AmateurRadio.com

Had a brief time to head to the park at lunch today – and once again had a blast!

Here is the low down….

LA5UF – Joe was calling CQ on 21.040.  It took him a bit to dig me out and get my call right.  He gave me a 449 and he was a solid 559 here in Kansas.  Joe hails from Norway.

LZ2HR – I heard him calling CQ on 28.0299 with no takers.  I threw my call out and he came right back to me.  He gave me a 589 and he was a solid 599 here.  Fun!

I called CQ for some time on 10 meters, and even though I was spotted all over on the RBN – no dice.

Then I heard….

K3DY calling CQ on 21.0469.  We had a nice QSO with more than just a contest exchange.  The band was a bit up and down, but solid copy both ways.  Tony said he was reading my page as we talked.  Thanks for the nice QSO Tony!  Tony is outside Philadelphia, PA.

Any lunch time with a little CW is always fun!

I hope to get a version of my Portable QRP Antenna installed in the attic this weekend.  We will see how that goes.  I would really like to get a station setup at home, and eventually try some of the digital modes.

Its been to many months since my last lunch time QRP session!  Finally had a warm day with no work activities over lunch so I headed out to my favorite park and had a blast!!

As soon as I turned the KX3 on I heard…

KC2EE calling CQ on 14.060 – we exchanged 559 reports – he was in Houston, TX. Working Sid brought back the great feeling of sending some CW – although I was rusty!

Then I went on to work…

NA6MG was spotted on SOTA GOAT, so I tuned to 18.090 and there he was coming in at 599.  Dan was on W6/CT-231.

OH4MDY was calling CQ on 18.075 and was a solid 599 here.  I had to call a couple times, but finally made it.  Retu was in Finland!

Next up was my best DX yet!

R7LA – Vasily was calling CQ on 24.893 with no takers.  He really had to work to pull my callsign out, but then it seemed to get better.  He copied my well after getting my call, so the conditions must have improved.  He gave me a 559 and he was 599 here.  He must have pulled up my QRZ page while on air because he told me that my QRP signal was FB!  What a hoot!  Thanks Vasily for pulling my 5 watts out of the mud, you made my day!

Not that spring is here, I will be operating much more at lunch time.  I am still working on getting my home station set up.  Antenna is ready, I just need to get it in the attic!  I really want to start working some digital modes from home.  I think they might work best because of the loud interference I experience there.  We will see.

Today I finally had a free lunch period to get out and play radio, so last night I loaded up the antenna and radio into the car.  Drove to my normal park at lunch – with much anticipation of the possibility that 10 meters was open.

Yesterday I posted that I had worked AK4JA and that I thought he said he was running VERY low power, but my CW skills couldn’t be sure.

Well I just noticed he logged the contact on QRZ…

He was running 20 MILLIWATTS from a homebrew transmitter!  He made note in the comments that this was a 38,750 mile per watt contact.

Wow!  What fun to be on the other end of Bob who was running such low power.  Keep having fun Bob!

Wow!  I can’t believe it has has been over a week since I have played radio.  On this, the last day of September, I just had to get out.  The weather here in Kansas was awesome – 75 deg, sunny and a light wind.

After getting setup, I heard a very faint CQ on 20 meters….

AK4JA (the QRPper) – Bob was calling CQ and was very faint, but readable.  He was in Georgia.  After reading his QRZ profile, he is a dedicated QRP addict, just like me.  I had a bit of trouble copying him, but I believe he said he was running 200 MW!  Thanks for the nice contact Bob!

Still on 20 meters….

N7IV/M (the mobile station) – Joe was calling CQ and was nice and strong here.  He was calling from Minot, ND (which might be a new state for me) – he was running 200 watts from a TS 480 into a Hustler vertical antenna on rear fender.  I believe he said he was on a long bike ride (but my CW skills were having a hard time keeping up 🙂 ).  He thought my lunch time activities sounded amazing – and I agree!  However, I think bicycle mobile sounds even better!

Now it was time to hit my favorite band for DX – 17 meters…

F8EMH (the first Frenchman) – Flo was calling CQ and after a couple of calls I was finally able to work him.  He gave me a 229 – so he has good ears.  He was 579 here and sounded great.  Looking at the map, he looks to live in the northern part of France, really close to the border.

F8AAN (the second Frenchman)  – David was also calling CQ at the bottom of 17 meters.  It took a few calls for him to hear me, but we finally connected.  He also had great ears giving me a 419 – he was 599 in here.  He lives in the western part of France, almost on the coast it appears.

So after a week away, things were still just as fun!  Today brought some interesting contacts, and some fun DX to boot.

I thought I might get skunked today!  The bands seemed pretty dead – and the wind was blowing 20-25 mph!

I finally did have two QSO’s….

IK2CIO – Vini was calling CQ from Italy.  Tried several times and got a 599 report from him – which I suspect was more of a contest style report – but still fun none the less!  I worked Vini on 17 meters.

I didn’t hear any other action, so I called CQ on 20 meters at 14.061.  A very weak station replied….

AJ8P – Jeff returned my CQ from Sherrodsville, OH.  He was very weak, and then someone started calling CQ really close to us.  If I cranked up the filter, I would lose him – so just had to suffer through it.  Jeff said he was running 2 watts.

After I got back to work, I had an email from Jeff.  He sent me this picture and said he was using the Mag Loop inside!  This just makes me want to get one of my loops working so I can start having some radio fun from the comfort of my home.

From checking out Jeff’s QRZ page, he has a couple nice QRP rigs on his page – worth a visit.

Today I went to my usual spot in the local park.  I didn’t hear a bunch of activity, but I kept tuning up and down the band on 17 meters primarily.

I heard a station calling and working guys contest style.  It took me about 5 times to get the call right, since it was so long and he was sending pretty fast.

The call was EI13CLAN – a special event station in Ireland!  What made this really special is because of this…

My father-in-law passed away suddenly in June – exactly 3 months ago today.  Mike was a very proud Irish Catholic.  He had a trip to Ireland planned for August – which he was never able to take.  Mike had been on my mind all day, and then to work a station in Ireland – WOW!  Mike would have loved hearing this story.  I

It kindof made me wonder if he had a hand in helping my signals fly through the air to Ireland! 🙂

If you work EI13CLAN enough, you get this special certificate – I will be happy with a QSL card as soon as they update the Clublog so I can order one.