That was fun!

I did get on the air and joined in on the NAQCC Sprint last night. it's been a long time - too long; and I had a lot of fun. I stayed up later than I had planned as I was having so much fun! It took me a while to fall asleep as I got wired (as I feared), but it was worth it.

I started off on 20 Meters, where I worked four stations. Conditions on 20 were tough! Signals were way down in the mud for me. The EFRW was extra noisy for some reason, so I switched over to the HF9V. By far the loudest station on 20 Meters was N9EEE. I really had to strain my ear to hear the other three that I worked.

40 Meters on the other hand, was THE band for the night!  I switched back to the EFRW where my signal was even skimmed in Spain! I worked 23 stations on 40 Meters and I pretty much stayed on 7.038 MHz, running the frequency.  I worked a lot of old friends and made some new ones.  The lowest member number that I heard all night was John K4BAI, NAQCC # 644. I wonder how may people may have been taken aback with my NAQCC # 35!

When 40 Meters dried up for me, I switched over to 80 Meters and called "CQ NA" for a bit, but had no takers. It was 10:00 PM or 02:00 UTC at that point and I decided to pull the plug. My wake up call for work comes around too quickly at 5:00 AM, so I figured I'd better at least make an effort to fall asleep. i think I drifted off somewhere around Midnight.

It was great to hear so much activity! There's nothing worse than jumping into a Sprint only to be calling "CQ" continuously with no takers, or twiddling the dial and finding no one else calling "CQ", either. That's what makes you never want to bother again.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

NAQCC Sprint tonight.

 And I'll be participating - maybe, probably, not definitely, but most likely.

I need to get on the air more and as I mentioned forcing myself to stay up a bit later helps me sleep through the night. By the same token, though, I most likely won't participate for the entire two hours because, conversely, I'll become too wired up and will be unable to fall asleep. I learned that from the QRP Fox Hunts.

I need to step up my game and join in on more of these events. Form what I understand, the NAQCC Sprints always seem to get a lot of participation.  It's a popular group, and from what I've been told, there are prizes and give aways as the organization gets a lot of donations. 

Other Sprints are not as fortunate. As I stated in the post announcing the QRP-ARCI Spring QSO Party, there were only 16 scores submitted in 2024. For an organization so large, that's kind of pitiful. In the 4 States QRP Group e-mail reflector, I read where they only  had about 4 participants in their Second Sunday Sprint last month. Wow! I am going to have to jump in and start participating in those, as well, to try and help drive up activity there.

I have not jumped into an ARS Spartan Sprint in a long time, either. I don't know what participation is like in those, but when I used to show up, there was always a decent amount of activity. 

Events such as these used to be very popular and were always hives of a lot of activity. Those salad days seem to be gone. I wonder why. I suppose that It might be that the demographic of the participants has changed - i.e older Hams with a lot of them having become SKs. Probably a lot less CW ops as well, but I always held the premise that most QRPers are decent CW ops. Maybe it's just a lack of notices and advertising. 

As the newly volunteer QRP-ARCI Contest Manager and of course the manager of the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt, if participation declines, it won't be for lack of publicity. I hope to keep all these events in the limelight and it is my fondest hope that participation increases as a result.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

QRP Labs QMX SSB Beta release

 You can now add SSB to your QMX or QMX+ via a beta firmware update released yesterday by QRP Labs.

For all the details, please go to https://qrp-labs.com/qmxp/ssbbeta

Personally, I'll pass; but I'm sure there's a lot of you who have been patiently waiting for this.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Whew!

I managed to get the 2024 Skeeter Hunt Scoreboard back online yesterday. It took me longer than I thought it would, but it's done and back up. You can either go to the Skeeter Hunt Webpage or the Skeeter Hunt page of this blog and the links will get you there.

In a way, it's a good thing this happened, as it's compelling me to get the certificates out for the 2024 Hunt. These stupid healthcare problems really have thrown me for a loop since last September. I apologize for the delay. I've also given the bonus for 2025 more thought and we're going to play Skeeter Blackjack. Work enough stations to have their call sign districts add up to 21 and you'll get the bonus points. The 0 area call signs will count as a face card worth 10 points.

For example, if you work N0MII NK9G and W2LJ - that 10 + 9 +2, equaling 21.. You could also work, for instance K4BAI, N5GW, K3RLL and WB9HFK and that would also add up to 21. Any number of call signs would work, even if you ended up working ten 2 area call signs and one 1 area call sign! Whatever it takes - I think this is a pretty easy concept to understand and should be fairly easy to accomplish. Of course, as part of the Log Summary, each entry will have to list the call signs worked to prove that they are eligible for the bonus points.

I also decided to participate in the Flying Pigs Run for the Bacon last night. It actually got up into the low 70s yesterday and the basement was comfortable enough to sit in without turning on the space heater. Beginning at 23:00 UTC, I started calling "CQ FP" on 20 Meters and worked a couple of stations. After a while, I switched over to "hunt and pounce" and after more than just a few dial twiddles, I heard no one and moved on down to 40 Meters.

40 Meters was wall to wall Virginia QSO Party stations and I only heard one solitary Piggie calling CQ around 7.030 MHz and worked him. Then, as it was getting close to 00:00 UTC, I went and checked into the St. Max Net at around 23:50 UTC. A lot of stations participated last night and at about 00:25 UTC, when the net closed, I went back to the lower part of 40 Meters to see if I could work a few more FP's. No dice, this time it was wall to wall SST stations. It was nice to be on the air, but at the same time a bit disappointing to work only three Flying Pigs. According to the RBN, I was getting out really well last night. Orange is 40 Meters, Purple is 20 Meters - and a vast majority of my signals were being heard at double digit dB levels above the noise floor.

Wednesday night is the monthly NAQCC Sprint. I am planning to participate in that for the first time in a very long time. I've been having trouble sleeping of late. I think I've been turning in too early as I fall asleep fairly quickly, but wake up around 2:00 AM and then I'm not able to fall back asleep for another hour or so. After the Flying Pigs Sprint last night, I went to sleep a bit later than I'm used to as of late and pretty much slept the whole night through. So once more, it's Amateur Radio to the rescue!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Mark your calendars!

Save the date! It's not too early to plan to carve out some time for yourself during the weekend of April 12th. That's the date of the QRP-ARCI Spring QSO Party!

It's a 6 hour Sprint, that begins at 0000 UTC Saturday morning on April 12th (that would be Friday evening April 11th here in the USA). Of course, put in whatever time you can, but please make an effort to get on the air and participate, even if it's just for a little while! Last year in 2024, we had 16 QRPers send in a log to the Autolog at https://www.qrpcontest.com/qrparci_spring/

You do NOT have to be a member of QRP-ARCI to participate, but keep in mind that QRP-ARCI literally has thousands of members - certainly we can easily surpass the number of 2024 entries with ease! As an added bonus we're at the top of Cycle 25! So if you're a regular participant, thanks so much and join us again! If you haven't been in a QRP-ARCI Sprint in a while (or ever!), dust off that rig, fire it up and join in on the fun!

Rumor has it that certificates may be in the offering for the top scorers!

72 de Larry W2LJ - QRP-ARCI Contest Manager

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Weekend 3/15 & 3/16

Looks like we're heading into a rainy weekend in my part of the woods. Now that it's getting warmer, I'm hoping to spend a bit of time during the weekends down the street, at the PAL parking lot, putting the Washington-Rochambeau Trail on the air, as that's where it's located. Maybe not this weekend if the skies are weeping. But maybe, just maybe, I can eventually earn a Kilo Award by getting 1,000 contacts from there? Time will tell.

This is what you can expect to hear on the bands this weekend:

Contests (again, even if you're not participating, this is what you can expect to hear) - Going forward, dedicated QRP Sprints/Events will be highlighted in red:

BARTG HF RTTY Contest:  http://www.bartg.org.uk/

Popov Memorial Contest:   https://www.contest.ru/memorial-popov-eng/

Russian DX Contest:   https://www.rdxc.org/rules_eng

Virginia QSO Party:   https://www.qsl.net/sterling/VA_QSO_Party/2025_VQP/2025_VQP_Main.html

AWA John Rollins Memorial DX Contest - https://www.antiquewireless.org/homepage/event-details-for-rollins-dx-event/

Run for the Bacon QRP Contest -  http://qrpcontest.com/pigrun/

K1USN Slow Speed Test - http://www.k1usn.com/sst.html

This coming Wednesday Night 3/19 (Thursday Morning UTC)

NAQCC Monthly Sprint - https://www.naqcc.info/sprint_rules.html

Walk for the Bacon QRP Contest (20 Meters) - https://qrpcontest.com/pigwalk20/

Special Event Stations:

03/14/2025 | PI Day - David Sarnoff Radio Club, Princeton, NJ

Mar 14-Mar 15, 1800Z-0100Z, N3P, Princeton, NJ. David Sarnoff Radio Club. 14.031 14.314 7.031 7.227 . QSL. Don Corrington, AK2S, 7 Pinewald Lane, Burlington, NJ 08016-3421. n2re.org

03/15/2025 | Gulf of America Special Event

Mar 15, 1400Z-2000Z, K5K, Kingwood, TX. Texas Emergency Amateur Communicators (TEAC). 7.20 14.325 21.235 28.325. QSL. David Taylor, N5KWD, 2179 Lake Village Dr, Kingwood, TX 77339. Celebrating the renaming of the Gulf of America, from Galveston Island State Park on the Gulf of America. Special Event + POTA + IOTA. QSL and SASE to N5KWD for commemorative QSL card. teac.net

03/15/2025 | Solivita Car Show

Mar 15, 1300Z-1900Z, N4SRC, Kissimmee, FL. Solivita Radio Club. 18.124 24.980 14.074 21.074. QSL. Solivita Radio Club, 307 Bell Tower Crossing West, Kissimmee, FL 34759. FT8 on all frequencies (10 through 40 meters). Frequencies may change. See website for updates. https://solivitaradioclub.weebly.com

With Monday being St. Patrick's Day, I'm kind of surprised to see no Special Event Stations on the air for that. St. Patrick's Day and Ireland and the Irish hold a special place with me as my dear departed Mother-In-Law was born and raised in Donegal, Ireland before she and one brother emigrated to the US back in the late 40's (I think it was). Nora and Harry were the only ones to come here out of about 8 or 9 siblings,

I think I've told this story before, but in honor of the day, I'll tell it again. I always get a chuckle when I think about it. When Marianne and I first started dating, it was a little bit before she took me to her home to meet her parents. As any young suitor would be, I was a bit nervous, but upon meeting my future in-laws things seemed to go warmly and exceedingly well. The conversation drifted to things about me, as they wanted to get to know me better and that's when I mentioned that my main hobby was Amateur Radio.

My future M-I-L gave me a look like I was Medusa and I had 1,000 snakes growing out of my head. After a bit of awkward quiet, we got past that and had a wonderful dinner and evening together. My Father-In-Law, who was a petrochemical engineer seemed genuinely intrigued and asked me a lot of questions about the hobby and the various contacts that I had made, particularly the DX ones. Later, as I was driving Marianne back to her apartment, I asked her what that was all about.

It turned out that one of her uncles back near Donegal was a Ham - and no, I never found out what his call sign was. I was told that he had a tower and Yagi attached to his house. One day, during a particularly bad thunderstorm, his tower took a direct lightning strike and there was significant damage to the house.

That's all my M-I-L knew about Amateur Radio. Lightning and damage to the house. That was why I got the stare that I received. I later assured them both that I was licensed for over 20 years at the time and that I never had a tower and I always took the utmost precautions to prevent anything like that happening to me. I doubt that swayed her misgivings any, but I never heard anything about it again.

Nora (she was always "Mom" to me) actually came to live with us for a time after my Father-In-Law, Joe, or "Dad" as I always called him, had passed away. She had broken her hip and couldn't live alone on her own anymore. She eventually moved to a Senior Assisted Living Facility near us until she too, passed away. I'll always wonder if that was because she just craved a bit more independence, or if she just wanted to be away from my vertical and wire antennas!

Anyway, in any event

May the road rise up to meet you, 

May the wind be always at your back, 

May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Ouchie, Mama!

I received an e-mail a couple of weeks ago informing me that the link to the 2024 Skeeter Hunt scoreboard was no longer working. I went to the Webpage, clicked on the link and sure enough, it wasn't working!

I immediately went to my Google Drive to find that the spreadsheet was no longer there. I sure as heck don't remember going there and deleting it! Maybe I did, accidentally, but I seriously doubt that I did.  What the heck, Google?!? All the other spreadsheets are still there, only 2024 is missing, so I guess I must have stupidly done something I shouldn't have.

The good thing is that I still have all the results e-mails saved, so like the Six Million Dollar Man, "We can rebuild it." I don't have too much planned for this weekend, so that's what I hope to do. It's only about 150 scores or so, it shouldn't take me forever.

What I do plan to do, however, is to take a run to Target and purchase a thumb drive dedicated solely to Skeeter Hunt spreadsheets and other Skeeter Hunt data, so that I have a back up of what's existing in the cloud. I don't ever want this to happen again. And should the day ever come that I am not able to run the Skeeter Hunt anymore, all the data can be trusted to whomever might volunteer to take it over. (Hard lesson learned from FOBB and the circumstances related to Rich Fisher KI6SN).

Now don't get all panicky on me! I'm not saying that anything is going to happen to me, but I want to make sure the Skeeter Hunt will be around long after I am not - some day very far, far away into the future.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Readers

Sorry that I have not been posting much lately, as I've been dealing with some personal health issues. But I received some good news lately (I think) and I thought I'd share. On Friday February 28th, I went to the hospital for a same day procedure - a transesophageal  echocardiogram (Oh, what fun!). The cardiologists wanted a closer look at my heart than the standard echocardiogram provided. Anyway, I was told my mitral valve leak is considered "trivial", so I'm pretty sure that's good news. Looks like I won't be needing that clip installed after all!

I go for a follow up visit this Wednesday, and I guess I'll hear more about whether or not they think I need a defibrillator installed as I have an irregular heartbeat. Good thing I'm a QRP'er, huh?

The weather is starting to turn warmer here in Central NJ and the shack is warming up from the deep freeze we've had this Winter, so I'll be able to spend time down there without turning on the space heater. As it happens, PSE&G, our energy provider, was granted a rate increase by the NJ Board of Public Utilities. Our January bill was a shocker with a hefty increase, so I don't want to plug that heater in unless it's absolutely necessary!

Now onto Amateur Radio stuff. I received an e-mail from a Mom whose son is working on his Signs, Signals and Code Merit Badge and they actually found some of the content here useful! That just blew me away! I am so glad that someone was able to find something here to be of value! Thanks so much Annie and Kyle!

And if that wasn't enough, Kyle came upon a website that goes into the timeline of the evolution of telecommunications, from ancient times, right up to our present day satellite and wireless cellular technologies. www.ooma.com/blog/telegraphs-phones-mobile-devices-telecommunications-timeline/  I am adding that to the links portion so you can all enjoy it as well. Again, thanks so much  Annie and Kyle, not only for the link, but also for your very kinds words!

This blog is my labor of love for Amateur Radio, QRP and Morse Code. I don't monetize it, it just makes me happy to share my passion with like minded folks. I'm thrilled when someone finds something useful that I post - it's really gratifying. As always, thanks so much to all of you who come here to read this humble little blog. There's really no point to it without you! 

So as I get back into the swing of things and start getting more active again, I'll be posting more and more. Believe me, I'd rather spend time in the shack and writing posts here than concentrating on health issues. But as my dear departed Mom used to say - "Larry, don't get old!" and I used to answer - "Not much I can do about that, Mom!"

72  de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

AA blessing or a curse?

I got on the air for a bit yesterday to play around on 10 Meters. It was wide open and was buzzing with ARRL DX Contest activity. I only stayed on long enough to work about a dozen foreign countries, all with 5 Watts,of course. After that, I went POTA hunting for a bit.

When the bell tolled midnight UTC, the bands once again became very, very quiet. Almost like a ghost town. The activity during the contest reminded me of my Novice days and even my early days as a General. Back then, it was very often hard to find a vacant spot on which to call CQ. It was not uncommon for there to be wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder stations occupying the bands, on an everyday basis! Not just during the weekends or during contests.

Sadly, it's not that way anymore. I'm going to post a query here that will undoubtedly be unpopular, but I have to wonder if a contributing factor may be the rise of waterfall displays, band scopes, panadapters or whatever you want to call them.

My thought process is like this. Joe Ham turns on his rig. He goes to, let's say 15 Meters. His panadapter shows flatline, no activity to speak of, so he goes to another band, or worse yet turns off the rig.

How many guys are looking at the same picture? All of them assuming there's no one out there, listening? Nobody's there that I can see, so why should I waste my time calling CQ?

Just a thought. Maybe, just maybe we were better off in the days when we would twiddle the dial hunting for someone to work, just calling CQ when we didn't hear anybody.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP- When you care to send the very least!

80 Meter Fox and the weekend

Last night was my final appearance as a Fox for this season. Whew! I pulled both a 40 and 80 Meter stint for Steve WX2S while he was busy dealing with some family issues, as well as my own two 80 Meter sessions. It was a lot, but it was fun! The jury is still out on whether or not I'll volunteer next season. Since I don't post to the K4OAQ real time maps, if I do volunteer again, I might just get turned down. Time will tell and I have a long time to think about it.

Band conditions were not the best last night. The k Index was a tad over 4 and there was ferocious QSB at times. It seemed particularly bad when I was trying to work Don K9DRP. I just could not copy his call! Veteran Ham that he is, Don took his code speed down a notch. Once he did that, his callsign lasted longer than the QSB dropout and I was able to hand him a pelt. Thanks, Don!

I noted in my comments to the Fox Hunt e-mail reflector that slowing down the code speed is something Tim KR0U does, often. When you have 5 or 6 Hounds baying at you all at the same time, a call sign sent at a slower speed really stands out. That's something that I will have to remember myself!

In all, including the two Foxes, I was able to hand out 49 pelts - just one short of my self imposed goal. I'm predicting that between John K4BAI and myself, that we were able to hand out somewhere around 120 pelts - my close to 50 and his probably around 70.

Here's the RBN map from last night:

The screen shot was taken this morning, so the grey line is wrong, but you can get an idea where the skimmers picked me up last night. I made it as far as Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming  - which this map does not indicate.

Now - onto the weekend:

Contests:

ARRL International DX Contest, CW - https://www.arrl.org/arrl-dx

Run for the Bacon QRP Contest - http://qrpcontest.com/pigrun/

FISTS Sunday Sprint - https://fistsna.org/operating.html#sprints

K1USN Slow Speed Test - http://www.k1usn.com/sst.html

Special Event Stations:

02/14/2025 | Arizona Statehood Day SES

Feb 14-Feb 15, 1500Z-0000Z, K7A, Prescott, AZ. Yavapai Amateur Radio Club. 28.313 21.313 14.313 7.213. Certificate. Mike Belanger, W1DGL, 219 W Leroux St, Apt. 202, Prescott, AZ 86303. We will be self-spotting to let you know where we are in case the above frequencies are either in use already or QRM/N is too high there. We will start on or as close to the 10m frequency listed and work from there as the day goes on. Happy 113th birthday, Arizona! www.w7yrc.org/club-station

02/15/2025 | Ice Station W0JH - Frozen Minnesota Lake Portable

Feb 15-Feb 17, 1600Z-2300Z, W0JH, Stillwater, MN. Stillwater (MN) Amateur Radio Association - SARA. 21.360 14.260 7.260 3.860. Certificate. E-certificate only, send QSL info , to, W0JHrequest@gmail.com. W0JH will operate portable from a frozen lake in Washington County, Minnesota (Grid Square EN34). In a meager attempt to drive away the remainder of Minnesota winter, the Stillwater Amateur Radio Association will be generating as much RF as possible over the President's Day weekend. (Please help us!!) Certificates will ONLY be sent via email in PDF format. (Send requests with standard QSL confirmation info to: W0JHrequest@gmail.com). There is no need to send a QSL card. www.Radioham.org

02/15/2025 | K4US - George Washington's Birthday at Mount Vernon

Feb 15-Feb 16, 1500Z-1600Z, K4US, Alexandria, VA. Mount Vernon Amateur Radio Club. 7.042 7.242 14.042 14.242. QSL. MVARC, P.O. Box 7234, Alexandria, VA 22307. MVARC will host a special event station to commemorate our first president's 293rd birthday. Members will be at the Mount Vernon greenhouse on the original grounds of the former plantation of George Washington and his wife, Martha Washington mvarc.org , K4US@mvarc.org

02/16/2025 | The White House Communications Agency Amateur Radio Club Presidents Day 2025 Commemoration

Feb 16-Feb 18, 0000Z-0000Z, W0H, Jackson, OH. White House Communications Agency Amateur Radio Club. 3.875 MHz 7.275 MHz 14.250 MHz 28.550. Certificate. Lowell Yates, 6809 Four Mile Rd, Jackson, OH 45640. The White House Communications Agency Amateur Radio Club is excited to honor all of our Presidents this Presidents Day. We would like to especially recognize the Presidents for whom the White House Communications Agency "(WHCA) has provided communications support since its founding in 1942. A WHCA-ARC Special Event certificate will be awarded to commemorate this special occasion. For more information, please visit our events page. https://whitehousecomms-arc.org/events/whca-arc-presidents-day-special-event/ https://whitehousecomms-arc.org

BTW, in relation to my post yesterday about the KX3 ........ there are already folks out there discussing what they want to see as the successor to the KH1! That rig was introduced like what? A couple of years ago? Wow!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

KX3 a dinosaur?

Wow! I was slightly taken aback reading a thread on the Elecraft AX/KX/KH1 groups.io reflector the other day. Someone was asking if there was any news about updates/upgrades to the KX3 at Orlando Hamcation.

Admittedly, I'm biased - I absolutely love my KX3 and at this point, the only way you're going to take it away from me is to pry it out of my cold dead fingers. I also admit, I'm not an EE and I'm not the tech wizard either. I also don't need to change rigs as often as I change my underwear - still, I was surprised by ....

"a new model must be designed to succeed the KX3. There are just too many things to improve, including the basic circuitry" - Really?

Another wrote "I agree primarily that the KX3 is a bit long in the tooth."

Still another wrote "Almost everyone I know who either bought a KX3 or seriously looked at a KX3 has gone with the Icom 705." Oooooh! Oooooh! Not me! Not me!

And to be balanced in this post, there were also comments from other Hams (including myself) who voiced favorable opinions about the rig. I guess I'm just old fashioned enough where I don't need a waterfall display (or bandscope, or whatever you want to call it), and just the latest and the greatest bells and whistles. I'm happy to be able to interface with the rig via buttons and dials and menus that don't dive down to the Earth's core. I like the human element - I don't need or want everything to be cyber.

Of course, everybody is entitled to their opinion, and I don't denigrate anyone for it. I was just surprised that so many KX3 owners seem to be less than satisfied with their radio. 

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Took a plunge!

An e-mail popped up on my phone today that eBay had some new listings of RigExperts antenna analyzers. I've been wanting one for a very, very long time and a pre-owned AA-30 Zoom was up for (just) under $150.

The seller, who has a high satisfaction rating, stated that it's in "very good used condition". I decided to take my chances and took the plunge. This will be so handy in setting up / tuning the Buddisitck on the magmount on top of the Jeep. 

I figured that it might be a long while before I'd see a RigExperts analyzer that was affordable, again. It may arrive at my QTH as early as Friday, but knowing my luck, it will probably be here next week. Friday would be nice because it would give me the longer President's Day weekend a chance to get familiar with it.  (Just got a shipping update - Wednesday, 2/19 - of course!)

The nice thing is that even if it does not come with documentation, I can download that from the DX Engineering website.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Did get on the iar last night

For the Saint Max Net, which was very light due to some sort of football game that was taking place in New Orleans last night. I jest, but can you imagine if the Superbowl had taken place a few weekends ago when the Big Easy had that snowfall? The game is moved to a neutral site where the weather is supposed to not be a problem, right?

Anyway, that DuraFlame space heater I purchased last year made all the difference again. It raised the temp down in the basement just enough to make it somewhat comfortable. 

We had snow and ice Saturday night into Sunday morning. just enough to be an annoyance. We have another disturbance forecasted for Tuesday into Wednesday and I hope it does not play havoc with this cardiologist appointment that I have for Wednesday afternoon. I'm looking forward to getting through this chapter and moving on.

The weather guy I follow on Facebook is calling for a continued series of snow/ice events through the month of February. That's only three weeks - the year is moving so fast, already. I am looking forward to the beginning of March and the return to Daylight Savings Time. Anything that makes the daylight last longer is fine with me. I can deal with darkness in the morning on my way to work.

I just checked the 80 Meter Fox Hunt schedule and I see that for my final stint, that I am paired up with John K4BAI on Thursday night. I'm sure that will be epic with the both of us handing out over 100 pelts. His 70 to my 30! HI!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

More updates and some thoughts

I haven't been posting much as of late, and for that I apologize to all of you who follow my exploits. This heart issue has kept me pre-occupied. It's not as dire as my imagination likes to run away with and think that it is, but it still leaves me unsettled at times.

The cardiac catheterization last Tuesday went well. All these years of this American of Polish descent eating ham, kielbasa and stuffed cabbage and my arteries are still clear! However, I do have a  mitral valve leak which needs to be taken care of. So I have an appointment with another cardiologist who specializes in taking care of this kind of thing at a bigger hospital than the one I went to last week. That's this coming Wednesday. I will find out more then.

In the meantime, I'll most likely check into the St. Max Net tonight and I might even get on the air this afternoon for a little POTA hunting.

This coming Thursday evening is my last turn as being a Fox in the QRP Fox Hunts for the season, and it may well be my very last time ever. There is a feature designed by Fritz K4OAQ, where Foxes can real time log to a map, so when a Hound is worked, his QTH pops up as a dot on a map of the US. Ingenious really, as a Hound can ensure he nabbed a pelt and thus it eliminates dupe QSOs to a large extent. All Foxes are strongly encouraged to use this feature.

My problem is that I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time and trying to work stations and then type in call signs and real time log would be an absolute debacle. I can only imagine that if I tried this, my QSO count (which is never very high compared to other Foxes to begin with) would go way, way down.  So I will paper log this last time, publish it the next day and I will bow out of volunteering for Fox duty to more capable hands than mine. I dare say that my difficulty is not an age thing, it's a lack of coordination thing, and I don't want to spoil anyone's fun or be a hindrance to the process.

72 de Larry W2LJ 

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Golden Age?

Back in the late 70's and early 80's, when I was a Novice we had:

QST

CQ

73 Magazine

WorldRadio

HamRadio

Ham Radio Horizons

Now all that's left is QST and a few digital ARRL publications? NCJ, QEX, On the Air? I think the ARRL's "On The Air" is the only publication left with new comers in mind? 

Filling the void somewhat are e-zines like the K9YA Journal that's written in a style a lot like WorldRadio. More human interest stuff than technical; and we need that. WorldRadio drew me deeper and deeper into the hobby. I was never the electronics engineer type and contesting was never my bag. I enjoyed reading about the non-technical side of the hobby, and what other people were doing and some good historical articles, too.

I wish we had more publications like that today. 

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!