Suprise in the mail!

It's always neat to walk into the house after a long, hard day at work to find an envelope from the W2 QSL Card Bureau. Here are four of the more pretty and/or interesting ones:

The cool thing is that looking back in my log, these were all done with QRP - even South Sudan. Interestingly, the day and date recorded on the card are indicate that this card is a result from my second QSO with them, which was the QRP one. I don't know where the card for the first (QRO) QSO is. Perhaps they got my call wrong and it ended up being a busted QSO. Who knows?

I went out to the Jeep this afternoon and was hearing PZ5W from Suriname on 15 Meters. He was very loud and I really thought I was going to get a QSO. As luck would have it, I didn't. There was a pileup but it was by no means fierce. I just wasn't being heard. You know it's a bad sign when the station calls CQ and no one answers but you, and the station starts calling CQ all over again. I already have Suriname in the logbook - even QRP - but from the car with the Buddistick, that would have been a hoot.

This coming weekend is the CQ WWDX CW contest, a great contest for working QRP DX. Of course, I am going to be listening for ATNOs. Hopefully I'll work one or two. I may also try milliWatting to see how many entities I can work with under a Watt.

Let's hope for great band conditions this weekend!

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