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Every now and then, my lunch time QRP sessions are cut short by a work crisis. Such was the case today.  Not hearing many strong signals during my initial tune through, I decided to call CQ for a while and then go back to search and pounce.  I managed to call CQ alright, but never got to the search and pounce portion of the plan.  My cell phone buzzed in my pocket and demanded a quick return to my desk to handle “a situation”.

The bright side is that my CQs, although unanswered, were at least heard:

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

Band conditions seem to have deteriorated lately. Bob W3BBO and I were discussing this on Saturday. The upper bands, 10, 12, 15 Meters still have signals on them, but they seem to be not as plentiful and nowhere as strong as they were just a month or six weeks ago. Just after the cold weather broke here in NJ and I resumed my QRP sessions, it seemed like each lunchtime from the car netted 3 our 4 or even 5 DX stations per sitting.

Lately, those kind of band conditions seem to have disappeared. Signals are fewer and weaker. But today was a case of the one that got away. I was tuning up and down the bands and heard JY9CF on 12 Meters. He was kind of loud and was calling “CQ USA ONLY”. I tried, and wasn’t being heard. But I did have time, as I heard him early on during lunch hour and he was getting louder. I figured giving just a little bit more time, I just might have nabbed him. However, many non-USA stations began calling, and the operator was getting frustrated as a few times he sent, “PLS LSN USA ONLY”. As his signal strength to me increased, so did his frustration. Finally he announced he was going QRT.

Rats! My gut was telling me that with a just a bit more time …… maybe. I am pretty certain that if I was home and had the shack KX3 fired up to the 75/100 Watt neighborhood, that I would have garnered a new country. It seems that 5 Watts and the Buddistick just didn’t cut it today, even though the JY9 station was the loudest I have ever heard here.

On the bright side, I did have a short QSO with Jim N0UR on 20 Meters. I have worked Jim in many Sprints and many QRP Fox hunts. It was good to hook up with him in an “everyday QSO” situation. Jim was running 4 Watts from his Flex1500 and he was a good, solid 579 here into New Jersey (when QSB wasn’t kicking in).

BTW, Paul NA5N has announced the theme for this year’s QRPTTF – “Tres de Mayo” considering how close this year’s event is to Cinco de Mayo.  I have already decided what I am going to do to be “in theme” – but I am NOT sharing until after the event.  All the rules can be found here: http://www.zianet.com/qrp/qrpttf/2014/ttf.htm

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

To say it is a beautiful day in New Jersey today is in understatement.  The sun is shining, and the temperatures are in the upper 60s (20C).  The breeze (if there is any) is so gentle that you don’t even notice it.  So I decided that after grocery shopping, but before other chores, that I would sneak off to the park and try out the EARCHI antenna.  I built the 9:1 UNUN late last Autumn and didn’t get a chance to try it out.

Then when I got home, I got on the computer to order some wire and rope from The Wireman.  For the heck of it, I also decided to check out Facebook.  A lot of my Ham friends had posted about how lousy the band conditions are today. In fact, one commented that he went outside to make sure his antennas were still in the air!

Courtesy of Facebook

So it ends up that today was not the day to base a critical performance review on,  I will have to wait for another weekend with decent weather and better band conditions for another test. In the meantime, I will also browse the Internet to see if I can garner more information on optimal radiator lengths for use with a 9:1 UNUN.

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

Work has been a bear the past few days. The weather has turned decidedly Springlike, but yet I’ve been stuck behind my desk the past three days. No lunchtime QRP for W2LJ.  🙁

And to make matters worse, it’s that time of year that we QRP Fox hunters go into withdrawal, as the season has ended. So I’m tired from work, but yet can’t fall asleep, and I’m in Fox withdrawal to boot ….. so what do I do? I get on the air – that’s what!

Tonight, I worked EA8TL on 17 Meters. He was one of the few stations that I was able to hear on the band after dinner, but was he ever loud. Like, across the street loud! I called Jorge, and got through on the 1st call with 5 Watts.

After that, I engaged in a nice ragchew with Jeff, K9JP, who answered my CQ on 20 Meters. Jeff was using a KX3 also, and was blasting into New Jersey with 4 Watts. He’s also an SKCC member, so it was a 2X KX3 SKCC QSO! That’s a lot of capital letters!

After the QSO with Jeff, I dove into the pileup to work W1AW/4 from Virginia on 80 Meters. I managed to break that pileup in about 10 minutes, maybe a little less. 80 Meters was a lot tamer than it was last Thursday night when I got skunked in the last hunt of the season.

All the while that I was chasing W1AW/4, I was also playing with the DX Labs suite of programs. Sometimes I feel like Diogenes, searching for the perfect logging program like he searched for an honest man. DX Labs looks like it’s going to require a bit of a steeper learning curve than Ham Radio Deluxe. But it is very comprehensive and full featured. If I ever get the hang of it, I just may switch over.

Did I mention that my old, decrepit shack  laptop uses Windows XP? I turned it on for the first time since support ended and it didn’t blow up!  ;-). (Like I thought that it would … NOT!) Gosh, I’m getting punchy here, I had better try to get some sleep.

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

The QRP-ARCI Spring QSO Party is today and tomorrow. I’ve been on for a bit today and so far band conditions seem to be downright horrible.  It seems I have an S5 noise level on just about every band except for 10 Meters, and there’s not much in the way of activity.  I’ve worked three stations so far, including EA2LU on 10 Meters. Jorge is very active in just about all the QRP-ARCI contests.

The weather lately has been very early Springlike. Cooler than I would like, but suitable for QRP in the car without being uncomfortable. AND, the upper bands are still very active, which is nice to see. I thought I read somewhere yesterday that there was a massive solar flare headed our way. If that was the case, you wouldn’t have known it from 10 Meters this afternoon. I worked SV1CQN, LI8OM, and UY6IM all on 10 Meters.Tuning around the bands, 12 and 15 Meters seemed to be jumping too.

A couple of things for this weekend. First from my friend Greg N4GKL:

Are you ready for a exciting amateur radio challenge? Deploy as a portable station make five contacts walk one kilometer deploy again and make five contacts. Continue for the four hour period. You could do the same moving three kilometers via car, motorcycle, bicycle or other vehicle. You have entered the world of Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio aka RaDAR. You will enjoy making tradeoffs in radio, antennas, and choice of operating frequencies. The four hour period puts you under a little stress to manage all the factors in real time. Hams worldwide practice RaDAR any time they can but there is the four hour RaDAR contest the first Saturday of April and November. The next RaDAR Contest is April 5th 1400 UTC to 1800 UTC.

In addition to on foot and vehicle categories, there are also portable and at home categories. Each category has a multiplier. Power is your choice QRP and up with multipliers. All amateur bands, besides the WARC bands, are allowed including cross band contacts via amateur radio satellites. Modes – CW, SSB, AM, FM or any digital mode. QSOs via terrestrial repeaters will NOT be allowed. Call sign, Name, RS(T) Report, QTH and grid locator at least 6 characters and 10 preferred. There is a bonus for your first satellite or digital mode QSO. Also there is a bonus for your first RaDAR to RaDAR intercontinental QSO.

There are two contest managers: Eddie Leighton ZS6BNE for IARU 1 – see http://zs6bne.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/radar-the-new-contest-april-2014/ and Marcus Kessler NX5MK for RaDAR America see http://radar-america.blogspot.com/2014/02/radar-america-contest-april-2014.html You will find the contest details at those links.

RaDAR originated in South Africa headed up by Eddie ZS6BNE. It has spread to the Americas with the efforts of Marcus NX5MK. There is a growing worldwide participation with the RaDAR Community on Google+.  See https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109283065808971118728

Here’s another link that Greg provided: http://www.n4kgl.info/2014/03/april-5th-rapid-deployment-amateur.html

And, secondly from Karel OK1CF:

Hello!

I’m the HF manager of Czech Radioclub (ČRK). Let me tell you to announced that the first OK-OM DX SSB Contest 2014 will be held second weekend in April (12-13.04.2014) http://www.crk.cz/FILES/CZECH_DX_SSB_CONTEST.pdf

http://okomdx.crk.cz/index.php?page=englis

Thank you – I look forward to hearing from you!

73,Karel OK1CF HF Manager of CRK

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

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!