I am so happy to see that Jim W1PID’s outdoor QRP adventure stories have now been picked up over at AmateurRadio.com, which is a great site, by the way.

Since Jim’s posts will be picked up there, I would ask you to keep an eye out for them and will no longer mention them here, in order to avoid a duplication of effort.

If you’re into QRP and the outdoors, or would like to be, or find yourself forced to live vicariously, please treat yourself to Jim’s sagas.  If you’d like to re-read an old story or catch up on a few you might have missed – here’s Jim’s Website:  http://www.w1pid.com/

Happy reading!  And Jim, thanks so much for sharing.

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

This afternoon my family and I hiked up to the cabin at Knox Mountain. I worked Jamaica, a container ship in the Atlantic Ocean, the Czech Republic and England. It was a perfect, crisp late summer day.

Sunlight filtered through a canopy of green. The air was filled with the sound of crickets mingled with the song of the brook that flows alongside the trail. Mushrooms of every variety and color lined the trail.

The cabin and the pond are about a mile and a half from the trail-head. The place is dazzling at first sight.

While my wife and daughter lay down on the grass to sun and read, I set up a rig under the cherry tree alongside the pond. I used the Chinese HB-1B on 20 meters with a half-wave vertical wire over a branch. The band was active with lots of strong stations.

Right away I called Josh 6Y5WJ in Jamaica after he finished a QSO. We have worked many times before and exchanged greetings and quick 599 reports. Then I went up the band to the QRP frequency and heard Oleg UR5FA/MM calling CQ. He works on a huge container ship and gave his current position in the Atlantic Ocean. He was a 569 and I was only 449. Oleg was running 5 watts to a small loop. He was clearly happy to have made a 2-way QRP contact. So was I!

The little HB-1B is a fine rig. I think it runs about 4 watts with the lithium pack. Dropping down below 14.025 again, I worked two Czech stations in a row. First, Vasek OK1DN gave me a 559 and sent, “UR QRP 4W doing a nice job.” Then I worked OK3AA just a few kHz away. Milan also gave me a 559. I’d been sweeping past 14.021 for quite a while trying to catch Tom G3HGE in England. He was working lots of DX and I was hoping for the chance to call him. Finally, the opportunity came and we chatted for more than 10 minutes. Tom and I have had many QSOs in the past and recognize each other’s call without any logbook lookups. Tom gave me a 579 before signing off.

We headed back down the trail after a bit more than an hour. It’s hard to find a nicer way to spend an afternoon than a hike to Knox Mountain.

Welcome to Handiham World.

New Tech Net Begins Next Week!

It isn’t every day that we launch a new net. The official start date is on Thursday, 6 September 2012. The net will meet at 7:00 PM each Thursday United States Central Time and will remain true to local time throughout the year.
Here are some key things to remember about the new Tech Net:

• It is perfectly okay to simply listen to learn. You are participating just by listening. 
• You should check in if you have a comment or question related to a technical topic. (Checking in to get on a net roster is not part of this net.)
• When it is clear that a particular topic is under discussion and the discussion is not finished, please do feel free to add to the discussion if you have additional information on that topic. If you have some other technical question not related to the topic at hand, please wait until the current topic has been discussed and it is time to move on. 
• The net will be moderated and the discussion facilitated by the Net Control Station (NCS). 
• The Handiham Tech Net will meet each Thursday evening at 7:00 PM USA Central Time and last around an hour. 
• The net is heard on the following nodes and links:

HANDIHAM conference server Node 494492 (Our preferred high-capacity node.)
KA0PQW-R, node 267582
KA0PQW-L, node 538131
N0BVE-R, node 89680
IRLP node 9008 (Vancouver BC reflector)
WIRES system number 1427

Email me at [email protected] with your questions & comments.   
Patrick Tice, WA0TDA
Handiham Manager

Handiham remote base station report

Thanks to Jose, KK4JZX, we are making some great progress on some of the software issues that our users have been experiencing. One such issue is some pretty noticeable lag in the response of the software to user input. For example, I can press the space bar to toggle the transmit/receive and I have counted delays up to six seconds!  Other times the response will be nearly instant, as it should be. This was found to be caused by the code in the software telling it to reference a website that was no longer available. While the software waited for a response from a website that was never going to answer, the delay appeared. Echolink users who regularly use public proxies are familiar with how the application is unresponsive when it is querying a proxy that either does not exist or is already in use. This is a similar deal, so we are working on a way to fix it.

HOSTS file Phone Home fix

Remote Base Update: After a couple of weeks of code analysis, a workaround was found by KK4JZX. It has been found that the W4MQ client wants to “Phone Home” for some reason and, thus, the workaround requires that Handiham remote base users implement the HOSTS file Phone Home fix. Once the Phone Home fix is implemented, the W4MQ client will function much faster for both sighted and non-sighted users. Reports are coming in and we are getting feedback indicating that the experience is a much more rewarding one. The delays encountered with the PTT function are gone and it is now much more responsive. Stay tuned for additional fixes that we plan to release as part of the Handiham remote Base client software bundle!

You may visit the remote base website to download the current installation files, which do not yet contain this fix.

W0EQO at Courage North is in service. W0ZSW is in service. 
Solar Activity Forecast: Solar activity is expected to be very low to low with a slight chance for moderate activity for the next three days (29-31 August).
Geophysical Activity Forecast: The geomagnetic field is expected to be predominately quiet for days 1-3 (29-31 August).
Credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
Please contact me directly at [email protected] if you have a remote base comment.

The following article appeared on eHam – may be of interest to those of you who like CW contests:

CW Open Contest Sept. 1 and 2:

Ed Tobias (KR3E) posted on August 27, 2012
Second Annual CW Open THIS WEEKEND!

Are you ready for one of the most unique and fun contests on the air? If so, jump into the CW Open, organized by the CWops club…it’s three-contests-in-one!

Like most contests, the goal is to work as many stations as possible (in this case CW stations only). Each station may be worked once per band.

Unlike other contests, however, in the CW Open there are three separate competitions at three separate times — each is called a “session”. You can enter one, two or all three of these sessions. Each session is scored separately. For those who enter more than one session, there is also a multiple-session category that combines all your session scores into one grand total score. So, if you enter 2 or 3 sessions you will be competing in each individual session plus the multiple-session category. More chances to win!

Join us for as many sessions as you can make.

Session 1 September 1 1200-1559Z

Session 2 September 1 2000-2359Z

Session 3 September 2 0400-0759Z

The exchange is easy: just a serial number and your name.

Awards: (Sponsored by ICOM America)

•Trophy for 1st place in each time period.

•Plaque for 1st place in each power level in each time period

•Trophy for over all combined score of all three time periods.

•Plaque for 1st place for each power level in the combined score group

Note: if the same entrant wins multiple awards, they may be combined).

•Certificates for achieving more than 100 QSOs in any or all time periods.

Is it fun? Here’s what some of last year’s contestants said:

“A fun, new way to contest. Many thanks to the organizers!” – AE6Y

“Running QRP 5W from IC-7400 to a trap vertical. First time in this contest. Very enjoyable pace. Look forward to next year. – G6CSY

“Good traffic and very quick ops. Hats off….See all you next year. Ciao.” – IK0HBN

“Enjoyed every minute and looking forward to next year! 73.” – KA3DRR

For more information and full rules go to: http://www.cwops.org/cwopen.html

73 de Ed, KR3E – CWops #133

72 de Larry W2LJ – CWops #1005
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Rumour has it that a 70cm version of the DVAP Dongle is on the way. Rumour also suggests that the price will be the same as for the 2m dongle. For those who would like to use Icom’s new ID-31 D-Star handie and have no UHF D-Star repeaters in range, the wait may soon be over.

This afternoon I took a quick bike ride to the Winnipesaukee River that runs between Tilton and Franklin, New Hampshire. I worked Italy, Lithuania and Hungary. It was a wonderful outing with perfect weather. I headed straight for the river, but several boys were fishing in my favorite spot. So I set up in a field alongside the river.

I set up on 20 meters under a large white birch tree. This photo shows the view from my operating position. I was using the HB-1B at 4W with a half wave wire over a tree branch.

The first contact was with Daniele IK2SND. He gave me a 559 and he was a 599. Then I tuned up the band a bit and answered LY2J who was calling CQ. Pranas had a very hard time copying my call. I repeated my call but Pranas still missed a letter. My antenna was off about 5 degrees from vertical, so I decided to move the backpack and make the antenna perfectly vertical. As soon as I did that, Pranas copied my call and gave me a 519. He was 599. Once again it proves the importance of angle of radiation.  I moved  up to 14.062 and called CQ. I wasn’t expecting a call from Hungary! HA6OD answered right away and gave me a 599. Jozsef was also 599. When I told him I was QRP, he sent “FB UR QRP.” After operating for fifteen minutes, I packed up and walked about 30 yards to get a quick photo of the river.

These warm summer days are numbered. The crickets are talking about it. Some of the maples have already started to drop their leaves. This week we’ve had a few nights in the 50s. I want to get out as often as possible.

Or at least that’s how it always feels to me with the last bank holiday of the summer done and no more until Christmas!

As I blogged last week, the conditions are changing and there’s been noticeably less Es this weekend. I did work EA7DUD on 50MHz in a brief opening yesterday and I noticed some Es around 27MHz from Italy and Scandinavia.

Having had a bad cold/cough most of last week (I was forced to abandon a QSO last Friday owing to a failing voice), I’ve been on 14MHz JT65A most of the weekend, often remote controlling the PC from the sofa with Pippi the cat on my lap. Some nice QSOs, most notably with LU2XPK in Tierra Del Fuego and also a couple of UA0 stations in furthest Siberia as well as many enjoyable QSOs closer to hand.