AmateurRadio.com

Amateur Radio-wise, that is!

At the VE session this morning, we were able to welcome three new Hams into the fold. Well, make that two and one revert.  One of the candidates was a Ham years ago; but let his license lapse. So maybe it would be more accurate to say that we welcomed three potentially active Hams into the fold.

I guess I am from another era; as I get frustrated (a bit) when the first question out of a new Ham’s mouth is something to the effect of, “So where can I get a good price on a dual band handheld?”  Man, when I was studying for my Novice ticket, the LAST thing I wanted was an HT. All I had my sights on was HF and working the bands.  In fact, I didn’t get my first VHF radio until nearly a year after I was licensed.

I got my ticket in December of 1978.  Spent November and December and part of January assembling my station, which was a “pre-owned” Drake 2-NT transmitter (which was my Christmas gift from my parents that year) and a Heathkit HR-1680 receiver which I saved up for and built all by myself. That receiver was the very first of many Heathkits that I was to build.  Between buying, building and making an antenna, I had my first QSO on January 29th, 1979.  And it was an HF QSO.  I still have that QSL card, framed in my basement.  Can’t recall the entire call of the poor victim that I plied my nasty fist on, but I do remember his name was Adam and he was KA9something.

My first VHF radio was a Tempo1 handheld, the very first to have a synthesized VFO, not relying on crystal control.  I bought it a year later, after I had upgraded to General, specifically to assist in the 1980 Winter Olympics Torch Run.  Those were the Lake Placid “Do you believe in miracles?” Olympics and the torch run  traveled right through Central NJ on its way to Lake Placid.  I was with a local club providing communications in an ARRL led effort.  I still have the Public Service Commendation hanging on the shack wall that commemorated that event.

But for me, VHF and UHF were never a Number One favorite. Don’t get me wrong, I have spent A LOT of time on UHF and VHF repeaters – making friends, doing public service and all kinds of stuff.  But in W2LJ’s mind, when Ham Radio pops up in a little thought balloon, it’s always a picture of an HF radio, making worlwide contacts.  Just me, I guess.

I had another treat this afternoon, working my good friend, Bob W3BBO, who also took the plunge and just very recently got a K3.  He finished building his this past week and this was our very first K3 to K3 QSO.

that we bloggers never get on the air and just sit behind the keyboard all the time ……

I had a very FB QSO with fellow blogger Dan KB6NU on 30 Meters tonight.  I was calling CQ and Dan answered.  Dan is working on his Extra Class study guide, so we chatted for a bit and reminisced about our own exam experiences.  Dan and I have actually worked numerous times on the HF bands – it’s always nice to run into him.

That was followed by two more rag chews, one with Tom, N8TL and Jim NH4C.  Both were on 30 Meters, also.  The 88′ EDZ antenna seems to do a very good job for me on 30 Meters.  A far cry from the G5RV.  Not to say that the G5RV wouldn’t load on 30 Meters – it did.  But I get much better signal reports with the EDZ and I feel like I’m warming up the ionosphere instead of just the antenna wire.

I was going to go to the NJQRP meeting tomorrow; but received a request to help out at a VE session with the Raritan Valley Radio Club at the Somerset County Fire Headquarters building in Hillsborough, NJ.  It’s been a while since I have participated in a VE session and I do want to keep my credentials up.  Besides, it’s a much closer trip for me to Hillsborough, than it is to the NJQRP meeting.  I’d say the trip to the VE session is about a 1/2 hour to 40 minute (if there’s traffic) ride from here. The ride to the NJQRP meeting is an hour and a half from here – easy.  With gas prices going up yet again, I think I’ll stay closer to home.

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

I carried out my first modification to the KX3 – or rather to the KXPD3 paddle. It was the mod to solve the missing dah problem. I hadn’t experienced it, but it was one of those issues that would rear its head at the most inconvenient opportunity so I decided to do the mod. This involved disassembling the KXPD3, cutting one track and bridging two pins on the key’s circuit board.

The KXPD3 came apart easily, in fact rather too easily as it disintegrated into its component parts before I had a chance to see how it went together. That’s the trouble with taking apart something that has a spring in it!

I then cut the track indicated and bridged from one pin to the adjoining track. Why is it so difficult to make a solder bridge when you actually want to.

I reassembled the KXPD3. Before I did I dismantled a couple of 409Shop complimentary ball point pens to see if they would provide an alternative spring for the paddle. They did, but they didn’t seem to be weaker than the original (the only way to alter the tension with this key is to change the spring) so I reassembled using the original.

After that I connected the KX3 up to a dummy load to try out the modified key and confirm that I hadn’t broken it. The key still worked, and my sending was still as bad as it was before, so all was as expected.

I hade a tune around on 40m and heard one of the special even stationsfor the Olympics, 2O12L. He was loud enough to be an easy contact with the QRP KX3 – but I was getting no transmit output! Eventually I switched to the K3 and worked 2O12L followed in quick succession by the Welsh Olympic special event station 2O12W.

After I had completed the cotacts I switched back to the KX3 to find out why I was getting no SSB output. I found that VOX was working, the rig was switching to transmit, but I was still getting no output.

Eventually aftter much tearing of hair and playing with settings I discovered the reason for the problem. I had turned the power down to 0.0W when I was testing the keyer…

Words fail me.

Daunting, isn’t it?  Just goes to show that there were some superb ops up there on CY9M!

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

I tell ya!

I had a virtual pipeline into Northern Europe tonight on 20 Meters.  I worked Latvia, Denmark and a whole bunch of Ham friends from European Russia.  I was consistently getting 579 reports, and I will take those at face value.  Whenever I don’t get that automatic “599”, I figure any other report is probably pretty honest.

Hey, 5 Watts to the Butternut and I’m getting 579 from over across all that water that’s separating us?  I’ll take THAT any day of the week! If I wasn’t so tired from work, I’d do the Happy Dance.

I’ve got a bunch of yard work planned for tomorrow, so that I can have Sunday free for Flight of the Bumblebees.  Fresh air, trees, sunshine, wire and a radio.  You can’t beat that with a stick!

Since portable ops seems to be the thing that a lot of folks associate with QRP, I’m attempting to boil the essence of that down into a design for a T-shirt.   This is what I’ve come up with so far:

I’ve put this design on some stuff at Cafe Press.  I think I’ll order myself up a few shirts so that I can wear them while I’m Skeeter hunting (too late for FOBB).  I’ll have to see if I can’t find a real graphic artist who can improve on the execution of my idea – but for now – not too shabby (at least I think so!)

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

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!

A new rig is a thing of beauty. Whether it be Elecraft, Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom or kit built or homebrewed, once you get it on the air, it’s definitely fun! And before the novelty wears off, quite addictive.

After watching some TV with Cara and Joey, I headed down to the shack for about another 1/2 hour of operating time before heading off to the sack.  Most of that time was spent becoming familiar with knobs, functions and controls; but I also did manage to work OZ1HDF and RK3ER on 30 Meters.

Even though I now have microphones for the K3 and KX3, I doubt that I will be spending much of any time with any mode other than CW.  Sending and receiving Morse is still what Amateur Radio is all about for me.

July 15th is the Sussex Hamfest up in Sussex County, NJ – which is the extreme Northwest corner of the state. The Sussex Hamfest is one of the best in the state; and normally I can’t go as we’re usually in Lake George that weekend.  This year I can go and am planning on it.  Some things I will need – 1/4″ to mini jack stereo adapter so that I can use my earbuds on the K3.

With the K2, I had a single, amplified speaker.  I think I will have to get a set of amplified stereo speakers so that I can take advantage of the stereo sound the K3 can provide.  An inexpensive set of computer speakers should do the trick and those can usually be found quite easily (and cheaply!) at hamfests.

Off to bed now, tomorrow is a work day, and unfortunately,  I am anticipating tomorrow and Friday to be as bad as yesterday was.

By the way, it’s 11:30 PM and it’s still 84F (29C) – ugh!  In a few of the QSOs that I had today, the ops on the other end told me that it was well over 100F (38C) at their locations, so I guess I should be grateful it wasn’t that bad here!

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