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1) Worked a few more DX stations today during lunch. The bands were decent again.Had QSOs with TI8/AA1M in Costa Rica, LZ2HR in Bulgaria and F6ALQ in France.  The QSO with Bernard in Soissons, France was a bit more than just your typical “599 TU” DX QSO. We actually conversed a bit! Wow …. Amateur Radio is actually well suited for conversation, don’t ya know?!?  Next few days look like rain, so I probably won’t take the gear with me to work tomorrow.

2) Got skunked in the 80 Meter Fox Hunt tonight. I almost worked Ray K9XE in Illinois as he had three out of the four characters of my call sign several times.  But he stated more than a few times throughout the hunt that he had S9 noise on his end. Oh well, he tried and I tried – no fault in that.

3) The date and time are set for the 2014 NJQRP Skeeter Hunt – Sunday, August 10th. You can check either  http://www.qsl.net/w2lj/, or the Skeeter Hunt page of this blog.  The exchange is a bit different this year. Instead of RST, I decided to go with the op’s first name instead. Just trying to be a little different this year. Oh, and Skeeter numbers will be given out starting on June 21st, the First Day of Summer – so please, don’t try to sweet talk a number out of me before then, OK?

Oh, and I had a Skeeter professionally drawn for this year’s logo. Here he is:

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

As you can see, I have 3 confirmation requests waiting. Though I like QRZ logbook, but when I want to confirm I have to fill out the QSO again. Before I had to check, and ready. Now I have to look up QSO data... etc Oh no... too much work. Or do I something wrong?

Most of the embarrassment has faded away, so I can write about it now. Having my Cubieboard up and running I went for the next step, connecting my TNC for APRS operation. The Cubieboard has a UART port, but the supplied cable was for a USB connection. I still had my serial converter from my Raspberry Pi and tried to hook it up to the Cubieboard. Either I made a short or some Volts went where they shouldn’t have gone, but all of a sudden there was smoke and that is usually not a good sign.

So now I have two empty cases on my shelf: one for the Raspberry Pi, one for the Cubieboard. Ah well, that’s life. Luckily these mini-PCs are not expensive, but to me also not cheap, so I will wait a while before ordering another.

A very big “Thank You” and a tip o’ the old callsign cap to Will NQ2W who sent me an e-mail letting me know that he had worked TX6G from his home near Albany, NY with 5 Watts on 10 Meters.

I just ran down the basement, and after figuring out the pattern, also snagged them with 5 Watts.

Thanks again, Will!

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

Bath Taps into Science was hosted in Bath University and Green Park Station during  21st and 23rd March. On Friday Steve (G0FUW), Phil (M0PHI), Russ (M0WYB) and myself set up a stand showcasing the science behind radio. Our audience was 1500 School children who were aged between 9 and 14 years. Reception was well received.

We demonstrated the Oscillation, modulation, reception and transmission elements with small experiments. despite having exploding, messy and amazing things – we grabbed the attention of many teachers and students. Our buildathon demonstration again was really welcomed by STEM co-orindators, and general feedback was excellent.

On Sunday Steve, Phil, Lewis (G4YTN) and Mike(G3VTO) again showcased the science behind radio in Green Square in Bath – this time open to the general public. We had many mums and dads ask us about the buildathon, and even some keen people sign up for some in-class education ready to obtain their Amateur radio license.