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Yesterday was a day spent working from home – as much as I could via my company issued laptop. We received about 14 inches of snow.

I am back at the office today and am looking forward to the upcoming three day weekend.  There’s lots of Amateur Radio stuff to look forward to.

1) This weekend is the big ARRL CW DX contest.

2) This weekend is the monthly Polar Bear Moonlight Madness Event

3) This is the weekend my KXPA100 gets built and put online.

I am NOT looking forward to another 2-4″ of snow tomorrow, along with the necessary snow removal chores. BUT Spring is closer than farther away at this point, so you have to keep your eyes on the prize.

I did manage to get on the air last night for the 80 Meter QRP Fox Hunt and bagged both Foxes – Dave N1IX in NH and Rick NK9G in WI.  I was able to get on between bouts of thundersnow.  Yes, that’s right – thundersnow.  As the big Nor’Easter rotated around, the rain that had started falling changed back to snow as the low pressure system started siphoning cold air.  The warmer/colder air mix started a little battle which generated a few instances of lightning and thunder during a snow event.  Not common, but not the rarest, either.

I do have to admit that I was spoiled rotten by the last few years of drier, milder Winters that we have been experiencing. This year, we have made up for that in spades, and I am more ready for Spring than I have been in a while!

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

The annual Freeze Your Butt Off contest, which is sponsored by the Arizona ScQRPions is this Saturday.  QRPers are very familiar with this Wintertime outdoor QRP operating event.  The lower the temperature at your operating position, the higher your multiplier, and hence, the higher your score. Your reward for braving the outdoors during the coldness and enduring the misery.

For the last three weeks in New Jersey, I think it has gone above the freezing mark of 32F (0C), maybe once. We have been in the deep freeze for a while now. So what’s the forecast for FYBO day?  Rain and 45F (7C).  Compared to the last three weeks, it’s going to feel like Springtime!  Of course, there’s no multiplier given for enduring wet, sloppy conditions.  So if it’s pouring, I guess I’ll give it a go from indoors, and save my KX3 from making like a duck.

I guess I should keep my mouth shut and not complain, but couldn’t the thaw come the day AFTER the FYBO Sprint?  I’m just a giver of points, but it would be nice to have the bigger multiplier so I could at least halfway compete with the Big Boys!  😉

I took the plunge and ordered the Begali Simplex Mono tonight with the palladium base, and the gold contacts (30 Euros extra).  I did not get the key engraved with my callsign. I was tempted, but I wanted to keep the price down as much as I could.  I figured that going with the gold contacts was the better option for more reliable keying.  Function over form, I guess. I am really excited now and am looking forward to finally having a Begali key.  This is something I have wanted for a long time, but could never bring myself to actually purchase until now.

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

As with most of the USA, this Winter of 2013/2014 sure has been a rough one! The cold snaps have been harsh and long lasting. And this has been causing the snow that we have gotten to stick around longer than usual for this area. Pardon the pun, but this Winter has been about 180 degrees different from last year, when we had only one minor snowfall. And for the most part, last Winter was downright balmy!

The extra cold weather has been kind of keeping me out of my basement shack. Thanks to our efficient gas furnace, all the heat goes to the upper floors, while the basement remains chilly. When the outside temperatures approach the single digits, my shack thermometer registers about 55F (13C), definitely not the most comfortable.  Even with wearing a long sleeved T-shirt, a polo, AND a sweatshirt, I get to the point where my hands get cold and sending without errors becomes a chore.

Thanks to all of you who have been sending comments and emails with regard to my quest for a single lever paddle. I am still leading towards the Begali, but looking at some other manufacturers has been fun. It seems I always hesitate before making a purchase like this, as I am not used to spending money on myself. Plus the fact that I’m concerned about the cost of all the natural gas I’m burning this heating season, I have to double and triple think purchases like this.

The QRP Fox Hunt season enters the second half tonight. With the two pelts I nabbed on 40 Meters tonight, I have 16 pelts in 22 hunts for a .727 batting average. In the 80 Meter hunts, I have snared 13 out of 16 possible pelts for a .8125 batting average. Thanks to good propagation and the excellent ears of our Foxes, I am having one of the best seasons I have had in a while.

The last good news that I have for the night is that Jim W4QO posted on the North Georgia QRP Group email reflector that he has successfully worked Amsterdam Island FT5ZM with QRP, not once – but twice! Since Jim is a fellow Eastern Seaborder, that gives me hope. Amsterdam Island is close to 10,000 miles away from New Jersey, so that’s a long haul by any standard. Right there, that puts you close to 2,000 miles per Watt. With my dinky antenna farm, I am sure that if I work them at all, it will be during the second half of their stay on the Island. I read somewhere that if all goes well, the DXpedition will remain in place until about February 20th. So that gives me some time, and I will do my best to get them in the log.

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

Like a lot of you in other places, we’ve been on a bit of a temperature roller coaster lately.  Last weekend, after Christmas, it was up in the mid 50s (12C) here in New Jersey. This weekend, after New Year, we went as low as -3F (-19C) and our high for the day on Saturday was about 20F (-6C). That was just two days ago.

This morning, when I drove into work, it was 54F (12C).  Now, after lunch, it is 38F (3C) and the temperature continues to free fall.  By the time I leave to go home, I am sure that the temperature will be somewhere around the mid-20s (-4C).  And over the next 24 hours, we’re supposed to get some of the coldest weather we’ve had here in over 20 years.  The temperatures are expected to go below 0F (-17C) at night again, but this time with wind chills way lower than that. Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be only somewhere around 11F (-11C).  But then, later towards the upcoming weekend, it’s supposed to warm up again to more like springtime temperatures.

Stop the roller coaster, I want to get off!  I am NOT a big fan of the cold, but I sure wish that it would already stay one way or the other for a while.  It’s winter time, so even though I don’t like it, I can deal with the cold for a bit.  This teasing of Spring, and then the plunge back into the deep freeze is just cruel.

On a radio note, I was looking at the solar conditions yesterday and I was licking my lips.  High SFI, a goodly number of sun spots and low A and K values. Having some free time for a change,  I got on the air, expecting to hear a lot, and for a while I thought ALL my antennas were on the fritz!  Nothing much heard yesterday, and nothing much worked.  What a let down.  At first I thought maybe everyone was working the ARRL RTTY Roundup, but even RTTY signals seemed sparse to me.  In a major RTTY contest, we often get interlopers all the way down to the lowest of the low part of the bands. Yesterday, all the RTTY stations that I heard seemed to be staying way above the .060, QRP Watering Hole areas.

Maybe all the RF is freezing from the cold air and is just dropping out of the sky.

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

always seems to be conducted when weather is less than optimal for such things.

You may remember me telling how I had to temporarily re-hang my 88′ EDZ wire last Saturday. Just a week ago, we were enjoying weather in the low 50s (11C), it was a good day to perform that task.  But then during the week, I noticed it wasn’t working right and seemed to be deaf.  I thought initially that there was a short in the PL-259 connector.  I changed that out and it made no difference.  I suspected a fault maybe a bit farther back in the coax, as feedlines always seem to be a probem, but then I thought – what if the problem is with the window line and not the coax?

So today, I headed outside and this weekend, the weather is quite a bit colder than last. In fact, it’s quite the opposite of last weekend. Last night we had a low of -3F (-20C) and today’s high was about 20F (-6C), so where did I find myself?  Of course, in the back yard, freezing in the new fallen snow, inspecting my antenna to see where the fault might lay. And since I work better without gloves, that just added to the pleasure!

Fortunately, the fault was found quickly and it was an easy fix.  When I was re-hoisting the antenna, the window line must have flexed and stressed badly at the BALUN terminals, and on one side, the wire had snapped.  It proved to be a simple matter of loosening the screw, removing the old tiny bit of wire, stripping back a bit more of the insulation on that side of the window line and re-screwing the bare wire back down in place.  I needed tools no more sophisticated than the Swiss Army Knife that I always carry.  (You can’t work for a Swiss firm for 22 years of your life and NOT carry a Swiss Army Knife with you wherever you go.)

I went to my basement shack, where it’s a balmy 58F (15C) and was delighted to see the KX3 deliver a match in literally, just a couple of seconds.  My preferred wire is now back in action and I am quite a happy camper.  Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that my temporary support line will hold for the rest of the winter!

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

As the old joke goes …….

First, a little background.  We have put up a baby gate in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room since Harold, our Beagle, came to live with us.  Even though he has passed the one year mark, he still has a lot of puppy in him.  By that, I mean to say that he chews ….. a lot!  He has the run of the back yard, the family room and the kitchen.  The living room and the rest of the house will become available to him as he grows older and becomes less of a chewer.  In Jesse’s case, that came around about his second birthday, so I am expecting that Harold will become calmer as October 2014 approaches.

Anyway, earlier this week, I was taking dinner plates from the kitchen to the dining room, and I snagged my right leg on the baby gate.  I mildly twisted it, but really didn’t feel anything at the time.  The next day it was fine. Two days later? Whoa, Baby!  My knee was sore, then that got better, then my hamstring was sore and that got better, and now my calf is the sore spot.  I sure don’t heal like I used to when I was younger! I gave in and bought a heating pad on Thursday on my way home from work.  That has helped a lot and today has been the first day since Christmas Eve that I have been walking without a noticeable limp.

I had planned to spend today on my fanny and not do much of anything – just rest the muscles in my right leg and apply some heat on and off throughout the day.  Then this afternoon, my little eye spied out the rec room window and I saw the wire from my 88 foot EDZ was all kinds of droopy.  What the hey?!?

I went outside to discover that the Dacron antenna rope holding up the center insulator had broken.  The antenna was still in the tree, but had dropped about 10 feet.  Not a good thing, especially as I am scheduled for 40 Meter QRP Fox duty this coming Tuesday night – New Year’s Eve. It seems you can always expect trouble when you least expect it.

The weather was nice here today – sunny and in the low 50’s (about 11C), so I began looking for my antenna stuff.  I found the pneumatic launcher, and the mason’s twine that I use to pull up rope – but where’s my Dacron antenna rope?  I searched the shack high and low for almost a half hour and couldn’t locate it.  I know it’s hiding somewhere here in plain sight – but I still can’t find it.  All I was able to locate was some Nylon rope that I use for tying various things.  This rope is not ideal for antennas as it stretches over time, but with daylight starting to wane, it’s any port in a storm.

After one or two failed attempts, I got my line through the tree.  The pneumatic launcher worked like a charm.  One time I forgot to open the bale on the fishing reel, so the projectile launched just fine, but the fishing line broke and stayed put, while the little projectile soared like an eagle.  Once I remembered all the steps, I got the line up and through how I wanted it.

At this point, I have to give big kudos to my son, Joey.  He gave me a hand with this project today, and if it weren’t for him, this repair job would definitely have taken longer, and perhaps have not been accomplished at all.  Thanks, Joey – I owe you a big one!

So my 88′ EDZ is now back in the air, with temporary rope support, a few feet higher than it was.  I will have to purchase some bonafide Dacron antenna rope (if I can’t find what I thought I had) and re-do this some weekend in the near future. Of course, all the weekends from here on out until April with probably be sub-freezing and snowy!

I did get on the air tonight to hand out points to the Stew Perry contesters on 160 Meters. The W3EDP loads just fine on 160 Meters and with 5 Watts, I have been working up and down the East Coast and out towards Ohio and Michigan.  Not bad for 5 Watts and about what I expected from last year’s contest.

But I think I’ll head upstairs now and apply some more heat to this old, aching calf muscle. And to think how I used to chuckle when my Mom used to tell me, “Don’t get old!”

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

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: