Visitors from Colorado

I got home from work late last night.  I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich and was eating at the kitchen counter when my cell phone started ringing. I looked down at the display and the call was coming from Colorado. The only persons that I know in Colorado are Steve WG0AT and Tim K0UR and I'm pretty certain that neither of them have my cell phone number.

It turned out to be a woman who is in the Tri-State area with her teen aged son, who is having some oral surgery done by specialists in Manhattan. She told me that they've been here for a while and have also both been studying for their Technician Class licenses for a while. She looked up the exam schedule and was calling me to see if there was any room for them in our session that we had this morning.

Wow! Up to this point, we only had one candidate scheduled, so there was room a-plenty! I sent her my standard candidate e-mail and she responded that we would see them this morning.

And we did!

They were both obviously well prepared as they both got only three answers wrong on their respective versions of their tests. Since they passed, we gave them their free look at the General exam, and as expected, got about 1/2 correct. They were both very gracious and thankful and mentioned that it was nice to get out of Manhattan for a bit and that they really liked what they saw of New Jersey.  I suspect that visitors from other parts of the country expect the NorthEast to be one big concrete jungle.

Our other candidate, who made a second try at Extra came up 2 answers short of passing. So close! I asked her how she was going on practice exams and she told me she was coming in at about 70% correct. I encouraged her to study a bit more and told her that when she consistently scores in the 80 to 85% range, she'll be ready.

Other than that, there were just chores to be done and no actual  on the air time. Maybe that will change tomorrow. But having those two guest candidates from Colorado come in AND get their licenses - THAT made my day!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Weekend - Nov. 9th and 10th

We have our regular 2nd Saturday of the month VE Session tomorrow. As of right now, only one candidate - a General looking to upgrade to Extra.

Contests:

Not going to go into detail on these, but there are three digital contests this weekend that will probably end up coming deep down into the normal CW portion of the bands - so if you hear digi on you favorite QRP frequency, it's probably one of these:

PODXS 070 Club Triple Play Low Band Sprint

WAE DX Contest, RTTY

10-10 Int. Fall Contest, Digital

Other contests this weekend: (from this weekend going forward, I will mainly mention only contests that will have an effect on the CW portions of the bands)

SKCC Weekend Sprintathon - https://www.skccgroup.com/operating_activities/weekend_sprintathon/

OK/OM DX Contest, CW - http://okomdx.crk.cz/index.php?page=CW-rules-english

CQ-WE Contest - https://w8zpf.com/cqwe/

4 States QRP Group Second Sunday Sprint - http://www.4sqrp.com/SSS/sss_rules.pdf

Special Event Stations:

11/09/2024 | USS Cobia Veterans Day Special Event

Nov 9-Nov 10, 1500Z-2100Z, NB9QV, Manitowoc, WI. USS Cobia Amateur Radio Club. 7.240 14.240. Certificate. E-certificate only, email QSL information to, kc9yl@arrl.net. www.qrz.com/db/nb9qv

11/09/2024 | W2TE MEMORIAL SES

Nov 9, 1230Z-1930Z, W2GSB, Babylon, NY. GREAT SOUTH BAY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB . 28.340 21.250 14.246 24.940. Certificate. W2GSB/W2TE , PO BOX 1356 , West Babylon, NY 11704. WWW.gsbarc.org

11/09/2024 | Walt Grosser (W2TE) memorial SES

Nov 9, 1400Z-2000Z, W2GSB, Lindenhurst, NY. GREAT SOUTH BAY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB. 14200 7200. Certificate. W2GSB GSBAC, PO BOX 1356, West Babylon, NY 11704-0356. In Memory of Walter Grosser, our 2nd President of GSBARC We will be setting up at 09:00 and hopefully be on the air by 14:30 and operate till 20:00 All modes CW operators must bring their keys gsbarc.org

11/09/2024 | Windycon 50 - Science Fiction Convention

Nov 9-Nov 10, 1500Z-2100Z, W9W, Oak Brook, IL. DuPage Amateur Radio Club. 14.070 14.230 14.274 145.430 (local 107.2 PL). Certificate. DuPage Amateur Radio Club, P.O. Box 71, Clarendon Hills, IL 60514-0071. Operating times are Nov 9 0900-1700 and Nov 10 0900-1500 local time (CST). Certificate and other information http://www.qrz.com/db/w9w. https://www.w9dup.org

Last night's 80 Meter Fox Hunt was a 50/50. I worked Jim N0UR pretty easily. The MN to NJ pipeline wasn't quite as strong as usual, but I did get him in the log. Cathy W4CMG was another story. She was at ESP levels to begin with, but eventually got as loud as about 339. Strong enough to work, but I didn't. Kept calling but kept getting "CQ FOX" back in my face. Obviously the TN to NJ pipeline wasn't working for me, although it did for Steve WX2S and Charles W2SH. C'est la vie.

Something a bit interesting that I was reminded of again, though - frequency response. I worked Jim with an ear bud in my left ear - my only good ear, and that was fine. When I went to look for and eventually found Cathy, I discovered that I was able to hear her much better when I switched over to conventional headphones. The earbuds do not do quite as good a job responding to lower frequencies than the headphones. They're great at responding to higher frequencies, including the noise! The headphones were much better at helping me dig her signal out of the noise. 

Unfortunately, nothing will help my right ear until I can afford some prescription hearing aids. I've tried a couple of OTC brands and one pair does work better than the other, but I do need "real ones" if I'm ever going to hear out of my right ear again. First I have to finish paying off my car - then hearing aids. Yeah, I'll be working until I'm 70 - no doubt about that! LOL!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

THE Summer Classic !

 2024 Flight of the Bumblebees

The annual Flight of the Bumblebees will be held on Sunday, July 28, 2024.

The event  will be in a four hour daytime window, from 1700 to 2100 UTC.

This casual QRP CW event consists of 'Bumblebees' who are operating portable stations at outdoor locations, and 'Home Stations' who try to work as many of these 'Bumblebees' as possible.

This event is open to all operators.  Anywhere.  Being at the top of the sunspot cycle, this year's  event has the potential to be very interesting.

Operators who want to go out and setup a portable station at some outdoor location, and be a highly sought after 'Bumblebee', need to obtain a "Bumblebee Number". 

The window for obtaining your 2024 'Bumblebee Number' is now Open.

The https://ars-qrp.com web site will explain the whole process.

I'll be out there as a 'Bumblebee' - hoping to work you during the event.

72,

Jody - K3JZD - 4SQRP 1196

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The  VE Session at the W2QW Raritan Valley Radio Club Hamfest was a mixed bag. We ended up with 8 candidates. One gentleman was an Amateur Extra who let his license lapse. He successfully passed the Element 2 Technician exam and will get his Extra privileges reinstated.

Two other General Class Hams upgraded to Amateur Extra in advance of that question pool changing at Midnight tonight, and we gained one new Technician. Unfortunately, four candidates walked away empty handed.

A bit of a rant. I send each candidate who contacts me in advance with an e-mail that contains EVERYTHING they need to know about the exam session - date, time, location, and all they need to bring with them. I also include links to the proper places to get an FRN and where they can fill out a 605 form.

Everyone showed up at 8:30 and we started exams promptly at 9:00 AM. A little after 9:30, a candidate showed up to whom I had sent that e-mail several months ago. He had no FRN, no Form 605 and was totally unprepared. Normally, I would have tried to accomodate, but helping him get started from scratch would have been disruptive to the rest of the group. I asked him to come to our next regular session.

I just don't understand how someone can come so late and so unprepared when such pains are taken to make sure they have as smooth and problem free an experience as possible. If only he had followed instructions!!! Argh! I hate it when stuff like that happens.

After the exam session ended, I had intended to walk the flea market, but there were other chores to accomplish. I really didn't need anything, but it would have been nice to hook up with friends. Maybe at the Sussex Hamfest in about two weeks.

72 de Larry W2LJ 

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Normal weekend?

For many? Yes.  For W2LJ? Not quite.

I will be conducting a VE Session at the W2QW Raritan Valley Radio Club Hamfest at the Piscataway High School parking lot at 9:00 AM.

But for the rest of you:

Contests:

None this weekend. Hmmmmm .... I guess everyone is still in "Recovery Mode" from Field Day.

Special Events:

06/29/2024 | 83d Annual National Speleological Society (NSS) Convention

Jun 29-Jul 6, 1700Z-2200Z, N4V, Sewanee, TN. National Speleological Society K7NSS. 7.050 7.195 14.050 14.285. QSL. Sam Rowe KG9NG, 2749 Commercial Ave, Madison, WI 53704. N4V@NSSCES.ORG

06/30/2024 | Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial Special Event Station

Jun 30-Jul 1, 1500Z-0300Z, N7GMH, Prescott, AZ. Yavapai Amateur Radio Club. 14.319 ±QRM 7.219 ±QRM 21.319 ± QRM 18.119 ±QRM. Certificate. Mike Belanger, W1DGL, 219 W Leroux St, Apt. 202, Prescott, AZ 86303. This event is open to the public. More details, including QSL information is at http://www.qrz,com.db/n7gmh https://www.w7yrc.org/granite-mountain-hotshots

I have an ETS of NJ Club meeting tonight, where I will return to Dave W2OIL his HB-1B transceiver and accessories. I hope the meeting doesn't go long as I have to be up at 4:00 AM on Saturday. In addition to conducting the VE Session, I also help the RVRC by directing vendors to their parking spots. They're supposed to arrive at 6:00 AM, but many start coming as soon as 5:00 AM.

I'm hoping that after the VE Session, I can walk the Hamfest. I really don't need too much of anything, but could always use some power connectors (3.5mm and 2.5mm - NOT Powerpoles - I don't like them) and the like. But, you never know what may hit your eye. Maybe a new HT antenna or a unique project box or something like that.

I'm also hoping Sunday will be "don't do too much of anything" kind of day. The forecast for Sunday is scattered thunderstorms throughout the day, so there might not be much radio for W2LJ.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Happy camper

You've all heard the expression, right? "He's a happy camper!" or "She's a happy camper!" This morning I have to say that "I'm a happy hunter!"

Last night was the 80 Meter QRP Fox Hunt and I stayed up past my bedtime to participate. Before I get into talking about the Hunt, I'd like to reminisce for a bit. I can remember many days when I was in my 20's when I could put in a full day of work, come home and eat supper and then stay awake until about 2:00 AM melting solder in whatever Heathkit I happened to be working on. I'd go to sleep for maybe three or four hours and then wake up, fresh as a daisy, and start the whole process all over again without giving it a thought.  Them days are gone forever! Now I depend on my close friend and associate - Mr. Coffee (actually Mr. Keurig) to get me through the morning after a Fox Hunt. I'll probably end up hitting the sack a bit early tonight.

As I was saying, last night was the 80 Meter Fox Hunt - running from 9:00 PM EST to 10:30 EST - hence the reason for my less-than-awakeness this morning. I got down to the shack early and worked a POTA station on 40 as a warmup and even chased TX7L on the Marquesas Islands for a bit on 10 Meters. They were 229 at best, so as expected, there was no joy there.

At the 0200 UTC starting bell, I started twiddling the dial, beginning at .3.550 MHz and working my way up. I don't have a PX3 waterfall display, and although there is software available that is compatible with my KX3, I don't have it loaded onto my computer. I guess I'm too much of a fossil, I'm more comfortable with ol' tried and true. 

Anyway, I didn't find the Lower Fox or any evidence of the Hunt between 3.550 MHz and 3.560 MHz, so I continued my climb upwards looking for the "Upper Fox". Sure enough, I happened upon N8SS, Earl in Michigan, handing out pelts in a fast and furious manner.  I switched between the W3EDP and the HF9V to see which was giving me better reception. The HF9V proved to be the weapon of choice for the evening. Not so much that the signal was louder, as they were both about equal to my ear, but the HF9V had a bit less in background noise on it last night.

Thanks to the KX3's Dual Receive feature, I was able to plug Earl's QRG frequency into the second VFO and twiddle until I found the Hounds he was working. From there, it was just a matter of throwing out my call sign each time he finished an exchange with another Hound. Finally, at 0219 UTC, Earl heard me and added me to his log.

The Lower Fox, John K4BAI was going to be a bit more difficult. I hadn't heard anything during my first foray through the Lower Woods. Perhaps I had twiddled too fast. With a bit of trepidation, I set out to find him.

Starting again at 3.550 MHz and slowly dialing upward, I finally heard some call signs of familiarity - other fellow Hounds. From their frequency, I figured that John must be 1 or 2 KHz down, so I concentrated on listening there. Slowly, and I mean SLOWLY, John's signal started to come up. Propagation was changing a bit in my favor this time. I waited until K4BAI's signal became consistently 559 before throwing out my call. No sense in QRM'ing someone else if I wasn't able to tell if John was coming back to me or not. Finally at 0238 UTC John heard my call and we completed the required exchange.

I was a bit pumped because that put me at 4 for 4 in the first week of the 2023-2024 Winter Fox Hunt season. Well, actually 3 for 4, probably.  When N8SS posted his log this morning, I see that he has my name as "Barry". The scorekeeper will probably toss the QSO as invalid because of that, but I could give a tin whistle. I'm in these Fox Hunts for the personal satisfaction of participating. I really don't care how I stack up against the other Hounds when all is said and done. If I get 2 or 3 pelts every week, I'll end up somewhere in the middle of the pack. I don't need to be the Alpha Hound. So as far as I'm concerned, I went 4 for 4 this week, my first foray into "The Woods" in a long time. I know this won't last and there will be times when Lady Propagation looks at me and says "Not tonight, Sweetie!", but it was sure nice for the first week!

Like I've said before, tonight will probably be an early hit-the-sack night, but not before I put together some exam packets. Tomorrow is our monthly VE Session and we have six candidates coming - possibly five new Techs and one possible upgrade to Amateur Extra. I like to get all the paperwork set up in individual manila file folders so there's less work and confusion the morning of. Better remember to stop at Dunkin' on my way in. I have a feeling I'll be needing more Mr. Coffee tomorrow morning, too!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

International QRP Day +1

Alas, I didn't get to get on the air yesterday for International QRP Day (more about that in a bit) but I did run across this interesting video courtesy of the K9YA Telegraph Facebook page. (Facebooks IS actually useful for something!)

I found it interesting, anyway!

Back to yesterday. I was at that W2QW RVRC Hamfest for which I posted the flyer a couple days ago. I got there at 5:00 AM to help park the vendors into their assigned selling spots. Then around 8:15 AM, I went over to set up and get ready for the VE Session.

We had eight candidates in all. There were supposed to be eleven, but two called me on the telephone Friday evening to cancel (theyfelt they weren't ready) and one was a no-show.  Three upgraded from General to Extra, Two upgraded to General, and two earned their Technician Class license. The eighth candidate came to us with no license and left with his General. That was especially gratifying. We had hoped he'd have a trifecta day and make to Extra, but it was not in the cards yesterday, but I'm sure it won't be long!

For the most part it was a good day. The weather turned out perfect and buyer attendance measured up well compared to previous years. The only disappointment was we could have used more sellers. The weather prognosticators were calling for the possibility of showers - which actually came late in the afternoon, and only in some scattered areas, way long after the festivities for the day were just a memory. 

72 de Larry W2LLJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!