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From Steve WGØAT on Facebook:

It’s that time of year again! Members of the Buddies in the Caribbean 2013 (Team #1) will mount a mini-DXpedition to Barbados (8P6) 29 Jan 2013 thru 6 Feb 2013.

The Buddipole teamwhich specializes in 100 watt or less low power radios and the Buddipole portable antenna systems will have fixed operations from a ocean villa and portable operations from various points on the island using CW, SSB, and digital modes on 160-10m.

The team consists of the following operators: Chris (W6HFP), Budd (W3FF), Danny (WZ1P), Steve (wG0AT), Mike (KC4VG), Guy (N7UN), Paul (KB9AVO),and Wey-Bob (K8EAB). We all have received our 8P9 callsigns.

QSL via LoTW, eQSL, or mail to operator’s home call (SASE required). See QRZ for individual’s specific QSL instructions.

Sure would like to be able to join ’em!

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

Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don’t. Luckily, Richard’s miraculous recovery from the Creeping Death outweighed Russ’s totally miserable Ides of January, resulting in a listenable episode with a bunch of content–mostly thanks to elcaset, a listener of the show, via IRC. There’s also a bit about svxlink using a Raspberry Pi (yes, it is possible and completely functional) and lots of information about upcoming events. We’d like to thank everyone you who submitted feedback, including The Radio Gangsta, who we also hope will get some much-needed psychological attention soon.

If you think about it, make sure to download the Black Sparrow Media app for your iPhone, iPad or Android device. And please tell your friends about the show. Have them sign up for the mailing list, episodes via RSS, the Google+ community and all the other ways they can keep up with what’s going on in LHS Land.

73 de The LHS Guys

I have found the solution to a problem that had been bugging me for ages: Omni-Rig did not work with JT65-HF. It was not a major bother for me as it could be worked around by the simple expedient of setting the frequency manually. But after an episode yesterday when I thought I was on 15m and was actually on 20m I decided to look at the issue again.

The solution turned out to be very simple and I stumbled across it by accident. You must start OmniRig before you start JT65-HF! That may seem obvious, but in fact other programs that use Omni-Rig manage to do so without it being run first. Which is why it never occurred to me to try that before. Doh!

Unfortunately the communication between the programs only works one way. JT65-HF can read the frequency from the rig using Omni-Rig but it can’t set it. As I have the JT65-HF source I took a quick look to see if I could fix the problem, but it would not be easy. A major discouragement to tinker with the source code is the fact that the newly-compiled program breaks the link between HT65-HF and JT-Alert. So I am not going to venture down that road. When it comes down to it I’d rather have my alerts than have rig control.

Pepe’ le Pew was my companion in the 40 Meter QRP Fox hunt tonight.  I was not successful in working either Fox – WA4ILO or K4AXF.

Conditions on 40 Meters were very long. I was able to hear Hounds from WY, TX, NM, OK and CO quite well. While I did not hear K4AXF in Virginia at all, I was able to hear WA4ILO in Georgia for about 15 minute’s worth of the 90 minute hunt. Jim went from ESP to 229, to about 339 at best and then quickly back down to ESP for the balance of the hunt.

I have been batting .500 or better so far this season. This is going to set my average back. Hope I don’t go into a slump!

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

I came across this great piece of history via the Google+ page of Cristian YO8TNB and had to share it here for others to enjoy. I have a soft spot for New Zealand, being so close to my country of birth, and I particularly noticed the carefully cultured accent of the announcer. On a more serious note, this video is an invaluable record of the wired and wireless technology used in 1939 and the procedures for transmitting a message from land to sea.

Reading the January 2013 edition of WorldRadio Online, I was happy to see that Rich Fisher KI6SN, featured Jim Cluett W1PID in his “Trail-Friendly Radio” Column (WorldRadio Online, January 2013, pp 23-25).  In his column, Rich recalls one of Jim’s many hikes to Knox Mountain, this one occurring in the Winter months of 2011.  Jim and his neighbor Hans, W1JSB cross country skied to the mountain and back; and did their usual QRP operating while they were at their cabin refuge.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know how much I enjoy QRP.  For me, it is the hallmark of my Amateur Radio experience.  Every QSO, whether it be with a Ham across town, or with a Ham across the world is a unique and enjoyable experience.  I am constantly and consistently amazed at the ability of a few Watts of RF energy and how it can travel the world. Fortunately, I never take the phenomena for granted and QRP continues to be a delight, even after all these years.

However, when you operate QRP from the outdoors, you take that enjoyment and multiply it many fold. Indeed, as if the experience can’t become even better – it can.  In my most humble opinion, there is nothing finer and more rewarding than taking a radio, a piece of wire and a battery to someplace “remote” and making contact with someone, somewhere – all the time enjoying the beauty of nature that surrounds you.

And while that may mean going to a mountain top ala’ Jim W1PID, Hans W1JSB, Steve WG0AT, Guy N7UN, Martin VA3SIE or a host of others, it doesn’t need to be so “grand” a proposition.  While your ideal QRP portable dream may be to operate from the rim of the Grand Canyon, or while overlooking the majesty of the Smokey Mountains or the Grand Tetons, it can be also be as simple as going to a local park, or even your own back yard.  The sun on your arms and the breeze in your face, while simultaneously wearing a set of ear buds and pounding out Morse, or talking into a microphone isn’t as incongruous as the uninitiated might first suppose.  For some the “minimalist approach” doesn’t  necessarily mean using the simplest of transmitters and receivers, so much as it means enjoying the challenge of setting up an effective station in the most simple of settings.

Perhaps this is the reason that QRPers have so many outdoor events to choose from during the year.  Whether it be FYBO, QRP to the Field, QRP Afield, The Flight of the Bumblebees, the Skeeter hunt, or whatever your favorite QRP outdoor operating event happens to be – it seems the QRP community has “gotten it” and as a whole, enjoys the experience of getting out of the shack and communing with nature, if even for just a bit.

I am so happy that this aspect of Amateur Radio is so closely associated with the QRP community.  While your average every day “Joe Ham” might get out into nature for Field Day or a DXpediton or perhaps a Special Event station, QRPers in general take delight (and pains) in making the uncommon a very commonplace event.  And that’s why, when I see articles like KI6SN’s series on Trail-Friendly Radio, or videos posted to YouTube like Steve WGØAT and Martin VA3SIE do, it really makes me smile – and gets my juices flowing.

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