Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Conditions
August 19th, 2014 | 
Author: It’s evident that we are now on the down side of the peak of Cycle 24. For the most part, I have had superb conditions for working DX during my lunch time QRP sessions for the past 17 months. DX has been plentiful, with good signals and decent RSTs on both ends. 17, 15 and sometimes even 12 Meters have been happy hunting grounds. There have even been smatterings of openings on 10 Meters, which is not often the case during the 1700-1800 UTC weekday time frame.
I still hear DX signals on 17 Meters, but they’re not as strong or as plentiful as they were. 15 Meters is nowhere near as nice as it was just a few months ago. It wasn’t so long ago that I was working three or four different DX stations during my lunch break – and it seemed like all areas of the world were open at the same time! I think that the days of working the world “with 5 Watts to a wet string” are just about over – as far as Cycle 24 is concerned, anyway.
With band conditions changing, it seems that lately, more and more of my lunch QSOs have been domestic – not that there’s anything wrong with that! Today, I was saved from being shut out at lunchtime by Jim K4AHO, who answered my CQ on 20 Meters. We had a nice chat that was not only 2X QRP, but was also 2X KX3. Jim was using a dipole and I was using the Buddistick, of course. QSB was a bit of a nuisance. At the fading’s worst, Jim was 459, and at best he was 579 (which he was for most of the QSO).
In addition to the declining ionospheric conditions, the weather here in New Jersey this Summer has been less “Summer-y” than I was looking forward to. Take this morning for instance. When I woke up this morning, the thermometer was displaying an outdoor temperature of 52F (11C). Very strange for August 18th. That’s almost unheard of, any other year. On the whole, it’s been an average to dry Summer and the temperatures have been down and the humidity has been way down compared to the past three or four Summers. The number of days that we have reached or have gone above 90F (32C), can be counted on both hands. There have not been many hazy, humid, hot days (The Dog Days of Summer) this year at all.
The weather people on TV have been saying that we are experiencing is an “average” Summer for this part of the country. The past few have been hotter than normal, so that’s why this one feels so strangly cool. After the Winter we had last year, I was really looking forward to the heat. I guess there’s still time for us to get some hot days, but I saw on the AccuWeather.com website that the Northeast and the upper Midwest are supposed to experience a Polar Vortex in mid September, bringing along temperatures closer to what we might expect in mid to late November. Brrrrrr.
The other day, while walking my beagle Harold, I noticed the oak trees in the neighborhood are already shedding their acorns. That’s not a great sign as the trees did the same thing around this time last year and we had a terrible Winter. Normally, the acorns don’t start falling until mid to late September around these parts. The squirrels will have extra time to store up food for the Winter, and we’ll probably have another long, cold one. Oh well, at least conditions on 160 and 80 Meters will probably be good. You always have to look for the silver lining and try not to think about the heating bill!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Largely non-radio day
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| Son Chris and grandson Edward outside their home. |
Although I shall probably go on 472kHz WSPR shortly, today has been a day largely without radio: we went on a train day return to Canterbury to see our son Chris and family. We have done this now 3 times and get about 4 hours with them. It was good.
Hamspots – a useful resource
A little while back someone introduced me to Hamspots which is a sort of filtered spotting system for digital modes. You can chose how many bands to monitor and the modes, Very useful to see JT65 and JT9-1 activity on, say, 20, 10 and 6m.
QRZCQ Launches Premium Version of Their Callsign Database
Daniel DO7FOX and Gregor DO5SSB have released a premium version of their QRZCQ callsign database. Attached below is the press release they sent.
If you’ve tried it out, I’d like to hear your thoughts. Will you be switching to it or are you happy with what you have now?
We are happy to tell you, that the QRZCQ Premium is now available!
| Features: | Standard | Premium |
| Supporting our work and effort | NO | YES |
| Unlimited own callsigns | YES | YES |
| Add unlimited amount of your additional callsigns, for example portable, mobile, maritim mobile, qrp, foreign countries, dxpedition, etc. | ||
| Managed callsigns | YES | YES |
| Manage club callsigns or those of your friends, dxpeditions, clubs, etc. | ||
| DX Cluster | YES | YES |
| Incredible DX Cluster, with advanced filtering and telnet access | ||
| Propagation | YES | YES |
| Resources | YES | YES |
| Email [callsign]@qrzcq.com | YES | YES |
| Standard use | YES | YES |
| Full featured online log | NO | YES |
| Our awesome full featured online log, click here for more info and here for a tour. You have never seen an online log like this one! | ||
| XML API access | NO | YES |
| XML API access for automated lookup, curently we are supported by UcxLog, Winlog32, Logger32 and MacLoggerDX, more pending | ||
| Visitors counter | NO | YES |
| Permanent visitor flag counters down on your page, grouped by country | ||
| Sell on Swapmeet | NO | YES |
| Sell your stuff on the swapmeet, VERIFIED status additionally required | ||
| DX notifications | NO | YES |
| Email notifications when new ones are on air, accesible from the online log | ||
| More images on your page | NO | YES |
| Additional 12 images on your page | ||
| Write articles on page | NO | YES |
| Write news on page | NO | YES |
| More extended search | NO | YES |
| Search the entire database and all archives | ||
| Manage dates in calendar | NO | YES |
| Create events, hamfests, contests etc. in calendar | ||
| Add videos with description | NO | YES |
| Extended propagation | NO | YES |
| Extended use | NO | YES |
There is already a widely compatible XML API. This XML API serves for the purpose of looking up call data for logbook programs. We’d like to invite all developers to implement the API in their code. The technical documentation is available at the XML API documentation page. If you have any futher quesions contact us at [email protected].
Some sizes and numbers of the site:
– Calls in database: 3.037.674
– Page views: 30.153.394
– Call views: 18.161.873
– Logbook QSOs: 27.899.334
– All time QSOs processed: 293.502.458
– Monthly visits: 1.400.000
– Video views: 240.834
– Users with picture: 21.748
– DX-Cluster spots via web interface: 151.324
– Max users on DX-Cluster via web interface: 176
– XML lookups: 404.215
– DX-Cluster spots in database: 12.613.267
We are about 75.600 users now and still growing fast! There is no advertising, no blink blink, no junk. Only ham radio put in a nutshell. A big THANK YOU to everyone who made our progress possible! Without your support, trust and goodwill throughout the years, QRZCQ would not be the same.
Visit us at QRZCQ.com, we look forward to see you there!
73 de Gregor, DO5SSB and Daniel, DO7FOX
ILLW – three strong in Taiwan
I’m all prepared for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend, starting Saturday. Today I paid another visit to the Baishajia lighthouse and they will give me the VIP pass this weekend. I’m allowed to use the employee-entrance so I can come early and leave late, and I can go up the tower to string longwires. Electricity is free, too! (With the electricity bill they have over there I guess my use of a couple of Ah won’t make much difference).
This year the Taiwanese entry to the ILLW is three strong. Apart from me being at BaiShaJia on both Saturday and Sunday, BV1EJ will use a special call sign BV0LH from the SanDiaoJiao lighthouse, on Saturday. SanDiaoJiao is where the Spanish first discovered Taiwan and its English name is Santiago or San Diego Lighthouse. It is the most eastern tip of Taiwan. On Sunday BM2LDT and BX2AI will be at FuGuiJiao Lighthouse, which is the most northern lighthouse in Taiwan. Not bad and I hope a bit of promotion will result in even more lighthouses being activated in 2015. Have fun and keep an eye on the clusters to see where we can be reached. I’ll be active as BX2ABT/LH from 0100 till 0930 UTC on both Saturday and Sunday.
Not often
that I link to an article written for eHam, but here’s a really good one written by Ron KA3J:
http://www.eham.net/articles/32380
It regards Technicians (or any new Hams for that matter, CW and QRP – relevant topics for this blog!) And just to let you know how good it is, up to this point in time, Ron has not been heckled in the commbox!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP- When you care to send the very least!
Radical, but I kinda like it!
Posted by Bobby AK4JA (who I’ve worked – fantastic op!) on QRP-L today. Provocative? Yes. Controversial? Yes. True? No, but I kinda like it anyway:
“QRP – a real man’s mode , not for sissies and certainly not for selfish, impatient , ego-maniacs – Man up, grow a set and go QRP if you dare!”
Not trying to start a QRO vs QRP war, but I enjoyed the humor. And it makes for a good battle cry. Definitely better than “Life is too short for $200 finals” or whatever some guys like to bandy about. And no, I won’t be changing my tag line.
Hey, Bobby! I think this would make a good T-shirt! Something on the order of this:
Hee hee! Is that a challenge, or what ?
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
