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The last day of the CQ WW DX CW contest. But nothing of interest to report. Sunday morning was one of those mornings when I didn’t seem to fully wake up. It was after 11am before I got into the shack.

My intention was to make some more contest contacts on 10m. Although I don’t compete seriously, I usually decide what category I am going to play in – single or multi-band, QRP or Low Power – and stick to it so that if I do make a decent number of contacts I can send an entry in. But this time my effort didn’t even justify sending in a check log.

I heard some interesting big gun stations such as in Africa (Gambia, Senegal) but I just could not be heard over the others calling. One Russian station seemed to be following me around and he wasn’t having much luck either. It was hard going even with the more run of the mill stations. I felt like I was running QRP. In fact, I’ve had better results when I did run QRP (such as for the CQ WW WPX back in May, when I used the KX3 ) than I was having this weekend.

It was obviously a mistake to limit myself to 10 metres. Not everyone was having such bad luck as me though. I heard a DX station who wasn’t hearing my calls working fellow blogger Tim G4VXE. So much for the magic dipole!

After I broke off for lunch I couldn’t be bothered to get back on the air again and so I spent the afternoon listening to a broadcast concert. I will draw a veil over my lamentable effort. (Those who are really interested to see the extent of my embarrassment can take a look at my contact log.)

The first day of the CQ WW DX CW contest and propagation on 10m is disappointingly down compared to previous days.

10m WSPR spots @ G4ILO 24 November 2012

No propagation to USA as you can see.

I have made a handful of contest contacts on 10m but I have been too preoccupied with computer issues to really get into it. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

There’s been a higher than usual level of activity on the AT-Sprint email list over the last few days as  hints have emerged of a possible new offering of the popular MTR (Mountain Topper Radio) the latest of Steve Weber KD1JV’s radios that define the possibilities of ‘trail friendly’. To get a view of one in action check out this video from G4ISJ shot on a SOTA activation.

Steve KD1JV’s popular MTR ‘a very small, very efficient, two band rig’ is set for another future offering

Steve KD1JV is the designer behind the PFR-3 and a number of other radios offered by Doug Hendricks’ QRP Kits along with the new Tri-bander Transceiver kit. But he also enjoys a passionate following for his high performance but tiny (Altoids tin size) radios in the ATS series where ATS stands for Appalachian Trail Sprint. These radios (especially the ATS-3B and the MTR) are prized by ham hikers and walkers who watch the ounces and milliamps. They are also an example of masterful interface design using small push buttons and minimal LED display. As Steve mentioned recently in a post reflecting his deep field operating experience “Little tiny rigs and knobs don’t work well together”.

During the buzz earlier today about whether he would offer more of the MTR kits (he will), Steve also announced his latest project “An 80/160 dual band rig with direct conversion receiver and a DDS/PLL hybrid VFO using all through hole parts.” (The ATS series made extensive use of microscopic SMD components and lots of the assistance Steve offers via the AT Sprint Yahoo group is concerned with discovering and rectifying makers’ errors assembling these devices.)

His website carries a pretty detailed three-page description of the design thinking behind the new rig which he’s calling the Super Deluxe Direct Conversion Transceiver. Tantalisingly he’s suggested it may be able to work at 500kHz. The new rig also features an “LCD frequency read out, built-in keyer and rotary tuning”.

He’s planning to offer only 50 kits at about US$75 at the end of November. Expect to see them sell out in two minutes! I suspect if he offered 200, they might last an hour or two.

Homebrew Buddipole inspection

Great weekend of QRP Portable fun. Saturday our Central FL QRP group had some new ops join us and we had a good time comparing antennas and rig setups at Sylvan Lake Park in Sanford, FL. As is typical, we did more talking than operating but did manage to sneak a few qso’s in on 20 and 17 meters. The contesters in Europe were hot and heavy on 15 m too so made for a fun day despite the heat and high humidity. I was a bit disappointed to not be able to snag any fellow Polar Bear QRP ops on 30m but the band did not stay open long and the other stations were operating on alternative bands.

Sunday after church was the first annual NJQRP Skeeter Hunt.  So glad to work Skeeter Hunt promoter and fellow Polar Bear, Larry, W2LJ before the lightning ran me off. Larry was my last QSO of the day as a thunderstorm started making LOTS of noise and it was my signal to pull down the 31 ft Jackite and wire and get out from under the shade of the 50 ft tall pine trees down by the lake! YIKES… just made it too!

I ran my Sierra at 2.4 watts out into an end fed half wave suspended as a sloper from the 31 ft Jackite pole in a WNW direction. I normally use the trees to get a bit more height for my wire, but the Jackite goes up and down faster and with storms coming, I chose the simple and fast way to git ‘er done. Turned out to be a good choice. Band conditions were pretty good on 20m and I was hearing a good bit of activity. After 1800 the Caribbean, Central and South American SSB stations were causing a good bit of QRM down here in FL. They all seem to run power and gain antennas so we learn to listen through the chatter here in FL.  The approaching storm was obvious as QRN increased with distant lightning stirring up the noise and crashes. Nonetheless, the signals were pretty good despite the distractions and there were some SKCC, FISTS and other cw fans out there having fun too which made the band busy.

I built a simple key and am posting  a photo of my K4UPG Knee Cap Key. Used the lid of a bulk black peppercorn jar and made a simple non-iambic key with paper clips, standoff and a bit of wire. It actually worked fairly well, but not good enough to use for the whole contest. As a long time CPG (Contest Point Giver) I decided that was a good way to give myself some points so took advantage of the bonus points! It did inspire me to try a more substantial lid and make a strap to use it as a leg key for portable ops.

Umbrellas for the rig and the op!

It was fun to hear so many familiar calls and work a few of our fellow Polar Bear Ops who were out for the fun too. Sure appreciate the effort to put this event on the calendar and process the results. Thanks to the NJQRP group for the support of our niche in the hobby and to you Larry for the time you devote to contests, blogs and getting us all out and on the air.

Here’s my results before the storm drove me for cover:

A good time was had by me!

72,
Kelly K4UPG

Introduction:

• Hacker Public Radio celebrates their 1000th episode!

Announcements:

• The Black Sparrow Media Mobile App for iPhone/iPad and Android has been updated. You can now listen to all of the old episodes, as well as new ones, via the app. wAVEgUIDES episodes are now included, as well. All streaming content is now available for iPad/iPhone. Please download and enjoy. It’s at the Google Play marketplace, as well as via the Black Sparrow Media website, and it’s still free!
• The LHS Hamvention fund drive was a success! LHS will be at Dayton Hamvention 2012, May 18-20, in the North Hall of the Hara Arena in booth 131, the same place as last year.
• Russ fixed a website bug that may have been causing some visitors to see the Black Sparrow Media site when surfing to LHS. Thanks to John, EI7IG, for pointing it out.
• Please sign up for the LHS mailing list at http://lists.blacksparrowmedia.net/mailman/listinfo.
• Please join the LHS subreddit and contribute show topic ideas, news of interest to our listeners, or just about anything else.
• Please tell your friends about the show.

Topics:

• Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, in his recent Surfin’ column on the ARRL website, recommends open source Apache OpenOffice and the desktop publishing software Scribus. Note, LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice and is also quite functional. Both offer word processing, spreadsheets, database and presentations. Scribus may have a steep learning curve, but it’s a very powerful program. Easy tasks are easy to accomplish. Complex projects may take more effort to learn. Also note that many open source programs, like OpenOffice, Libre Office and Scribus, are available for Windows, OS X, as well as Linux.
• Take a look at the ham radio section at Linux Journal which also has links to their Ham Shack forum.
• Richard discovered several open source ham radio applications at Sourceforge: ircDDB_gateway, CQiNET, phppredict, contest loggers, fldigi, paclink-unix, OpenMOR, software for SDR radios, Ham Radio Net Logger, and more. So, don’t just look in your distributions repositories for applications. You may have to compile the programs from SourceForge yourself, but it may be worth the trouble.
• Finally, a reminder to visit KE2YK’s Random Oscillations website.
• An overview of ham radio apps for Android phones, available at the Android market, aka Google Play:
  • Morse Code apps:
    • Morse Decoder ($4.99)
    • Morse Code Reader (Free)
    • Morse Trainer Lite (Free)
    • Morse Trainer ($2.99)
    • Morse Code Trainer (Free)
    • Morse Code Keyboard (Free)
    • Morse Code Teacher ($3.99)
  • QSO Logging:
    • Amateur Radio Call Log (Free)
    • HamLog ($0.99)
    • Hamroid Free (Free)
    • Hamroid ($6.53)
  • Miscellaneous:
    • QSY (Free)
    • DroidPSK ($4.99)
    • DXCluster ($2.49)
    • DTMF ($2.49)
    • Echolink (Free)
  • A few more from Bill:
    • APRS Viewer (Free)
    • Ham Radio Tools (Free)
    • Who Is Calling Me? (Free)

Feedback:

• Ronny, K4RJJ, regrets that he won’t be able to act as the LHS ambassador at the Knoxville hamfest. If you’d like to be our representative at the Knoxville, or any other event, please contact us via the Ambassador link on the website.
• Roy, KK4ATD, reiterates how much fun it is to be an LHS ambassador.
• Chris, K4FH, says he offers a presentation at club meetings he calls Linux in the Ham Shack. He’s hoping Richard or Russ has some material they can share.

Contact Info:

• Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
• Leave us a voice mail at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (1-909-547-7469), or record an introduction to the podcast.
• Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
• Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
• LHS merchandise is available at the Merch link on Web site. Check out the Badgerwear or buy one of the other LHS-branded items at PrintFection.com/lhs or Cafe Press. Thanks!
• Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

• “Gunpowder Chant” by Diablo Swing Orchestra from the album “The Butcher’s Ballroom,” courtesy of Jamendo.
• “L.E.O.” by Oleg Serkov from the album “Epoch Symbol,” courtesy of Jamendo.

I got some good news and some bad news Tuesday. The bad news came when Dean, NYØI, let me know he couldn’t get into my EchoLink station. A little investigation proved that my radio is deaf; the problem is either the feedline or the antenna itself. What a disappointment.

But the good news I got that day was so good that it more than made up for the bad news. I got a taker on my offer to be a CW Elmer! Michael, KK4FKM, found me listed over at the SKCC Elmer Page and sent me an email. Great timing — I easily pushed my antenna woes to the back of my mind and set up a SKED with him for yesterday afternoon on 20m.

The Key I Used to Work KK4FKM: The Kent SP-1

At the appointed hour I called KK4FKM KK4FKM KK4FKM DE NØIP NØIP NØIP KN. I wasn’t sure I’d hear him since the band was unusually noisy and KK4FKM was running QRP. But sure enough, there he was!

He was buried pretty deep in the QRN; I quickly flipped on my CW filter to isolate his signal. I managed nearly solid copy on the first go-around, but I couldn’t make out his subsequent transmissions. I was booming in there, though, so he had the opportunity to copy plenty of code.

Afterward we chatted by phone. I was moved when Michael told me this was his first QSO! What an honor to be his first contact. Impressive, too, that Michael’s first QSO was by CW, especially considering that he has his General — he could have gone straight to HF SSB if he wanted to, but instead he went the extra mile and tapped out his first QSO on a straight key, QRP no less. Well done!

It turns out that Michael and I have even more in common than our appreciation for CW. He is a police officer in a department about the same size as the one in which I served, and he is a Baptist, too. After a delightful conversation, we set up another SKED before bidding one another farewell.

This is one QSL that I would send if it cost me a hundred stamps! It’s in the mailbox. Congratulations, KK4FKM!

If you ever have a chance to Elmer, go for it. And if you could use an Elmer, don’t hesitate to seek one out. You’ll be doing him a favor. Of all the things we can do in this hobby, Elmering might just be the most delightful one of all.

In a world first, or maybe just podcast first, the guys throw caution to the wind and actually product an episode with some real Linux and ham radio content. We know it’s shocking, but sometimes–just sometimes–a miracle happens and you get the belly laughs along with something to stimulate your gray matter. We can’t promise this will happen in the future, but this time you’re safe.

On the Linux side, Richard found an article on the ARRL Web site which leads to a discussion of OpenOffice (Libre Office) and Scribus, two excellent document preparation suites. On the ham radio side, Russ discusses some useful Android applications which might be helpful to those operators who want to use their devices for logging, CW training, PSK31 digital mode communications and more.

Thank you for all the donations to the Hamvention fund. Russ hopes to see as many folks as possible during his time at the show. LHS will be in the North Hall, booth 131.

73 de The LHS Guys