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Today I pulled off a hat trick during my lunchtime QRP session. A triple play, a trifecta, a triple crown ….. three QSOs, one each on three different bands, in about 15 minutes. One on 20 Meters, one on 17 Meters, one on 15 Meters. A lot of band hopping!

The first QSO was a domestic one, but was perhaps the contact that intrigued me the most of the three. On 20 Meters, I worked Mike AI8Z/8, who was on SOTA Summit W8M/UP-057. This is better known as Feldtmann Ridge on Isle Royale National Park. The park is technically part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula,  but is actually an island in Lake Superior, very close to the Canadian shore. I did a Google search for images and have come away seeing that this is one very beautiful location.

Looks like a perfect place for a QRP vacation. This is exactly the kind of QRP adventure that I dream of and salivate over. Some day, I’m going to go on one of these! I wonder if Ken WA8REI has ever been there?

The next QSO happened on 15 Meters, which seemed to be open with a few signals today. I answered HC2SL, Alfredo’s CQ from down in Guayaquil, Ecuador and received the standard DX “TU 599” exchange. He did get me first time, no fills; but I’m pretty darn sure I wasn’t really 599. Alfredo really was 599 up here in New Jersey, however. His signal was really booming in.

From there, it was a jump on over to 17 Meters, where I answered another CQ. This one was coming from Andy DM5MU, from Leipzig, Germany.  Andy came back to me on my first call, also. Andy rewarded me with a 539 report, while I was able to send a 579 his way. The DX does not have to be 599+ in order to get a QSO. If you hear a DX station calling CQ, and they’re not making your eardrums bleed, don’t be afraid to throw your call sign out there, anyway. They might not hear you; but then again, they might. You’re never going to get a feel of who you can work and who you can’t if you only answer the loudest of the loud. Push the envelope – you will be rewarded many times over.

I would have liked to have stayed on longer, but after working Andy, I felt a buzz from my cell phone. A text message indicating that I had to cut lunch short and go back inside to handle a mini-crisis. Oh well ….. how do these crises seem to know when the bands are hopping?

On a “blog housecleaning” note, I have added one blog to the blogroll and have eliminated another.  First off, welcome to Jim Smallwood N7RCS and his blog, “Low-power, low-profile QRP from the Pacific Northwest!”  Looks like it’s going to be a good one.

Secondly, at the request of the blog owner, I have deleted the link to Smoke Curls by Jeff Davis KE9V. Jeff wrote me to let me know that he sold all his Amateur Radio gear and has retired from the hobby.  ‘Tis a pity, I will miss his word smithing – he is one very talented person.

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

My mag mount, I mean.  After working on it on Sunday, I gave it the shakedown cruise yesterday and today at lunchtime. Unfortunately, the bands seemed to be in less than stellar condition – thanks Ol’ Sol!  But yesterday netted me a contact with XE1XR, David in Mexico and KG9HV, John in Indiana.

Today, I heard even less on the bands. After perusing 15 and 17 Meters and not hearing much of anything, I decided to go to 20 Meters to see if I could hear any SOTA stations. Pfft!  Nada in New Jersey. So then I made the decision to call CQ.

I was answered by Burke N0HYD, who hails from Wichita, KS.  Turns out that he’s a reader of this blog and has started blogging himself.  I have added his blog to the blogroll. His blog is entitled “N0HYD – QRP & Portable Exploits”.  Sounds like Burke is a man after my own heart!  Burke describes himself as a “QRP Addict”. How could I not add the blog to the blogroll when a guy describes himself like that? Anyway, it was a great but all too short QSO.  I hope we have the chance to hook up again, soon.  It was not only a 2X QRP QSO, but also a 2X KX3 QSO – thanks for the QSO, Burke, Oh, and by the way, your rig sounded superb!

I have also done a little bit of blogroll maintenance tonight.  Any blogs that haven’t been updated within the last 12 months have been moved to the “Gone but not forgotten” area.  That includes Chas, W5PG’s blog.  Gosh, it’s just a little over a year now that Chas became a silent key.  He was a good blogger friend, and even though he’s gone, I just can’t bring myself to delete his blog – so as long as it’s on the Web, the link will remain.

Just a reminder – this Sunday is the Skeeter hunt!  Don’t wait until the last second to get your Skeeter number.

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

I just came inside from outdoors. There’s a small cell with a thunderstorm approaching. In fact, it’s just on the other side of town, according to the weather radar at weatherunderground.com. Nothing large enough to break the back of this heatwave, and will probably just make it feel steamier than it already does.

The backbreaking thunderstorms are supposed to arrive tomorrow. By Sunday afternoon, it is supposed to be at least 10 degrees cooler than it has been.

Today during lunch, I headed out to the Jeep once again, even though today has been the hottest day of the week, by far. 17 Meters yielded a QSO with OE3DXA, Werner near Vienna Austria, while 20 Meters was good for a QSO with N5URL, Bob in Oklahoma. The QSO with Bob fell victim to QSB. Like two old soldiers, we both just faded away.

I am going to be mixing things up a bit on the blog in the very near future. I will be having occasional guest posters. Every now and then, I get an e-mail from a QRPer who has had an interesting adventure or radio related experience. They don’t have blogs of their own, but yet are eager and willing to share. I will make the “Do More With Less” blog available to them. I think you’ll all love these guest posts and I am looking forward to them.

The other new item that you will see shortly is a new series that I have decided to call “Profiles in QRP”. These will appear once a month, where different QRPers will answer a set of questions, related to how they got started in Amateur Radio, what drew them to QRP, etc. Some of the profiles will hopefully be from some very prominent QRPers, while other profiles will be from people you may never even heard of.  I hope to get profiles from the QRP gamut …  builders, contesters, designers, everyday Joes, HOFers, etc.

I’m sure you guys have had enough of me and my situation. This blog is supposed to be about QRP and CW. Hopefully, I can bring you some interesting reading in the near future.

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

This Nexus 7 tablet is a great convenience. I can easily check e-mail, Twitter and Facebook very easily and quickly. It’s also great for Echolink, looking up call signs and checking the DX Cluster. It’s quite a nifty tool.

One thing that I have noticed though, is that it’s not so quick on the uptake when it comes to the blog. And by that, I mean that it really takes a long time for the blog roll to update with the latest changes. I can go on my desktop and Chrome will inform me that my fellow bloggers have published new posts, but yet the Nexus 7 and Chrome don’t seem to update as quickly. Sometimes it seems to lag several hours as compared to the desktop.

I am not enough of a computer whiz to know why that is, but it is a tad annoying. Still, the benefits outweigh this inconvenience, but it is curious.

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

I just happened to have my tablet with me at work today. During lunch, I sat down and was looking through Google News. In the science section, I happened across an article that was posted from The Christian Science Monitor, written by Peter Spotts.

Peter Spotts?   W1PNS, Pete Spotts?  “From the Key of W1PNS” Pete Spotts – fellow blogger?

So I clicked the little hyperlink that also served as the byline, and sure enough. Besides all the very prestigious accomplishments that were listed in the brief bio, was a mention of an interest in Amateur Radio.

So it appears that our Pete is not only an accomplished Amateur Radio op and QRPer and CW fan, but also a very accomplished author and writer. Some of you might have known that, but I didn’t and I thought that this was the coolest.

Just goes to show, there’s a lot of really talented writers authoring some of these Amateur Radio blogs. I don’t count myself among their number, but there’s a lot of quality reading to be found in the links on the right side of this blog. Don’t deprive yourself of their wordsmithing.

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

I am so happy to see that Jim W1PID’s outdoor QRP adventure stories have now been picked up over at AmateurRadio.com, which is a great site, by the way.

Since Jim’s posts will be picked up there, I would ask you to keep an eye out for them and will no longer mention them here, in order to avoid a duplication of effort.

If you’re into QRP and the outdoors, or would like to be, or find yourself forced to live vicariously, please treat yourself to Jim’s sagas.  If you’d like to re-read an old story or catch up on a few you might have missed – here’s Jim’s Website:  http://www.w1pid.com/

Happy reading!  And Jim, thanks so much for sharing.

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