I would encourage you all to take part in the Club72 QRP Marathon. I am having a blast!
After work and dinner, I came down to the basement once again, to try to find some decent DX on the bands. Each day for the month of April (that's how long the Marathon runs) my goal is to try to work one DX station on each of the bands. Tonight I was successful on 20, 17, 15 and 10 Meters, before the clock turned to 00:00 UTC. All QSOs were made with the KX3 at 5 Watts
20 Meters - G6PZ in England - HF9V antenna
17 Meters - FG5FR in Guadeloupe - HF9V antenna
15 Meters - CM2YI in Cuba - EDZ antenna
10 Meters - ZL1ALZ in New Zealand - HF9V antenna
And you could have knocked me over with a feather with regards to ZL1ALZ. I was tuning around 10 Meters just to see what I could hear. John was quite audible about 579. I figured he was running at least 100 Watts, possibly more. I put out my call thinking that he would never hear my 5 Watts. Boy, was I wrong! First shot, John came back to me! John has one set of really fine business ears, that's all I have to say!
According to QRZ, John is 9,088 miles away from me - so that makes this QSO 1,817.6 miles per Watt. And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, made my day! 10 Meters is so wonderful when it's open and conditions are good. Oh, and by the way, this was my first time working New Zealand using QRP - a very good day, indeed!
The SSN is at 119, and the Solar Flux is 131. The K Index is 1 and the A Index is 3 - that spells for good DX conditions with a low noise floor. I sure hope these good conditions last over the weekend.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Good morning Larry, congratulations on the New Zealand contact! I have yet to get that baby into the log book. Larry I would challenge you to drop the Elecraft rig down to around 1 watt (later work on mW"s) I suggest before doing this to purchase a duck! As you are doing to need a whack of feather!!!
ReplyDeleteMike
72
Congratulations on the New Zealand contact! That one is sure to be WAY down the log book for me. hihi
ReplyDeleteThe contest seems like lots of fun. GL and I'll check it out myself.
So where are you on the list, Larry. I looked around the site you link to but didn't see your call. I wonder how often the status is updated?
ReplyDeleteI didn't see your call on any of the lists Larry. Do you know how often they update it?
ReplyDelete