AmateurRadio.com

A new video (quite well done) that you may want to keep on hand for showing to those who have or are expressing a deisre to become an Radio Amateur.

First, here’s the link to the full version (which is a bit longer than what is embedded here):  http://youtu.be/ivUMIADFSDw

Next, from Jim W4QO considering the current “Buddies in the Caribbean” DXpedition to St. Lucia:

In order to step up the pace here in St. Lucia, if you (running QRP @5 cw/dig or 10 PEP SSB) work 3 of the 7 ops on the Buddies in the Caribbean DXpediton this week, you can earn the coveted BIC QRP certificate.  It’s not the Buddies who have to be running QRP – it’s YOU!  Many of us are running QRP
but some are not.

http://dx-world.net/2013/st-lucia-buddies-in-the-caribbean-dxpedition/

Sadly, Joe didn’t make it so you only have to work 3 of the other 7 using QRP to earn this valuable certificate.

We have worked many of you QRPers already so how hard can it be?  Find 3 of us on any band, any mode.

To find us, go to this easy link:

http://www.dxwatch.com/dxsd1/dxsd1.php?f=3647

The Buddies are the ones with a J6/ in front of their calls. There are still 3.5 more days to do this, so come on, work us!

Send a #10 envelope with SASE to W4QO at qrparci.org with a list of the 3 (or more) you worked.  If you work 5 or more, well, just wait and see what you get!!  🙂

If you worked J6/W4QO, then include your QSL card and get one in return.

73,

Budd, J68FF #6260
Chris, J6/W6HFP #15226
Rick, J6/AA4W #4046
Craig, J6/NM4T #8137
Jim, J6/W4QO #6515
John, J6/W5EXJ #15219
Jerry, J6/N9AW #6694

Lastly, I thought this announcement from the League regarding the Communications Act of 1934 was of interest:

SB QST @ ARL $ARLB033
ARLB033 Plans Announced to Update the Communications Act of 1934

ZCZC AG33
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 33  ARLB033
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  December 5, 2013
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB033
ARLB033 Plans Announced to Update the Communications Act of 1934

The US House Communications and Technology Subcommittee has announced plans for a multi-year effort to examine and update the Communications Act of 1934, the overarching law under which the FCC functions. The subcommittee, part of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, is chaired by Oregon Republican Greg Walden, W7EQI. Walden and Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton of Michigan made the announcement December 3.

“Today we are launching a multi-year effort to examine our nation’s communications laws and update them for the Internet era,” Upton said in a news release. “The United States has been the global leader in innovation and growth of the Internet, but unfortunately, our communications laws have failed to keep pace.”

ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, noted that the most recent significant update of the Communications Act was in 1996. “Under the leadership of Greg Walden, the subcommittee and its staff are well equipped to take up the challenge,” Sumner said. “The ARRL will be monitoring the work closely as it goes forward next year and beyond.”

The plan was made public via Google Hangout, where the committee leaders were joined by former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, who said he was “delighted” to learn of the update plans. Upton explained that the process, to start in 2014, will involve a series of white papers and hearings focusing on what might be done “to improve the laws surrounding the communications marketplace as well as a robust conversation utilizing all platforms of digital media.” He suggested a bill would be ready by 2015.

Walden said, “A lot has happened since the last update” and that the Communications Act is “now painfully out of date.” He pointed out that the Act, drafted during the Great Depression, was last updated “when 56 kilobits per second via dial-up modem was state of the art.”

Upton said, “We must ensure that our laws make sense for today but are also ready for the innovations of tomorrow.”

Walden said he wants to open the discussion to input from everyone. Interested parties may follow the plan’s progress via Twitter. “It’s important for people to have an opportunity to weigh in,” he said. “This is really a public process to get better public policy.”

Call me a pessimist, but I hope we’re not opening Pandora’s Box here.

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

Hello …. my name is Larry and I am a pileup addict.

Or at least that’s the way it seems lately!  For the past few days, everytime I have gotten on the air and worked a station, I had to bust a pileup in order to do it.  Of course, the Fox hunts are nothing but a big QRP pileup and I snared both Lee AA4GA and Johnny ACØBQ on 40 Meters last night.  OK, there really wasn’t much of a pileup on Lee, I have to confess – but there was for a while. By the time I was able to hear him well enough to work him, his pileup had dwindled.

But after the Fox hunts, I swung down to the low end of 40 Meters and busted the pileup to work Jim J6/W4QO, one of the QRP guys who is on DXpedition to St. Lucia.  Then, I beat two pileups at lunchtime today. The first was to work another good QRP friend on St. Lucia. This time it was Jerry J6/N9AW on 17 Meters.  That was a full blown pileup and Jerry was working them fast and fierce, in a manner that would make any grizzly hardened DXpedition veteran proud. And lest I slight him, Jim’s performance last evening was every bit as good as Jerry’s.  Two top notch QRPers and all-around ops in Jim and Jerry.

See, participating in those Fox hunts DOES help!  We actually learn a thing or two – not only how to navigate pileups, but also how to manage them.

Later at lunchtime, I busted a pileup to work ZD8UW on 12 Meters – Ascension Island.  At 5 Watts out from my end, that came out to just a smidge more than 1000 Miles per Watt.

Working a pileup can sometimes make you want to bang your head against the wall.  You’re in there, sending out your call in what seems like a hopeless battle, ala` Don Quixote.  But then, you hear your call coming back to you and you complete the exchange for another rare one in the books, and all thoughts of bloodying yourself disappear in the breeze!

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

PS: I am working on the finishing touches to a new Christmas story.  Look for it here as we get closer to the Holiday.

then I am willing to bet that you know, have worked, or at the very least, heard of one or more of these fine individuals.

From Jim W4QO:

“Travel plans are set for the fifth “Buddies in the Caribbean” (BIC) mini-DXpedition to St Lucia (J6). Eight operators, some of whom have never experienced the “other side” of a pileup, will be operating from Chateau Devaux on the NE side of St. Lucia from December 1st through 9th, 2013.

This “Suitcase DXpedition” will operate QRP to 100-watt radio stations using backpackable Buddipole antennas to make contacts from the villa, the surrounding mountains, and (of course) from St. Lucia’s superb beaches.

The eight operators are Jerry—N9AW, Craig—NM4T, John—W5EXJ, Joe—K3JDB, Rick—AA4W, Jim—W4QO, Chris—W6HFP, and Budd—W3FF (J68FF). Ops will preface their own calls with “J6/”.

Team members will operate several CW, SSB, and/or Digital Mode stations on 160-10 Meters from the villa while others make contacts with portable set-ups from other J6 locations.

Per tradition, meeting and operating with local hams while on J6 is one of our key goals.

Details for obtaining contact confirmations from the operators can be obtained by checking www.QRZ.com. The BIC team members will confirm contacts via LOTW and/or QSL cards.”

Got to hand it to these gents – they know when to make an escape to the Caribbean, eh?  Just as the really cold weather settles in, they’ll be on the beach, enjoying the balmy breezes and having drinks with little umbrellas from coconut shells. And enjoying Amateur Radio to boot!  Have fun, guys …. I’ll be listening for you!

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

The bands are improving, the geomagnetic effects of the Coronal Mass Ejection seem to be fading. I was able to get on the air after dinner and work a few DX stations to add to my Club 72 QRP Marathon totals.

Many, many thanks to Peter HA5MK in Hungary on 40 Meters, Rolf SE6Y in Sweden on 30 Meters, and Vlad RW6FS in European Russia on 20 Meters.

The final totals for the 2012/2013 QRP Fox hunts were posted today. While I placed nowhere near the top finishers, I did “OK” for living in the Northeast without gain antennas. In the 40 Meter hunts, I nabbed 21 out of 40 possible pelts for a .525 batting average. I did even slightly better in the 80 Meter hunts. There I snared 26 out of 40 pelts for a batting average of .650 – good numbers if I were a slugger in the Major Leagues.

The “Major Leagues” as far as Fox hunts go, are folks like Doc K0EVZ, Dick W0NTA, Dave AB9CA, Dale WC7S, Dave N1IX, Jerry N9AW, Rick NK9G, John N2RK, Todd N9NE and many others. These guys are the heavy hitters, and I am nowhere in their league.

The “portable ops QRPer” in me really appreciated and enjoyed an article by Padraig Lysandrou KC9UUS in the May issue of QST. Read it if you get the chance. Padraig is a relatively newly licensed Ham, as well as a high school student. He and his family (Mom, Dad and two sisters are also licensed) took the opportunity to combine a vacation to Cyprus with Ham Radio. Not QRP, but very much portable. It was a good read, and Padraig is an excellent writer.

Lastly, before closing, for the night, I’d like to send prayers and thoughts to all the folks in Boston who suffered in the bombings today. May the injured heal completely and quickly. May the families of the deceased receive consolation and healing, also.

We are all Bostonians tonight – as a Nation, we gather together and become one.

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

I was fortunate enough to work both 40 Meter QRP-L Foxes tonight.  Jimmy WA4ILO and Jerry N9AW are superb operators, both with good ears, so that had a lot to do with it.  But I used the KX3 tonight and that made it all the easier.

The “Dual Watch” feature is something else, and makes working split a snap!  You go into the KX3’s menu until you get to “Dual RX” and you turn it from “Off” to “Auto”. What happens next is that you hear your quarry on VFO A in your right earbud.  VFO B is heard in your left earbud, so you can tune around VFO B until you hear the Hound the Fox is currently working.  Once you know where the Fox is listening, it’s just a matter of time!  The only caveat is that the Dual Watch feature will only work with splits less than 1.5 kHz.

Anyway, I nabbed Jerry N9AW at 0106 UTC, six minutes into the hunt, and Jimmy WA4ILO at 0139. For the last hour, I was just listening to the two Foxes work my friends.

The past few days, I have been getting very few e-mails.  I subscribe to quite a few QRP e-mail reflectors and I was wondering what was up.  I thought that maybe it had something to do with that Microsoft / arrl.net thing that was going on last week, as I always use my arrl.net address for e-mail.

This evening, I checked my Web-based Verizon e-mail page.  Everything was in the spam, folder!  All the spam was in there; but also a ton of good e-mails, too! For the longest time, Verizon’s e-mail spam filter was doing an excellent job and I never really had to give it a second thought.  Looks like for the next while that I am going to have to regularly check the spam folder until the e-mail client “learns” what is spam and what is not.

I got an e-mail from my good friend Bob W3BBO, telling me that he was fortunate to work the Easter Island DXpedition on both 12 and 15 Meters today.  I haven’t had much luck hearing them loud enough to work them, and when they have been loud enough – they have been calling for EU stations only.  I don’t know how much longer they are going to be there; but I do have this Friday (Good Friday) off; so maybe when I’m not in church, I just may get an opportunity.  I’ve worked Chile many times, both QRP and QRO, but I have NEVER worked Easter Island.  It would be appropriate to work them this week, wouldn’t it?

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

From Steve WGØAT on Facebook:

It’s that time of year again! Members of the Buddies in the Caribbean 2013 (Team #1) will mount a mini-DXpedition to Barbados (8P6) 29 Jan 2013 thru 6 Feb 2013.

The Buddipole teamwhich specializes in 100 watt or less low power radios and the Buddipole portable antenna systems will have fixed operations from a ocean villa and portable operations from various points on the island using CW, SSB, and digital modes on 160-10m.

The team consists of the following operators: Chris (W6HFP), Budd (W3FF), Danny (WZ1P), Steve (wG0AT), Mike (KC4VG), Guy (N7UN), Paul (KB9AVO),and Wey-Bob (K8EAB). We all have received our 8P9 callsigns.

QSL via LoTW, eQSL, or mail to operator’s home call (SASE required). See QRZ for individual’s specific QSL instructions.

Sure would like to be able to join ’em!

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