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We had two very good QRP ops serving Fox duty tonight. Dave N1IX in New Hampshire and another Dave, AB9CA in Alabama. Double barrel Daves!

As the hunt began, my gut instinct was to listen for N1IX first. I mean, go figure, right? New Jersey to New Hampshire — 80 Meters — in the Winter and at night. No brainer, right?

Right!  But even though Dave N1IX was a relatively easy catch, he wasn’t as loud as I thought he would be. I was expecting 599 or better. He ended up being 569/579 at best. But I did get his pelt in my bag, so it was off to hunt for Alabama Dave.

I found him, rather easily, also. However, his signal swung wildly. He was either 559 at best, or was completely in the mud. I ended up having to turn the K3’s AGC off so I could hear him decently. The static crashes did wonders for my bleeding ears!

Even though I was able to hear Dave AB9CA throughout, it seemed he just wasn’t hearing me.  I kept switching between the HF9V, the W3EDP and the EDZ, but no matter which antenna, nothing seemed to be working. I was considering lighting a signal flare, but that would not have been Kosher.

And Dave must have been having receiving problems also. He went back to several stations, only to have them fade away on him, and forcing him to send them a “nil”. And he was also changing his listening frequency often, probably to get away from local QRM and QRN on his end. In all, it made for an interesting time.

But luck was on my side, and with about 15 minutes left in the hunt, Dave finally picked me out of the muck. Conditions were bad enough that I had to repeat my half of the exchange for him once. But in the end, I got a “TU”, so all’s well that ends well.

QRP – patience and perseverance DO pay off!

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

Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don’t. Luckily, Richard’s miraculous recovery from the Creeping Death outweighed Russ’s totally miserable Ides of January, resulting in a listenable episode with a bunch of content–mostly thanks to elcaset, a listener of the show, via IRC. There’s also a bit about svxlink using a Raspberry Pi (yes, it is possible and completely functional) and lots of information about upcoming events. We’d like to thank everyone you who submitted feedback, including The Radio Gangsta, who we also hope will get some much-needed psychological attention soon.

If you think about it, make sure to download the Black Sparrow Media app for your iPhone, iPad or Android device. And please tell your friends about the show. Have them sign up for the mailing list, episodes via RSS, the Google+ community and all the other ways they can keep up with what’s going on in LHS Land.

73 de The LHS Guys

I was able to get on the air for a bit this afternoon – I guess it would be more appropriate to say this evening, as it was getting dark.  The Christmas lights in the neighborhood, or whatever, were playing havoc with my receiver tonight.  It seems like there’s S9 noise no matter which band I go to and no matter which antenna I switch to.

However, on 17 Meters, blasting in above the noise was JN4MMO calling CQ.  Japan!  I have worked Japan before, but never QRP.  Japan to New Jersey is always a long hop and with 5 Watts, I really had my fingers crossed.

It took some patience to be heard and then a few repeats – but Andy finally heard me!  I gave him a 599 report and got a 539 in return.  It was dusk here and just a tiny bit past dawn in Japan (according to DX Atlas) so I am willing to bet that there was some grayline influence there.

No matter!  I will take a QSO with a Japanese op any day of the week.  Now as far as I’m concerned, that’s DX!  And it just goes to show (at least in my case anyway) that you don’t always have to be good, you just need to be lucky!

I am hoping for a bit more activity on 80 Meters tonight as we get further into the darkness.  I would like to get some practice in tonight with the Bug, in anticipation of Straight Key Night tomorrow evening.

As the New Year approaches, I’d like to take the opportunity to wish all of you a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.  May your days be filled with laughter and enjoyment, love and happiness. And may you always have numerous sunspots and really good propagation when you turn on your radios!

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

For the time being I have put my IBP Beacon Monitor page back online. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is really something that needs to run 24/7 to be of most value. I note that I am not the only beacon monitor who states that monitoring runs only when not otherwise using the radio and antenna. So perhaps I will manage to keep it going for a bit longer than previously.

I updated the list of other beacon monitoring stations at the bottom of the page, deleting those that did not appear to be active. The official NCDXF/IARU International Beacon Project beacon monitors page has a lot of dead links on it.

It’s interesting to take a look and see what propagation is like in other parts of the world. It’s a pity there aren’t more beacon monitors in the USA. And is propagation really that good in VK-land?

I like the additions F4CWH has made to his beacon monitor pages. I wonder if he would share with me how he has done it? I would particularly like to indicate which beacons are off the air. Three of them. including the one on the east coast of the USA (New York) are not operating at the moment.

Wow – what a difference a different wire makes.

I signed on to the 40 Meter QRP Fox hunt tonight and spotted Dave AB9CA pretty much right off the bat.  He was a bit on the weak side – and then I switched on over to the W3EDP from the EDZ  Dave went from super weak to 569 – easy!  To say I was amazed by the increase in his signal by changing wires is an understatement.  I went from thinking that I might not have a chance to getting in the log.

Drew K9CW in Illinois is even tougher.  No matter which antenna I switch to, this is going to be tough. I am hearing him the best on the W3EDP, though. Right now about 339 at best.

Fingers are crossed for an improvement in propagation.

Addendum – Got Drew ……… using the Butternut HF9V!  Didn’t think the vertical was the best club in the bag for 40 Meters; but it did the trick.  So much for conventional wisdom!

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

10m WSPR spots @ G4ILO 26 November 2012

What this map doesn’t show is that all the spots are barely visible, -25 to -27dB, so propagation would not be good enough to support a regular communication mode.

The first day of the CQ WW DX CW contest and propagation on 10m is disappointingly down compared to previous days.

10m WSPR spots @ G4ILO 24 November 2012

No propagation to USA as you can see.

I have made a handful of contest contacts on 10m but I have been too preoccupied with computer issues to really get into it. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.