Posts Tagged ‘Operating’
So where do youse guys hang out, anyways?
October 21st, 2013 | 
Author: Sorry for using the “Tony Soprano” vernacular, but that’s a question often asked by budding QRPers, or those looking to dip a toe into the pond, wondering what QRP signals sound like.
To answer the question truthfully – just about everywhere! Anywhere we have frequency privileges given to us by the FCC, you will find QRPers. But I know that’s not the spirit in which the question was asked. Because, yes Virginia, there are “special” frequencies where QRPers tend to congregate. Not that there’s anything magical about them, they’re just frequencies that QRPers have come to know as “the watering holes”. Just like animals from the African savanna meet and greet each other at the local pond, lake or stream, so QRPers tend to congregate at certain frequencies where the odds are good we will meet others of our species.
For CW, they are as follows:
160 Meters ~ 1.810 MHz
80 Meters ~ 3.560 MHz
40 Meters ~ 7.040 and 7.030 MHz
30 Meters ~ 10.106 MHz
20 Meters ~ 14.060 MHz
17 Meters ~ 18.080 MHz
15 Meters ~ 21.060 MHz
12 Meters ~ 24.906 MHz
10 Meters ~ 28.060 MHz
And for SSB:
160 Meters ~ 1.910 MHz
80 Meters ~ 3.985 MHz
40 Meters ~ 7.285 MHz
20 Meters ~ 14.285 MHz
17 Meters ~ 18.130 MHz
15 Meters ~ 21.385 MHz
12 Meters ~ 24.956 MHz
10 Meters ~ 28.885 MHz
In fact, the Long Island QRP Club has a very nice .pdf that you can print out and laminate and keep close by for easy reference. You can find it here. You will notice their list also lists other frequencies as well, because there’s no hard and fast rule, written in stone. And more than likely, you will hear QRPers clustering around these neighborhoods and not on these frequencies EXACTLY (although it often feels that way during a QRP contest!).
Now, when you get to those frequencies, you will undoubtedly hear some weak signals. But if you get blasted by a 599++++ signal, don’t automatically assume that it’s a QRO station intruding. It just may be that due to propagation and band conditions, that powerhouse signal you are hearing just might be generated by a transmitter putting out 5 Watts or less. Don’t assume that QRP always equals “weak”. Just ain’t so! If there’s one thing the QRP Fox hunts will teach you, is that QRP equals Low Power, not necessarily Weak Signal. Yes, you will work your share of 339 and 559 stations, but if you get involved with QRP and hang with it long enough, you’ll hear your share of eardrum blasters, too.
Now to a different matter. I got an e-mail this morning from my good friend Bob W3BBO telling me about how good propagation was on 10 Meters Sunday afternoon. I didn’t get the chance to get on yesterday, but you can sure as all heck guess where I went to during my lunchtime QRP session today! Yep, 10 Meters and it was hopping today, too. I worked Denmark, Italy and Croatia with no problem at all – no repeats, practically armchair copy both ways – although QSB did rear its ugly head now and then. Oh man, I wish 10 Meters was like this everyday! I am hoping this lasts for a couple of weeks (or months) – fingers crossed!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
You need a scorecard (or QRZ or somesuch …….)
I had another good day out at the car today during lunch time. Both 17 and 20 Meters were active and I nabbed three QSOs during my lunch break.
“What’s that got to do with your post title, W2LJ?” you might be asking yourself.
One of the stations I worked at lunch was HF80LOT. You hear a call sign like that and your first impression is undoubtedly, “Huh? Where’s THAT?” If you’re like me you prescribe to the “work ’em first, worry about the location later” theory, so that’s what I did. It turns out that HF80LOT is a special event station in Poland that is commemorating the 80th anniversary of a trans-Atlantic flight by two Lithuanian pilots. I sure wouldn’t have known that without the aid of QRZ or HamQTH, or one of the other fine call book services out there. From the HF prefix, Poland was probably my last or next to last guess. In fact, I wasn’t sure at first whether I was hearing 5F80LOT – at first I was guessing Serbia or somewhere around there. Listening for a few times confirmed that it was HF80LOT, but I still had to look it up. Exciting!
But lately, it seems like there’s been a smattering of special event call signs that either boggle your mind or tickle your ear in an effort to copy them correctly. For example, here are some out of the ordinary ones that I have worked recently and you may have, too: LZ1722SN, H70ORO, 9A282EU, LZ110RF, LZ1876SMB, and the prize winner SV2013ATGM. Wow! That’s a lot of letters and numbers and what’s up with you Hams in Bulgaria? It’s almost like every one of you is running a special event this year!
Speaking of special events, I worked three more Colonies tonight, bringing my total to eleven. Connecticut, Georgia and Pennsylvania are now in the log, and I also had a QSO with the bonus station, WM3PEN in Philadelphia, PA – Chaz behind the key. I only need two more, New Hampshire and Maryland for the sweep. If I can’t nab those two by the time this ends, I am going to be severely disappointed! I’ve gotten a taste of the quarry and now I’m hungry for a clean sweep.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
13 Colonies time!
Yessiree! If it’s close to the 4th of July, then it’s time for the 13 Colonies Special Event!
The 13 states, which were the original 13 colonies (Can you name them? How’s your history?) will be on the air until 12 Midnight on Saturday evening/Sunday morning of this coming weekend. They will have special call signs from K2A to K2M.
If you participate, a very special certificate (suitable for framing) can be yours. Work all 13 colonies and your certificate specially will be marked to denote the Clean Sweep.
Log summaries can be submitted via snail mail with the suggested donation to obtain the certificate.
Just this evening, I was able to work the following eight states/colonies on 40 Meters – NY, SC, DE, RI, NJ, MA, VA, NC. I also heard the NH station, but his pileup was something akin to the crowd trying to work Spratly. I also heard the GA station, but he was very weak. GA is usually super loud here in NJ, maybe he had his beam turned away from the NorthEast and I was hearing him off the side.
NY and NC were worked via CW – the rest were worked using that SSB mode. I got a kick out of working K2I, the NJ station. The operator was Mike KA2FIR, who I’ve worked before. When I finally broke the pileup, he came back to me with “W2LJ, we’ve run into each other before. Aren’t you that QRP guy?”
My reputation precedes me!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
The Cyclone
no ……. not the roller coaster at Coney Island – but a new kit from the Four States QRP Group, designed by Dave Cripes NM0S.
“The Four State QRP Group is pleased to announce the availability of the Cyclone 40 Transceiver.
This innovative and simple transceiver by NMØS is an enhanced version of Dave’s QRP ARCI’s 72 Part Challenge Design Contest entry in 2010. This is a complete kit, including the enclosure. The price is a buck a part plus shipping, $104 total, for domestic sales. Purchasing info and more details are on the kit’s home page here http://www.4sqrp.com/cyclone.php Here are some of the design features:
. All through hole parts and easy assembly. NO SMD parts
. Less than 100 components
. Superhet receiver with very good sensitivity and selectivity
. “Perfect” QSK very high speed and absolutely seamless operation.
. VFO tunes the entire 125 kHZ CW segment of the 40M band at a comfortable
tuning rate.
. Transmitter output is nominally 4W. Those built so far are running ~ 4.6W
. Frequency readout is included so you know where you are at all times.
. A very attractive PCB enclosure is included, asy to assemble, looks great.
. All parts are included, jacks, knobs, enclosure, transformers, everything.
This is a complete kit, including a black enclosure with white silkscreened
labels.
We hope you enjoy this high performance transceiver.”
Looks like the Four States Group have come up with another winner. And at the rate these guys are coming out with kits, we’re going to have to change that famous advertising slogan to: “Like a good neighbor …. Four States is there!”
On a side note, this weekend turned out to be even busier than I had first imagined. Other than my accomplishments of Friday evening, and an 8 minute QSO with Bob W3BBO on 40 Meters on Saturday afternoon to give a listen to his new HF2V antenna, I was not able to squeeze in any on air time at all. And that QSO with Bob was a bit disappointing as QSB was so deep that it made our QSO more of an adventure than either of us would have liked. Of course, now that I do have time this Sunday evening, we have thunderstorms off the horizon. So for safety’s sake, instead of getting on the air, I have disconnected the antennas. The past four days have seen 90F (32C) plus temperatures, for the first real bonafide heatwave of 2013. According to the weather folks, the coming storms will break the heatwave, but will also have the potential for a lot of lightning, heavy downpours and gusty winds.
Ahh summer, you gotta love it!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Museum Ships Weekend
I am a big fan of the men and women who make up our Armed Forces. They’ve gone above and beyond for our country so many times – from 1776 right up to the present day. This weekend a really cool super special event is taking place to honor the men and women who have served in the respective navies of all of our countries and the ships that they have served on.
Thanks to the Battleship New Jersey Amateur Radio Station, this weekend has been organized and dedicated as Museum Ships Weekend. 106 restored military ships from around the world, which now serve as museums will be on the air this weekend.
72 de Larry W2LJ
Addendum – I got on the air for a bit tonight and worked seven stations commemorating various ships, some of which are sunk and some of which are museums. Unfortunately, the minority were found to be operating CW, so I had to resort to picking up that little black thingy – I think it’s called a microphone? Anyway, the ships I worked tonight were:
I also worked K1USN, but they’re not on the list of participating ships. So I am just under the halfway point towards earning a certificate.
Busy Day
Beautiful day again here in New Jersey – but extremely busy! Lots of chores, lots of running around and I didn’t get everything accomplished that I wanted to. But even at the end of a busy day, it’s nice to step back, take a breath and spend a few minutes engaged in “The World’s Greatest Hobby”.
This was nice as it ended up being an actual QSO. As it turns out, it ended up being a K3 to K3 QSO! I was at 5 Watts and Mario was at 100 Watts. We gave each other 579 reports. I was on the Butternut while Mario was on his Hy Gain vertical – so it was a K3/vertical to K3/vertical QSO. We exchanged weather information as a matter of course; and again, I was surprised that New Jersey was just a bit warmer than Pesaro. Of course, I’m the typical American who assumes it’s always warmer on the Mediterranean than it is here!
Special events
HF propagation conditions have not been great today. There was not much happening on 15m at all.
