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Kenwood took out a full page back cover ad in this month’s QST hinting at a new HF rig being unveiled at Dayton.  What could it be?  Another super multi-kilobuck uber contester rig?  A KX3 competitor?  A fun little rig like the Yaesu FT-817?  Inquiring minds want to know!

A topic being discussed on the CWOps e-mail reflector is about two letters to the editor in the May issue of QST.  I won’t re-print them here. If you get QST, they are to be found on page 24 and the header is “Proud to be a No-Code Extra”. These are in response to another letter to the editor in the April edition of QST bemoaning the fact that the Extra license “is not what it used to be” now that the code requirement is gone (in essence – not the exact words).

The authors of the May letters are steamed by the concept that they are some how inferior because they did not pass the 20 WPM Morse Code test that used to be required to earn Amateur Extra.

I guess they have a point; but as usual – both sides of the arguement have their merit.

Perhaps what we need to do is just get over with labeling everything!  It seems all human beings (not just Hams) love to do that – label, compartmentalize, file and designate.  The problem is, as human beings, we rarely fit neatly into any one compartment.

Black, white, Asian, Hispanic, liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat, gay, straight, Extra, General, Technician, and on an on and on and on until it makes your head swim. And don’t let’s get started on the nationalities or religions – too many to begin even thinking about listing here for the purposes of this discussion.

I think one of the worse trends that has ever happened in the last few years is all this “celebration of diversity”.   Seriously. We have come to the point where we concentrate too much on what makes us different instead of how so many of us are so much the same.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t meant that we should ignore our differences – we should not all become just some amorphous, giant blob of humanity. We should be proud of our races, nationalities, creeds – but not to the point where they become exclusionary.  We need to look at each other, as well ……. people.

Whether you’re white, black, brown, red, yellow, or purple – whether you’re a man or woman, whether you’re Polish, Italian, Kenyan, Afghanistani or whatever – we all have the same needs and dreams.  We want roofs over our heads, food on our tables, and we want our kids to have a better life than we’ve had. We want to be loved.

Once we realize that despite our apparent differences, that we’re all basically the same – maybe then we’ll truly have peace some day.  Pie in the sky?  Maybe.

Sorry – I didn’t mean to get all “Kumbaya” on you; but some times I get really tired of what are basically, silly arguments that in the end, don’t amount to a hill of beans.

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

A different picture of 10m propagation than a week ago. The band was dead for most of the morning. Then I started to receive and be spotted by German stations at around 1200km distance – weak Sporadic-E I think.

10m WSPR spots for G4ILO – 13 April 2012

Someone asked me whether these WSPR spots were obtained using the Propeller beacon I have been writing about. I’m afraid not. I haven’t managed to solve the frequency stability problems of my Gadget Gangster board so I’ve been using my K3 for transmit and receive.

The handsome man in this photo is my father, the little one me. It was 1967 and he introduced me to this little magic box full of sound called radio. I guess the bug bit me then. His passion was photography and art, not electronics, because that was his 9-to-5 job.

But he always supported me in my endeavours and taught me so much. The Weller soldering station he used for so long is sitting proudly on my desk, now being used by me. He was the best father I could have wished for.

He is with the angels now, without pain, without frustration. I am sad, but I am glad. Thanks dad, for everything.

I got my April copy of CQ and it’s no April Fool’s joke – the issue is dedicated to QRP!  How cool is that?

Included feature articles:

QRP in Paradise by Woody Hester WD9F
The “Splinter” QRPp Trans-Reciver by Bill Minikiewicz W4FSV
A QRP Superstation by R. Scot Rought KA8SMA
CQ Reviews – the MFJ-9200 QRPocket CW Transciever by Rich Moseson W2VU
Learning Curve – A QRP Primer by Rich Arland K7SZ (who I had the honor of working this past weekend in the QRP ARCI Spring QSO Party).
The regular QRP column by Cam Hartford N6GA
The regular Kit Building column by Joe Eisenberg K0NEB

Yes, we always have great QRP publications at our fingertips like QRP Quarterly and Sprat; but it’s nice when the “mainstream” publications feature QRP.  You never know, maybe we’ll soon meet some new friends who will be joining us after being introduced to QRP by the April edition of CQ.

Thanks to Rich Moseson and all the fine editors at CQ.  And a special thanks to Cam and Joe, who keep the fine articles coming all year ’round!

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

I was browsing around the Ham Radio section of e-Bay the other evening when I came across a Palstar KH-6 going for a modest price. I knew a little about them, having heard that some SOTA participants had used them for activations on 50MHz.

The auction was just ending so I popped in a last minute bid to see what would happen. To my surprise, I won!

The rig arrived yesterday. It seems to work ok and I have done the obligatory across the shack test. Transmitted audio sounded good on the FT847. I put the rig on the external collinear and perhaps not surprisingly the receiver overloaded. However, I could hear the GB3RAL beacon on 50.050.

The challenge, as I have found before is how well such a short aerial will do. However, I’m hoping for some local contacts and perhaps some more distant ones from the top of White Horse Hill or similar summits.