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But it’s been a heckuva week.  Not any Ham radio activity or blogging for W2LJ this past week as my Mom was in the hospital and that was my main focus.

She was having a lot of pain in her right side and it finally got to be too much for her to take. My sister texted me very early Tuesday morning that she was with our Mom and had called 911.  I didn’t go into work that day; and spent most of it in the Emergency Room.  First thoughts were either gall bladder or kidney stones.  All the sophisticated tests didn’t reveal too much of anything.  A thorough “old fashioned” exam by an “old school” Chinese doctor led to a hunch and another X-ray revealed a slight fracture to a rib.

Today my Mom was sprung from the hospital and is currently staying at my sister’s house and should be there for the next few weeks to a month.  She’s looking rested and more relaxed now that she knows what was causing the pain.  I think that finding out the cause of something like this is more than half the battle.  Once you can get a little peace of mind, the rest can fall into place.

I did get a chance to get back on the radio for a bit this afternoon to find not much going on. 10, 12, 15 and 17 Meters were all dead when I listened this afternoon.  I finally worked EA3DD, Manuel on 20 Meters for a brief QSO. He was very loud – 599 into NJ and I was graced with a 549 report back.  I’ll take that any day.

Oh, even though it seems that 2011/2012 will be known as the “Winter That Never Was” here in the NorthEast (I saw robins this morning and the crocusses are already popping up in the front yard), here’s K6BBQ’s homage to FYBO:

Hey, according to the KX3 reflector – the Operator’s Manual will be released on Monday at the Elecraft Website!  Getting closer!

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

Introduction:

• Only 317 days until the end of the world as we know it!

Announcements:

• The Black Sparrow Media application for iPad, iPhone and iPod has been submitted to the iTunes store. It is just awaiting validation from Apple, which may take up to two weeks. We’ll let everyone know when it’s available.
• Special Event Station W0S (Whiskey Zero Sierra) will be operating from the Titanic Branson Museum from April 13-15, 2012, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. Russ, K5TUX, will be operating the station at some point.

Feedback:

• Scott, AD7MI, asks for help linking APRS and his his Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station with Xastir. Our hosts suggest trying one or both of these:
  • Meteo – Davis weather station platform software for Linux. You can subscribe to the Meteo mailing list by sending a subscription request to [email protected]. It has been several years since Meteo was updated, and is still not at version 1.0. You must download the .tar file from the web site as it does not appear in the distribution repositories.
  • wview- Cross-platform weather station software. It does need an internet connection if you are going to contribute information to various weather sites, such as:
    • Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP)
    • Weather Underground
    • Weather For You
    • awekas

    This program is under active development. Even if it requires a work-around to perform as you wish, it may be worth the trouble. If you’ve ever configured a Linksys router, the web interface of wview looks a lot like that. wview has a support site via Google Groups at http://groups.google.com/group/wview.

Let us know how you get on, Scott!

We received a donation from Bill H. Thanks, Big Poppa!

Contact Info:

• Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
• Leave us a voice mail at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (1-909-547-7469), or record an introduction to the podcast.
• Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
• Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
• LHS merchandise is available at the Merch link on Web site. Check out the Badgerwear or buy one of the other LHS-branded items at PrintFection.com/lhs or Cafe Press. Thanks!
• Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

• To be added.

Now this is REALLY Freeze Your Buns Off / Polar Bear Moonlight Madness !!!

QRP’ers – are we dedicated or just plain crazy?

Gatineau Park and the Wolf Trail sure look beautiful!  Thanks Martin, for sharing, you have shown us the quintessential FYBO / PBMME effort.

FYI, the HK0NA DXpedition ended today.  Thanks to the crew and its supporters for their efforts.  I got them exactly once and that’s plenty for me.  According to the Team, even after 190,000 +++ QSOs, the pileups were still very deep.  Hope all of you were lucky enough to have worked them, if you were trying.

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

FYBO was fun today.  No big effort as there were way too many other things going on that vied for my attention.  In between chores and duties, I was able to get out to the driveway, where I had the PFR3A on a battery in the back of my Jeep.  The antenna was the Buddistick on the magmount on the top of the roof.  Kudos to Bob W3BBO for suggesting this setup – it worked great!  The car body acts as a much better counterpoise/ground plane than the single wire and using the magmount eliminates the need for mast and guying.  So if you’re not hiking – this is a great way to use a Buddistick.

It ends up being much taller than a standard Hamstick (definitely not drivable), but the SWR was very nice and I was able to use the PFR3As internal tuner to even get that ironed out flat.

First QSO of the day was with Hank N8XX operating as “Amigo” with the WQ8RP callsign.  In all, I made 11 contacts in between grocery shopping, baking some bread for my daughter’s choir bake sale, etc, etc, etc.

Here’s a better look at the antenna.

On 40 Meters, I undid the tap and extended the whip all the way.  That gave me about a 1.4:1 SWR.  I only made one contact on 40 Meters and that was with Mark NK8Q in Pennsylvania.  He was using only 1 Watt and almost blew the ear buds out of my ears.  I don’t think I have ever heard 1 Watt as a 599 Plus before today.

The temperature was 45F when I started, so for simplicity sake, I used that throughout, even though I think it started dropping for my last couple of QSOs.  I think the lowest temperature that was reported to me was 32F and the highest was 76F.

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

I really thought my MOCAD streak for 2012 was going to come to an end.

Last night, I could not participate in the 40 Meter QRP-L Fox hunt due to rally bad local QRN.  80 Meters was like a desolate, deserted island.  No QRN; but no signals either.  Checking the Reverse Beacon Network, my CQs were being heard all up and down the Eastern Seaboard. There were just no takers.

Fortunately, I was able to get on this morning between dropping off Joey and Cara at school and leaving for work.  I heard Eduardo CO8LY on 17 meters calling “CQ DX” and gave him a call.  I got an answer, so Eduardo in the log (for the umpteenth time, probably) and the streak lives another day.

And if I didn’t make any contacts, it would have been a disappointment – BUT ….. the world will still have kept on turning, the sun still shining, the bunnies and birdies would still be dancing on the lawn.  In the grand scheme of Things, this miniscule streak means nothing.  But human nature being what it is ……..

Tomorrow is FYBO.  I hope to get on for an hour or two in the afternoon. The forecast is for partly cloudy skies and a high in the low to mid 40s.  I will be using the PFR3A and the Buddistick on the magmount on top of the Jeep.  Not a true mobile set up as there’s NO WAY that I would drive around with that antenna on my car.  First underpass I tried to navigate would be a disaster! I will be restricted to 20 and 40 Meters as that’s what the PFR3A has.  If 15 Meters is way open and all the action is there, it looks like I will be SOL.  But if that’s the case, then them’s the breaks.

The other thing I want to do this weekend, if I get the time, is to play around with a new acquisition.  Through my good friend Bob W3BBO, I was able to get my mitts on a “pre-owned” MFJ-1026 unit. I would like to hook that up see if it helps give the knock out punch to this local QRN.  I will have to utilize the K2’s two antenna connectors now as one for transmitting and the other for listening.  According to the 1026 unit’s instructions, you really shouldn’t use it with a rig that has a built in autotuner.  But, if I use “A” to listen with and “B” to transmit with, I should be OK.  Just have to be careful and pay attention to what I am doing.

Good luck to all the QRPers who will be participating in FYBO. Hope to hear and work you tomorrow.

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

This was the scene that greeted me when I looked outside this morning! Nothing to what folks in the USA get, of course. But considering that it used to be unusual to have any snow at all during the winter here in West Cumbria it’s still noteworthy.

I hope we don’t get any more, though. Apart from the hassle factor of slushy slippery pavements, a thick layer of snow on the roof won’t help my attic antennas to get out.

With the news of Hurricane Irene, a Category 3 storm, moving into a category 4, Greg, G0DUB, reminds us on the IARU Region 1 website, that hurricane watch frequencies are active and gathering info on the storms. These are used by Hams in North and Central America for tracking and deal with the storms and reminds us about creating QRM near these frequencies.

Photo Courtesy of NASA

• 14.300MHz is used by the Maritime Mobile Service Net daily for gathering info on weather reports from Maritime Mobiles for forecasters as well as handle traffic from these Maritime mobiles.
• 14.325MHz is for the Hurricane Watch Net which is established whenever a storm could come into contact with the U.S. mainland. They also gather info for the National Hurricane Center.
• 14.265MHz is the frequency for the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network which handles health and welfare traffic for those affected in a disaster area as well as disaster relief response should a hurricane hit.

From the Southgate ARC website, here are some of the other frequencies to keep in mind as well:

Frequencies used in Cuba: 7.045, 7.080, 7.110 MHz, 3.740 MHz

Frequencies used in Central America;
Red Centro Americana : 7.090 and 3.750MHz
Guatemala: 7.075 MHz
Nicaragua: 7.098 MHz

Mexico (FMRE): 3.690 and 7.060 MHz

Also keep in mind local frequencies if it is an area where the hurricane may hit. Simplex as well as repeater. If you are in an area where Irene may hit, I wish you luck in getting through this. I know I’ll be watching and listening.

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday on AmiZed Studios.