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We’re getting ready to hit the road for vacation.  It’s been a whole year since KD2CHE and I tied the knot on a cliff overlooking Lake Tahoe.

Xiegu X1M

We’re not going to be heading back there yet, but wandering through New York’s North Country a bit.  I’m expecting to get a little portable QRP operation in as we poke around up there.  In anticipation of the trip, I picked up a spare power supply from my brother a few weeks ago to use with the Xiegu X1M, and any other 12V items I have or may acquire when I’m not near my main setup.  I decided to assemble the “motel room” version of my QRP setup here to see how it works.  I have the Xiegu, my Emtech ZM2 tuner, mic, the spare PS, and a small amplified speaker sitting here on the couch.  A string of 2 alligator leads is running from the ZM2 to the feed-thru from my random wire up near the window.  Everything powered up, and tuned up, so I decided to answer a couple of calls on 15M.

I made USB contacts with UT7UJ in Kiev, and S51ZZ in Slovenia from my test station on the couch here in Long Island.  Not bad for 5 Watts.  This little rig is full of surprises.  I also just found out from Ed at Import Communications through a post to the Xiegu X1M Yahoo group that he is going to be offering upgrade kits for the earlier X1M to upgrade the front panel and display to the newer version, as well as a strong possibility of a firmware upgrade that will cure many of this rig’s little issues.  The firmware upgrade has already been released for the newer model.

Now, time to pack it back up, and hit the road.  73s de Neil, W2NDG

Hi all,

The Lydford from Walford

I am in the process of updating radiokitguide.com.  If you can think of any new kit sources that I haven’t covered yet, please leave a comment here.  I am looking for RECEIVER, TRANSMITTER, and TRANSCEIVER  kits.  I will cover accessories at a later date.  If you know of a spectacular source of accessory kits though, send it along anyway.  I am adding a couple of new sources, and making changes to YouKits, Small Wonder Labs (goodbye), TenTec, and several others.  Thanks in advance for your help!

This is an article I wrote for LIMARC here on Long Island, and also posted at my blog Fofio!.  Some of it is targeted to beginners in the hobby, so I apologize for the elementary nature of some of it.  Many of the kit references can also be found at my list of radio-related kits RadioKitGuide.com

I have been slowly getting into QRP these days (low-power for you beginners).  Being an outdoorsy kind of guy, it mixes well with my outings.  What has really surprised me lately though, is how well you can do with some inexpensive equipment, and a simple antenna.

Most of my portable setup is relatively Read the rest of this entry »

I hope you’ll join me in focusing our attention, thoughts and prayers to our heroes who lost their lives 12 years ago and also to those who lost their lives 12 months ago today.  In addition, we should also honor all who have given their lives to defend freedom around the world.   We must never forget those who died on September 11th and we must never forget that freedom is not free. 

May God continue to bless this great nation…and may freedom ring around the world.

JT 

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

Grrrrrrrr! and then more Grrrrrrrr’s! FOBB 2013 was a gud one! Grrrrrr!

Anticipated rain and thunderstorms and was not disappointed. Accordingly, I took up my backpack and walked about 1/2 mile to set up under a small pavilion in our housing development’s lakeside park. So far, so good. Originally I planned to have an EFHW for 40m and another one for 20m. Upon unpacking, realized my 40m wire was in my other pack at home. SHUCKS. I had already put a shot over a 40′ high branch and pulled up a paracord to hook to the wire which was not available. Oh well… it happens even to the best of us, eh?

Grrrrr! So I tried to set up the 20m EFHW and after another great shot with my 1 1/2 oz sinker and pulling up a line realized the tree wasn’t going to give me a good shot as it was too close and not very high. Grrrrrrr=ed a bit more!

K4UPG FOBB 2013 BB#23

Rethinking mode kicked in and was glad I got out early so all the wasted time did not mess me up. Pulled out my handy 20 ft Jackite and a 17 ft crappie pole and decided to give up on a typical K4UPG “hang ‘em high” antenna and do a very Lazy L. I tried to orient it for a bit of slope towards 330 degrees which shoots from FL to Iowa and provides decent coverage of most of the US. Turned out that low antenna worked great but I think the band was pretty doggone decent for a change too.

So about 15 min before FOBB start time fired off a CQ and made a contact and shot the breeze for a bit to warm up. Nice QRP to QRP contact but not counted for contest. Just for grins. I did notice a few “early out of the blocks ops” were calling CQ BB about 10 min before the clock struck go! Grrrrrrrrr! Sync those watches gentlemen!

Contest Started:

First station heard was Cam out in California N6GA but no joy when I responded to his CQ as there was a mini-pileup on him. Grrrrr… Heard a few more 6′s during the day but no peep from Rem Bear or any others I recognized. I did end up with eight PB’s for the day though and a great TU and Grrrrr to my fellow PB’s: AF40 Chuck- PB 153 TN my last contact of the day (more later); Snowbird FL Bear Don K3RLL PB 187 in PA with his new KX3; Jeff K9JP PB 175 in MI was the loudest signal of the day and blew my ears out till I got the RF and AF turned down Grrrrr! didn’t recognize you as a PB… sri bout dat; N1EU Barry in NY PB 336 got a Grrrrr!; N3AAZ John in MD PB 276 sri 2 ya… missed a Grrrrr!; W1PNS Pete in MA PB 348 got a Grrrrrr!; W5ESE Scotty beam me up Bear PB 287 missed a Grrrr too; WA8REI a perennial PB contact for me gave me a PB 21 style Grrrrrrr! I was closing a contact and Blackjack Bear called me on the guy’s freq so kept it REAL short and sweet as I felt like if we tried to QSY there was too much traffic and we’d not make the connex. Sri Ken Bear was a messy QSO cuz of that. Missed hearing Larry W2LJ this time and listened fur some of you udder PB’s but no connex. Grrrrrr!

All in all worked 25 QSO’s in 17 states and all of them were BB’s! Lightning came up as I was finishing my QSO with AF4O and it was TOO CLOSE. Almost blew me out of my seat but I held onto the key and finished up. Sitting there holding the wire and I started singing, “Antenna on the ground, antenna on the ground, when da lightning is around get your antenna on da ground” to the tune of the famous “Pants on the Ground” song by “General” Larry Platt.

Thus ended a nice outing after 2 hrs and 45 minutes but I truly enjoyed this one. Great number of participants and bet I could have almost doubled the numbers if the lightning did not end the day. Was hearing a lot of new calls just prior to shutting down. At least I got to give the serious contesters some points this year. Maybe next year will be my turn fur sum extra Q’s ? Grrrrrrr!

72 from Orlando, Kelly K4UPG PB 173