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I went downstairs and flipped the K2 on and tuned around 40 Meters – WOW !!!!!!

After a long and full day of work, my brain is simply not ready to wrap around 40 WPM code.  I worked HG3R who was cruising at about 35 WPM and called it a night. Tomorrow, after a good night’s sleep and after the opening hours pandemonium is over, I will be ready to jump into the fray.  Also, during the daylight hours, stations will be spread out more as other bands open.  Seems like right now, everyone is crammed into 40 and 80 Meters.

I’ve been at this Morse game for over 30 years now; and I really admire these guys who can while away at 40 – 50 WPM.  I would love to be able to attain that kind of speed; but right now, it sounds more like a buzz saw than Morse Code.  God bless them, you have to admire and respect that kind of ability.

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

This has been a bad week for me as far as the QRP Fox hunts go.  On Tuesday night, I was only able to hear both Foxes at ESP levels.  I “knew” where they were; but they were much too weak to even bother calling – no way they would have heard me. Tonight is a rare QRN free night on 40 Meters, but alas, same problem as Tuesday night.  I can’t hear the Foxes for anything.

So instead, I headed down the lower part of the band and was picking off Caribbean stations that are flexing their CW muscles for this weekend’s big DX contest.  I got Curacao, and Bonaire and Aruba among others. And I even got a “brandy-new” entity for me via QRP. I worked PZ5RO in Suriname on 40 Meters.  I heard him call “QRL?” and he gave out his call and I nabbed him on my first shot. Sweet!

If you’re new to QRP and you’re hesitant about jumping into this contest, don’t be.  Have no fear, jump in and have fun.  But (there’s always a “but”, isn’t there?) you have to be sensible about it.  For the first half or so of the contest, don’t get frustrated if you don’t get the results that you want.  Remember at the beginning, you will be competing with a ton of QRO stations.  As a beginner, you might want to stay with “hunting and pouncing” and working the loudest stations.  If you try and try; but can’t get an answer within a reasonable amount of time – move on.  Work what you can.  As Kenny Rogers sang, “You have to know when to hold ’em, and when to fold ’em”.  Contests like this will really help you learn the capabilities and strong points of your station.

QRPers stand a better chance during the last half of the contest, if my experience means anything.  Towards the end, stations that are still hungry for points seem to hear sharper as they eke out those weaker signals in order to inflate their point totals.  On Sunday afternoon, I would try working just about anyone that you can hear.  At this point, even the weaker stations without super antenna arrays seem to respond to QRPers.

Don’t be surprised when you find out you can work a lot of DX with low power and modest antennas.  A few years ago, as a personal experiment, I decided to get on Saturday night and work the loudest DX stations that I was hearing, while the K2 was turned down to 1 Watt.  I think I earned the “1000 Mile per Watt” award about thirty times over that evening – and that was when we were in the middle of the sunspot doldrums.

And speaking of the “1000 Mile per Watt” award – you should be able to earn that this weekend without breaking a sweat.  And if you’re working on your DXCC – just starting,  in the middle, or near the finish line, this is always a great event for that.  Also keep in mind Diamond DXCC for this year. I am hoping to inflate my country total big time towards that award.

The contest is also a good way to increase your code speed a bit.  Don’t get frustrated with the guys who seem to be sending at 50 WPM,that sound like a buzz saw.  Pay them no attention – move on.  But don’t fall into the trap of only working slower speed guys either.  Work the ones who are a bit faster than you’re comfortable with.  It may take you eight or nine times to get their call correct; but what they hey – it’s not like you’re in this to take the whole shebang, right?

Bottom line is to have fun – be a “Giver of Points”, relax and have a good time.

On quite a different; but sad note ……. I heard on the radio, on the way home from work today, that Gary Carter passed away, losing his battle with cancerous brain tumors.  Gary “Kid” Carter, along with Johnny Bench may arguably have been two of the greatest catchers the National League has ever seen.  His coming to the NY Mets in 1985 was a catalyst that started a series of winning seasons that lasted until the early 90s.  I had the great fortune to meet him at a baseball card show after he had retired from the game.  Not only was he a great baseball player, totally worthy of his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, he was also a total gentleman.  The world of baseball (and NY Met fans) is poorer today for Gary’s passing.  But I’m sure he’s being more than welcomed on Heaven’s All Star Team.

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

FYBO was fun today.  No big effort as there were way too many other things going on that vied for my attention.  In between chores and duties, I was able to get out to the driveway, where I had the PFR3A on a battery in the back of my Jeep.  The antenna was the Buddistick on the magmount on the top of the roof.  Kudos to Bob W3BBO for suggesting this setup – it worked great!  The car body acts as a much better counterpoise/ground plane than the single wire and using the magmount eliminates the need for mast and guying.  So if you’re not hiking – this is a great way to use a Buddistick.

It ends up being much taller than a standard Hamstick (definitely not drivable), but the SWR was very nice and I was able to use the PFR3As internal tuner to even get that ironed out flat.

First QSO of the day was with Hank N8XX operating as “Amigo” with the WQ8RP callsign.  In all, I made 11 contacts in between grocery shopping, baking some bread for my daughter’s choir bake sale, etc, etc, etc.

Here’s a better look at the antenna.

On 40 Meters, I undid the tap and extended the whip all the way.  That gave me about a 1.4:1 SWR.  I only made one contact on 40 Meters and that was with Mark NK8Q in Pennsylvania.  He was using only 1 Watt and almost blew the ear buds out of my ears.  I don’t think I have ever heard 1 Watt as a 599 Plus before today.

The temperature was 45F when I started, so for simplicity sake, I used that throughout, even though I think it started dropping for my last couple of QSOs.  I think the lowest temperature that was reported to me was 32F and the highest was 76F.

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