Posts Tagged ‘QRPp’
Making your radio time interesting is what counts!
September 23rd, 2014 | 
Author: 
Another QRPp contact with the MFJ 1788 antenna
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| Transmitting with my wet noodle |
Now for the exciting news…….I ended up only making one contact and it was with EG4GET and this I found out was a special event station in Spain and has to do with football or soccer as we know it here in North America. There are 20 special event stations you can contact and contact (from North America) with 5 gets you a silver award and 10 will get you the gold award, for more information follow this link . So back to the exciting news…….I dropped the power on my K3 to 1 watt and made the contact with this special event station without really any trouble for a distance of 3,754 miles per watt! Looking back when I moved into the condo and only being able to use a small antenna in less than ideal conditions I felt my DX was going to be south of the boarder and that's it. I have come full circle to hitting over and above thousand miles per watt contacts. My record for miles per watt at this location is still 18,470 per watt in the ARRL CW contest.
Shut down two days in a row!
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| A foggy view of Toronto from my setup |
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| Trail on the way there. |
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| Small river on my way home. |
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| One of the many beaches |
Does it get any better?
I suppose it can. I suppose one could make DXCC Honor Roll, or perhaps get elected to the QRP Hall of Fame, or perhaps invent some cool, new piece of QRP equipment that the world will beat a path to your door for (and make you some $$$ in the process!).
But for a Ham an’ Egger like me, the best is just getting on the air making contacts – ANY kind of contacts. DX quickies, ragchews – whatever. It’s all good. And today was another comparatively good lunchtime QRP session. I worked RZ1OA, Vlad in Russia, and I worked XE1XR, David in Mexico. Two good, solid DX contacts.
The best QSO was the last one, and it was not a DX contact. In fact, the miles covered were only about 650. But it was exciting, fun and satisfying nonetheless.
After working the two DX stations, I decided to go to on down to 20 Meters to listen perhaps for some SOTA stations. That’s when I heard a weak, but very copyable KC8JNL calling CQ right at the QRP Watering Hole. I answered and hooked up with Pat who lives in Rothbury, MI. Not as distant as Russia or Mexico – definitely. But this QSO was exciting in and of itself, because Pat was using a Rockmite at QRPp power levels. There was some vicious QSB, and I didn’t quite copy Pat’s power output level. Having my own 20 Meter Rockmite, I knew it had to be under 1 Watt. Pat gave me a 559 and I gave him a 459 in turn. The QSO would have been Q5 copy both ways if it weren’t for the QSB. But even with the fading, I knew what Pat was saying to me, and from his answers, I had a good idea that he was making me out just as well.
QRP to QRP, or QRP to QRPp, or even QRPp to QRPp QSOs get my wonderment juices all fired up. That we can effectively hold a conversation using such little power is still an amazement to me after 36 years in this hobby. It’s truly like …. can it get ANY better than this? (My apologies for speaking like a teen – having two, it tends to rub off). I talked with Pat and Vlad and David today, all while enjoying the sunshine and the 80F (27C) temperatures that we are having here today. No wires, no cell towers, no infrastructure of any real sort ….. not much more than two guys shooting a bunch of electrons out of some wire or aluminum – hoping that they’ll bounce around to and fro, and eventually be picked up by a like minded enthusiast – somewhere.
Magic. Pure magic.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Sunday radio time.
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| MX0CCE Bob |
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| Not much going on |
Sunday evening on the radio
Day 3 of ARRL CW contest time to drop the power!
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| Pumping out 1/2 a watt |
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| Hard at work |
1 contact made at 3 watts
4 contacts were made at 2 watts
7 contacts were made at 1 watt
6 contacts were made at .5 of a watt
1 contact made at .1 of a watt
1 contact made at 5 watts ( this being the only contact not netting me 1000 miles per watt)
Some of the miles per watt numbers
II9P at .5 of a watts netted me 18,470 miles per watt
K5RT at .1 of a watt netted me 11,808 miles per watt
CN2AA at .5 of a watt netted me 7682 miles per watt
F8CIL at .5 of a watt netted me 7662 miles per watt
F5NBX at .5 of a watt netted me 7608 miles per watt
CS2C at .5 of a watt and netted me 7216 miles per watt
This contest I was just a point giver and not in the contest to submit a score. I wanted to test out the MFJ 1788 antenna to see how my location and antenna performed. Some things that still have to be done, I have to get the contesting software and radio control software up and running. Have the SWR problem on 10m and 20m figured out with the MFJ 1788 loop, for some reason the best SWR I can get is around 9! On a positive side this contest proved to me that the antenna will get out even with QRP or QRPp power!!
