AmateurRadio.com

I am pondering the possibility of acquiring a single lever paddle, possibly the Bengali Simplex Mono, with the palladium base.

I have always been more comfortable with single lever paddles, and have always used any iambic paddles that I have owned that way. I am not a squeeze keyer.

The Sculpture Mono would be great, but the price tag is too hefty for my wallet. Any of you readers have a recommendation for a good single lever paddle other than Begali? Maybe there’s a good one out there that I am not aware of?

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

I love twitter. Some years ago I thought it was a load of rubbish, and had no purpose. But actually there is a fantastic community on the social media network, and more importantly a group of like minded Radio Hams are also on their sharing ideas, knowledge and experiences.

Take Dec 23rd for example. A simple thread was started about how we are progressing learning Morse and how we are attempting to up our speed. The conversation naturally came around to what’s best – paddle or straight key, and which particular keys do you own. For some crazy reason I mentioned I would complete a YouTube video of my keys, and share with the other participants of the conversation. Well I’m delighted to see that others have gotten on the band wagon and are sharing their keys and their experiences with them. Have a look at the following. I’ve ordered them in chronological order :

So it was my birthday recently and to celebrate the turning of another year and that I had indeed taken a day off – I decided to build a FOXX 3 QRP CW transceiver. These little kits are available from Kanga-products.co.uk and are designed to fit in a Altoids tin.

The kit comes pre bagged up in separate bags, and its just a case of soldering the correct component to the correct area on the circuit board. The kit itself is a 1 Watt QRP transceiver that can be bought on various bands. Mine was for the 20m band.

The board has a clear and easy to read Silkscreen and the pads are suitably wide enough to allow anyone with different levels of skill to create the kit. Each step allows you to test each part of the board, so you learn how each part of the kit relates to the transceiver as a whole.

I had a great time building it, it’s a simple, easy and great fun little kit. I hope to take it out and about – so hopefully you can hear my tiny signal on 20m soon.

It was about 35 degrees (2C) when I set out for the Jeep at lunchtime. Not as breezy as yesterday, but it still felt nippy. Though that was a lot better than the 19F (-7C) that I woke up to earlier in the morning. New Jersey is not supposed to be quite this cold around this part of November!  Anyway, once again I operated from inside the Jeep as opposed to standing outside.  I didn’t need to turn on the heater as my upholstery is black and on a sunny day like today, the car can get rather warm on the inside. Solar power at its best!

The bands may still be in good shape, but once again, activity seemed sparse. Maybe it was because I wasn’t hearing 25 kHz wide DXpedition pileups, so it just seemed more quiet. I called CQ and was awarded with a nice QSO with Terry W9UX (who’s name I remembered, BTW!) in Madison, WI.  Terry is an avid and active QRPer, so I was rewarded with a 2X QRP KX3 to KX3 QSO (THAT’S a mouthful!).  We talked for a bit, and then, just as I was mentioning how the bands seemed to have lost some of their zip lately, wouldn’t you know?  We both QSB’ed from 589 to maybe 219 (generous).  We were both at ESP levels and couldn’t hear each other for anything as the band dropped out on us like the proverbial lead balloon.

A lesson re-learned, as sometimes I can get a bit too wordy in my QSOs. When band conditions are subject to volatility, it’s best to stick to a lot of our CW abbreviation lingo and not spell too much out, word for word.  CW abbreviations – the original texting shorthand!

TNX QSO – BCNU AGN SOON,  73 ES GB

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

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/design/2013/10/how-the-telegraph-went-from-semaphore-to-communication-game-changer/

and

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304672404579183940409194498

No luck today at lunchtime. One of those rare days where I got skunked.

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

After reading Larrys post this morning about 15 meters being open, I thought I would check that band out first today when I arrived at the park for some lunch time portable operation.  It has been a week since I have been on the air, so I was itching to get back to some CW.

Sure enough, right off the bat I had success…

DL4MO – I heard Loy finishing a QSO and when they wrapped it up I gave him a call.  He came right back to me with a 449 report – he was 599 here in Kansas.  Interesting thing is this was more than a quick report and “see ya” – I don’t think he could believe I was at 5 watts – he had me repeat my power after I sent it to him.  Loy lives in Germany – a new country for me.  His location is almost smack dab in the middle of the country.

SM5CAK – I heard Lars calling CQ and gave him a call – he was booming in here at 599, he gave me a 559.  Lars lives in Motola, Sweden – looking at Google Earth, it looks like a beautiful area.

I didn’t hear anyone else that was not in a QSO or very strong, so I decided to throw out a CQ on 15 meters…

F5RQQ – Jean-Marc is located in France.  We exchanged a quick report, he sent me 549 and I sent him 599.  Nice quick contact.

With 40 minutes left of my lunch hour, I decided to chase me some SOTA Activators…

K7SO – Sat was on W5N/PW-012 in New Mexico.  I worked him on 30 meters – he was booming in here at a 599 and I got a 549.

NM5S – Alan was on the same peak with K7SO but he was working 40 meters.  He gave me a 539 and I sent him 579.

KE5AKL – Mike was on W5N/SS-001 – Wheeler Peak, which is the highest peak in New Mexico at 13,167 ft.  I found this panaroma photo of the peak at Wikipedia – pretty cool shot.

Panorama of Wheeler Peak, NM – KE5AKL was here when I worked him!

With so many quick contacts, I still had about 8 minutes before I had to tear down, and I spun the dial on 20 meters looking for a CQ….

NK6X/4 – Bill was sending almost to fast for me, but I enjoyed it!  Sometimes it is good to be pushed.  He was in Dallas, GA, which appears to be part of metro Atlanta – I didn’t even know there was a Dallas, GA.  We had a nice QSO for the rest of my lunch hour, but I was having problems with the KX3 key.  Sometimes, it just will not send the dits and dahs when you push the arm.  Not sure what the deal is!

FUN FUN day today!  Thanks to all those that worked me!

As I have mentioned before, in May we moved our family from the Kansas City area to Wichita, KS.  While everything is unpacked and pretty well settled in, there is still some organizing that needs to be done.