AmateurRadio.com

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know how much I love Amateur Radio. Two of my “passions within a passion”  are operating QRP and taking QRP to the great outdoors and operating portable.

A new QRP operating event will occur NEXT Saturday – October 6th from 17:00 to 21:OO UTC. It is sponsored by the 4 States QRP Group and is called the “4X4 QRP Sprint”.

For particulars, please visit:
http://www.4sqrp.com/FourByFour/4%20State%204×4%20QRP%20Sprint.pdf

This was the announcement that hit the QRP e-mail reflectors:

QRPsports has a new Sprint to provide lots of fun!

The 4 State QRP Group is sponsoring the new: 4×4 QRP Sprint……..4 hours and your best 4 bands! October 6, 2012……1700 to 2100 UTC

Special Bonus Points for being portable
Special Bonus Points for making a contact with a station using a HamCan
Extra Points for being a member of the 4sqrp reflector or having attended OzarkCon

More on the rules, awards, online downloadable scoring, and Bonus Points, see: http://www.4sqrp.com/4sqrpOnTheAir.php 
Scroll to the 4×4 QRP Sprint information. Its gonna be fun!

72/73….Walter – K5EST – 4×4 QRP Sprint Coordinator

I can deeply appreciate the endeavor of launching a new QRP event!  And any excuse to get outside and operate is a good one as far as I am concerned.  I hope to get out next Saturday and jump into the fray. The  AccuWeather outlook for next weekend in Central NJ is clear with daytime highs in the 60s (18C). So if that holds true, it can potentially be beautiful outdoor operating conditions.

As far as QRP events go – the more the merrier.  Please consider joining in to make the 4 States QRP Group’s new event a rousing success!

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

I was playing around on 30 Meters and 40 Meters tonight, listening, tuning, calling CQ.  I had a very FB QSO with Rudi W8DJ on 30 Meters, where the signals were plentiful and loud.

After our QSO, I hopped on over to 40 Meters and heard a weak; but perfectly copyable CQ from VA3IED/QRP near 7.030 MHz.  So I decided to throw out my call, and sure enough, I got an answer.

The op’s name was Scott, and he told me that he was on a camping trip to a remote island in Canada. Alarm bells immediately went off in my head!  I remembered seeing a video on YouTube about something like this!  I asked Scott if that was him and sure enough, it was!

Scott is back to the same island – canoeing out there and having a grand old time camping and playing radio, QRP style that is.  Last year’s video told the tale of his PFR3A. This year it is Scott’s new KX3 that has accompanied him.

During our QSO, he was about 539 and I got a 529 in return.  Not the strongest of signals; but very easily readable nonetheless.  As I sit hear typing this, Scott is in conversation with another Ham after taking a short break after our QSO.  I don’t know if it’s changing band conditions; or if he re-oriented his antenna, because he is an honest 579/589 into NJ now.

This is last year’s video; so you can see where he is camping.  It sure is beautiful, that’s for sure. I didn’t ask Scott; but sure hope he’s shooting more video this year, showing off his KX3!

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

On this next to last weekend of “Summer” 2012, my wife Marianne suggested we take the kids down to the shore for the day.  The last time we were down there with them was when they were just babies, and they don’t even remember that trip. Since then, both Joey and Cara have learned how to swim (even though their Dad never learned) and they are both excellent swimmers.  With dangerous rip tides and undercurrents, it was a priority of ours that they be excellent swimmers before allowing them to venture into the surf.

So today, after Sunday Mass, we went down to Belmar, NJ.

And while Marianne, Joey and Cara enjoyed the surf, I did “Dad Duty” and played sentry, watching all our “stuff” on the beach.  Not a tough job, mind you, sitting in beautiful sunshine, enjoying the salt air and sea breezes and the view.

And it’s the view that ALWAYS get me when we go anywhere near the ocean.

Inevitably, as a Ham, I look at the ocean differently than most folks. I look at that vast expanse of water and that flat horizon, and in my mind’s eye, I can picture the far off countries that lay on the other side of all that water. And I think of my 5 Watts of RF energy crossing all that water and reaching out to all those far away places and it just boggles my mind!

We’ve become jaded. Today’s technology – heck, the technology of the past 40 or so years has shrunken the world and we take so much for granted.  Satellites, cell phones, the Internet have all done their part to shrink vast distances and make the world seem so small.  Communications are instantaneous and we can find out about just about anything, anywhere on the globe in the blink of an eye. And now, it’s come to the point where we demand and expect that instant communication.

But then you take a trip to the ocean.  You feel the warm sand beneath your feet and the cool water lapping at your ankles and you look out upon ALL that water.  And you look, and you look and all your eye can see  is water and horizon.  And it hits you how small you are and how big this world really is.

Then you think of the QSOs – OK1DX, EA6UN, HA5AGS, D3AA, 2012L and it goes on an on. All those places on the other side of all that water – as far as the eye can see.  And those QSOs all happened with 5 Watts of power. Less power than the night light that each night illuminates the upstairs bedroom hallway in our house, zipping across that vast expanse – dits and dahs forming letters and words – making acquaintances and friends.

Awesome – truly awesome to think about it.  I can’t help but thinking that if Mr. Marconi were alive today, he would be a QRPer.  Once the airwaves were conquered, I think it would tickle him to no end to see just how far he could go with lesser and lesser power.  If anyone was thrilled by “The Magic”, it was him.

On another note, I received a nice e-mail this morning from none other than Steve WGØAT.  He included a link to a video of his 2012 Skeeter Hunt effort.

My sincere thanks to Steve and to all of you who partook in the Hunt this year.  And thank to all of you who have sent logs and summaries so far, it’s so gratifying to know that you enjoyed the Skeeter Hunt as much as I did.  The results are racking up, and very shortly after the September 12th deadline, I will make a full posting of scores, sopabox comments, photos and videos.

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

You never know when you’re going to learn a new and better way of doing something. TJ W0EA posted this on the KX3 list, which led to (what I thought) was a fascinating discussion on how to coil and store antenna wire.

You’d think that winding up a wire antenna is a pretty mundane thing, eh?  But no, there is an art to it, so that when you’re out in the field, you’re not dealing with a tangled mess and cussing like a sailor on shore leave. I tried the method shown above and dang it! It works!

I love it when I learn a new way to do something better.

I am taking some needed vacation time from work on Friday and Monday.  Have to use what days are coming to me as I found out my department is being eliminated due to a contract change.  Originally, I was given to the end of August; but found out that I was extended until the end of October, in order to help train the guys from the new company that is taking over the contract.

But I digress. I still have a lot of yard work to do and hope to accomplish it over this prolonged weekend. But I am also hoping to perhaps get out to one of NJ’s state parks to do a park activation.  Maybe Hacklebarney State Park which is located between the villages of Chester and Long Valley in Morris County. If the weather’s nice on Sunday, perhaps the KX3 and the PAR can get a workout.

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

That pretty much describes the state of the bands this afternoon.  I took a break from yard work this weekend for some R & R time, hoping to get some radio in this afternoon.  I got plenty of time behind the key; but not much to show for it.

I worked W7L, a lighthouse station and HA9RT.  W7L is in North Carolina Arizona (thanks, Hans BX2ABT), according to QRZ, and I finally got in the log after much trying. Hungary?  First try and a 579 report – go figure!

Another nice story with some beautiful pictures was posted by Jim W1PID today. He went up to Knox Mountain with his friend Hans, late Saturday afternoon. Detail here:

http://www.w1pid.com/knox_eve/knox_eve.html

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

That’s me …. W2LJ …. incredibly slow on the uptake at times.

For FOBB and again yesterday for the Skeeter Hunt, I ended up using my Whiterook single lever paddle instead of my American Morse Dirt Cheap Paddle.  Not because I don’t like the DCP, in fact I love its action and feel.  The problem was that every time I would go to pick the paddle up with my big, hammy hands, I would inadvertently squeeze it and start sending unwanted dits or dahs.

This paddle is too good to not use – so tonight I had a “V8 moment” where I hit my forehead as the obvious solution occurred to me.  And actually, I ended up killing two birds with one stone.

I carry my ear buds in an old Velamints tin.  It occurred to me that the tin could do double duty – carry my ear buds AND serve as a base for my paddles.

I punched a hole through the top of the tin and secured the paddle to the top lid with a #4 screw, lockwasher and nut.

Now the tin does double duty, perfectly!  And when I put my big mitts on the tin, I am no longer accidentally squeezing the paddle levers and generating unwanted Morse.  Not a good thing in the middle of a sprint (or anytime for that matter!).

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