Egads! It's Autumn! Where has the year gone?

 

At least in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway. It's time to say good-bye to longer days, warmer temperatures, and hopefully soon - lawn mowing.

But on the other side of the coin, Winter will soon be approaching, making it's presence felt long before Autumn is officially over. I'll be going to work in the dark, coming home in the dark, and soon I'll go back to wearing three layers of shirts/sweaters as the cold temperatures return. And the Farmer's Almanac (if they're to be believed) is no help. They are prognosticating a "colder, snowier and longer lasting" Winter for my part of the Eastern Seaboard. As you can guess, I am hoping they're wrong.

The bright side is that the bands should become noticeably less filled with QRN from Summertime thunderstorm activity. Both 160 and 80 Meters should be welcome refuges of night time activity in the weeks and months to come. I haven't decided as to whether or not I'll be participating in the Winter QRP Fox Hunts this season. They start at 9:00 PM local time here in the Eastern Time Zone. It's hard for me to stay up much later than that these days. I wake up for work in the morning at 5:30 AM, and my job has been very demanding on this 64 year old body. I'm definitely no Spring Chicken anymore, and I'm not embarrassed to admit that, as I guess I've earned it. I do find I need as much sleep as I can get, so it comes down to whether I fall asleep in bed - or whether I fall asleep in front of the radio in the shack.  

At least I won't be falling asleep in front of the TV like my Dad used to do. I remember asking my Mom once, when I was just a tyke, as to why my father did that so often. That's a hard thing to understand when you're just a kid. She said, "Someday you'll know why.". You were right, Mom - you were right.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Crap!

 I was reading some stuff on the internet this morning when my phone chirped to let me know that my friend Bob W3BBO was on the air calling CQ. I saw that he was on 30 Meters, and I thought the band might be conducive to a Pittsburgh to Central Jersey QSO, so I ran downstairs to fire up the KX3. I flipped the switch on my Astron 20 Amp power supply and there was no hum and the rocker switch didn't light up.

Not good.

I checked to make sure the power strip that I have it plugged into was working and that showed to be fine. My Astron 7 Amp power supply is plugged into the same surge protector and it fired up just fine. I replaced the fuse and powered up again. This time, there was a hum and the rocker switch lit up - all for about a second. Then the new fuse blew.

I unplugged it, took off the cover and gave it a visual inspection. Nothing burnt, nothing charred, no funny smells. I then took a meter to all the major semiconductors - pass transistors, diodes and SCR and the readings were normal - no shorts. The filter caps look ok - from my experience with repairing studio strobes, those big electrolytics tend to bulge a bit before they have a "non passive failure" so I doubt they're the problem. That leaves the transformer itself or something on the voltage regulator board. I'm thinking the voltage regulator board as transformers in and of themselves really don't go bad without some evidence of getting overly hot or burning.

I don't have the time or resources to go into deep trouble shooting right now, so I'll rely on the 7 Amp supply for the time being - too many projects, too many things to do. Besides, running 5 Watts shouldn't even make it raise a sweat. While I was down there, after getting things transferred over and squared away, I made a couple contacts on 15 Meters with some Texas QSO Party stations. I also had a brief QSO with Lazlo HA3NA on 17 Meters (and I got a 579)!  It was really nice to see 15 and 17 Meters alive for a change. Maybe the sun spots ARE making a comeback.

When I do get the time, there are some wonderful resources on the web for fixing these babies. One in particular can be found here - http://www.repeater-builder.com/astron/pdf/astron-troubleshooting.pdf

It's a nice step by step resource and as it's been over 14 years since I repaired circuit boards down to the component level every day for a living, my trouble shooting skills are a bit rusty to put it mildly. I'll take whatever help I can get.

On another note, I downloaded Hamrs onto my cell phone after watching Tom K4SWL use it on his POTA videos. It's a super easy logging program to use, even easier than Ham Log NG. I like that you can create specific logbooks for individual POTA activations or other events. Each log can be converted to an ADIF so that I can import them into my master AC Log logbook on the laptop. I also downloaded it onto my Android tablet which should be a bit easier on my fat fingers in the field. This, of course, assumes that I will give up on paper and pencil. That may be easier said than done! LOL!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Upcoming Events

 QRP Afield

QRP Afield 2021 is held on the third Saturday of September, which is September 18 this year; as in the past few years, it runs from 1500-2100Z (11am-5pm EDT). You can read the rules here: https://www.newenglandqrp.org/qrp-afield-2018/ (still mostly correct).

Our weekend always has a number of other operating events going on, perhaps because it's the final weekend of summer. Five QSO parties overlap some or all of our operating period: Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington (the Salmon Run). There is also a major international contest, the Scandinavian Activity Contest (they were booming into NH last year; I worked a couple of them on 40 CW!), and this year we have Wisconsin Parks on the Air. There will surely also be some activations in programs including POTA, SOTA, and IOTA, and some special event stations. Here in MA there is one to commemorate the 100th anniversary of broadcast station WBZ; it will use the special call signs W1W, W1B, W1Z, and WB1Z. Also keep an ear out for the Chowdercon station, W1C; that will have NEQRP members operating portable from an island in Portsmouth NH.

This year, contacts with stations in other operating events are explicitly allowed. (If you can't beat them join them!) You are not required to complete the full QRP Afield exchange with those stations; instead, you should use the exchange required by the other event. (Their logging software probably isn't set up to record your power level or NEQRP number.) We encourage you to submit logs to any contests you make contacts in, even if you only make one or two contacts; the organizers use your data to check other logs.

I'm also introducing a new bonus. Any contact where both operators send a NEQRP number and submit logs that contain a matching contact is worth two points instead of the usual one. The normal power, location, and S/P/C multipliers still apply. That's meant to encourage people to make some QRP Afield contacts. (Don't have a member number? Membership in the New England QRP Club is free and open to all hams. Send email to kk1x@kk1x.net with the subject Join.)

You can work each station once per band per mode. For our purposes there are three modes: CW, voice (any voice mode including digital voice), and digital (everything else: RTTY, PSK31, JT65, FT8, SSTV, fax -- if it's not Morse Code and doesn't involve a microphone it goes here). All bands other than WARC bands and 60 meters are allowed, but you'll find most of the QRP Afield activity on 40 and 20 meter CW. (The only bands and mode that appeared in 2020 logs were 80, 40, and 20 meter CW.) Perhaps 15 will have an opening this year, and consider trying 80 to work some nearby stations, especially if you are in or near one of the states with a QSO party.

A field station must use non-permanent antennas and be powered by something other than the commercial power grid or a motor-driven generator. Usually that means batteries. No minimum distance from your house is required; operating from your porch or yard is fine. That said, we encourage you to get out and operate from a location away from home!

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Last year's submissions included a mix of logs that only included full QRP Afield exchanges, and logs that also included QSOs with stations in other operating events. That made it hard to compare the results, and I procrastinated reporting because I wasn't sure how to handle that. But I have compiled a spreadsheet with the best available data. You can see that here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18nwip7vXWWj0-O8E9p2sIyQRO2xZHWmzvftRqf5HjZg/edit?usp=sharing

I promise to get the 2021 results out in a more timely manner!

Leaders in 2020:

Top scores:

W1PID    3360

N5GW     2860

NN9K      2470

Leaders by ARRL/RAC section:

W1: W1PID

W2: W2JEK

W3: W3TS

W4: N4KGL

W5: N5GW

W8: WD8RIF

W9: NN9K

W0: W0UFO

VE3: VE3DQN

We did not receive logs from any other sections or from DX stations.

72, Shirley KE1L

2021 QRP-ARCI Fall QSO Party

The next QRP-ARCI sponsored contest is our Fall QSO Party.  This is a 24-hour operating event from 0000z to 2359z on October 9th. 

Look for others around the normal QRP operating frequencies from 160m to 10m (no WARC) bands. The exchange is RST, State/Province/Country plus QRP-ARCI member number (for members) or power output (for non-members). Club member numbers are good for life and can be looked up at www.qrparci.org

If you can operate just a couple of hours or many, be sure to submit your log by November 1st at www.qrpcontest.com  Last year's contest only had 21 entries. Mike W3TS took the top spot in the 250mw to 1w category, and overall top score, with 25,520 points. Leading the 1w to 5w category, and 2nd overall, was Jim W4QO with 21,000 points followed closely by John K4BAI with 20,020 points. 

Complete rules and details are available here:  https://qrparci.org/contest/fall-qso-party

Hope to catch you on the air!

73,

Paul K4FB

QRP-ARCI Contest Manager

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Being prepared

 A few months back, in April, I ended up trading in the Jeep Patriot for something newer. The Patriot was 167,000 miles old and needed a new catalytic converter (estimate close to 2K). My wife Marianne brought up the point that it wasn't worth spending any further money on the vehicle, as it had done well for us over the years, and we had gotten our money's worth out of it. The possibility existed that it was just going to become a repair money pit.

She went online and located a "pre-owned" 2018 Jeep Cherokee at a local Honda dealer that was turned in after a short term lease.

This is the nicest vehicle that I have ever owned and I was a bit hesitant to put holes in it and mar the interior by installing my VHF/UHF radio. I have been driving around without since. This past Wednesday and Ida changed my mind.  However, I still didn't want to permanently deface the interior by drilling screw holes, so I came up with another solution.

I took a piece of plywood, cut it to a size that I thought would work best and I painted it black. It slides in between the driver's seat and the center console and because of the almost non-existent gap, stays put. I attached the radio to the plywood and that's how it's mounted.

I put black duct tape over the edges of the plywood to make that look a more finished and I put some Velcro (the soft, fuzzy side) over the screw heads securing the mounting bracket so that they can't scratch the side of center console.

I'm waiting on a new antenna, a Compactenna 2M/70cm dual band antenna. 

When I first saw this compact antenna a few years ago, I was skeptical as to how good a performer it could possibly be. My friend Tim AB2ZK has one and he raves about it. I want a low profile antenna so I can park in the deck at work with no problems. The 5/8 wave antenna I had on the Patriot forced me to park outside, as it would bang into the low hanging pipes protruding from the deck ceiling. I was also afraid that I would one day damage one of the low hanging fire detectors that are there.

The antenna is due to arrive this week and I should be in business by next weekend.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Wild and wooly - but blessed

Tropical Storm Ida paid us a visit yesterday. I can only imagine what Louisiana is like after she got through there. It was a dark and dreary day all day, but the real rain didn't kick in until just as I left work for home.

After I got home, (which took an hour - usually it's a 45 minute trip) it got worse. By 2:00 AM (when I finally got to bed last night) we had accumulated 9.50 inches (23 cm) of rain. My daughter Cara got home from Rutgers before I did, so she was safe. My son Joseph had a class until 8:40 PM. He texted me to say he was on the way home after class and I told him to either find a campus building to hunker down in; or just sit it out in his car at the University parking lot. The parking lot is a solar farm and is on high ground, and for all intent and purpose, the cars are covered. He told me he was going to recline the driver's seat back, and get a snooze.

My wife Marianne could not get home. Around 8:30 PM she texted me to let me know her car was stuck in water. I tried to drive out to where she found shelter, in a Petco Pet Store right next to her dialysis clinic - but I was turned around. The streets were flooded and impassable.  I texted, asking her why she didn't just go and re-open the clinic (cots/stretchers there) and stay there, and she told me the entrance was blocked by waist high water. By 11:00 PM her car in the parking lot was under water to the roof line.

Conditions at the W2LJ QTH at 11:00PM Local last night with rain still coming down

Added to all this craziness, my cell phone was beeping and buzzing all night with severe weather alerts, flash flood warning alerts, tornado warning alerts and the like. The Middlesex County Office of Emergency Management volunteers and South Plainfield CERT volunteers were all keeping in touch via GroupMe and the various repeaters. It was a hectic evening, to say the least.

The rain started easing up after Midnight, enough so that my son was able to navigate his way home by about 1:15 AM. At 2:00 AM, just before trying to get a few hours sleep, I texted my wife, advising her to get some rest if possible, and that I would pick her up around 5:00 AM after giving the floodwaters a chance to recede. Before hitting the sack, I checked into the local Skywarn Net to give our rainfall total.

When I got to where Marianne had sheltered, her car was no longer under water, but it was totally dead. Totally dead - like "dead as a doornail" dead. Dead to the point where I couldn't shift it into neutral to try and push it to a better, out of the way spot.

I called the police to let them know where we left it. I went online and filed a claim with our car insurance company. They are going to have it towed and provide a repair estimate. If it's not totaled,  I will be gobsmacked. It's a 10 year old Ford Fiesta and my wife told me that as the car was being covered by water, the lights came on by themselves and the trunk popped open. Total electrical system blow out. When I opened the doors, water did not come gushing out, but the seats and seatbacks were soaked like wet sponges. It's a mess. I can't imagine a 10 year old car would be worth even trying to repair at this point.

But even with all this, we are blessed. We are all safe and sound - even though (except for my daughter,) we all had wet socks, pants and squishy shoes from wading through various depths of rainwater. Some 25 miles or so to the south of us in the vicinity of Trenton, NJ there was a lot of tornadic activity. From what I was able to gather from various media sources, several homes were destroyed.

We never lost power at home and our basement remained dry as a bone - which is more than I can say for lots of my neighbors. We are all safe and injury free and for that I thank the Almighty. A car can and will be replaced - my wife, son and daughter cannot.

Thank you, Lord, for being with us through the eye of the storm.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

2021 NJQRP Skeeter Hunt Results

 After a few flubs by yours truly - the "final" version of the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt Scoreboard is available for viewing:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-drxnlwD8qJtv0mcTaPzXWB-9tFrU11v/edit?fbclid=IwAR0ewmzLjZPqmgFty-B1FaOb1zeSXr1hjaIVC8un6s4nGP3uQh3cMk8q9Lg#gid=450200681

A big CONGRATULATIONS is in order to ALL those who participated, but a special "hat tip" to the Top Five finishers:

1st Place - Dave AB9CA

2nd Place - Gene N5GW

3rs Place - Rick NK9G

4th Place - Mark NK8Q

5th Place - Kent K9ZTV and the N0SS Crew!

The soapbox pages and the certificates will follow soon.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!