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I would encourage you all to take part in the Club72 QRP Marathon.  I am having a blast!

After work and dinner, I came down to the basement once again, to try to find some decent DX on the bands. Each day for the month of April (that’s how long the Marathon runs) my goal is to try to work one DX station on each of the bands. Tonight I was successful on 20, 17, 15 and 10 Meters, before the clock turned to 00:00 UTC.  All QSOs were made with the KX3 at 5 Watts

20 Meters – G6PZ in England – HF9V antenna
17 Meters – FG5FR in Guadeloupe – HF9V antenna
15 Meters – CM2YI in Cuba – EDZ antenna
10 Meters – ZL1ALZ in New Zealand – HF9V antenna

And you could have knocked me over with a feather with regards to ZL1ALZ.  I was tuning around 10 Meters just to see what I could hear.  John was quite audible about 579.  I figured he was running at least 100 Watts, possibly more.  I put out my call thinking that he would never hear my 5 Watts. Boy, was I wrong!  First shot, John came back to me!  John has one set of really fine business ears, that’s all I have to say!

According to QRZ, John is 9,088 miles away from me – so that makes this QSO 1,817.6 miles per Watt. And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, made my day!  10 Meters is so wonderful when it’s open and conditions are good. Oh, and by the way, this was my first time working New Zealand using QRP – a very good day, indeed!

The SSN is at 119, and the Solar Flux is 131.  The K Index is 1 and the A Index is 3 – that spells for good DX conditions with a low noise floor.  I sure hope these good conditions last over the weekend.

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

I’ve been waiting all winter for this day. It’s not going to be wasted. I took two quick hikes today. I worked Guadeloupe, Russia, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Part One – Quick Hike to the Pemi

Just before lunch I hiked down to the Pemigewasset River. I made one quick QSO with Tennessee before heading home.

As I crossed Weeks Brook it was nice to see that all the ice there has melted and the brook is flowing freely.

I continued toward the river and heaved a line over a pine branch on a sunny corner of the trail. I sat on a small bank at the edge of the trail and operated the HB-1B on 20 meters with a half wave wire.

I called KF4TJE as he finished up a QSO. Stan answered and gave me a 579 from Tennessee. He was a strong 599. We chatted for a while, and I told him I was hiking and operating with a view of the river. “I would like to be near
a river,” he responded.

It’s a favorite spot that anyone would enjoy on a warm spring day. I promised I’d send Stan some pictures, and we signed with a quick 73.

With that I hiked back up the hill and drove home for lunch.

Part Two – Johnson Road

I couldn’t call it quits this afternoon. It was nearly 55F and I was itching to get out again. I drove over to a property on Johnson Road. It’s several hundred acres of upland fields and woods and then drops down to Salmon Brook. I stayed in the field. I hiked about a half mile and setup under an oak tree.

Again I’m on 20 meters with the HB-1B and a half-wave wire. I sit right down in the dried grass and tune around. FG5FR in Guadeloupe is working stations. Frantz is very strong and he gives me a 599. Might be… there were several other stations calling him, and I got through. Then I tune up a bit and hear RU3ZL calling CQ. George is 599 and gives me a 559.

Then I go up to 14.060, (the QRP frequency) and hear NF9V working a very weak station in the Netherlands. I call Rudy in Wisconsin and have a quick chat before he has to run. He gives me a 599 and he is also very strong. “FB Jim UR 4W. It’s working,” he sends. Then he has to run off for some “honey do’s.” I pack up.

Hiking down to the field, I crossed several hundred yards through snow. But here in the field it’s all gone. The buds will appear in the next week or so. And soon, the peepers will start their spring song in the little pond behind the stone wall. I think they are calling CQ.

This afternoon JT9-1 gave me my first contact into Kyrgyzstan, with EX8MT.

Looks a bit like the English Lake District!

There! That sounds like the beginning of an Alcoholics Anonymous story, doesn’t it? I’ll explain my confession about being a Lid in just a little while.

Actually, the evening started well. After dinner, I was able to get on the radio for a bit and found some activity. My first goal was to work some QRP DX. Now that I have entered the Club 72 DX Marathon, I don’t want to be the only US station entered and show up dead last. To that end, I was successful and worked PP1CZ from Brazil on 17 Meters. To my delight, I found activity on 10 Meters also, and I was fortunate enough to get 6Y5KF from Jamaica and LU1FAM from Argentina into my log. I entered the PP1CZ and LU1FAM as official QSOs for the day.

Now, onto the 80 Meter QRP Foxhunts and my liddiness issues.  The first Fox was easy. I was easily able to find Jim K4AXF. Since Jim is located in Virginia, that’s a real easy shot from New Jersey on 80 Meters. Using the KX3’s Dual Watch feature, I had Jim’s pelt within 16 minutes from the beginning of the hunt.

The second Fox was Jerry N9AW. Normally, Jerry is an easy catch for me. Most Wisconsin and Minnesota Foxes are. Sometimes I think I have a pipeline to that part of the country. But this time his signal was weak, so I waited for a while before calling. Sure as anything, Jerry’s signal started improving. Again, using Dual Watch, I was able to figure out rather easily where he was listening. I began calling, but for some reason, I just wasn’t making it.

That’s when I discovered my error! I looked down and noticed that after I had worked K4AXF, I had turned the split function off. Horror of horrors! I had forgotten to turn the split function back on and I was calling N9AW on his calling frequency!  The “Prime No-No” of Foxhunting! If I could have dug a hole, I would have jumped in and closed it up after myself. I had probably angered a whole bunch of my brother and sister Hounds. Imaginary mutterings of “Lid” stung my ears. My deepest and sincerest apologies, my fellow Foxhunters. I have violated the sacred Foxhunters Code of Conduct. I will accept the 40 lashes with a wet noodle that I am entitled to.

After rectifying my mistake, though, I got Jerry in the log in very short order. In fact, it only took one call. Amazing how well things can go when you use the equipment properly.

My fellow Fox hunters are a kind and magnanimous group, so I doubt anyone will give me grief. But that won’t be necessary, as I will give myself plenty, and will do my best to make sure I don’t make the same mistake a second time.

Being a Lid is no fun.

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

It’s always good to hear from Julian, G4ILO. However, an email received today was of immediate interest. I’d posted a couple of weeks ago that I was having problems getting WSJT-X to work, on account of the stuttering audio.

Julian kindly emailled this morning to ask whether I’d got it going yet, because he’d heard of someone else having the same problem. And better still, he related how the person had fixed the problem, changing the output audio device to Direct-X.

I received the email at work today and frankly was tempted to remote control to my PC at home and have a play, but alas it was a busy day. However, this evening, I popped up to the shack after supper and had a look.

Sure enough, I had a ‘Direct X’ output available for my audio, so I mapped WSJT-X’s output to that and wondered. And hoped.

I called HA3LI who was calling CQ with a huge signal on 14MHz JT9-1. It sounded good on my monitor receiver. No stuttering…. And then, magic of magic,HA3LI came back and we completed an easy QSO.

Just as good, looking at the HAMSPOTS site, my signal was also copied by VK3AMA and KE5SSH.

It looks like I am in business. I am so pleased! Thank you Julian!

After yesterday’s disappointing session on 15m PSK31 I tried JT9-1 again. The new JT mode showed its superiority by giving me two contacts with Japan. I nearly worked more as one JA replied to my CQ but disappeared after I sent his report. I was also spotted on HamSpots by two other JAs whom I have never seen on my screen. Another nice contact was with HS0ZBS. This is not the first time I have worked Thailand, but all my contacts with that country have been on 15m.

In another direction I worked PJ2MI – a familiar callsign. Checking my log we first worked in 2003 using PSK63 – quite an achievement as I would have been using my K2 and 4W output. More recently I have worked Jose using PSK31 and JT65A. On 20m I worked K8CZC who from the look of his eQSL would have been using low power (QRP).

I had a meeting to attend this evening, so I wasn’t able spend too much time behind the K3. But after I got home, I did run downstairs to fire up the rig. 30 Meters seemed active, so I camped out there for a bit.

In short order, I worked 9A6C in Croatia and CN8KD in Morocco. I nabbed both these stations with QRP power levels. I threw out my call a few times for A45XR in Oman. But by that point, he had been spotted on the Cluster and the pileup was enormous. Even though I have never worked Oman before, I did not up the power and jump into the fray. I was just too tired.

A little bit up the band, OK did hear ER1OO, Wlad in Moldova. I tried him a few times, but I kept on getting “W3L?”. It was obvious that he was having difficulty hearing me. Not wishing to torture Wlad any further, I pulled the Big Switch for the night.

No commitments for tomorrow night, except for the 80 Meter Fox hunt, which is the very last one for the 2012/2013 Winter season. Maybe I will hear some more good DX before the hunt begins.

I’ve done pretty well this season. I am going to miss the hunts, and will eagerly await the 20 Meter Summer season.

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