AmateurRadio.com

Over the past 67 episodes of my podcast, there has been a couple episodes that have really peaked my interest and kind of lit a fire under me to do whatever that topic is myself. Things like APRS back in episode 6, and Broadband Hamnet in episode 29. However, neither of those got me back onto HF. My HF rig has basically gone unused for close to seven years or so and has been in a box for the last three years!!

I honestly have never been big on voice communications on HF. All of the times that I have operated on HF has either been at home calling CQ or looking for someone else calling it or during things like Field Day. At home I rarely got anyone to answer my CQ call; I think I was getting out. During field day it was, basically the exchange and on to the next contact. Neither of these things were very fun to me.

Digital modes, especially thing like PSK31, seem to be right up my alley! So I decided to look for someone that knew something about it, that I could learn from. I finally found Ian Kahn, KM4IK and he agreed to come onto my show and talk to me about it. We had a great conversation and I learned a lot. If you are interested in learning about PSK31, head over to the show notes of the episode, you can listen right on the page, or you can search for Everything Ham Radio on the major podcast directories.

http://www.everythinghamradio.com/podcast/67

After a long, cold Sprinter (that’s what you get when Winter seems to last endlessly into Spring), Summer is finally here! Yay! And as promised, as of today, numbers are being assigned for the 2014 NJQRP Skeeter Hunt.

The Hunt will be held on Sunday August 10th this year – and right now, the best place to see the rules is at  http://w2lj.blogspot.com/p/njqrp-skeeter-hunt.html. I am trying to get the QSL.NET page updated with the new bonus points rules, but the server seems to be down right now.

Yes – bonus points this year for gathering enough letters from callsigns to spell out the word “SKEETER”. 100 extra points will be added to your score if you accomplish this feat. In any event, the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt is a grand time and folks seem to enjoy themselves a lot, so send me an email ([email protected]) and reserve your Skeeter number today.

Today was also the Raritan Valley Radio Club annual hamfest, which is held at Piscataway High School, in Piscataway, NJ.  The weather was absolutely beautiful – perfect for a hamfest!  It was sunny and it got up into the high 70s.  Very nice, but yet not exasperatingly hot. And as you can see from the two quick photos that I snapped with my phone, there was not a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately, it was perfect sunburn weather. Reporting time for the hamfest workers was 5:00 AM and as I was driving to the hamfest site, I had realized I had forgotten to bring sunscreen.  I discovered the hard way that there are NOT a lot of places open at 5:00 AM where you can buy sunscreen!

There were plenty of vendors and lots of buyers. The ARRL had a presence with the appearance of Bill Hudzik W2UDT, our section Vice Director. (Psst!  It helps that he’s a club member!) We also had a VE Exam session, where three people earned their Technician licenses, and we also had one upgrade to General and one upgrade to Extra.

In the top photo, you can see the huge mast sticking up from an old broadcast van that Brian N2MPM had acquired. Running up the mast was a PAR END-FEDZ antenna that Alan W2AEW using to make QRP contacts.  If you follow this blog, you know that I have mentioned Alan’s YouTube videos in the past. He does an excellent job producing videos on how to use test equipment and other neat technical tutorials. If you haven’t subscribed to his YouTube channel, then you are cheating yourself. After you read this go over and subscribe – it’s definitely worth it.

Here’s a video he took of today’s festivities:

Pulling off a hamfest like this is a huge undertaking. Thanks to the direction of our two Hamfest Committee Chairmen, Drew W2OU and Rich W2PQ and all the members of the RVRC, this comes off flawlessly – year after year.

In between my duties of assisting with the parking and placement of the vendors, and being the lead in administering the VE session, I did get a chance to look at the various wares on the tables.  I purchased some BNC to PL259 adapters and some large alligator clips that we will to connect to batteries that we will be using next weekend during Field Day. Not a big spender much to the discontent of the vendors, but much to the delight of my wife.  😉

I’ve been up way too long and am making way too many typos – even more than I usually make, so it’s off to the sack for W2LJ. (Thank God for spellcheck.)

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Skeeter #12 for 2014

for not posting all week. Whew!  What a week!  It was so busy this week, that I only managed to get one lunch time QRP session in.  The other days, I ended up either working through lunch, or got saddled with “must attend” conference calls during lunch hour.

Last Monday, I had to serve out a jury duty summons.  Here in Middlesex County, you are summonsed for “either one trial or one day”.  You report to the county courthouse with your juror badge, which is mailed to you ahead of time. The badge has your name and a juror number. People are randomly picked throughout the day in groups of 20 or 30 or more. If your number gets called, you go into a courtroom as part of a “panel” where you may or may not be selected to serve on that jury. If your number isn’t selected for any panels and you’re not picked from a panel to be on a jury that day – you go home. My number wasn’t selected for any panels, so I came home and now I don’t have to concern myself for reporting for jury duty for another three years.

Since the week was so busy, I rewarded myself this morning by attending the OMARC Fall Hamfest, down in Wall Township, NJ.  I attended their Spring Hamfest, which was held on Dayton weekend.  I liked it enough to go back.  Again, it’s a small event, but it’s very nice, nonetheless.  Attendance was decent and the people there were really nice, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so it made for a pleasant morning. (Great job, folks from OMARC!  I’ll be back next year, for sure.) My only purchase was a 25 foot length of RG-8X coax with a male PL259 on each end.  This will be used to connect my PAR ENDFEDZ when it is sufficiently high up in a tree.

But, I was given a great idea by two guys who were selling military surplus fiberglass antenna masts.  In particular, I really like this:

They anchored the bottom section of mast in these tripods. I asked them if they were selling them, as one of these puppies would be just perfect for holding my Jackite pole.  They informed me that they don’t sell them, and they acquired theirs at Lowe’s. They are the tripods used to support quartz work lights. Perfect!  I have to look into getting one of these. The two gentlemen had 26 feet worth of mast being held by this particular tripod.  It was slightly breezy and yet it was anchored like a rock.  Looks like a promising concept.

The other thing I noticed at the Hamfest was just a personal observation.  Something that to me, is one of the marked differences between CW and Phone operation.  A little background – you all know that many times I have stated that I am not a big VHF/UHF talker.  I have my handheld mounted in my Jeep because I do enjoy listening to the local repeaters on the way to work and on the way back.  If you’re like me and you do mostly listening, you get accustomed to “the regulars” on the different repeaters and you get to know voices and the personalities behind the voices – and after a while, you form a picture in your mind of what you think the face must look like that goes with the voice you are hearing.

I was walking around this morning and amongst the various conversations going on, I heard some familiar voices – some of the guys I listen to each morning and each afternoon.  I looked up and, Wow!  In each case, the face that I had mentally pictured looked absolutely NOTHING like the actual person!

Then I realized, that this is not something that happens while operating in the CW Mode …… at least for me. Conversing with a guy in code does not cause me to conjure up the face behind the fist.  I love looking at QRP Quarterly and the photos from FDIM and the various QRP “Cons” because I can finally see the faces behind the fists. But for some reason, I am never taken aback by seeing a photo of some QRP op, or other CW op and saying to myself, “He just doesn’t look the way I pictured him”. The only thing that I can think of that may be the reason behind this (for me at least) is because voices are distinctive in tonal quality, while CW fists are distinctive in rhythm and pattern.

Crazy, huh?  These are some of the thoughts that run through my head while mowing the lawn. Maybe I should see someone about this!  😉

Oh, before I forget …… tomorrow is the inaugural Peanut Power QRP Sprint. Hope to catch you all on the air tomorrow afternoon!

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

We arrived home from Lake George yesterday.  I went to go pick up Sandy, our cat, from the place where we took her and Jesse to be boarded while we were away.  When Sandy got home, she was as upset as I was. She was looking all over the house for her “big brother”.

They were real good buddies and it’s quite obvious that I’m not the only one around here who has a bit of a broken heart right now.

The manager of Best Friends came over and explained to me that last Tuesday morning they found Jesse laying on his bed, which wasn’t unusual at all.  He was an older dog and was no longer very active. They thought he was asleep and when they tried to wake him, well ……… he didn’t.  The manager told me that one of her own dogs did the same thing.  He was old and hanging on and hanging on and waited until she and her husband were away to pass.  I don’t know if it has any merit or not, but she told me that some dogs do that. It’s like they want to spare their owners the hardship of seeing them pass.

This house is not the same without him, and I am definitely not the same without my pal.  The sun just seems to be a little bit dimmer than it used to be. And while I am thinking of Jesse, I’d like to thank all of you who left very kind comments or sent me an e-mail with the same.  I appreciate it and thank you so much – you’re all in my prayers.

But life goes on, so even though I really wasn’t in the mood, I decided to go to the Sussex Amateur Radio Club hamfest anyway – to at least take my mind off of Jesse for a while.  I got there at 8:30 AM, about a half hour after the doors officially opened.  I got there to a double line of cars, backed up, paying admission and waiting to get in.  When was the last time you saw THAT at a hamfest that isn’t Dayton or one of the other true “biggies”?

It was sunny and hot and humid!  I was sweating just walking around at a leisurely pace.  I ran into Don W2JEK who I have worked so many times in various QRP Sprints.  I walked up to the table where he was selling stuff and shook his hand and said “Hello”.  You could tell he was taken aback for half a split second until he noticed my call sign on my cap.  We talked for a bit and then I continued to meander around.

I noticed a lot of QRP stuff on the tables.  There were at least two HW-8s and one HW-7 that I saw. There were at least two of the Chinese/TenTec HB-1As and there were several MFJ QRP rigs for sale.  I will take it as a good sign for QRP, that when I made my last pass of the tables, all the QRP equipment seemed to have been sold and in the hands of eager, new users.

There was lots of other interesting stuff, too, including this:

As mentioned previously, today was the Raritan Valley Radio Club (of which I am a member) Hamfest.  I got up bright and early at 4:00 AM to be on site by 5:30 AM, in order to help direct vendors and sellers to their spots in the Piscataway High School parking lot.

Providence was with us, and after a few days of soaking rain, when the sun rose this morning there was absolutely not a cloud in the sky.  In fact, for the duration of the hamfest, the sky was that deep, clear crystal blue that you see maybe only 4 or 5 times a year.

Things started off really slow but in the end, we ended up (again) having more sellers show up than last year and more buyers, too, which is a good thing!

Sadly, I really did not get a chance to browse and peruse the tables much.  In addition to my parking duties, I was asked to serve as one of the VEs for the test session that we held.