AmateurRadio.com

Pat Tice, WA0TDA, is the manager of HANDI-HAM and a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at [email protected].

This is my 35th year as an Amateur Radio operator, and my 10th year as a dedicated QRPer. I think the best thing about this hobby is that it just doesn’t get old. Maybe I’m the exception, rather than the rule, but my latest QSOs give me as much enjoyment and fill me with as much wonder as that very first one.

Tonight, I worked EW8DJ, Alex in Belarus on 30 Meters. Listening on 20 Meters for a bit, I heard RW6FS and LZ1QI and I hesitated to work them, as we QSOed so very recently. Sometimes I feel like they’d hear W2LJ and think, “Didn’t I just work that guy?”

But thinking about the QSO that I did have makes me pause.

New Jersey to Belarus with just 5 Watts from my radio, out my Butternut antenna, travelling a quarter way around the world to another Ham.

Think of the distances! If I got in a commercial airliner, and left right now, in about 9 or 10 hours (or more), I would arrive where my radio signal traveled practically instantaneously.

Many take this technology so much for granted, but I still find it amazing. Can you imagine what the early radio pioneers would think? Imagine Marconi, who strung miles of wire, high in the sky, just to strain to hear a whisper of a signal from Europe. Can you imagine him sitting down behind a KX3? What do you think his reaction would be at working a station in “White Russia” using a piece of aluminum 26 feet tall, using less power than an average nightlight?

I’m pretty sure that he’d be smiling from ear to ear.

The world may look at us, watch us play with our radios, and think we’re quaint, doddering old fools for bothering with antiquated technology that’s over 100 years old. I sit down and consider what’s actually happening, the distances covered considering the power used, and I am still able to appreciate the miracle that radio continues to be.

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

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Today is the 88th Anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) which is World Amateur Radio Day. Didn’t you know that? Well neither did I until I worked CR5IARU on 20m PSK31. Not that I’d have known from working the station. I had to use QRZ.com to find out what the special call was all about.

Perhaps it’s just me but I thought the purpose of a special event call was to raise awareness of some particular event or anniversary. In pursuit of which the special event station should give out this information on every contact. But too often it seems to be taken as an opportunity to work as many stations as possible, contest style.

Another special call that I worked today on 20m PSK31 was HF2013TATO. When I asked the operator Jarek what the special call was for my request was ignored. So I had to go on the internet again. From what I could deduce, this special call is to raise awareness of the role of the father in the family. There may be more to it than that but my Polish is not very good. 🙂 But I do know that “tato” means “dad.”

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

The bands are improving, the geomagnetic effects of the Coronal Mass Ejection seem to be fading. I was able to get on the air after dinner and work a few DX stations to add to my Club 72 QRP Marathon totals.

Many, many thanks to Peter HA5MK in Hungary on 40 Meters, Rolf SE6Y in Sweden on 30 Meters, and Vlad RW6FS in European Russia on 20 Meters.

The final totals for the 2012/2013 QRP Fox hunts were posted today. While I placed nowhere near the top finishers, I did “OK” for living in the Northeast without gain antennas. In the 40 Meter hunts, I nabbed 21 out of 40 possible pelts for a .525 batting average. I did even slightly better in the 80 Meter hunts. There I snared 26 out of 40 pelts for a batting average of .650 – good numbers if I were a slugger in the Major Leagues.

The “Major Leagues” as far as Fox hunts go, are folks like Doc K0EVZ, Dick W0NTA, Dave AB9CA, Dale WC7S, Dave N1IX, Jerry N9AW, Rick NK9G, John N2RK, Todd N9NE and many others. These guys are the heavy hitters, and I am nowhere in their league.

The “portable ops QRPer” in me really appreciated and enjoyed an article by Padraig Lysandrou KC9UUS in the May issue of QST. Read it if you get the chance. Padraig is a relatively newly licensed Ham, as well as a high school student. He and his family (Mom, Dad and two sisters are also licensed) took the opportunity to combine a vacation to Cyprus with Ham Radio. Not QRP, but very much portable. It was a good read, and Padraig is an excellent writer.

Lastly, before closing, for the night, I’d like to send prayers and thoughts to all the folks in Boston who suffered in the bombings today. May the injured heal completely and quickly. May the families of the deceased receive consolation and healing, also.

We are all Bostonians tonight – as a Nation, we gather together and become one.

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

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

As of now, news agencies are reporting two people killed and dozens injured at the Boston Marathon after two large explosions. Please say a prayer for those affected by this and for the first responders working so hard.

Matt Thomas, W1MST, is the managing editor of AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at [email protected].

The IMac and KX3

For those of you who are regular readers of my blog know that I run an Elecraft K3 along with Windows XP programs. I also have the Elecraft KX3 that runs on Mac programs. My eyes were sure opened up to the software programs out there for ham's running on Mac machines. I will admit for this long time Windows user getting the swing of Mac took some time.....and I am not done learning as of yet! My wife Julie is very much into photography she has a Mac pro laptop and did have the IMac desktop PC. Some months ago she felt it

Downsizing

was time to part with the IMac. I simply walked the IMac down the hall to my shack and hooked the KX3 up and thus began the Mac adventure. Julie since then has been taking some evening College course's in photography, this has put a flame to her picture taking!  As they say " to make a long story short" the IMac has found it's former home in Julie's office down the hall. I am now a strict Windows ham again! It sure was a fun ride and maybe in time the funds will come in to get a Mac of my own.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Guess my ears are too old and mummified from all those years as a broadcast personality (our favored term for “disk jockey”), but all that hiss and sizzle from the CME and local thunderstorms this weekend sent me in a different direction. I did give some guys Alabama for their QSO parties, and I always enjoy doing that. But the band noise, generally yucky conditions, and my continued depression over not working VK9CZ had me doing other stuff I’ve been putting off. And with all that rain, that stuff did not include antenna maintenance or yard work. I’ve successfully postponed that for a few more days.

What it did involve was my next adventure with self-publishing. I make my living writing books and finally got around to doing one on my favorite hobby for the past 52 years…ham radio! RIDING THE SHORTWAVES: EXPLORING THE MAGIC OF AMATEUR RADIO (http://www.donkeith.com/index.php?p=24). No big-time publishing house was interested in doing the book. Neither was the ARRL. They say non-technical books don”t sell well for them, and I understand. They’ve been kind enough to sell the book in their online bookstore, so bless them!

Anyway, I went a different route and published the book myself. It has been available for a while in paperback as well as for the Kindle e-book reader. But this weekend…while the bands hissed at me like an audience does a villain…I busied myself getting it formatted and uploaded for every other conceivable e-book reader out there. That includes the Apple iPad, Barnes & Nobles’s Nook, and the free-to-download Adobe Digital Editions reader. Success! After a couple of false starts, of course. Man, the technology around book publishing is changing quickly, just as it is in all media and our wonderful hobby. (By the way, I blog on such stuff at http://n4kc.blogspot.com and sometimes here on AmateurRadio.com.) I also finally got around to designing and setting up a store where I can make available shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs and other items to help people promote our hobby with the message: “I ride the shortwaves. Ask me about amateur radio.”. It’s at http://www.cafepress.com/shortwaves.

Another bit of good news helped through the CME aftermath, too. I got word from the ARRL that not only will the League be selling my book at Dayton, but they asked me to do some signing events. I look forward to it! Please drop by and say hello if you make the pilgrimage…no purchase necessary!

I’m already going to be hanging around the QRP ARCI “Four Days in May” event on Thursday, May 16. It’s at the Holiday Inn in Fairborn, not far from Wright-Patterson AFB. I’m there with Rich Arland K7SZ, author of the ARRL’s QRP book. Rich has been shoving and pushing me to get deeper into QRP, and I think I may finally be catching the bug. Or maybe it is just the ragweed. I do occasionally turn down the power to 5 watts and see what I can do. The challenge is something of a thrill.

Just not when the A-index is 45!

Don N4KC
www.n4kc.com

Don Keith, N4KC, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Alabama, USA. Contact him at [email protected].