AmateurRadio.com

I went out to the car during lunchtime today.  Temperatures here in New Jersey have cooled down. It was only in the upper 40s here (about 9C), so instead of standing outside and operating from the rear hatch of the Jeep, I sat inside to keep out of the breeze.  Activity on 10 Meters seems to have gotten sparse. I still hear signals, mind you, but they are not as loud and not as “wall to wall” as they were just a few weeks ago.  I don’t know if it’s that the band has changed a bit, or perhaps the novelty of 10 Meters coming back to life has worn off. In any event, I found myself on 17 Meters today, tuning around the band to hear what I could hear.

I worked EI13CLAN, whom I worked last month on 10 Meters.  He was very strong, a very legitimate 599.

The tuning around some more, I heard XF1P calling “CQ DX UP”.  OK …….. Mexico.  But the pileup was huge …… HUGE!  I wasn’t exactly sure why. Mexico is not exactly what you’d consider to be the rarest of rare DX.  I reasoned that with a pileup that big, something that I was unaware of must be “up”.  Additionally, I  took it as a personal challenge. Could a QRP station running 5 Watts to a Buddistick possibly bust that pileup?  XF1P was 599, but just barely. There was QSB to boot. I was reasonably sure that my signal would be audible on his end, but with that pileup, would I get lost in the sauce?

I sat there for about  20 minutes, listening and sending out my call. The KX3, with it’s Dual Watch feature, almost makes it unfair.  I was able to follow XF1P along the band as he would move slightly after answering each station, XF1P in my right earbud and the station he was working in my left earbud. It just became a matter of sensing his pattern and setting the transmit VFO just a tiny bit higher after each call. Also, I had to time the sending of my call –  not transmitting immediately, but waiting for the pileup to fade “just” enough where my call would be heard among the cacophony of all the true 599s that he must have undoubtedly been hearing.  Finally, I heard him send back “W2L?”. Wouldn’t you know it? True to form, all kinds of stations without a “W”,” 2″ or an “L” anywhere in their calls began blindly transmitting.  Not deterred,  I stayed with it and threw “W2LJ” out there just a couple of more times and was rewarded with a confirmation.

Coming back from lunch, a quick peek on the computer before resuming work informed me that XF1P is an IOTA DXpedition to Partida Island – NA-124 located in the Gulf of California off the coast of Baja, Mexico. It is an uninhabited island, so I guess that makes it rare as IOTA goes.  The pileup of IOTA devotees was intense, but I accepted the challenge with 5 Watts, took advantage of XF1P’s exceptional ears, and got through!  That’s always a good feeling. And it also goes to show, that if I can do this, then YOU can do it too. It just takes some persistence and a lot of listening.

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

It turns out that I discovered (after the fact) that my lunchtime session netted me three Toms and one Sam.

was quite packed today at lunchtime!  Which was absolutely, positively fantastic!  In fact, it was just a little difficult to find an empty frequency. So for a change, I listened for a CQ instead of calling, and I ended up having a nice QSO with F5LAW, Yann who lives near Lille, France. Yann was using his Kenwood TS-480SAT at the 5 Watt level.  He was pushing those 5 Watts into a 4 element Yagi antenna.  I gave Yann a 549 and he gave me a 559.  There was some QSB, but the entire QSO was solid copy!  And on his last exchange, Yann’s signal had peaked to a solid 589.

Yann had commented that he had survived Autumn storm Christian with no damage to his property, although some of the surrounding area was not as lucky.  That reminded me that it was just one year ago today that Hurricane Sandy did her number on New Jersey and the rest of the Mid-Atlantic coast:

On the HF bands – 10 Meters was great again during lunchtime and I had no problem working Serbia, Italy, Belarus and Germany.  All the QSOs were great; but I had two in particular that were gems.

The first came at lunchtime on the 10 Meter band.  After working some DX, I decided to go to the watering hole of 28.060 MHz.  There I heard a weak CQ – DF7IS, Klaus in Kandel, Germany.  Klaus was running 5 Watts from his Icom IC-703 to a sloper.  I just love 2X QRP QSOs, especially 2X QRP DX QSOs!  We gave each other 559 signals and copy was solid, even though QSB was a little trying at times.  But the KX3 pass band tuning really helped me notch Klaus’s signal and I had great copy throughout.

The second gem came after I got home.  With dinner done and a Harold walk yet to come, I decided to hit the KX3 in my basement shack before the sun set.  10 Meters was a bit disappointing.  I heard a station from Guinea- Bissau, but the pileup was intense, and his signal was dropping like a lead balloon. 10 Meters did not seem as promising as last evening, so at that point I decided to switch over to 15 Meters.

At 21.020 MHz, I heard JA1NUT calling CQ.  I knew that this was Shin, because my bud W3BBO just worked him a few days ago, and I have heard of him many times before. Shin has the reputation for being a top notch CW operator, a sort of Amateur Radio celebrity, a Ham’s Ham.  Nobody was answering him, so I threw out my call.  Shin came back to me, and I gave him a 589.  His signal was warbly, like it was coming over the pole.  I’ve heard polar flutter before, and this sounded exactly like that.

Shin was running 500 Watts to a 4 element Yagi, and said he was trying to study the effects of the CME.  I knew immediately what he was talking about.  I learned about yesterday’s CME from Fr. Z’s blog of all places.  We exchanged other pleasantries and when it was my turn, I told him I was using an Elecraft KX3 to a vertical.

That’s when I got “KX3 THATS 5W RIGHT?”

I answered “YES 5W QRP TO A VERTICAL”

Shin came back again “AMAZING 5W UR 549 BUT SOLID CPY ALL THE WAY. ENJOY UR MIGHTY 5W LARRY”.

Wow – how cool is that?  Another walking on air moment! Amateur radio doesn’t get too much better than this.

Before I close for the night, I leave you with a video that was mentioned on the CW Ops e-mail reflector. Can you imagine having an antenna farm like this?  I have passed K3LR’s aluminum ranch several times on the way to and from Dayton. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a grand view like this!

72 de Larry W2LJ