Posts Tagged ‘Videos’

Skeeter Hunt Videos

I always ask for pictures for the Skeeter Hunt Soapbox. I'm not different from any of my fellow QRPers. I like to see how my peers set up, how they do things and compare it to what I'm doing if possible. That, and plus the fact that it's nice to put a face to the fist of the guys I have worked.

So far this year, two Skeeters have gone above and beyond the call of normal duty and have sent me a couple of short videos - so I will embed them here.

The first is from Nick WB5BKL, Skeeter # 84 from Texas:


and the second is from the fine Hams who make up the Burlington County Amateur Radio Club K2TD, Skeeter # 102 from Delanco, NJ.  This one is from a bit of a different perspective and is way cool (not that Nick's isn't!):


Thanks guys, for sending these in!  I think I'm going to have to ask Santa for a GoPro this Christmas so I can take videos of my QRP exploits, and share them, too. On second thought, maybe it's not such a good idea for you guys to see how I mess up - er, I mean operate. Hi!

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

Speaking of FYBO

here's a video of Steve WG0AT and Frank K0JQZ's operation in balmy Colorado last weekend. Frank mentions this is Steve's back yard - VERY NICE back yard!

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

Some Skeeter Hunt video

from Tim, W3ATB.  Not only a beautiful location, but an answer to those new to portable QRP ops who are wondering, “How do they do it?”

Thanks, Tim and I’m glad you enjoyed yourself! THAT is the whole point of this event – for folks to get out and enjoy themselves (Skeeter bites, and all!).

Oh ….. I also added Tim’s blog to the blogroll. Make sure to check it out!

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

Speaking of portable ops

Here’s a video by Dennis Blanchard, K1YPP who is also the author of “Three Hundred Zeros”

Dennis hiked the Appalachian Trail, among other places and has lived to tell us all about it.  If you haven’t read his book, then you’re missing a good read.  While there’s not a whole lot in devoted to Amatuer Radio, it is a good read nonetheless, and inspiring, too.

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

15 Meters seems to be decent lately

First, before a brief discussion of 15 Meters, I’d like to share a video on QRP – actually it’s HamRadioNow Episode 93 – “QRP (Life’s Long Enough …….).  This was pointed out by Norm WA4ZXV on the nogaqrp e-mail reflector.

The episode is about an hour long, though, so before starting it, you might want to pop some popcorn and open up a cold one and get comfortable for a bit.  (It’s instances like this where tablets and other hand held devices really soar!)

Now on to 15 Meters.  The past few days during lunch, I have been noticing some very loud signals on 15 Meters, even though various propagation tables have been calling for only “fair” conditions on the band. There were a few loud Europeans and South Americans on the band, but I was being beat out in the pileups by stronger signals (Them’s the breaks).  Rather than give up on the band totally, I decided to go on up to venerable ol’ 21.060 MHz and put out the CQ call for a lil’ bit.

I was rewarded with a call from Bert F6HKA who is very well known on the CW portions of the bands. Bert and I have QSO’ed before, but always in a contest situation.  It was nice to be able to spend a few minutes with him today, actually chatting for a bit.

Bert was operating from Limoges, France.  It was a 2X QRP QSO, which made my day.  Bert had the advantage with a beam up at 75 feet.  It really helped to pull my KX3 and Buddistick out of the noise.  Bert was 569 in New Jersey and I received a 539 in return.  But fortunately, even with a little QSB, solid copy was achieved at both ends.
So even when the propagation gurus say a band isn’t in the best of shape, it never hurts to put out a CQ.  You might get skunked, but then again, you might be rewarded with a gem of a QSO like the one I had with Bert.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Neat!

A top o’ the callsign cap to Wey Walker K8EAB from the NoGa QRP group for pointing me towards this video by K7AGE:

Even if you don’t care for the subject matter, the music’s pretty catchy!

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

Pleasant surprise

Today was a strange day.  It was my last day at my current job at Goldman Sachs. I’ve been there just over six years, managing all the Technology Department inventory (servers and networking and storage equipment) for the offices of the NY/NJ Campus.  I was the manager of the department responsible for receiving, inventorying, warehousing, and prepping for install a multi-billion dollar cache of equipment. I was also responsible for shipping re-purposed equipment both domestically and internationally. Believe me, you haven’t lived until you’ve been tasked with shipping millions of dollars of used equipment to places like Seoul, Sao Paolo, and Kuala Lumpur, and you were told it had to arrived undamaged (even though the original shipping containers had since long been discarded) and it had to arrive “yesterday”. I can proudly attest that in the six years that I was there, my department oversaw that inventory with a shrinkage percentage (loss due to theft, damage or mis-shipping) of less than 0.001%.

Last summer, Goldman felt that they had too many vendors, so they decided to downsize the number that they have on board. Our contract was farmed out to another vendor, and while my team was RIF’ed (reduction in force) I stayed on for six months to basically teach my replacements how to do the job.  My actual employer is Pitney Bowes Management Services, and through them, I will be starting at a new, non-management (actually glad for that, for a change) position with IBM next week.

My co-workers, the other outside vendors (IPC, Scholes, EMC, CBRE) who also serve Goldman Sachs are the best.  Totally unexpected, I walked into work this morning to find this waiting for me on my desk.

The head of the Security department phoned in for a bunch of pizzas and we had a bit of a going away party at lunch.  I am going to miss these guys like crazy.  Things could get pretty hairy from time to time and I slugged it out in the trenches with some of the best technical talent out there.  I am honored that they felt this way about little ol’ me.
Anyway, when I got home, I took the opportunity to get on the air and relax and unwind a bit.  I worked some DX and another FOC station, W9FOC – Gene in Illinois.  But by far the best QSO of the night was when NG9D answered my CQ near the 20 Meter QRP watering hole.  When I heard NG9D, my mind immediately said “Lynn ……..YouTube!”  Lynn has produced a bunch of YouTube videos that I have thoroughly enjoyed and it was so cool to be able to work him.  He was using his IC-703 at 10 Watts and he was a good 589 into New Jersey.  Conditions were good, so I received a 579 in reply
Lynn told me that he was trying to decide what radio he’s going to take with him when he goes camping this summer. I naturally suggested that he take his PFR3A and he agreed that it might be a good choice as it has the internal battery holders and internal antenna tuner.  Being such a small package is nice when you’re trying to keep down the amount of “stuff” that you take with you on vacation.  I asked him what antennas does he use when he goes camping and he told me about his Lambda antenna.  So happens that there’s a video that he’s done on it:
I thoroughly enjoyed my QSO with Lynn and I hope I get the opportunity to have another, soon.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to say the very least!


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