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And so my everyday streak comes to an end.

Yesterday was one of those days at work where you just want to dig a hole, jump in and pull the hole in after yourself.  And unfortunately, due to the wonderful world of cell phones and Blackberrys, it didn’t end once I got home.

Needless to say, when all finally calmed down around 10:30 or so, I didn’t feel like getting on the radio.  All I wanted to do was go to bed. And I did.

I tried raising V31JZ on 30 Meters tonight, after coming home from a slightly better day at work;  but I could not bust through the pileup before the witching hour came and 0000 UTC occurred.  So February 9th, 2012 goes QSOless.

So, what do I do?  Pick myself up, dust myself off and start anew.  This is one of those years, where if I still make a QSO for every day for the rest of the year, I can still honestly claim that I made a QSO for 365 days of 2012.

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

Are you planning to attend HamCation 2012 this weekend in Orlando, Florida?

Before you go, download this handy printable guide provided by the HamCation folks (shown below). Looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. Cross your fingers that the weather holds out, but it’s bound to be better than our weather here in New England this time of year!

Don’t forget to visit our friend Ed Griffin from Wouxun.us.  He called this morning and said he’s going to be set up by the RV entrance and tells me that he’s got some great new versions of the popular Wouxun HT, the KG-UV6D-IC1 ($140) and KG-UV6D-IC2 ($150).

Ed said that as a bonus, if you stop by his booth and mention you saw this post on AmateurRadio.com, he’ll give you $5.00 off the purchase of a Wouxun radio. Save yourself the cost of shipping and get an extra $5.00 off a great radio at HamCation this weekend.

Everyone who commented to my last post about the lack of output from the Kits and Parts RF amp felt that the problem had to be the QRPer’s curse – the toroid inductor. Normally I don’t have a problem with toroids, but when they are so small that your thumb obscures the whole core while you are holding it, never mind winding it, they are not the easiest of components to work with.

So I gritted my teeth, tried to forget the hour I’d spent yesterday wrestling the thing into position, and yanked it out. One of the wires broke off in the hole leaving nothing to grab on to. I was unable to clear the small plated-through holes in any case. What I was able to do was melt the solder enough to push some bare wire through, creating “pins” that I could solder to. I twisted together the two wires that are connected so I had three ends to solder to the three pins I created. The toroid now stands up on the board a bit but it was easier soldering to the pins than trying to get four thin wires to go through four holes simultaneously. To my joy, on applying power and RF the power meter showed output.

I’m getting about 150mW if the amp is supplied with the recommended 8V, and just about 200mW from a 9V supply. That’s only about 10dB of gain, a bit less than expected but probably enough given that the Propeller does not generate the purest of signals. The WSPR beacon has already been spotted a few times in Germany. But the 2N5109 runs a bit hot to the touch so I’ll have to QRT until the heatsink I ordered arrives. In the meantime I still have the LCD UI board to assemble and play with.

There’s lots of information spewing forth from the interwebznet. Here are a few items of interest.

Dan KB6NU has started doing an Extra Class Question of the Day on his blog. I think this is a great idea. I may need to borrow  steal reuse this idea on my blog.

The Fi-Ni Report did their usual outstanding job of educating the ham community, this time via A Short History of QSLing. Just because something is fictional,doesn’t mean that it’s not real.

The ARRL announced that the Logbook of the World is going to support the CQ Awards. This is great news for the ham community. The more awards that are supported, the more usage LoTW will get, making it more useful for additional awards.

Buried in the minutes of the July 2011 ARRL Board of Directors Meeting, the Board “authorizes staff to proceed with planning and negotiating a vendor agreement for a Digital QST edition, to be approved by the CEO, General Counsel and the Administration & Finance Committee.”  So QST will be available in digital format soon.

You know, I think this internetz thing is starting to catch on!

73, Bob K0NR

I built the Kits and Parts RF Amplifier. Unfortunately it didn’t work.

When power is applied the meter in my bench power supply reads 0.01A. As soon as the Propeller beacon starts the current draw increases to 0.03A (at 8V). But the needle on my QRP power meter, which shows more than 25mW from the barefoot Propeller, doesn’t budge.

I don’t understand it. It’s a simple enough circuit, there isn’t anything to go wrong. Unfortunately I find these kit construction failures too demoralizing. I struggle with my vision and shaky hands just to build the board. Desoldering and faultfinding are beyond me at the moment. If I do discover the cause of the problem it’s something really obvious that anyone with a normally functioning brain would spot. I think it is time for me to accept my limitations and stop attempting to do what I used to be able to do before my brain surgery. From now on if I can’t buy what I want ready to go out of the box I’ll just have to do without.