AmateurRadio.com

First off, please allow me to wish all my friends of the Jewish faith a very Happy Passover, which begins tonight.  May your Holy Days be blessed and enjoyable, surrounded by good food, friends and family.

Holy Week began yesterday for those of us who are Roman Catholic, or those who are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church as well as most Protestant denominations.  So what better way to kick off the week (Amateur Radio wise) than by working 3Z14EASTER?

W4P is on the air, as a Special Event station, commemorating the Battle of Lake Erie.

I had another good day out at the car today during lunch time.  Both 17 and 20 Meters were active and I nabbed three QSOs during my lunch break.

“What’s that got to do with your post title, W2LJ?” you might be asking yourself.

One of the stations I worked at lunch was HF80LOT.  You hear a call sign like that and your first impression is undoubtedly, “Huh? Where’s THAT?”  If you’re like me you prescribe to the “work ’em first, worry about the location later” theory, so that’s what I did.  It turns out that HF80LOT is a special event station in Poland that is commemorating the 80th anniversary of a trans-Atlantic flight by two Lithuanian pilots.  I sure wouldn’t have known that without the aid of QRZ or HamQTH, or one of the other fine call book services out there.  From the HF prefix, Poland was probably my last or next to last guess.  In fact, I wasn’t sure at first whether I was hearing 5F80LOT – at first I was guessing Serbia or somewhere around there.  Listening for a few times confirmed that it was HF80LOT, but I still had to look it up.  Exciting!

But lately, it seems like there’s been a smattering of special event call signs that either boggle your mind or tickle your ear in an effort to copy them correctly.  For example, here are some out of the ordinary ones that I have worked recently and you may have, too:  LZ1722SN, H70ORO, 9A282EU, LZ110RF, LZ1876SMB, and the prize winner SV2013ATGM.  Wow!  That’s a lot of letters and numbers and what’s up with you Hams in Bulgaria?  It’s almost like every one of you is running a special event this year!

Speaking of special events, I worked three more Colonies tonight, bringing my total to eleven.  Connecticut, Georgia and Pennsylvania are now in the log, and I also had a QSO with the bonus station, WM3PEN in Philadelphia, PA – Chaz behind the key.  I only need two more, New Hampshire and Maryland for the sweep.  If I can’t nab those two by the time this ends, I am going to be severely disappointed!  I’ve gotten a taste of the quarry and now I’m hungry for a clean sweep.

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

Yessiree!  If it’s close to the 4th of July, then it’s time for the 13 Colonies Special Event!

The 13 states, which were the original 13 colonies (Can you name them?  How’s your history?) will be on the air until 12 Midnight on Saturday evening/Sunday morning of this coming weekend. They will have special call signs from K2A to K2M.

If you participate, a very special certificate (suitable for framing) can be yours.  Work all 13 colonies and your certificate specially will be marked to denote the Clean Sweep.

Log summaries can be submitted via snail mail with the suggested donation to obtain the certificate.

Just this evening, I was able to work the following eight states/colonies on 40 Meters – NY, SC, DE, RI, NJ, MA, VA, NC.  I also heard the NH station, but his pileup was something akin to the crowd trying to work Spratly.  I also heard the GA station, but he was very weak.  GA is usually super loud here in NJ, maybe he had his beam turned away from the NorthEast and I was hearing him off the side.

NY and NC were worked via CW – the rest were worked using that SSB mode.  I got a kick out of working K2I, the NJ station.  The operator was Mike KA2FIR, who I’ve worked before.  When I finally broke the pileup, he came back to me with “W2LJ, we’ve run into each other before. Aren’t you that QRP guy?”

My reputation precedes me!

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

I am a big fan of the men and women who make up our Armed Forces.  They’ve gone above and beyond for our country so many times – from 1776 right up to the present day.  This weekend a really cool super special event is taking place to honor the men and women who have served in the respective navies of all of our countries and the ships that they have served on.

Thanks to the Battleship New Jersey Amateur Radio Station, this weekend has been organized and dedicated as Museum Ships Weekend.  106 restored military ships from around the world, which now serve as museums will be on the air this weekend.

At the beginning of the month, I posted about a Special Event Station – K2N, that was going to be operating from NY State aboard the USS Slater.

As luck would have it, my schedule did not permit me to get on the air that day “to give a shot” at working them.  This was a disappointment as I love working Special Event Stations, especially those that in anyway commemorate our Military or our Veterans.

Fortunately, Stan WB2LQF announced on the e-mail reflectors about a video posted to YouTube showing the day’s activities.  Here it is:

On a different note, I spent the evening printing out certificates for the 2012 NJQRP Skeeter Hunt.  The top five finishers, as well as the high scorers from each state or province that entered should be seeing something in their mailboxes within the next week or two.

Again – thanks to all for making this inaugural 2012 event a big success!

Lastly – ATTENTION KIT BUILDERS !!!!!!

The ARRL wants your input, as they are looking for recommendations for “easy to build” kits for first time or Newbie kit builders.  The link to the page is: http://www.arrl.org/news/attention-kit-builders-the-arrl-wants-to-hear-from-you.

I recommended the ACME QRP GC100 Gel Cell Charger Kit.  It was easy to build and is highly functional and usable.  What more could you ask for?

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

The magazine Practical Wireless is celebrating 80 years of publication this year and has a permit to use the special call GB80PW. I don’t usually make a point of hunting for special callsigns but as a reader of the magazine I particularly wanted to work this one which I knew would be on today it being the publication date of the October issue and the actual 80th anniversary day.

I switched the K3 to 40 metres which I thought the station would be operating on and and began tuning down the band. Lo and behold, GB80PW was the first station I heard, on 7120kHz, coming in at 5 and 7 at the top of the QSB. I switched the magnetic loop from 30m APRS duty over to the K3 so I had a choice of either the loop or the multiband dipole. Switching between the two there was almost nothing to choose between the two antennas but the magnetic loop just seemed to have the advantage by a whisker so that is what I chose to use.

I cranked the power up to 100 watts. After my first call it was clear that Rob had quite a pile-up of people wanting to work him and he couldn’t pick anything out of the pile. For the second call I gave my call twice, once phonetically, and added “… in Cockermouth, Cumbria.” Straight away Rob came back with “the station in Cockermouth, Cumbria.” I thought that would get his attention as the magazine’s technical editor G1TEX comes from here! I went on to have a very nice, if brief, chat with Rob before letting him get back to the pile.