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Band conditions seem to have deteriorated lately. Bob W3BBO and I were discussing this on Saturday. The upper bands, 10, 12, 15 Meters still have signals on them, but they seem to be not as plentiful and nowhere as strong as they were just a month or six weeks ago. Just after the cold weather broke here in NJ and I resumed my QRP sessions, it seemed like each lunchtime from the car netted 3 our 4 or even 5 DX stations per sitting.

Lately, those kind of band conditions seem to have disappeared. Signals are fewer and weaker. But today was a case of the one that got away. I was tuning up and down the bands and heard JY9CF on 12 Meters. He was kind of loud and was calling “CQ USA ONLY”. I tried, and wasn’t being heard. But I did have time, as I heard him early on during lunch hour and he was getting louder. I figured giving just a little bit more time, I just might have nabbed him. However, many non-USA stations began calling, and the operator was getting frustrated as a few times he sent, “PLS LSN USA ONLY”. As his signal strength to me increased, so did his frustration. Finally he announced he was going QRT.

Rats! My gut was telling me that with a just a bit more time …… maybe. I am pretty certain that if I was home and had the shack KX3 fired up to the 75/100 Watt neighborhood, that I would have garnered a new country. It seems that 5 Watts and the Buddistick just didn’t cut it today, even though the JY9 station was the loudest I have ever heard here.

On the bright side, I did have a short QSO with Jim N0UR on 20 Meters. I have worked Jim in many Sprints and many QRP Fox hunts. It was good to hook up with him in an “everyday QSO” situation. Jim was running 4 Watts from his Flex1500 and he was a good, solid 579 here into New Jersey (when QSB wasn’t kicking in).

BTW, Paul NA5N has announced the theme for this year’s QRPTTF – “Tres de Mayo” considering how close this year’s event is to Cinco de Mayo.  I have already decided what I am going to do to be “in theme” – but I am NOT sharing until after the event.  All the rules can be found here: http://www.zianet.com/qrp/qrpttf/2014/ttf.htm

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

First off, please allow me to wish all my friends of the Jewish faith a very Happy Passover, which begins tonight.  May your Holy Days be blessed and enjoyable, surrounded by good food, friends and family.

Holy Week began yesterday for those of us who are Roman Catholic, or those who are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church as well as most Protestant denominations.  So what better way to kick off the week (Amateur Radio wise) than by working 3Z14EASTER?

To say it is a beautiful day in New Jersey today is in understatement.  The sun is shining, and the temperatures are in the upper 60s (20C).  The breeze (if there is any) is so gentle that you don’t even notice it.  So I decided that after grocery shopping, but before other chores, that I would sneak off to the park and try out the EARCHI antenna.  I built the 9:1 UNUN late last Autumn and didn’t get a chance to try it out.

Then when I got home, I got on the computer to order some wire and rope from The Wireman.  For the heck of it, I also decided to check out Facebook.  A lot of my Ham friends had posted about how lousy the band conditions are today. In fact, one commented that he went outside to make sure his antennas were still in the air!

Courtesy of Facebook

So it ends up that today was not the day to base a critical performance review on,  I will have to wait for another weekend with decent weather and better band conditions for another test. In the meantime, I will also browse the Internet to see if I can garner more information on optimal radiator lengths for use with a 9:1 UNUN.

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

After a rainy start, it turned out to be a gorgeous Spring day. It was sunny and it was nice and warm, despite a stiff breeze. I was able to get to the car at lunchtime and worked two Swedish stations, SM5IMO and SM4NGT on 15 meters and IK2CIO on 12 Meters.  The nice thing about operating at lunchtime here, is that at that time, most of Europe is done with the work day and there are lots of stations on the air.  They get to relax and enjoy their evening, and I get some good DX.

Thanks to a comment from Kelly WB0WQS, I am taking another close look at LOG4OM.  I tried this a couple years ago and was having severe problems getting it to run properly on my computer.  They must have made a bunch of improvements, or maybe it’s that the laptop I am using now is a better platform than what I had before. Whatever the reason, I downloaded it again tonight and installed it.  It’s working very well and for now? Let’s say I am intrigued.  It has most of the bells and whistles that are part of better logging programs these days. It is powerful with CAT, Cluster management and all the other “necessary” stuff.  It’s free and it’s easy on the eyes.

Here’s an announcement that I saw in an e-mail today.  This looks way cool and is going to get me to try and get back in the swing with my bug (pun intended!):

W6SFM On-Air BUG ROUNDUP – Saturday May 17th 2014

Objective: 
This 12-hour event is not a contest; rather it is a time dedicated to celebrating our CW and Bug key heritage. Participants are encouraged to get on the air and simply make enjoyable, conversational CW QSOs using a Bug style key as the sending instrument. There are no points scored in this event, and all who participate are winners.

Once the event has concluded, logs can be submitted to the W6SFM by way of the link provided on the clubs Bug Roundup web page. Nominal prizes/certificates will be awarded to: the person who had the most QSOs during the 12 hour period; and the person who worked the most interesting amount of bug types. 

Bands            (Suggested Freq.)
10 meters – 28.040 – 28.050 MHz
15 meters – 21.040 – 21.050 MHz
20 meters – 14.040 – 14.050 MHz
40 meters –    7.040 – 7.050 MHz
80 meters –    3.540 – 3.550 MHz

Dates
W6SFM Bug Roundup is held twice annually.
– Every 3rd Saturday in May from 1700 UTC though Sunday 0500 UTC
– Every 3rd Saturday in November from 1800 UTC through Sunday 0600 UTC


Thank you for your participation and we hope you enjoy the event. 73

For more information on this exciting event please visit the W6SFM Bug Roundup website page by clicking HERE (http://www.w6sfm.com/Bug_Roundup.html)

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

A few new toys are headed to my QTH this week.  The first scheduled to arrive is the amp for the KX3.  When I purchased my KX3 (serial number 0057) I really had no intention of adding the amp to the setup.  The KX3 was simply going to be my SOTA/Portable QRP rig (replacing the FT-817) and when not on an outdoor adventure it would stay safely in my cabinet.  After all, I have the Yaesu FT-950 which I use for SSB Phone contacts and the FT-897 which is setup for the digital modes.  I just didn’t see a need for another 100w HF rig. 

Some things have changed with my work.  For the past 3+ years I’ve worked from home 1-2 days a week and would often get on the air during lunch.  A few policy changes have taken place along with some changes in responsibility and now I’m going to the office five days a week.  As I still would like the opportunity to get on the air during lunch, I’ve been researching remote access opportunities and my research has led me to a little device called the PigRemote.  The PigRemote was developed by Nick, N3WG who also developed the PigTail which I’ve previously blogged about and demonstrated on Youtube. 

When everything arrives, I plan to experiment with accessing my KX3 via the PigRemote from my office location.  Based on everything I’ve learned, I should be able to access and control my KX3 via my iPad, Android smart phone or laptop and make a few lunch time QSO’s when time permits.  Of course, I’ll thoroughly document my experience and share with you all here via this blog and of course my amateur radio podcast. 

Of course, the addition of the KX3 amp will also provide greater flexibility for how I use the KX3 for portable operations.  While I don’t plan to lug it up a mountain top, I do enjoy operating picnic table portable from time to time and the amp should provide me many additional hours of fun.   While the FT-897 is a fine rig, for SSB operations I believe the KX3 out performs the older 897 and with the 100w amp, it will become my new picnic table portable rig.

Finally, arriving a little later than the items I’ve previously discussed.  I’ve also ordered one of the custom KX3 heat sinks.  When operating the KX3 even at just 5w, I’ve experienced the overheat warnings when running PSK-31.  From what I’ve read, users who have installed the custom heat sink report cool operation up to 10w.  I’ll let you know of my experience once the heat sink arrives and I’ve had a chance to test it.

More later when all the items have arrived and I have time to experiment.  Thanks for reading.

Until next time…

73 de KDØBIK

Work has been a bear the past few days. The weather has turned decidedly Springlike, but yet I’ve been stuck behind my desk the past three days. No lunchtime QRP for W2LJ.  🙁

And to make matters worse, it’s that time of year that we QRP Fox hunters go into withdrawal, as the season has ended. So I’m tired from work, but yet can’t fall asleep, and I’m in Fox withdrawal to boot ….. so what do I do? I get on the air – that’s what!

Tonight, I worked EA8TL on 17 Meters. He was one of the few stations that I was able to hear on the band after dinner, but was he ever loud. Like, across the street loud! I called Jorge, and got through on the 1st call with 5 Watts.

After that, I engaged in a nice ragchew with Jeff, K9JP, who answered my CQ on 20 Meters. Jeff was using a KX3 also, and was blasting into New Jersey with 4 Watts. He’s also an SKCC member, so it was a 2X KX3 SKCC QSO! That’s a lot of capital letters!

After the QSO with Jeff, I dove into the pileup to work W1AW/4 from Virginia on 80 Meters. I managed to break that pileup in about 10 minutes, maybe a little less. 80 Meters was a lot tamer than it was last Thursday night when I got skunked in the last hunt of the season.

All the while that I was chasing W1AW/4, I was also playing with the DX Labs suite of programs. Sometimes I feel like Diogenes, searching for the perfect logging program like he searched for an honest man. DX Labs looks like it’s going to require a bit of a steeper learning curve than Ham Radio Deluxe. But it is very comprehensive and full featured. If I ever get the hang of it, I just may switch over.

Did I mention that my old, decrepit shack  laptop uses Windows XP? I turned it on for the first time since support ended and it didn’t blow up!  ;-). (Like I thought that it would … NOT!) Gosh, I’m getting punchy here, I had better try to get some sleep.

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

So yesterday I celebrated my 47th birthday.  I had a great time eating a nice dinner with my Wife and children.  Perfect night!

My 14 year old son, Ryan, has discovered a graphics program called Blender – he is teaching himself how to use it and has really done some cool stuff.

Well, for my birthday present he made a graphic of my Elecraft KX3!  He apparently had been making clandestine trips to my newly implement shack to see what the rig looked like and then model it up in Blender.

Here is how it turned out….very cool….I just had to share it with you guys.

What a great birthday present from him – I am gong to make it into my wallpaper on my shack computer.

Thanks Ryan – you did a great job!