AmateurRadio.com

Wow! It was hot here today! It got up into the upper 90s (36C) today and I was loving it! Well, maybe not “loving” it, but I wasn’t hating it or wishing it away. I was in my element as I went out to the Jeep and proceeded to try a little QRP.

I wasn’t hearing too much on 15 Meters and everyone on 17 Meters seemed to be involved in a ragchew, so I proceeded down to the good ol’ standby – the 20 Meter QRP Watering Hole.  It was there that I heard a station calling CQ rather slowly.  I set the KX3’s keyer for about 13 WPM and waited for him to sign.  I am guessing that this person is a relatively new Ham because of the slower code speed and because he had a 2X3 callsign and the prefix was KK. I think in the #2 call district we’re still at KD as a newly issued prefix.

I sent his call twice followed by mine, three times.  He had a decent 579 signal, and he gave me a 549.  OK, not the strongest, but in my book, a 549 signal is decent enough to have a ragchew with.  After the preliminaries, I thought we were going to get into the heart of a nice chat. That’s when I got, “BANDS SEEM TO BE UNSTABLE. YOU ARE UP AND DOWN. 73 DE KKXXXX”. Just like that, he was gone.

OK …. wait a second ….. what just happened?

It seems to me that one of the attributes of short wave communications is QSB, i.e. fading.  It’s a rare conversation where it doesn’t occur, even mildly. It’s something you learn to adapt to and overcome in all but the severest cases, as you build up your skills. I feel bad for this guy, because if you’re going to limit yourself to only 599 signals, you’re going to miss out on a lot of fun. And you’re not going to develop yourself as an experienced operator, either.

The antennas are unplugged tonight. As a result of the hot weather and a cool (not cold) front moving through, we are getting some hellacious thunderstorms.  No hail, but the downpours have been heavy and even though the rains have stopped for now, it’s still lightning. A lot.

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

That’s all I can say – wow!  A magnificent time was had at the first Field Day for the South Plainfield Radio Club.  I posted the following to QRP-L, and I’ll insert some other thoughts at the end.

The South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club operated Field Day in Spring Lake Park in South Plainfield, NJ. We used Club call NJ2SP, and ran as 2A (Battery). The “2A” were two Elecraft KX3s. The CW station ran to a EARCHI antenna (53 foot radiator, 9:1 UNUN, 25 foot length of coax). The elevated end of the EARCHI was about 30-35 foot up in a tree. The SSB station used a G5RV, about the same height between two trees.

The EARCHI antenna was a resounding success. The KX3’s internal tuner handled it exceedingly well on all bands. We made just a tad over 270 CW QSOs, with our best DX being Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.

The G5RV worked exceeding well, also. The KX3 again tuned without a hiccup. The SSB team completed just over 100 SSB QSOs – these guys are all QRO ops and they were skeptical about completing even a single QRP SSB QSO. They ended up surprising themselves, and they ended up being quite amazed at what they were able to accomplish. Yes, it was not as easy as using 100W rigs, but even in keeping with the ARRL’s 5 Watt limit for the battery category, they were quite pleased.

We operated on solar charged batteries all weekend without a hitch. The energy hogs for the weekend were the two laptops that we used for logging. The Field Day rules state that since we were not using the laptops for rig control, we could have powered them from mains (which we did not have) or a generator (which we had, but didn’t use). In keeping with our self imposed “severe emergency capability” theme in order to make this a drill as much as possible, we also powered them off a deep cycle battery using an inverter. We needed to switch the laptops over to a fresh battery somewhere in the mid morning hours, Sunday.

SPARC’s first Field day was an outstanding and unqualified success, and I think we ‘busted’ the myth that Field Day has to be QRO to be fun.

The EARCHI worked great and way better than I dared hope for. With less exceptions than I can count on one hand, I was able to work everyone that I tried to.  Being on an energy budget because of the batteries and wanting them to last all weekend if possible, I didn’t try calling CQ or running a frequency (it was S&P all weekend).  I will reserve that for FOBB and the Skeeter Hunt, which are only four hour events. I can afford to be a little “battery foolish” during those, and I expect the EARCHI to work just as well during those two events.

The other Godsend of the weekend? That Joplin ARC antenna launcher kit that I purchased and built up. We were able to place antenna lines pretty much exactly where we wanted with hardly any effort at all.  That thing is one of the greatest things since sliced bread! One or two of the guys were skeptical about being able to place an antenna line so easily and accurately with such little effort. The old saying is “That seeing is believing”. They’re believers now!

Being in the park, we had a lot of curious people come by.  We answered any and all questions and we handed out quite a bit of ARRL printed material about Amateur Radio. An encouraging sign was that several parents came by and wanted more information for their tech minded offspring.

Squeezing out some last minute QSOs as Field Day draws to a close. Tim AB2ZK on phone, W2LJ on CW.

I suppose it can.  I suppose one could make DXCC Honor Roll, or perhaps get elected to the QRP Hall of Fame, or perhaps invent some cool, new piece of QRP equipment that the world will beat a path to your door for (and make you some $$$ in the process!).

But for a Ham an’ Egger like me, the best is just getting on the air making contacts – ANY kind of contacts.  DX quickies, ragchews – whatever.  It’s all good. And today was another comparatively good lunchtime QRP session.  I worked RZ1OA, Vlad in Russia, and I worked XE1XR, David in Mexico. Two good, solid DX contacts.

The best QSO was the last one, and it was not a DX contact. In fact, the miles covered were only about 650. But it was exciting, fun and satisfying nonetheless.

After working the two DX stations, I decided to go to on down to 20 Meters to listen perhaps for some SOTA stations.  That’s when I heard a weak, but very copyable KC8JNL calling CQ right at the QRP Watering Hole.  I answered and hooked up with Pat who lives in Rothbury, MI.  Not as distant as Russia or Mexico – definitely.  But this QSO was exciting in and of itself, because Pat was using a Rockmite at QRPp power levels.  There was some vicious QSB, and I didn’t quite copy Pat’s power output level. Having my own 20 Meter Rockmite, I knew it had to be under 1 Watt.  Pat gave me a 559 and I gave him a 459 in turn.  The QSO would have been Q5 copy both ways if it weren’t for the QSB.  But even with the fading, I knew what Pat was saying to me, and from his answers, I had a good idea that he was making me out just as well.

QRP to QRP, or QRP to QRPp, or even QRPp to QRPp QSOs get my wonderment juices all fired up.  That we can effectively hold a conversation using such little power is still an amazement to me after 36 years in this hobby.  It’s truly like …. can it get ANY better than this?  (My apologies for speaking like a teen – having two, it tends to rub off). I talked with Pat and Vlad and David today, all while enjoying the sunshine and the 80F (27C) temperatures that we are having here today. No wires, no cell towers, no infrastructure of any real sort ….. not much more than two guys shooting a bunch of electrons out of some wire or aluminum – hoping that they’ll bounce around to and fro, and eventually be picked up by a like minded enthusiast – somewhere.

Magic. Pure magic.

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

After being stuck inside during lunchtime last week, due to workload and/or weather, I was finally able to get out today.  This was the first opportunity (if you don’t count the weekend) that I had to try out the tri-magmount with the Buddistick since changing out the coax. Well, it was the coax that was giving me fits.  With the new coax, the KX3 tuned the antenna in mere seconds and once it tuned, it stayed tuned. No phantom jumping SWR values, everything behaved nicely.

For my efforts, I was able to work W1AW/5 in Arkansas on a different band, Don K2DSV who is a fellow K2ETS Club member, as well as XE2ST, Fernando in Nogales, Mexico.  So I am considering the surgery that I performed on the antenna base to be an unqualified success.

I also spent a lot of time thinking about a posting on KB6NU’s blog about how “New Hams are Different” and the responses that Dan has received.  I think that times have greatly changed, or maybe that’s just my perception.  When I was a Novice back in the late 70s, and joined a local club (which is no longer in existence – and this may be the reason why) there was a kind of a “keep your mouth shut if you’re a Newbie” mentality going on.  New callsigns appearing at meetings or on the repeaters weren’t welcomed all that enthusiastically (as a result, that may be why I’m not real big into VHF/UHF to this very day).  I guess there was kind of a “pay your dues” mentality, back then.  For better or worse, that was the way it was. But guess what? I survived, more or less.  😉

I really believe that I saw that change in the mid 90s, though.  I joined a couple new clubs and was welcomed.  Even though I was licensed for quite a while by then, I was still a neophyte compared to the established “Old Timers” who were a large part of the membership, and I was a comparative stranger, to boot. But in both cases, I was welcomed warmly – I was not shunned, I was not looked down upon, I was accepted into the groups without question.

And that’s the way it should be.  I currently belong to three active local clubs – the K2ETS Electronic Testing Society of NJ, the W2QW Raritan Valley Radio Club as well as the NJ2SP South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club (which I helped to establish).  Since SPARC is so new, I am going to leave it out of the mix for this discussion, but the same philosophy holds there, as well.  In both K2ETS and W2QW, newcomers are welcomed enthusiastically and with open arms.  There’s no “we vs. they” mentality when it comes to new members. Everyone is encouraged to participate, and everyone is listened to. Your age, your gender, your level of experience is really of no matter.

I really don’t see any wide gulfs when it comes to “new” vs. “old” technologies, either.  Those who primarily operate HF only seem to peacefully co-exist with those who like to experiment and build and toy around with Arduinos, Raspeberry Pi’s and the digital voice and data modes.  In fact, I see a lot of the groups co-mingling and getting pointers, answers to questions and operating tips from each other.  Just the way it should be.

Newcomers are welcomed for their new ideas and enthusiasm while “Old Timers” are respected for their experience and built up wealth of tribal knowledge – again, just as it should be.  Guess I’ve been very fortunate to not be involved with “cliquey” organizations. Hopefully, that is becoming everyone else’s experience as well.

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

The Elekraft KX3 has become my shack in the bed. It is connected to the antenna using 10 m cable from eBay. Olga takes radio upstairs to charge batteries. I wish the charger had a tricle charge so we could leave radio connected to power continuously.