AmateurRadio.com

QRP at Luther Marsh... note one of Julies cameras

On Saturday morning Julie and I decided to take a hobby trip (Julies photography and my ham radio) we were off to a place called Luther Marsh. We have never been there before so we Google mapped it and off we went.....what could go wrong.....LOTS. This was a place that Julie was recommended to go by some bird watchers. It's about an hour and a half from where we live but they say getting there is half the fun.....and boy was it. Our trip according to Google maps brought us zigging and zagging all over the map. Once the road adventure was done we ended up on a lonely dirt road with a gate saying " DO NOT ENTER" Hmmmm it was time to bring out the Iphone GPS and find out where the heck we where. Well it was about another 20 minutes of driving  and we did arrive at our destination. We loaded up the camera and ham gear into our "hobby stroller" and ventured down a path in the wildlife

A view from below

sanctuary. We were not alone on the trail it was me, Julie and 

Julie's shot of the day an Osprey

deer flies!!!  We did have bug repellant  but it just had no affect on them at all. I was not bothered but poor Julie had at least 10-15 buzzing around her head all the time....and biting her!! We turned around and decided to call it a day, on the way out we noticed a path and this path lead to a lookout about 3 stories high. We went up to have a look and low and behold no deer flies. We had our lunch up there and Julie was able to take pictures and I was able to have to some radio time.
I took with me my Elecraft KX3, Alexloop, tripod and a spare battery. It was great, there was no noise level at all on the KX3 and one would wonder if the rig had a receive problem. I started to call CQ and it was not long before VE1AB in Nova Scotia  came back to me. John gave me an RST of 559 and we had a nice long CW chat it seemed that John had been to Luther Marsh several times when in Ontario.  I did have to say 72 to him as my batteries had to be changed in the KX3. I then called CQ again on 20m and WW2SUB came back to me.......hey guess where he was???? This was the first time EVER I had contacted a Submarine . He was on the USS batfish. I thought my CW was off and it was supposed to be copied as battleship. When I got home and did a QRZ.COM search....it was in fact called the USS Batfish!

Camera and ham gear stroller (mainly camera gear)

The Saturday afternoon sky

Not sure why but I have never taken part in any field day, I can remember there have been some years were I was busy. I have often seen field day setups as I drove from here to there but as I said I have never been involved in one. Well 2013 field day was my first I was not with a group from a club but did it on my own. Not because I'm not into clubs but was not sure if this year I would be busy doing other things as Julie's

Saturdays operating position

relatives are in from England. It turned out I was able to get some time in on Saturday and Sunday and I had a blast. I was operating search and pounce and was using my KX3 on battery power only. I did bring along my spare battery but did not have to use it either day. My antenna was a mobile whip and I stayed on 20m for the contest. I was reading on twitter how 10m and 15m were dead. Funny thing too I was also reading other twitter posts of how this was a field day with very little action on the bands. I found things to be very busy and I was always able to make a contact....well hear them but maybe not make the contact. It sure was a change to not have my PC with me during a contest. I was hand writing my log and also having to run down my contact list to see if I have worked the station already. I did get a few "worked B4" but that was due to the fact I was not able to see them in my log sheets. At the start of the contest I was getting asked to repeat my category almost every contact!! That told me I was for sure messing something up, turns out I was

Sundays spot...lunch time

Sundays weather

sending B1 and not 1B as a category....sorry to all those who I threw off at the start of the contest. Once I got the exchange sorted out all was going very well. The weather on Saturday was touch and go there was very severe weather clouds moving overhead all the time. I must say for the time I was out on Saturday I did not have rain at all. On Sunday it was once again very humid and HOT HOT!! The nice thing about Sunday was the bad weather seemed to had taken a good long break. On Sunday I went to a different spot, it was a nice park just north of me. I did have some folks stop by to see what I was up too but none hung around to long. When the contest was over I was on the air for only a total of 4 hours and I made 50 contacts CW only. I was operating at 4 watts on the internal batteries of the KX3.  I had a nice time and was able to give the Elecraft KX3 a good workout. So as I said this was my first ever Field day and I will for sure be putting this contest in the calender for next year.

Busy making contacts

The idea was floated earlier this week about going to the beach on Thursday. The weather looked great I had Thursday and Friday off so the decision was made! There is a nice spot that Julie and I go to all the time called Port Dover on lake Erie. This town is famous for it's Friday the 13th motorcycle gathering. Thousands of  bikes head to Port Dover for a massive get together.  On most weekends the beach is packed so going during the week we were not expecting huge crowds and hard to find parking. Turned out the crowds were small and I was able to park right at the beach with only a 10 pace walk to the car to get anything we needed. The wheels started to spin in my head on Wednesday evening about making this an HF/beach day. I have the Elecraft KX3 and it's all charged up this time, but I also have my extra battery I purchased. Julie thought it was a great idea as long as HF did not take over the day. So with moderation in mind I packed up the KX3 along with the extra battery. The antenna was going to be my mobile whip antenna with coax out to my rig. The Alexloop would have been nice but not knowing how crowed the beach was I left it at home.

back on the beach

I set up the rig, antenna and the lawn chair just beside Julies car....oh as a side note we had to bring both our cars as Julies relatives are in from England for a few more weeks. Our cars would not fit us and the beach gear........... I drifted a bit back to radio. The antenna was on the back of my car and with the pressing of two buttons on the KX3 the HF adventure began.
I was calling CQ at the 20m QRP watering hole and I first had N0FKC come back to me Piether was just outside Minneapolis I gave him a 559 report but once I gave it back to him the conditions had drastically changed. He was in at the noise floor and I must had been the same to him. He was in the process of sending me 73's. So that QSO did not last long at all.

View from the patio

I then put my call out again and KA3LOC came back to me with a 599 signal. We were able to spend more time in a QSO. Eric was in Kansas  and also gave me a 599 report. He was running 5 watts compared to my 3 watts. We said 73's and it was time then for me to pack things in and go back to reading and relaxing. Then it was off to the local watering hole for the famous Lake Erie perch dinner on the patio that looks out over the beach.  I was nice I had about a total of 2 hours on the radio and some great beach time.

My portable mobile by the river.

It was another great day  here and I wanted to get all the house chores done and get on to some radio stuff! I wanted to get out and about with my KX3 so today I decided to operate from the car with my 20m whip antenna. Not sure how charged up the KX3 battery was I took along with me my new external battery just in case a low battery issue came about. The All Asia contest is on so the bands could be busy with DX and I wanted to be there to make some contacts. I found a nice place in town along the river were I was able to stay in the car as the bugs are very bad at this time of year. The bands were alive with DX, the first station that was booming in was JH4UYB from Japan then came RN3F from Russia, OH2BV from Finland, LY6A from Lithuania and finally UP2L who was 17 years old by the way from Kazakhstan. All GREAT DX but none of which could hear my 5 watts from the portable setup. I then moved on to just

A view down the river

calling CQ at the 20m watering hole. I did get a response from W5ESE from Texas but conditions changed very fast and he was still trying to pull out my call form the mud. The 2 hours went by very fast without really one confirmed contact! It was now time to pack up and head for home and try to make some contacts on the Elecraft K3  this evening.
On a side note.......last night I did make contact with a new DXCC 7Z1HL from Saudi Arabia! 

The car with the mono band 30m whip

I have been reading on some blogs how op's have been able to fit in some operating time during lunch hours and been successful at making some contacts. For me lunch time is not an option as I am out and about during the day and no where near my car at the lunch hour....BUT.....I do get into work about an hour or so early and that would be my ideal radio time. I would be operating from around 5:30a.m. for an hour or so. I feel that either 40m or 30m would be my best bet around that time. When in my mobile I use mono band

The mount

Final SWR on 40m

whip antennas. To prepare for my morning mobile operating time I had to tune both my 40m and 30m whip antennas. I took with me my trusty MFJ antenna analyzer and this thing is great as I find I can tune a whip antenna to the lowest SWR on a desired frequency in about 10 minutes.  With the size of my car being very very small (Scion IQ) the ground plane is very small. For this reason I was only able to tune both antennas down to about 2.2.1 and 2.3.1. Thats ok as I do have in the KX3 an antenna tuner that will make the rig see a flat match. It was a nice sunny day with perfect temp's as well for this little project. When I was done and starting to pack up a gentleman came up to me and introduced himself. He saw my license plate (VE3WDM) and connected that call to my blog. He was a ham as well and a reader of my blog.....kinda cool. We had a nice conversation for about 15 minutes exchanging ham talk and he had to get back to eating his lunch and heading back to his job. (as for me I had the day off) I am hoping if the weather is good this coming week that I will get my CW out on 30 and 40m in the early mornings.

Final SWR on 30m

Last years shot of my planned location for today

It turned out to be a fantastic day  lots of sunshine and temperatures in around 23C. I was long over due and it was time to  pack up the KX3 and go on an outdoor trip with the rig. I brought along the Alexloop as well to give it a go outdoors.  Part of planning is making sure you have all that you need for the trip and not just radio stuff. There is water, one of those chairs you sling over your back, hat and sunglasses without these the trip could be not as comfortable. I arrived at my "spot" that I have gone to in the past found a nice parking spot in the shade. I then proceeded to unpack the car but could not believe the amount of mosquitoes that were buzzing around me. If planning had been better repellant would had been on the list but in all fairness at this time of year mosquitoes were the last thing on my mind. It was now time for adaptability and move to another location.

New setup in town

 There is no way I could have setup and been comfortable with the bugs at this location. I was now heading back to town and to another location. This one was along the river in town and always has a nice cool breeze off the river. I found my spot and setup did not take long at all and there was a table that was available as well. The Alexloop was very easy to setup and very fast to get it tuned up on 14.060. The KX3 was set to about 2 watts output and so began my CQ's. About 15 minutes into the portable operation the KX3 went

All packed up.

dead!! This has happen to me in the past with this radio and I knew exactly what is was! It was very poor planning on my part....the KX3 batteries were dead. Well not dead exactly but below the minimum voltage needed to operate the radio. That was the end of my out door adventure for the day and the radio is now at home getting it's batteries recharged. Monday is a holiday up this way and depending on the weather maybe I will give it a go on Monday.Going to have to look into a second set of batteries so I always have a charged set ready to go.

KX3 charging

RBN spots (click to enlarge)

The weather once again was great and I wanted to take the Alexloop out onto my back deck to see  how it would do once again. The other day I had no spots at all but this day was a complete different story. I was operating  my KX3 at 3 watts. The antenna as was already mention is the Alexloop mounted on a tripod. I called CQ on 20m,30m and 40m it was the late afternoon and nothing could be heard at my end at all. I was spotted only in the States but conditions have not been all that great. I did hear some American stations on 30m but they were just at the noise level. By the spots on the Reverse Beacon Network my signal is getting out! I am excited to see how this antenna does once the condition improve.