I brought my magmount into the house when I got home. With some time to kill before the 20 Meter QRP Foxhunt, I checked out the PL-259 with my VOM, and found an intermittent short between center connection and shield. So I snipped the cable back a few inches and soldered on a bright and shiny new PL-259. Viola`! Problem solved! And this is exactly the reason why, that one of my yearly purchases at some local hamfest is a small bag containing PL-259s. You never know when the need for one will arise.
Today, my results were like night and day. The Buddistick tuned today with not even a blip of the KX3's autotuner. I had 1:1 matches on both 20 and 15 Meters. 20 Meters yielded two nice QSOs, one with John K9DX down in Lakeland, FL and the other with Scotty KG3W in PA. Scotty and I have worked many, many times before. A few rag chews but mostly brief QRP Sprint QSOs. It was good to spend a few minutes with him.
The coup de grace, came on 15 Meters however, after I had finished up with Scotty. There was an extremely loud PY0F/PP1CZ on 21.023 MHz with quite a pile up chasing him. He was soooo loud, though, that I knew if I could figure out the split he was using, I stood a good chance. Trying to figure out the split can be tricky on 15 Meters, though, because you can't always hear the station the DX is working. If you're patient and give it enough time, sooner or later the DX station is going to work someone that you can hear, too.
That was the case today. I waited long enough until I heard him go back to a European station that I was also able to hear. I figured out the split and within a few minutes, I had Fernando de Noronha in my log. Worked with 5 Watts to a Buddistick plopped on the roof of my Jeep. Don't let ANYONE tell you that QRP doesn't work!
By the way, did you know that tomorrow is "Respect the QRP Frequencies Day"? The QRP Respect Committee (an Italian organization) is running a day long QRP QSO Party tomorrow. A non-competetive event on or about the QRP Watering Holes. Check out their Webpage here.
So spend some time around those frequencies tomorrow if that's not something you already do. You just might find more DX than you might otherwise expect!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Hey Larry, it looks like the event is over, it being EU-based. But my question is how can it be "non-competitive", yet still assign points for contacts and provide for awards for those who amass the most points? Not to mention that the IARU hasn't assigned any frequencies to exclusive QRP operation as is implied...only made bandplan recommendations. But I may be wrong.
ReplyDeleteEither way, any excuse to get on the air with QRP is fine by me!
73 de Lee, AA4GA
Hi Lee,
ReplyDeleteI try to answer to your question. QRP respect day is "technically" a competitive event since there are points, leaderboards and prizes. Said that, contest-like QSOs are strongly discouraged and, from my direct experience, yesterday I heard many stations which were simply enjoying the QRP activity forgetting about the points and the "race".
I really hope that next year the time could be extended in order to be more convenient for US station.
72 de IZ1KSW
Gab
Hello Larry,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the "Respect the QRP Frequencies" logo with the accompanying link. A little kindness and common courtesy goes a long way. Sometimes (all too often) these frequencies are becoming useless to QRP operators. I hope this helps as a reminder that there's a time and a place for everything.
Great!
ReplyDelete