A teenage wasteland

I've never been a big VHF/UHF guy. I've always been a HF CW guy. And now I think I know why.

I recently have been checking into the Middlesex County Chat Group Net which meets every evening at 8:30 PM local time on local repeaters. It's a social net that was started and continues to be run by my friend Marv K2VHW. It started with the onset of COVID as a way for local Hams to keep in touch with each other and not go stir crazy.

This morning, I was listening to a daily morning net that's held on the W2LI repeater. Their group is down at the Twin Lights down in the Atlantic Highlands activating for International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend.

After listening to both of these nets, I have to wonder why I even bothered dusting my handhelds off and charging them up. The nets and the participants themselves are fine and fun to listen to. But what's with the juvenile QRM tactics? Throwing dead carriers, singing, moaning, wheezing, belching, snorting and varied other sound effects.

Seriously? Your life is so devoid of meaning that the only joy you get is to interfere with a bunch of people who are just trying to enjoy their hobby? That is so very sad.

Maybe it's just the proliferation of inexpensive radios. Maybe it's just an increase in mental illness. Whatever it is, it's extremely annoying. I've seen kindergarteners with better manners than these idiots who have nothing better to do with their lives.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Facebook chuckle

When I see something like this, whether it be on Facebook, Twitter or some other social media platform, I just have to smile to myself.

The guys gets 26 comments. mostly from Amateur Radio operators who understand propagation, how it works and that QRP doesn't necessarily mean "weak signal".

So what does he do?

He turns off commenting for the post.

Kind of like throwing a smoke bomb into a room, yelling "fire" and then running away. I wonder what he was thinking?

I think the internet definition of a person like this is "troll".

He'd be much better served by doing a little research, maybe get to know what he's bashing and then seeing if his preconceived ideas actually hold water. This is the same reason why I won't jump on the FT8 bashing bandwagon. Even though it's not my cup of tea - there's a ton of folks out there who seem to enjoy it and get a kick out of it. Just because it doesn't tickle my fancy and I don't see the big attraction - I'm not about to put them down or tell them they shouldn't be having fun doing what they're doing.

Amateur Radio is a big enough tent under which we can all have fun.

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

We need way more of this!

From the ARRL Website:


FCC Proposes $18,000 Fine in Louisiana Amateur Radio Interference Case 07/25/2018 The FCC has issued a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) proposing to fine Jerry W. Materne, KC5CSG, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, $18,000 “for apparently causing intentional interference and for apparently failing to provide station identification on amateur radio frequencies,” the FCC said.

“Mr. Materne was previously warned regarding this behavior in writing by the Enforcement Bureau and, given his history as a repeat offender, these apparent violations warrant a significant penalty,” the FCC said in the NAL, released on July 25.

In 2017, the FCC received numerous complaints alleging that Materne was causing interference to the W5BII repeater, preventing other amateur licensees from using it. In March 2017, the repeater trustee banned Materne from using the repeater.

Responding to some of the complaints, the Enforcement Bureau issued a Letter of Inquiry (LOI), advising Materne of the allegations and directing him to address them. Materne denied causing interference but admitted to operating simplex on the repeater’s output frequency. In June 2017, the FCC received an additional complaint alleging that Materne had repeatedly interfered with an attempted emergency net that was called up as Tropical Storm Cindy was about to make landfall. The complaint maintained that Materne “repeatedly transmitted on the repeater’s input frequency, hindering the local emergency net’s ability to coordinate weather warnings and alerts on behalf of the National Weather Service,” the FCC said in the NAL.

Local amateurs were able to track the interfering signal to Materne’s residence and confirmed their findings to the FCC, prompting a Warning Letter advising Materne of the complaint and pointing out that his behavior “as described in the complaint would be a violation of Section 97.101(d) of the Commission’s rules.” Materne responded to the Warning Letter to argue that it was legal to transmit on the repeater’s output frequency, further stating that “he was tired of this trash harassing me,” the FCC said.

In the wake of further complaints, FCC agents visited Lake Charles, tracked transmissions on 146.130 MHz to Materne’s residence, and monitored them for up to 7 hours. The agent reported hearing Materne “playing music on 146.130 MHz and warning other amateur operators that the local Amateur Radio club would not be able to conduct their net later that day.”

That evening, the agent watched as Materne drove to a location near the W5BII repeater, where, the agent said, Materne “began transmitting an amateur digital radio signal from a hand-held radio in his vehicle,” disrupting the net and failing to identify. Subsequently, the agent, accompanied by a deputy from the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office, approached Materne’s vehicle and confirmed that he possessed a radio capable of operating on 146.130 MHz. “Audio recordings captured by the agent demonstrate that the intentional interference ceased as the agent and the Sheriff’s deputy approached Mr. Materne’s vehicle,” the FCC said in the NAL.

The FCC said that based on the evidence before it, Materne “apparently willfully violated Section 333 of the Act and Section 97.101(d) of the Commission’s rules by intentionally interfering with other licensed amateur communications,” and that he “apparently willfully violated Section 97.119(a) of the Commission’s rules by failing to transmit his assigned call sign.”

“[W]e find that Mr. Materne’s apparent repeated, intentional, and egregious apparent violations of Section 333 of the Act and Section 97.101(d) of the Commission’s rules warrant an upward adjustment of $10,000 to the proposed forfeiture,” the FCC said. “In applying the applicable statutory factors, we also consider whether there is any basis for a downward adjustment of the proposed forfeiture. Here, we find none.”

Thank you , FCC! Unfortunately, there's plenty more of this guy's ilk hanging around.

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

Broke the 100 confirmations mark today!

NPOTA, that is:

I actually have about 1/2 a dozen more that haven't been confirmed yet. According to LotW, those stations have not uploaded logs since their activations.  A few were a while ago, so I guess it's possible that maybe they won't.

While working a few today, it was extremely embarrassing and saddening to see so may out there have no clue on how to handle themselves in a pileup.  Guys ..... YOU HAVE TO LISTEN!

Throwing out your call sign ad nauseum without taking a moment to listen is the number one earmark of lid-dome. Seriously, if you send out your call ten times without taking a breath, how are you going to know if the activator is calling you back? By the time you've stopped sending your call, the activator has worked someone else and is calling QRZ again (and everyone else in the pileup has taken note of your call sign - you can count on it!). DON'T BE AN ALLIGATOR!  You know, all mouth and no ears! Throw out your call once - maybe twice max, and then open up those ear holes and listen!

Which leads to a second and related problem.  If you can't hear the station you are trying to work, you have NO business sending out your call, in the first place.  If you can't hear the station well enough to know that he's answering someone else - or worse, is in QSO with someone else; but you keep sending your call anyway ..... bad scene, man, bad scene.  You've marked yourself as a QRM generator and no one likes those. Don't rely on the Cluster. Just because DX Summit says Joe Ham is on 7.034 MHz at NPOTA NP256 ..... if you can't hear him, then don't even try.  It's a waste of your time and everyone else in the pileup is going to think you're an idiot.

Now everyone makes an honest mistake now and then, and that's OK,  But you can tell when someone has no clue as to what they're doing. And frighteningly, it seems to be becoming more and more common.

It's OK to be excited and enthusiastic. It's not OK to be reckless or use poor operating practises. Use common sense, read the DX Code of Conduct and you'll be OK.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you call to send the very least!

You can't work 'em if you can't hear 'em.

The snow plows came through to clear our street.  Even so, they never really plow the entire street. They clean it up for sure, so that you can travel safely down the road, but there's always that snow plow residue on the sides of the street. So, until the snow melts substantially, I can't park on the street, as I usually do, there's just not enough room to park and still have space for other cars to get by.  That means I have park in the driveway. Since I generally get home last, I have to get up and move my Jeep when my wife Marianne has to leave for work at 5:00 AM (I've mentioned - she's a nurse).

So this morning, after moving my car for her, I made some coffee and headed down into the shack. I had about a half hour before I had to shower, shave and get dressed for work. I figured that maybe, just maybe, I'd hear K5P, as this is their last day on the island, I believe. And sure enough, there they were on 80 Meters, calling CQ!  And from the rate they were answering stations, you could tell they were listening for ATNOs - stations they had never worked before (which would have been me!).

They were decently loud - about 559 with QSB on 3.530 MHz with QSB.  Even so, this was the best I've heard them throughout the entire DXpedition. I put the KX3 into "Dual Watch" mode, so I could figure out where they were listening, and then I fired up the KXPA100 to 90 Watts and jumped into the fray.

Then some idiot proceeded to come onto their QRG (the frequency they were transmitting on) and began to send an non-ending string of S9 dits, totally obliterating them.

"You can't work 'em if you can't hear 'em."

Sigh.

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

"QRL?" - please !!!!!

I did go out to the Jeep during lunch today, and no, the bands were NOT dead. But before I go there, I must digress.

I was involved in a 2X QRP QSO on 14.060 MHz with Tom, KC9RXI in WI. He was about a 449 to me; and I'm sure I was no better to him, but we were having a QSO.  I'm sure at times, that to people who may have been listening to the frequency, that it sounded like it was dead.

It wasn't.

All of a sudden, out of the blue, another QRPer started calling CQ/QRP on frequency!  The call will be omitted to prevent embarrassment (but it is forever burned into my brain).  Not so much as a single, solitary "QRL?"

Yes, I am sure that both Tom and I were weak, but we WERE in the middle of a QSO.  Coming on to a frequency, plopping yourself down and commencing to call CQ without asking is just - arrgh! And to top it off, the CQer was calling CQ DE WXXXX/QRP !!!!  I'm sorry, but QRPers, above all Amateur Radio ops, should know better. No excuse - period. If he had sent "QRL?" waited for a bit AND THEN had started calling CQ on top of us, I may still have been annoyed, but I would have thought to myself, "Well, he just didn't hear us."

Unfortunately, while Tom was trying to talk to me, I had to transmit "QRL. PSE QSY". He immediately QSYed (so he was able to hear me!), but at that point I had lost what Tom was trying to say. Shortly after that the QSB went off the Richter scale and the QSO came to a premature end. The "meat" that I could have copied was drowned out forever by needless QRM.

A bit after that debacle, I went to 12 Meters and tuned around for a bit. I heard 7QAA in Malawi quite loudly.  He was loud enough to work - even QRP. I don't think I broke the pile up, as again there was a lot of QSB. If I had more time (lunch hour was running out) I'm pretty darn certain I would have worked him. This time I had the patience - I ran out of minutes.

So , even with the G4 geomagnetic disturbance, Malawi was coming in the best I've heard them so far. Go figure.  Luckily, the station will be on the air until early April and I'm taking a vacation day on Friday. I just may make it into their logbook yet!

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

Now, THIS would have been

the weekend to have held FYBO! The weather people are saying that along with the polar vortex that will be visiting this weekend, we'll be getting (probably) the coldest weather of the season. We had a high temperature of 41F (5C) here today around lunchtime. Ever since then, the degrees have been dropping like an elevator coming down from the top floor a skyscraper. It's currently 27F (-2C) and there are some pretty fierce snow squalls at the moment. Oh, and if the dropping temperatures weren't enough, the same forecasters are broaching the possibility of significant snow, perhaps on Saturday.

 I'm sitting in the shack, waiting for the 80 Meter QRP Fox hunt to begin. I have a big mug of hot chocolate to keep me warm. I am listening to the K1N pileup on 30 Meters. I think the K1N ops are exhausted by now. They're not whittling away the pileups like they were - long pauses before answers. These guys are just fantastic in my book. It's been hot as heck on that island - I saw the one photo where their digital thermometer was reading 112F (44C), and supposedly the island is home to rats the size of cats and there are also supposedly a lot of black widow spiders. Not exactly like home. And through it all, they've handed out somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 QSOs. I can't wait to see the video of this DXpedition.

That being said, I'm not terribly sad they're going QRT this coming Sunday morning. It will be nice for a while to get back to normal, where trying to work a DX station means only going up 1 or 2 or perhaps 3 kHz - not 20 to 30! Even on CW, the pile up behavior has been atrocious, and I've never heard so many curse words spelled out in Morse before. I think this DXpedition was a triumph for the K1N team, but a lot of our brethren in the pile ups have a lot to be ashamed about.

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

New tactic

I arrived home from our Technician License class with 40 minutes left in the 40 Meter QRP Fox hunt. Much to my dismay, there was an S7 noise level across the entire band.- so that was a total bust. Sometimes, I wish I had one of those magical red buttons, whereby pressing it,  I could kill the power to all the houses in the neighborhood (including mine, because I can run the KX3 from batteries!) and eliminate that kind of problem. Just for an hour or so, nothing permanent!

30 Meters had no such noise problem, so I spent another fruitless hour trying to chase K1N.  The pileups are so big that they are beyond the KX3's "Dual Watch" capabilities. Trying to quickly scan the pileup, in an attempt to discover just where K1N is listening is a bit of a nightmare.  I suppose if I had a PX3, it would be a lot easier - but that solution is beyond my fiscal capabilities at this time.

So I've decided to try another tactic. I wake up every morning at 5:00 AM. Normally, I sit with Harold (our Beagle) for a bit to give him some companionship before everyone leaves for the day - leaving him alone. But tomorrow, I may even get up a bit earlier and will head straight to the shack.  Maybe at 4:00 AM, I might have better luck.

I better make sure I get some coffee first, though. Unleashing W2LJ on the bands without some coffee might actually make things worse. Although listening to the pileup behavior has me convinced that even my worst accidental behavior can't be as bad as what some idiots are doing deliberately.

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

Some common sense, please!

After working the QRP Fox Hunt last night, and over time working a bunch of DX and a lot of the W1AW Centennial WAS stations, and other pile up causing stations - I really have to wonder what goes on in the minds of some people.  It seems like when there's some kind of quarry to be had, whether it be a QRP Fox, a DX station, or a W1AW/XX station - common sense goes right out the window and sheer insanity takes its place.

Take for instance last night.  I was trying to work Steve WX2S on 40 Meters who lives about 18 miles from me.  Ground wave was strong enough that he was about a 229/339.  The advantage was that not only could I hear him, but I could also hear the stations that were calling him.  I ended up not working him, but even so, it was a unique opportunity to observe.

Steve was working split from the beginning and he was handling the pile up deftly.  But I was left shaking my head, because so many times - all through the hunt, people continued throwing out their calls while Steve was engaging another station! I sat there, kind of dumbfounded. There was Steve, sending out "559 NJ STEVE 5W" to whomever, and all the while there were stations sending out their calls, over and over and over, without so much as taking a breath!

So here's the deal......if you can't hear the quarry well enough to realize he answered someone other than yourself - then why the heck do you continue to throw your call sign out there in the first place? Obviously, if by some miracle, he actually came back to you - would you be able to hear that well enough to realize it and complete the exchange? Something tells me ........no.

Part of pile up discipline (on the part of the chasers) is to realize when you have a legitimate shot. But in any case, whether the quarry is 229 or 599 on your end, don't you think it would be a lot wiser to send your call maybe twice at most and then take a break to actually listen?

Listening. That seems to be a dirty word in the minds of a lot of folks.

Look, I know we all make mistakes and I've made my fair share, too.  No one is perfect, and I can understand forgetting to turn the "split" function on or some other such thing.  But deliberately sending your call over and over and over in the vain hope of somehow scatter-gunning the target is really just inexcusable, and rude and inconsiderate of your fellow Hams.

As always, this is just my humble opinion. Your mileage may vary.

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

Mad enough to spit nails

I was chasing Saudi Arabia on 17 Meters tonight. 7Z1HL was on the air and was working mostly W/VE stations. I boosted up the power to 90 Watts and joined in the fray. I have never worked Saudi Arabia before, so this would have been a new one.

Finally - finally he comes back to W2L? So I start sending my call several times. Can someone, for the love of Pete, please tell me why a W6 station would start calling on top of me when 7Z1HL clearly asked for "W2L?"?

I didn't make it through, so again he sends, "W2L?". Again, the same W6 station takes it upon himself to QRM me. Sadly, all I got for my effort was "SRI W2L? QRM NIL". And he moved on.

Nuts! - for lack of a more appropriate sentiment.

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

Another new one; but not QRP.

I got another new DXCC entity into the log tonight; but it was not QRP, and even at 85 Watts it was a bit of a chore.

The station was A61Q and the entity was the United Arab Emirates. The band was 17 Meters. For whatever reason the DX op decided not to work split; but to stay simplex.  That made for pandemonium.  I found him by tuning around, and when I saw/heard the pileup, I checked the cluster, and sure enough, he had already been spotted multiple times. It's no exaggeration to say that a melee ensued.

At the beginning, he was as loud as A45XR was from Oman the past couple of nights.  I thought I stood a good chance with QRP and started there.  The pileup was a zoo and I threw out my call many times with no luck.  I sensed a pattern - A61Q would call "CQ DX" and the ensuing cacophony of chasing stations followed his "K".  It turned out that he was working stations that he could pick out as the calling died down, and everyone started listening (funny how that works, eh?).

As I sensed his pattern, I thought I stood an even better chance. But then the inevitable started happening - the band began to change.  He went from 599+++++ to 599++, then eventually 599+, and then eventually just 599.  At that point, he looked like he might fade fast; so I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and turned the K3 up to 85 Watts.  It took about a half dozen calls or so (waiting for the avalanche of calls to die before throwing mine out), but I finally heard my call coming back to me.  We completed the exchange (stations were actually calling him while he was still working me!!!) and I listened for a while as I put the QSO information into my log.  Within the next ten minutes A61Q was becoming covered by the background noise.

I heard plenty of other DX; but for some reason QRP just wasn't working for me tonight.  I didn't hear any more new entities; so after A61Q I kept it to 4.8 Watts (I always stay just a bit below 5 Watts - call it a quirk).  I did end up working N4FOC on 20 Meters and then John N8ZYA on 30 Meters before pulling the plug for the night.

Getting back to the pileup situation, though. Folks - the most formidable DX weapon you have is your ears. Use them!  You have two ears and one key (or microphone) - that should tell you something. Listening is more important than transmitting.

It seems like when "exotic" DX comes on the band, people just snap and go crazy or something.  Here we have a station working simplex, which is bad enough - but we also have a gazillion or so chasing stations that just aren't listening!  When the DX calls "WB4?" - why are W7 or N6 or AA5 stations throwing out their calls?  Isn't it deathly obvious that he's trying to work the WB4 station?  And please don't tell me you thought the was calling for something else.  You know, if you couldn't hear him well enough to know that he called "WB4?" then you shouldn't be trying to work him in the first place.  Just because a DX station is listed on the cluster doesn't mean that you should click your mouse and immediately start throwing out your call. See if you can actually hear him first, OK?  If you can't hear him, how are you going to know that he's calling you back?  Common sense, right?

If A61Q had worked split, the situation might have been better, but that assumption is not a lock, either.  But if everyone had been listening and not sending out their calls needlessly while simultaneously foaming at the mouth, then the DX station could have worked a whole bunch more stations than he had.  The pandemonium slowed things down exponentially.

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

Frustration X2

In honor of Holy Week, I will be charitable and not refer to certain ops the way I might normally be so inclined.

I had two nice rag chews on 40 Meters busted up by inconsiderate ops.  The first QSO was with Howard K4LXY.  This was a 2X QRP QSO. Howard was using his KX1 and I was using my KX3. We were going at it pretty well until a certain W2 station (I will refrain form posting the suffix, although I certainly made note of it) came on frequency and called CQ right on top of us. Before that, another station came on frequency, but had the decency to "QRL?" and politely moved when he discovered that there was a QSO in progress.  Unfortunately, this W2 station didn't bother with such niceties.

The second QSO was with Hank K1PUG.  Hank had answered my CQ, which I sent AFTER listening to the frequency to make sure it wasn't being used AND after sending a "QRL?" with no response. Our QSO was evolving into a rather nice discussion about the Ten Tec equipment that Hank was using.  Again, this chat was going nicely until some digital mode (not familiar with the sound enough to know which mode it was) user came on and just put the complete kibosh on things. For crying out loud, we were on 7.035 MHz.  Can't digital stations stay above 7.060 MHz? It's bad enough when they practically come down to the Extra portion of the band on contest weekends. Can't they leave CW ops in peace during a weeknight?

At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon OF ...... back in the 90's when I was doing A LOT of digital mode work, we made sure to stay above 7.060 MHz on 40 Meters - EVEN during contest weekends.  Has civility been completely thrown out the window?  Man, I hate sounding like some bitter old man; but now I think I can begin to understand how they get that way.

Anyway, I jumped on over to 30 Meters to escape the madness and worked HC1MD/HC2, Dr. Rick Dorsch in Ecuador.  Rick is operating from the Fallaron Dillon Lighthouse through Friday, according to his QRZ page.

Although Dr. Rick was 599 here, I didn't know whether or not to expect that I was going to be able to get him with QRP.  For some reason, I don't always have the best of luck working South American stations.  I guess maybe my antennas don't radiate all that well in that direction.  But I did indeed, work Dr. Rick with 5 Watts with the 88' EDZ antenna.  According to the QRZ page, Dr. Rick was using a Yaesu FT-857D at 100 Watts to an Outbacker vertical.  When I read that after our QSO, I was even more impressed! I wonder if he's an ear doctor, because he has to have a good pair of ears to have picked me out of the pack!

And so ends my night.  Have to turn in so I can get up and go to work tomorrow.  But Friday is a day off as it's Good Friday.  The bad news is that W3BBO e-mailed me today to inform me that the Easter Island DXpedition ceased operations today.  Another one missed!

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