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Series

Six Episode Eighteen of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been
released. The latest news, Listener Mailbag, Propogation Report from Steve Nicholls (G0KYA) and Martin (M1MRB) answers questions.

• Ham Radio: Helping to Build a Fast and Free Internet
• US Vanity Call Sign fee goes up
• SDR Zone
• APRS destination address for ham radio satellites
• Noise Floor Study
• Radio museum loses premises
• SOTA now active in VK2
• Ham video transmitter onboard Columbus

W4P is on the air, as a Special Event station, commemorating the Battle of Lake Erie.

My lunchtime QRP session looked promising, right from the start. First off. the weather was, gorgeous …… simply gorgeous! It was sunny with a deep blue sky, and about 72F (22C) with a slight breeze, and the humidity was way, way low. It was one of those days where you go out for lunch and seriously consider the possibility of not going back inside to the office. One of the 10 best weather days of the year …. absolutely!

The 15 Meter band was hopping again.  I had a quick QSO with RO70PR and then a bit bit of a longer one with Lars SM5CAK, who was running serious power. I don’t know what Lars was using for a rig, but he told me that he was pumping 800 Watts into the aether via a beam atop a 75 foot tower. That QSO done, I was hunting for more.  This was the kind of day where I thought I might be able to get 5 or 6 good DX QSOs in rapid succession, just like Jim W1PID on one of his outings.

Then it happened.  TA7I appeared on the very low end of the band, at 15.003 MHz.  He was loud and the pile up was brisk, but not something (in my estimation) that could not be conquered. If you’re a fan of David Baldacci’s series of “King and Maxwell’ books, it was the moment where Edgar Roy would say, “Hot Damn!”

My estimation was wrong.  I could not make myself heard.  This was one of those instances that happens many times in the life of a QRPer.  The DX is loud, the crowd is small, you just know in your heart of hearts, that you will be successful and will get that DX station in your log.

But you don’t.  And to make it worse, it leaves you scratching your head, because you don’t know why. Everything seems perfect, but it’s not.  Band conditions seem good, you’ve worked weaker DX stations just a few minutes earlier. It all looks like “a go for liftoff”, except that the rocket never ignites.

I could be disappointed that I wasted almost a good half hour on a futile mission. But I’m not. You learn quickly in the QRP game that sometimes you’re the windshield, and sometimes you’re the bug.  But tomorrow is another day, and someday …… someday I will get Turkey in the log using QRP.  I’m certain of it.

Besides, if this was like shooting fish in a barrel, what would be the fun in that?

As I close, I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome a newcomer to the ranks of Amateur Radio (even though he’s not even aware of this blog as far as I know).  But this newcomer is special to me, because he’s a Catholic priest – a very, very cool Catholic priest.  I read his blog, every single day.  So a big “Welcome to the hobby” goes out to Fr. John Zuhlsdorf,  KC9ZJN.  Fr. Z got his Tech license and he’s studying for his General.  Besides covering religious topics in his blog, he’ll also cover topics such as art, travel, food, target shooting, various technology related items and now …. Amateur Radio.  Like I said ……. cool, very cool!

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

Lately I have been doing a lot of hit and run contacts – either with DX stations or SOTA Activators.  I can copy pretty fast in these quick exchanges.  However, I have noticed that my speed has slipped a bit when in a normal QSO.

So today I decided that I would start having at least one QSO that was a bit more of a rag chew each time I operate.  Today I had two!

Here is the run down for today (15 meters seemed pretty dead, and so did 17 meters)…

KE7GKM – I heard Bob calling CQ on 20 meters and gave him a call.  He was in Boise, ID.  He was running a K2 at 5 watts into a dipole.  This was a nice 2xQRP QSO.

Then I took a look at SOTA Goat and noticed several activators….

W4EON – Eric was on Mill Mountain, VA – W4V/HB-023 – he had good ears since he gave me a 449 and I gave him a 559 on 20 meters.

WA7JTM – Peter was on Baker Butte, AZ – W7A/AE-035 – RST of 559 both ways.

N7CW – Bud was on West Spruce Mountain, AZ – W7A/AW-202 – it sounded like he was running a nice little pile up!  579 exchanges both ways.

Still had a bit of time, so I tuned down 20 meters and heard….

KF7YHB – Wyatt was calling CQ with a nice clean fist.  His QRZ page says he sometimes uses a “cootie key” – I wonder if he was today??  We had a nice long QSO which was really enjoyable – the speed was perfect and Wyatt had a great fist and signal!

On another note, I hope to make some more progress on the Mag Loop antenna this weekend – get it mounted and tuned up and hopefully make a QSO!  We are heading to the Kansas State Fair on Sunday to see one of my sons friends and our neice and nephew – so that should be a fun day!

Oops. I bought some bits off eBay for the grand total of a few quid. Duly waited for them to arrive (3 weeks) then founds out I’d ordered the wrong thing.

Now then, where is that micrometer and I’ll make sure they’re right this time?

The 2013 edition of the Colorado QSO party is complete and in the books.  Perhaps, with exception to Field Day…the COQP is my favorite on-air radio sport opportunity.  I truly enjoy representing the Centennial State and Denver County in this annual event.

The event is a full 16 hours from 1200 UTC (6 AM local) to 0400 UTC (10 PM local).  In past years I’ve honestly not bothered with setting an alarm in order to get up with the chickens and get on the air.  However, this year…well, my wife and I had just arrived back in the US from two weeks in Europe less than 36 hours before the start of the contest.  Needless to say, I was still on London time and I was awake at 4 AM. 

With coffee in hand, I switched on the computer and radio (my trusty Yaesu FT-950) and began spinning the dial promptly at 6 AM.  Band conditions at this time of the day and in Colorado just weren’t compatible with my contesting efforts.   Having been up due to jet lag for a few hours, I decided a nice morning walk was in order.  After all, I still needed to get in my 10,000 steps.  It was a beautiful morning in the mile high city and I used the time to walk along the DTC and admire the beautiful rocky mountains. 

Energized after the walk, shower and breakfast.  With even more coffee I headed back down to the basement ham shack and resumed my efforts of calling CQ Colorado QSO Party.  Ahhh, 20m was as awake as I was and we were well underway to putting Q’s into the logbook.

My somewhat loose goals for the 2013 COQP was A. Have fun and B. attempt to make more contacts than the previous year.  By the way, this number for 2012 COQP was 281.  The end result for my 2013 efforts would most certainly meet the “Have Fun” goal (after all, this is important) and would unfortunately fall short of breaking last year numbers. 

As you can tell from the screen grab from N1MM logger, I missed my Q goal by 23 Q’s. 

So what was different about 2012?  I decided for the 2013 COQP that I would work phone only versus in 2012 I operated mixed mode to include PSK and RTTY.  But I also believe last year I wasn’t jet-lagged and I was able to give a solid effort in the final hours of the contest.  Unfortunately, this year I was physically out of gas around 7 PM. 

Overall I felt band conditions were just as good (or as good as I could remember them to be in 2012).  Below is a map showing the 258 Q’s I worked during the 2013 COQP.  By the way, I created the map using K2DSL free service. 

I truly look forward to next year and I hope to work you.

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK

I was surprised to be spotted by ZL3PX Geoff (see photo) on 40m WSPR. Very nice, distance: 18.663 km. I was running 5W. Yesterday I experimenting with WSPR QRPp 50 mW on 20 meter. Best spot was LA9JO that's 39.300 km/W or 24.426 mpw. With such low power LA is DX!