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Rock ‘N Radio — QRP Style
20 November 2015 | by Operating QRP
Can mean operating from a "Quiet Restful Place"
I had the day off today and it was a beautiful morning. I decided to spend part of it at Lake Wheeler Park in Raleigh, NC operating QRP from a stone bench under a tall oak tree. |
| rock 'n radio |
I threw a line over a tree using a throwing weight. I hit my mark the first time, untied the weight, tied on the end of the antenna, and hoisted the 31 foot end-fed up exactly where I wanted it with the feed point a couple of feet off the ground.
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| 31 feet of wire end-fed by a 9:1 balun. A kite string winder holds the throwing line A metal stake with a bit of rope anchors the balun and the other end of the rope |
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| Another view of the end-fed with 9:1 balun, stake and coax |
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| QRP operating position |
The KX3 will match the end-fed wire on about any band other than 160m but on 80m you could likely throw the radio farther than the signal travels. The KX3 auto tuner is pretty amazing and I believe it could tune a piano if you hooked it up correctly.
I worked stations on 20m, 40m and 30m.
I called CQ on the 20m QRP calling frequency (14.060) and had a brief QSO with a lot of QSB (fading). I didn't hear much activity that early in the morning on 20m so I dropped down to 40m and worked the QRP calling frequency (7.030) and had my call answered right away. After that QSO another station jumped in there calling for a specific station so I moved on. 40m was busy. Every time I thought I'd found an open frequency someone would jump back in or if I called QRL? I'd get an R R.
I called CQ on the 20m QRP calling frequency (14.060) and had a brief QSO with a lot of QSB (fading). I didn't hear much activity that early in the morning on 20m so I dropped down to 40m and worked the QRP calling frequency (7.030) and had my call answered right away. After that QSO another station jumped in there calling for a specific station so I moved on. 40m was busy. Every time I thought I'd found an open frequency someone would jump back in or if I called QRL? I'd get an R R.
So I went up to 30m, and had a very nice long ragchew that lasted nearly an hour. The internal AA batteries on the KX3 were getting a workout operating at 5w for that entire time but I never saw the transmit wattage drop below 5w and when I finished up the internal batteries still showed 9.8 V The cutoff is 8.5 V so there was plenty of juice left. I may just stop carrying the external battery on these brief jaunts.
My long ragchew was with a station in GA about 400 miles away and he gave me a report of 599 so I was thrilled with 30m this morning. Coincidentally, this end-fed antenna, balun, coax-counterpoise combo is nearly resonant on 30m and I've had some of my best reports when operating this portable antenna on 30m.
Key wise, I was using the Palm Single Paddle. It is a great little key when you don't have a table to operate from and you don't want to strap something to your leg. I get strange enough looks from passer-by's without them wondering why I have some mechanism strapped to my thigh and the Palm Single is very inconspicuous.
The Palm key has a clip-on, magnetic base which I use to temporarily attach it to my clipboard when I'm not sending. When I'm ready to send I simply pull it off the clipboard and hold it in my left hand. As I noted in an earlier review of the Palm Single Paddle it can be used as a straight key if you turn it on its side. The long ragchew I had on 30m was with a gentlemen who sent me his SKCC number in the first exchange so I quickly turned off the electronic keyer in the KX3's and turned the Palm Single on its side. That station sent me a nice compliment on my straight key FIST; so the little Palm Single key can serve duty as a paddle into a keyer or (in a pinch) as a straight key. I far prefer to use my Kent Hand Key if I'm operating manual key but it's too big to bring along for portable operations and I can't quite picture myself trying to hold onto the giant Kent Hand Key with one hand whilst operating it with the other like I can the Palm Single.
The Palm key has a clip-on, magnetic base which I use to temporarily attach it to my clipboard when I'm not sending. When I'm ready to send I simply pull it off the clipboard and hold it in my left hand. As I noted in an earlier review of the Palm Single Paddle it can be used as a straight key if you turn it on its side. The long ragchew I had on 30m was with a gentlemen who sent me his SKCC number in the first exchange so I quickly turned off the electronic keyer in the KX3's and turned the Palm Single on its side. That station sent me a nice compliment on my straight key FIST; so the little Palm Single key can serve duty as a paddle into a keyer or (in a pinch) as a straight key. I far prefer to use my Kent Hand Key if I'm operating manual key but it's too big to bring along for portable operations and I can't quite picture myself trying to hold onto the giant Kent Hand Key with one hand whilst operating it with the other like I can the Palm Single.
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| The Palm Single Paddle works great in portable operating positions |
I made a silly little video of my trip to the park...
So enjoy some nice fall weather if you still have it and have a Rock 'N Radio adventure.
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| What could be finer than to be in Carolina in the Mooo-oor-ning |
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| Enjoying the last nice days of our Fall... birds singing and morse code beeping |
That's all for now...
So Lower your power and raise your expectations
73/72
Richard N4PBQ
2 Responses to “Rock ‘N Radio — QRP Style”
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Nice. That’s exactly what the excelent KX3 was intended for.
Great photo’s too.
Dave G0WBX.
Nice story!
The nature reminds one in some places of Russia, hi!
BTW, is there are any QRP activities in the States similar to this http://qrp-year.ru/en/ ?
Peter R2ABT