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The battery is charging and my Lowepro 150 with the KX3 station is ready and raring to go for FOBB tomorrow.

I sincerely hope the weather is better tomorrow, compared to today.  We’ve had heavy, gray, overcast skies all day.  It was threatening to rain all day and in fact, did. from about 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM or so.  No heavy downpours; but if I were outside operating, it would have been enough to force me indoors.

This afternoon, I was able to break the pileup and work 2012L, the Olympics Special Event station on 17 Meters.  I heard them again tonight on 30 Meters; but their signal was not as strong as on 17 Meters this afternoon.

So I decided to frustrate myself for a while and try to bust the pileup working CY9M on 30 Meters.  The pileup covered a 10 kHz patch of spectrum and after a while, I realized I wasn’t going to cut it this night with 5 Watts.  I have worked St. Paul Island years ago; but never QRP.  They’re there till Wednesday, so I have a few more times to give it a shot.  I have them for DXCC credit already, so if I don’t get them in the log, I won’t lose any sleep.

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

Since I logged my first HF QSO back in 2005 I have been using one type or another of software logging. I have also enjoyed exchanging QSL cards but never developed a good system at keeping them organized. Jumping from one logging program to the next, managing the “sent” and “received” QSL card fields have been hit or miss. A good portion of my contacts were uploaded to eQSL. Some were pushed out to LoTW. But I am not at all certain that either accurately reflects all my logged contacts. Compounding the problem has been multiple moves and military facilitated DXpeditions to Iraq and Korea. So what I am left with is a filing cabinet drawer full of QSL cards and a hard drive full of various log files.

It would be nice to get this mess sorted out.

I taking a three-step approach to establish order out of chaos.

(1) Gather all my software based log files. Use a file format compatible with fldigi and convert all the log files accordingly… with the end result of one consolidated log.

(2) Organize all QSL cards by date. I have a few boxes that QSL cards fit in nicely as well as tabbed dividers. This will allow me to fairly easily crosscheck the cards I have against the digital log.

(3) Stick with fldigi as my logging program. Update the QSL card “sent” and “receive” fields as I mail out cards or receive them. File received cards by date of contact.

(BONUS) I am pretty sure I achieved DXCC back in 2007, but have never been able to sit down and pull out the 100 cards I need. With a consolidated log and QSL cards organized by date, I will be able to easily find my 100 cards.

If you’ve been following my ham shack updates from the past couple of weeks, you know I’m in the final stages of finishing the space in my basement which will be used as my ham shack, podcast studio, home office and overall man-cave.  The space is really starting to come together and I can see what the finished space will look like.  I’m truly excited and especially so after staring at nothing but stud walls for several years.

If you go back to this blog post and also read this one, you’ll get an idea of how I’ve spent the past couple of weekends.  While I believe we made great progress this weekend, we did fall short of my goal of getting all the walls done.   This delay was due to the extra time it took me to hang two doors.  These two doors will access the utility closet I framed in to hide the HVAC systems.  Because of the way the two furnaces are situated, I had to include two doors.  Otherwise, should anything happen to the hot water heater, it would have required demolition to remove it. 

The remaining work on the walls (about 5 more sheets of drywall) should get completed this coming weekend.  I then plan to take a weekend off and reward myself (and my wife) with doing something else that weekend and then it will be time to start hanging drywall on the ceiling.

Finally, I worked a total of about two hours in the ARRL DX phone contest this past weekend.  During this time I worked about 20 DX stations, adding four new to my growing DXCC list.  The four new DXCC entities worked this weekend were Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and Portugal.  This brings me to a total of 54 DX entities worked to date.  

Sorry no pictures with this update.  I’ll hopefully get some pics in the next update or two showing progress.

Until then…

73 de KDØBIK

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!