AmateurRadio.com

Just a little piccy from Hannah moor. My contest station for an hour or so. Biggest dx was EA3EVL about 1500 miles on 5w.

I’m really enjoying the UKAC contests and had to cut this trip short because of thunder but the 2 element Nuxcom lightweight antenna on a decorating pole did the business.

Distracted.

That’s the best word that I can think of to describe my effort for Flight of the Bumblebees 2013.

The weather was certainly a distraction. With the forecast (all week long) calling for a 60% chance of rain on Sunday, I was not surprised to find that it was raining when I left Mass yesterday morning. That sealed the deal for me regarding my operating position. Right then and there, I decided that I would be a home station this year, and would forgo using my Bee number. As it turned out, it ended up being sunny, then rainy, then sunny, then rainy in small cycles just about all afternoon. Thunderstorms and torrential downpours waited until the 5:00 PM hour, just when I would have been tearing down.

Operating from home has its conveniences and creature comforts, but it also comes with its share of distractions. The phone rings when you don’t need it to, spouses and children ask for things like they always do …. it’s just a bit different than an evening Sprint, which are generally shorter and occur when things have already pretty much settled down for the night.

But the biggest distraction of all was this little guy (and I am definitely NOT complaining!). Meet Harold, the newest member of the W2LJ family, who came to live with us on Saturday.

We met Harold last Sunday, when we went to the local Petco store to pick up a bag of cat food for Sandy. Happy Paws Rescue was there with a full compliment of dogs looking for homes. Harold was not down on the floor with the other dogs, he was sitting in one of the volunteer’s laps. We didn’t even see him at first.

The first dog we were interested in was a retriever mix named Tia. She was a very playful and friendly little girl, and most importantly, I was informed that she was cat friendly. But it turned out that someone was already filling out papers for her while we were looking at her. There was another retriever mix there, a little older and a little bigger, named Hershey. However, the volunteers weren’t able to tell me if he was good around cats, or not.

Disappointed, we were about to head to the checkout with our cat food, when I decided to ask if they had any dogs that were cat friendly. They immediately told us that Harold was being fostered in a house that had cats and that there were no problems. Interested, they put Harold on a lead for us, and allowed us to take him for a walk around the store. That’s when the volunteer told me about Harold’s background.

Harold is a nine month old beagle pup who was bred to be used as a test animal at either a pharmaceutical or cosmetics company. The inside of his ears are tattooed with a serial number, as a testament to this fact. Lab dogs like him are never really “named”. It turned out that Harold was never used for testing, and was just an extra dog that was going to be offered for adoption. A secretary at the company found out about this and got him put into the custody of Happy Paws.

And now, he’s with us. He’s a very friendly little fellow, who like Jesse before him, seems “to not have a mean bone in his body”. He loves to be held and played with, and right now, is a bit of a “nose and stomach on four legs”. While he’s a tad underweight, this little guy eats his meals so thoroughly, and with such gusto, that we briefly kidded about changing his name to Hoover. He loves to join you in whatever chair you’re sitting in and totally relax next to you, in essence becoming a “puppy puddle”.

So far, Sandy our cat, has made a few wary attempts at getting familar with Harold. With Jesse, she was used to an older dog who really paid her no mind. She is not quite sure what to make of this little brown, black and white furball of energy. They have been getting closer and closer to each other (nose to nose at one point, in fact) without any bouts of barking, hissing or chasing. If they don’t end up becoming best friends, I am fully confident that at the very least, they will become quite comfortable with each other’s presence.

So while I was making a few paltry contacts on 20 and 40 Meters yesterday afternoon, my head just wasn’t in the game this year. My head and my heart were more fixed upon Harold, and also Jesse, whom I think would approve of his successor, very much. Even though he is a totally different breed and a much smaller dog, each time I look at Harold, I can see Jesse shining through him. And that’s a very good thing, because now it really does feel like Jesse is still right here with me.

As for the news about the Skeeter Hunt – Brady AC0XR wrote a logging program specifically for the Skeeter Hunt this year.  It can be found at http://www.qsl.net/ac0xr/skeeterhuntlogger.html  Some of you may remember Brady from last year’s hunt.  He was one of the few entrants who built a homebrew key for the event for bonus points.

I feel like we’ve hit the big time!  Our own logging program – thanks, Brady!

By the way, as of tonight, we’re up to 94 entries.  I’ll be issuing Skeeter numbers right up until the morning of the event – but don’t wait for the last minute.  And remember, this year SSB has been added as a mode. So if Morse Code’s not your thing?  You can join us anyway and get in on the fun!

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

We arrived home from Lake George yesterday.  I went to go pick up Sandy, our cat, from the place where we took her and Jesse to be boarded while we were away.  When Sandy got home, she was as upset as I was. She was looking all over the house for her “big brother”.

They were real good buddies and it’s quite obvious that I’m not the only one around here who has a bit of a broken heart right now.

The manager of Best Friends came over and explained to me that last Tuesday morning they found Jesse laying on his bed, which wasn’t unusual at all.  He was an older dog and was no longer very active. They thought he was asleep and when they tried to wake him, well ……… he didn’t.  The manager told me that one of her own dogs did the same thing.  He was old and hanging on and hanging on and waited until she and her husband were away to pass.  I don’t know if it has any merit or not, but she told me that some dogs do that. It’s like they want to spare their owners the hardship of seeing them pass.

This house is not the same without him, and I am definitely not the same without my pal.  The sun just seems to be a little bit dimmer than it used to be. And while I am thinking of Jesse, I’d like to thank all of you who left very kind comments or sent me an e-mail with the same.  I appreciate it and thank you so much – you’re all in my prayers.

But life goes on, so even though I really wasn’t in the mood, I decided to go to the Sussex Amateur Radio Club hamfest anyway – to at least take my mind off of Jesse for a while.  I got there at 8:30 AM, about a half hour after the doors officially opened.  I got there to a double line of cars, backed up, paying admission and waiting to get in.  When was the last time you saw THAT at a hamfest that isn’t Dayton or one of the other true “biggies”?

It was sunny and hot and humid!  I was sweating just walking around at a leisurely pace.  I ran into Don W2JEK who I have worked so many times in various QRP Sprints.  I walked up to the table where he was selling stuff and shook his hand and said “Hello”.  You could tell he was taken aback for half a split second until he noticed my call sign on my cap.  We talked for a bit and then I continued to meander around.

I noticed a lot of QRP stuff on the tables.  There were at least two HW-8s and one HW-7 that I saw. There were at least two of the Chinese/TenTec HB-1As and there were several MFJ QRP rigs for sale.  I will take it as a good sign for QRP, that when I made my last pass of the tables, all the QRP equipment seemed to have been sold and in the hands of eager, new users.

There was lots of other interesting stuff, too, including this:

Months of less than pleasant weather gave way to a sunny but breezy weekend. Ideal for the NFD contest. There was quite a bunch of us involved but unfortunately due to a domestic planning error we had family staying.

I did my bit by helping to set up and an hour or so of logging but no operating. Shame really as, working under Andrews callsign G4VFL/P across 6m, 4m and 2m all in around 180 qso’s were made.

Nice and relaxed contesting from the top of a very isolated fell road. Well done all.

I headed up to the top of Mount Prospect to operate in the QRP ARCI Summer Homebrew Sprint. It’s not on the SOTA list, but it affords a fantastic view of Lake George. I headed up there one day last year, but unbeknownst to me at the time, we were experiencing a geomagnetic event, and there was nothing to be heard on the bands.

This year was different. I headed out early and set up the PAR ENDFEDZ, using the Jackite pole and my drive on mast support. One thing you notice when you get up there is how quiet it is. There weren’t many people up there, even though it’s an easy drive to the top and its a local tourist attraction. All I was able to hear was the breeze rustling through the trees.

Set up went easy, like a hot knife through butter. It turned out that there was a conveniently placed picnic table there, which provided a perfect operating location. Within minutes I was calling “CQ QRP”.

WB5CTS
KB5JO
VE3EDX
KB5FCF
N7RVD
K4BAI
K4KJP

All these stations were worked on 20 Meters. I tried going to 40 Meters for a while, but the static crashes and QRN were so vicious that I didn’t stay there long.  When I went back to 20 Meters to call CQ again, I knew it wouldn’t be for long as I would have to begin packing things away soon for my return trip down the mountain.

That’s when I had my “winner” QSO of the day. My “CQ QRP” was answered by DK7IT, Fred in Stuttgart, Germany. Fred was a loud 599 and I received a 579 in return. Fred was attracted by the “CQ QRP” and told me that he was not accustomed to hearing such clear QRP signals from the States. He was curious as to what the setup was, so I gave him the rundown. Admittedly, Fred’s great signals were due to him running 100 Watts into a 3 element Yagi, but I guess the mountaintop location sure helped my QRP signal.

After my QSO with Fred, I quickly repackaged everything and made it down the mountain in time before closing.  Not a ton of contacts were made, but I had a lot of fun and the DX QSO, which turned out to be a real “honest to goodness” QSO was icing on the cake. The cheeseburgers that I grilled for dinner when I got back to the cabin weren’t half bad, either!

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

Is this coming Sunday from 20:00 to 24:00 UTC. That’s from 4:00 to 8:00 PM EDT for those of us here on the East Coast. I will have to participate as W2LJ/2 (technically), as I won’t be home. Tomorrow we’re leaving for our yearly sojourn to Lake George, NY.

Of course, the KX3, Buddistick, and PAR ENDFEDZ 40/20/10 will be accompanying me. Not sure if I’ll operate from near the cabin with the Buddistick, or perhaps from a park, or even from a nearby mountaintop with the PAR.

In any event, I am looking forward to some well deserved R&R. I anticipate a lot of reading, and a lot of radio in addition to all the fresh mountain air and cool lake breezes.

I have some good books loaded on my kindle, including James Rollins’ new one, “The Eye of God”. If this Sigma Force novel is as good as his others, I should burn through it in two or three days. For the past several years, I have been able to read two books during our time up north. In addition to Rollins’ new one, I also have several of David Baldacci’s novels loaded on the kindle.

FYI, any requests for Skeeter numbers will be processed when I return. So if you send me an e-mail, I will acknowledge it, and I may even issue you a number. However, I won’t be able to update the online roster until I return.

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