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I tried 1 watt WSPR on 20 meter. I know that Bas, PE4BAS uses most of the time 1 watt with WSPR. It's a good method to see how propagation is. Here are the results of yesterday evening. It's a challenge to work with QRPp power how far we can go under poor propagation conditions.


Conditions were fair to poor last night due to another CME yesterday.

With JT9-1 I worked F8RZ and IZ0MIO also with 1 watt. I will do more transmissions with 1 watt and 0,5 W
Does anybody know what that bizarre tracks are on the screen?

Paul Stam, PC4T, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from the Netherlands. Contact him at [email protected].

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

The K2 ready in it's Pelican case to be shipped

For some time now I have been looking at my Elecraft K2 sitting on my radio desk doing nothing. A conversation has been going on for some time within me to keep the rig...I built it and it's a fantastic radio. Again I had been looking at the radio just sitting on the desk doing nothing. There may be a time when I need a QRO radio...again I had been looking at the radio just sitting on my desk. It then came time for me to realize the K2 has to go to a ham who is going to run it through the paces. Give the rig the exercise it was

All is packed and ready

meant to have. I put the radio up on the market last week and it was sold within 24 hours and as I write this post is on it's way down to Nova Scotia. Thomas had a K2 at one time along with the antenna tuner and 100 watt amp. He sold it and has been wanting one.... so serial number 6613 K2 is on it's way down to him. Sound kinda funny to miss a rig like this but this rig was built with my own hands and I was very very proud of the work and the performance of the radio. In the box is the rig, combo ATU and 100 watt amp, dust cover from Rose, Pelican carry case, A & A engineering charger for the internal K2 battery and a load of internal upgrades in the K2. At the home station there is a hole were once the K2 called home and soon my KX3 will move in. This is begining to sound like a sad soap opera....lets turn things about 360 degrees.......the rig is gone and there are some extra ham bucks to spend. Not sure what is going to be added to the shack.....I do have some ideas.

Where the K2 used to be now a bare spot

Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

I started a new blog because my old ones are full of copyrighted material. Photographs from the Internet e.g. QRZ.com

Google will close down one of my video accounts because of copyright infringement. They worse case scenario: they will sue me for that. So my blog will content no longer material of others. Only photographs and videos which I have made myself.

It was too much work to 'clean' my 5 year old blog. That's why I start with a new fresh radio blog. (Unfortunately with less photos)

Paul Stam, PC4T, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from the Netherlands. Contact him at [email protected].

 

The day started out hazy, warm and humid. As I parked my car at work this morning, I was able to see the haze just hanging in the air, against the dark background of the trees. According to Google, humidity at the time was 91% – almost like being in a shower.

This is the type of summer weather that you get accustomed to if you live in New Jersey for any extended period of time. While it is expected, it can make a Ham’s life …. interesting, to say the least. Antennas are left disconnected, as you never know when a thunderstorm is going to pop up. And pop up they do, swiftly – and seemingly without a lot of warning. Just yesterday, we had two bouts – one near 4:00 PM and another around 7:00 PM, complete with lightning, thunder rumbles and heavy downpours. The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for just about all of New Jersey, effective until 10:00 PM tonight. Summer in NJ – you gotta love it!

This weather is also making my radial project interesting. Kneeling down on a wet lawn, in order to secure the wire to the earth is, well …. just so much fun. The bright side is that the grass will grow much quicker in these tropical conditions, and as a result, the green colored insulation will disappear into the lawn all that much faster. My wife will appreciate that.

Pickings were slim at lunchtime. There were many signals on 17 Meters. But it seemed like it was a case of either,

A) It was a new station and I wasn’t being heard, or
B) It was a station that I had already worked before.

As a personal rule, I try to avoid working the same DX stations over and over on the same band. I would much rather someone else get the chance to put that particular DX station in their log for that band.

I did snare DL6ZXG, Klaus in Derenburg, Germany, receiving a 559 report. From his QRZ page, you can tell that Klaus is quite the active Ham. Not only does he hold 5BDXCC, and the ARRL’s Triple Play WAS award, but he also has over 20,000 look ups on QRZ. That shows me that you’re on the air a lot!

The lack of working a plethora of stations at lunch time gave me time to snap some photos of the setup, as requested. Nothing exotic or spectacular, which is a good thing. If I can have success with this arrangement, then you can too, with something similar.

Will I earn DX Honor Roll this way? No, of course not, but I will get more than my fair share of fun, and THAT’S the point, isn’t it?

I must give credit where credit is due. Bob W3BBO gave me the idea of using my Buddistick on the car this way. Up until then, I had been deploying the Buddistick in a much more “conventional” manner. Bob clued me in about using the car as an enhanced ground plane, and let me tell you – this arrangement makes the Buddistick soar! (That’s a W3FFism!) I had never thought of this on my own (duh!) and I will forever be indebted to Bob for his “out of the box” thinking. This works so much better than individual Hamsticks.

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

It’s been a while since I had many QSOs on 50MHz FM. Two or three years ago, I used to work Roger G4HZA most mornings via GB3FX, but Roger moved away.

Since then, I’ve occasionally called CQ on 51.510 FM, particularly in the Es season. As you may have read, I was rewarded with a nice contact with EA2DVT last week. Yesterday, I called CQ and was pleased to be called by Andy G6REG/M using his new second-hand AKD mobile rig. We made an easy contact over a distance of around 15 miles.

This evening a CQ had both Andy and David, M0MLN respond! David was quite close by, testing an antenna but was able to work both myself and Andy. Andy and I enjoyed a mobile to mobile QSO for some minutes. Despite some varied terrain we noticed much less mobile flutter than we would have expected on higher VHF bands, even 70MHz.

It would be fun to hear more mobiles or fixed stations on 51.510, whether on ground wave or by Es!

Down on 50.500, yesterday evening I heard Spanish. No callsigns, so whether it was a repeater or just a local contact, I couldn’t quite tell.

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].