future dates:

– Date when the site becomes unreadable due to ads: never 😉
– Date when the online log should start (still coding): aprox. Jan 2014
– Date of next 3rd birthday: 10 Oct 2014

And, unfortunately, 6 users went SK (known) since the site started. May the Ether be with them.

To celebrate this birthday, 100 new registered and activated users will get premium for free. The period for 100 premium will start in few hours.

Please help us grow, use the “Invite” function in your account and please invite your Ham and Swl friends. All you need is their call and email.

Thank you very much for the faith given us everyday by using our site!

Please visit us again and take a look! If you forgot your password simply try to login with your call and last password you remember, then use the simple ‘password forgotten’ function to recover your password.

You can visit QRZCQ to sign up at http://www.qrzcq.com

Have you given QRZCQ a try? What’s your opinion of it?

Judy and I rode our bicycles in East Andover this afternoon. It was gorgeous. I worked Cuba, St. Kitts, Portugal, Ukraine and Belgium.

We rode on the old Northern Rail right of way. The tracks are gone now, and it’s a bicycle and walking path. We sailed along through tunnels of gold and orange. Really beautiful. We stopped at a beach along Highland Lake. I operated at a picnic table there for about 20 minutes.

I tossed a line over a branch and pulled up a 30 foot wire. I used the earchi.org 9:1 unun and my KX3. I made one QSO on each band… 10M, 15M, 17M, and 20 meters. First I had a quick exchange with Eduardo in Cuba… CO8LY and I traded 599s. On 15 meters I worked V44KAI, Joel in St. Kitts. We gave each other 559s and I answered CT7AEQ in Portugal on 17 meters. Ted was a 599 and gave me the same report. Finally I worked Boris in the Ukraine. RU3ZC gave me a 569 and he was 589. Before leaving the spot, Judy took a quick photo by the lake.

Then we jumped on our bikes and rode about 3 miles to the east toward Franklin. We stopped at a beaver pond along the Sucker Brook.

Just below the bridge the beavers had built a small dam. But it was big enough to turn a large swamp into a small pond. I threw a wire over a tall pine tree along the pond and set up the KX3 on 20 meters. Someone had placed a small picnic table at the spot.

I heard Jean, ON4AEF from Belgium signing with another station and I called him. He gave me a 559. He was a very strong 599. “UR QRP FB,” he sent. “Great signal. Rig HR K2 10W X QRP like you!” It was a wonderful QSO and a perfect finale to our bike ride.

We turned around and headed back to the car. Cold weather is coming Wednesday.