Posts Tagged ‘Contesting’
ATS Sprint
July 21st, 2012 | 
Author: There was a new QRP operating event taking place on the HF airwaves tonight – the ATS Sprint. Meant mostly for operators of Steve KKD1JV’s famous little trail radios, it was open to all QRPers, no matter the rig chosen to use.
I snagged six participants on 20 Meters including G4ISJ/P in England. Band conditions weren’t the best and I spent a goodly amount of time trying to track down Dale WC7S, who was a big promoter of the event. I heard a few stations successfully work Dale; but I never heard him myself.
Most of the activity seemed to stay on 20 Meters. I switched over to 40 Meters and there was a lot of RTTY around 7.040 MHz, but no QRPers that I was able to hear. I thought I heard Nick WA5BDU calling “CQ ATS” somewhere around 7.039 MHz. If that was Nick the QSB was bad and he was in and out.
I sure hope that the organizers feel that they had a decent enough turn out so that they will schedule this event again. Even though I wasn’t using a KD1JV rig to participate, it was a lot of fun. I hate seeing QRP Sprints go the way of the Dodo bird. Some folks feel there are too many; but my philosophy is “The more, the merrier!”. These contests are usually very friendly and are never cut throat affairs. I tend to think of them as on the air QRP community gatherings rather than out and out contests.(That may be because I never place highly!). It’s through these events that I’ve gotten to know and become friends with so many other QRPers over the years.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
IARU contest QRP/QRPp event
So how did all this solar mumbo jumbo affect the contesting goals at VE3WDM?? My first goal and last goal of having fun and enjoying the contest was accomplished. As for adding to my DXCC count I only was able to grab one DXCC. The spotting networks were alive with South Pacific and Asia but at VE3WDM nothing at all was heard. My openings seemed to be centered around Europe with the occasional South American tease.
This contest for me was not about gathering points and contacts. It was taking advantage of a large amount DX and working them with the least amount of power as possible. This meant the contest was slow going and not worrying about total contacts and points. 99% of my contacts were made with QRPp power and some with QRP. Each potential contact started with trying to make the contact with as little as 50Mw's. I had to stop at 50Mw's as my LP100A meter will not measure any lower power output. Back when I ordered and built this meter I never thought I would ever be operating as low as 50Mw's......my thinking was "an attic dipole antenna at QRP of 5 watts I am pushing it" funny how things change over time. I have a device on order that will allow me to measure power output into the nano watts...not that I will ever go there......but you never know!! I was not able to top my all time miles per watt high of 45,868 well maybe next time.
ITU 9
HQ contacts 6
Points 46 UPDATE: score was actually 690 have to stop using that new math!!
Hendricks 41dB attenuator built and added to the mix
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| Hendricks attenuator in service |
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| Final testing |
Now when I want to use the attenuator it's a matter of selecting antenna B on the K3 and Ant B selected on the DTS-4 and I am ready to go with all the setting on the K3 done.
- Have fun and enjoy!!
- Look for DXCC's I do not have so I can add to my ARRL Diamond count.
- See if I can beat my miles per watt record of 45,868 miles.
- Have fun and enjoy!!
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| Some of the extra parts |
Now THAT was fun!
I participated in the QRP-ARCI Summer Homebrew Sprint for only a very little this afternoon. But thankfully, quality is not defined by quantity, so the QSOs, while few in number were great in fun.
I began by operating on 20 Meters. The Buddistick was set up with two 11 inch arms, the coil and the super long whip atop the Jeep on the magmount. With my coil tapped in the normal 20 Meter spot that I am accustomed to, the Autek analyser displayed an SWR of 1.4:1. I hit the ATU button anyway, for a very short “Brrrrp” and got a 1:1 match.
While on 20 Meters, as I was calling “CQ QRP” for a bit, and much to my surprise I was answered by Fred G4HOM out of Birmingham, England. He was much louder than the stateside stations that I was working; so I immediately thought “tower and beam”. Nope! Fred was using his K2 at 10 Watts to a simple wire – propagation, being what it was, favored a QSO between Lake George and Birmingham. Signal reports were good both ways.
Shortly thereafter, I switched to 40 Meters by undoing the tap from the coil to take advantage of the entire Buddistick coil, and I added two more 11 inch arms. After a bit of a scare that I won’t go into here (due to my own stupidity), the KX3 had matched the Buddistick to 1.4:1 on 40 Meters. I had several QSOs down around 7.030 MHz, including one with my very good friend Bob, W3BBO. This was our first QSO while I have been at Lake George. He had a good 579 signal and gave me a good report as well.
The Buddistick on the magmount, using the vehicle as a ground plane is great combination. Thanks to W3BBO for getting me to try that. It works so well that I may just forego using the EFHW wires unless I am on the hiking trail later this week.
Oh, I don’t remember if I mentioned this; but I decided to leave the Lead Acid battery home. I am going strictly with the Lithium Ion this week. It held up very well this afternoon. I never dropped from 5 Watts output throughout the couple of hours of operating time this afternoon, including a few prolonged “CQ QRP” sessions. I think “The Little Blue Guy” will be quite adequate for my needs.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
QRP-ARCI Homebrew Sprint tonight
Well, this afternoon and tonight. It starts at 4:00 PM Eastern and lasts until 8:00 PM. And this will be the first big test of the KX3 in the portable environment.
We are up here at the Lake (George); and what a difference location makes. When we got here, I called my friend who is staying at our house and is dog sitting for us. He told me that back in South Plainfield, it was 102F (39C). Up here at the lake, it was a beautiful 78F (26C).
So the plan for today will be to operate from right near the cabin. I think I will go with the Buddistick attached to the magmount using the Jeep as the ground plane. That arrangement has worked well in the past. I will probably stick to 20 and 40 Meters; but may also give 15 Meters a try. According to the latest solar-terrestrial chart, 15 Meters should be in good condition today.
I brought the Autek antenna analyzer along to help quicken the process of setting up the Buddisitck. Thinking about it, I probably could have left it home. Using the Buddistick on the magmount is actually quite easy to set up. All I really have to do is set up the “standard” configuration, set the tap on the coil for loudest receive noise and let the KX3’s auto tuner handle the rest. The analyzer comes in real handy when setting the BStick up in the field and for dealing with finding the best length for the counterpoise wire.
So hopefully, i will hear some of you on the bands later today. Please give a listen for ol’ W2LJ.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
FOBB 2012 News
Today I received the following e-mail from Bill W4ZV:
“Hi Larry, FYI on the WRO live blog Richard KI6SN just confirmed that he will be doing FOBB this year and promises results within 2 weeks. Said he would be making an announcement on QRP-L next week. Great news! 73, Bill W4ZV”
End
OK – that’s all the news I have. I have not received any answers to my inquiries about FOBB, so I would suggest you keep your eyes peeled on QRP-L for the next couple of weeks. I do not know if FOBB numbers will be issued; or who will be doing the issuing.
This is a great event, and I’m glad to see that it’s not going the way of the Dodo.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
LHS Episode #083: Smokey & The First Lady
Welcome to the 83rdest episode of Linux in the Ham Shack. Freshly back from the Dayton Hamvention, Russ jumps in by telling everyone his experience at the show this year. The short version: It was great! From there, things move on to a question of FCC rules, at least in the mind of one ham.
One of the topics that kept repeating at Hamvention was: What is a good contest logger for Linux? Up until recently, it was hard to think of one. The ncurses-based application yfktest is out there, but thanks to IZ3NVR, our hosts discuss a new option. Tune in to find out what. There’s also some feedback, occasional rambling and hardcore lunacy. Everything you’ve come to expect from an episode of LHS.
73 de The LHS Guys
