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?

To say it is a beautiful day in New Jersey today is in understatement.  The sun is shining, and the temperatures are in the upper 60s (20C).  The breeze (if there is any) is so gentle that you don’t even notice it.  So I decided that after grocery shopping, but before other chores, that I would sneak off to the park and try out the EARCHI antenna.  I built the 9:1 UNUN late last Autumn and didn’t get a chance to try it out.

Then when I got home, I got on the computer to order some wire and rope from The Wireman.  For the heck of it, I also decided to check out Facebook.  A lot of my Ham friends had posted about how lousy the band conditions are today. In fact, one commented that he went outside to make sure his antennas were still in the air!

Courtesy of Facebook

So it ends up that today was not the day to base a critical performance review on,  I will have to wait for another weekend with decent weather and better band conditions for another test. In the meantime, I will also browse the Internet to see if I can garner more information on optimal radiator lengths for use with a 9:1 UNUN.

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

After a rainy start, it turned out to be a gorgeous Spring day. It was sunny and it was nice and warm, despite a stiff breeze. I was able to get to the car at lunchtime and worked two Swedish stations, SM5IMO and SM4NGT on 15 meters and IK2CIO on 12 Meters.  The nice thing about operating at lunchtime here, is that at that time, most of Europe is done with the work day and there are lots of stations on the air.  They get to relax and enjoy their evening, and I get some good DX.

Thanks to a comment from Kelly WB0WQS, I am taking another close look at LOG4OM.  I tried this a couple years ago and was having severe problems getting it to run properly on my computer.  They must have made a bunch of improvements, or maybe it’s that the laptop I am using now is a better platform than what I had before. Whatever the reason, I downloaded it again tonight and installed it.  It’s working very well and for now? Let’s say I am intrigued.  It has most of the bells and whistles that are part of better logging programs these days. It is powerful with CAT, Cluster management and all the other “necessary” stuff.  It’s free and it’s easy on the eyes.

Here’s an announcement that I saw in an e-mail today.  This looks way cool and is going to get me to try and get back in the swing with my bug (pun intended!):

W6SFM On-Air BUG ROUNDUP – Saturday May 17th 2014

Objective: 
This 12-hour event is not a contest; rather it is a time dedicated to celebrating our CW and Bug key heritage. Participants are encouraged to get on the air and simply make enjoyable, conversational CW QSOs using a Bug style key as the sending instrument. There are no points scored in this event, and all who participate are winners.

Once the event has concluded, logs can be submitted to the W6SFM by way of the link provided on the clubs Bug Roundup web page. Nominal prizes/certificates will be awarded to: the person who had the most QSOs during the 12 hour period; and the person who worked the most interesting amount of bug types. 

Bands            (Suggested Freq.)
10 meters – 28.040 – 28.050 MHz
15 meters – 21.040 – 21.050 MHz
20 meters – 14.040 – 14.050 MHz
40 meters –    7.040 – 7.050 MHz
80 meters –    3.540 – 3.550 MHz

Dates
W6SFM Bug Roundup is held twice annually.
– Every 3rd Saturday in May from 1700 UTC though Sunday 0500 UTC
– Every 3rd Saturday in November from 1800 UTC through Sunday 0600 UTC


Thank you for your participation and we hope you enjoy the event. 73

For more information on this exciting event please visit the W6SFM Bug Roundup website page by clicking HERE (http://www.w6sfm.com/Bug_Roundup.html)

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

Work has been a bear the past few days. The weather has turned decidedly Springlike, but yet I’ve been stuck behind my desk the past three days. No lunchtime QRP for W2LJ.  🙁

And to make matters worse, it’s that time of year that we QRP Fox hunters go into withdrawal, as the season has ended. So I’m tired from work, but yet can’t fall asleep, and I’m in Fox withdrawal to boot ….. so what do I do? I get on the air – that’s what!

Tonight, I worked EA8TL on 17 Meters. He was one of the few stations that I was able to hear on the band after dinner, but was he ever loud. Like, across the street loud! I called Jorge, and got through on the 1st call with 5 Watts.

After that, I engaged in a nice ragchew with Jeff, K9JP, who answered my CQ on 20 Meters. Jeff was using a KX3 also, and was blasting into New Jersey with 4 Watts. He’s also an SKCC member, so it was a 2X KX3 SKCC QSO! That’s a lot of capital letters!

After the QSO with Jeff, I dove into the pileup to work W1AW/4 from Virginia on 80 Meters. I managed to break that pileup in about 10 minutes, maybe a little less. 80 Meters was a lot tamer than it was last Thursday night when I got skunked in the last hunt of the season.

All the while that I was chasing W1AW/4, I was also playing with the DX Labs suite of programs. Sometimes I feel like Diogenes, searching for the perfect logging program like he searched for an honest man. DX Labs looks like it’s going to require a bit of a steeper learning curve than Ham Radio Deluxe. But it is very comprehensive and full featured. If I ever get the hang of it, I just may switch over.

Did I mention that my old, decrepit shack  laptop uses Windows XP? I turned it on for the first time since support ended and it didn’t blow up!  ;-). (Like I thought that it would … NOT!) Gosh, I’m getting punchy here, I had better try to get some sleep.

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

Courtesy of Facebook postings:

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

The QRP-ARCI Spring QSO Party is today and tomorrow. I’ve been on for a bit today and so far band conditions seem to be downright horrible.  It seems I have an S5 noise level on just about every band except for 10 Meters, and there’s not much in the way of activity.  I’ve worked three stations so far, including EA2LU on 10 Meters. Jorge is very active in just about all the QRP-ARCI contests.

I nailed it as far as guessing what the new KX3 product would be – the PX3! A small companion panadapter for the KX3.

No idea when it will ship and the asking price for the kit is $499.95. ($569.95 assembled) It looks really nice and I just might consider it for the shack KX3.  Time will tell. I’m not ordering it this weekend, even though Elecraft is taking orders already.  I’ll let the guys who have to have every single piece of Elecraft gear there is jump in line ahead of me.

The downside is that now until the darn thing is being shipped, there will probably be nothing else discussed on the KX3 reflector.

Let the whining and peeing and moaning begin!

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