The weekend of August 23rd and 24th

Didn't August just begin a few days ago?  And here we are, the next to last weekend of the month. The hours of daylight are getting noticeably shorter, as by my QTH, it's appreciably dark at around 8:00 PM and in the mornings, the daylight is taking longer to gain a foothold. 

It's this time of year, and going forward that I'm reminded of that Simon and Garfunkel lyric - "Hello Darkness, my old friend."

But enough of the depressing stuff. We still have some Summer left and there will be that second FOBB on September 21st, so all is not lost!

Here's what you may hear on the bands this weekend (especially if you're in the CW sub-bands - as if there's anyplace else to be - right?):

Contests:

Hawaii QSO Party - http://www.hawaiiqsoparty.org/

YO DX HF Contest -  http://www.yodx.ro

ARSI VU DX Contest - https://arsi.info/dxcontest/

Ohio QSO Party - http://www.ohqp.org/index.php/rules/

SARL HF CW Contest - https://mysarl.org.za/contest-resources/

Special Event Stations (for those who like to chase em!)

08/23/2025 | Commemorating the 68th Annual International Airstream Rally and 62 years of the WBCCI ARC

Aug 23-Aug 27, 1400Z-1800Z, W1A, York, PA. Wally Byam Caravan Club International - WBCCI Amateur Radio Club (WB8RC) . All bands, all modes, as available based on conditions. QSL. WBCCI Amateur Radio Club, c/o Jim Cocke, PO Box 1307, West Jefferson, NC 28694. Times are daily. Please check spotter pages daily. QSL via QRZ.com and USPS. https://www.qrz.com/db/WB8RC

08/23/2025 | Buhl Farm Park Celebration

Aug 23-Sep 1, 0000Z-2359Z, W3B, Hermitage, PA. Mercer County Amateur Radio Club. 7.185 7.074 145.350. QSL. Mercer County Amateur Radio Club, PO Box 996, Sharon, PA 16146. Mercer County Amateur Radio Club is celebrating BUHL DAY, the 110th Anniversary of Buhl Farm Park, which covers 300 acres donated to the Shenango Valley community by Frank Buhl a local industrialist, for the use and recreation purposes. Check the www.w3lif.org webpage for scheduled times of W3B operation or the QRZ website for W3B for more information. As conditions permit you will find operators at various times on from August 23 to all day on September 1, 2025. A commemorative QSL will be available with a SASE. www.w3lif.org

08/23/2025 | NS Savannah Maiden Voyage Anniversary

Aug 23, 1330Z-2100Z, K3S, Port of Baltimore. Nuclear Ship Savannah Amateur Radio Club. 7,14,18,21,28. QSL. Ulis Fleming, 980 Patuxent Rd, Odenton, MD 21113. Check spotting networks for frequency. See QRZ.com info for Savannah Award www.qrz.com/db/k3s

08/23/2025 | Pokagon State Park Centennial Celebration

Aug 23, 1300Z-2200Z, K9P, Angola, IN. Land of Lakes Amateur Radio Club. 7.180 7.280 14.240 14.340. Certificate. Mark Tritch, 4340 S. 1000 W., Hudson, IN 46747. www.qrz.com/db/k9p

08/24/2025 | Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival Special Event Station

Aug 24-Sep 6, 0000Z-2359Z, K9A, Auburn, IN. Northeastern Indiana Amateur Radio Association. 7.180 MHz 14.250 MHz 28.360 MHz. Certificate & QSL. K9A - NIARA, P.O Box 145, Auburn, IN 46706. QSL Information: There will be no Log Book of the World or eQSL. For a QSL card only, Please send your card and a SASE. For a Certificate and QSL Card, Please send your card and $4.00 USA – $6.00 International We will furnish certificate, QSL card, envelope, and postage. The mailing address for this special event station is: K9A – NIARA P. O. Box 145 Auburn, IN 46706-0145 THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION! W9OU@W9OU.ORG.

Speaking of Special Event Stations, I pout the callsign into Ham Alert for the W9AEF Special Even t Station honoring St. Maximilian Kolbe.  Lots of FT8 kits, not many for CW, which was a bummer.

Last night at our monthly SPARC meeting we started kicking off discussions for a Special Event Station for South Plainfield's Centennial in 2026. We did one in 2016 for the 90th Anniversary, and I'd like to make sure we something special next year.

One last thing, here's something interesting that I saw on the QRP-ARCI io group yesterday; and it's compelled me to comment (rant). Someone asked if QRP Afield was going to be held this year. This was the answer given. (The words in bold italics are what caught this eye.)

Quote:

"We have had almost no turnout for QRP Afield for the past couple of years. I received ONE log in 2024.

FOBB has announced that they're going to hold a fall edition on that date this year. Perhaps they'll have more success promoting the event than we did; it just wasn't our style to flog it endlessly as some of the QRP events do. Given that, I'd say there will be no QRP Afield this year.

End quote

"flog it endlessly"? Seriously? ........... Guilty as charged !

QRP Afield is going the way of the Dodo because it wasn't advertised, hardly, if at all ! Hams are busy people with families. For a lot of people time needs to be set aside and "reserved" so as to not interfere with other commitments. You can't make one single announcement a week before or a day before an event and expect people to show up. Organizers have to have respect for the time and commitments of the people they hope to attract. In addition, there are new Hams who might be interested in participating, but they don't because they don't even know that something is happening.

I'm sorry, but to me "it just wasn't our style"  is code for "we didn't want to be bothered". It doesn't take a lot of effort to send out a blast of e-mails. It's not spam, it's giving people a chance to participate in something fun. AND .......if they're not interested, they have a thing on their keyboards called the delete key.

But really, you can't complain about non-attendance when you haven't even made an honest effort to drum some up.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

AA blessing or a curse?

I got on the air for a bit yesterday to play around on 10 Meters. It was wide open and was buzzing with ARRL DX Contest activity. I only stayed on long enough to work about a dozen foreign countries, all with 5 Watts,of course. After that, I went POTA hunting for a bit.

When the bell tolled midnight UTC, the bands once again became very, very quiet. Almost like a ghost town. The activity during the contest reminded me of my Novice days and even my early days as a General. Back then, it was very often hard to find a vacant spot on which to call CQ. It was not uncommon for there to be wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder stations occupying the bands, on an everyday basis! Not just during the weekends or during contests.

Sadly, it's not that way anymore. I'm going to post a query here that will undoubtedly be unpopular, but I have to wonder if a contributing factor may be the rise of waterfall displays, band scopes, panadapters or whatever you want to call them.

My thought process is like this. Joe Ham turns on his rig. He goes to, let's say 15 Meters. His panadapter shows flatline, no activity to speak of, so he goes to another band, or worse yet turns off the rig.

How many guys are looking at the same picture? All of them assuming there's no one out there, listening? Nobody's there that I can see, so why should I waste my time calling CQ?

Just a thought. Maybe, just maybe we were better off in the days when we would twiddle the dial hunting for someone to work, just calling CQ when we didn't hear anybody.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP- When you care to send the very least!

Golden Age?

Back in the late 70's and early 80's, when I was a Novice we had:

QST

CQ

73 Magazine

WorldRadio

HamRadio

Ham Radio Horizons

Now all that's left is QST and a few digital ARRL publications? NCJ, QEX, On the Air? I think the ARRL's "On The Air" is the only publication left with new comers in mind? 

Filling the void somewhat are e-zines like the K9YA Journal that's written in a style a lot like WorldRadio. More human interest stuff than technical; and we need that. WorldRadio drew me deeper and deeper into the hobby. I was never the electronics engineer type and contesting was never my bag. I enjoyed reading about the non-technical side of the hobby, and what other people were doing and some good historical articles, too.

I wish we had more publications like that today. 

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Ever feel like Homer?

 

I did. Last night.

Flashback to Saturday. I got all my chores done extra early, so I could spend the afternoon replacing the weed-whacked parts on the Butternut. You know what took the longest? Getting the tape off which was protecting the connection between the coax and the matching stub! I couldn't find or feel where my wrapping ended, so I ended up having to cut away the old tape. Talk about a sticky and gooey mess! When I finally got that done and connected the new matching stub, I left a tiny fold over flap of tape at the end of my new wrapping, so if I ever have to do something like this again, I'll have a tab to tell me where to begin unwrapping.

The job went quickly after that, but last night the Homer part came in. I was sitting on the living room couch, thinking about the weekend's events and I suddenly remembered that I forgot to re-attach my radial field to the antenna! DOH! I'll have to do that next weekend, weather permitting. I'll have to dig up the sink strainer that I used as a radial connection point and re-establish the connection to the earth side of the vertical. The strainer is not deep, just even with the surface of the ground so this chore shouldn't take very long at all. The problem is of course, that we have not had any rain since September 28th. So you know what's forecast for next Saturday .........right?

Now that I've displayed MY stupidity to the world, I want to tackle something I saw on Facebook yesterday that kind of irked me. Here's the post:....undoubtedly great intentions, but ............

As you can see, he got a lot of answers. I did not, because I would have undoubtedly been a bit sarcastic, and like Mom always said, "If you can't say something nice ........."

A - This guy is an Extra!!!!!!  He doesn't know this answer? This wasn't covered in any one of the three tests he had to have taken?

B - He doesn't know where to go to look up the answer? It HAS to have been covered in one of the license manuals that he studied from. Right?

Or here's the rub. Did he even use a license manual to study from? Or did he just go to one of the plethora of sites that just give you questions and answers that you can memorize until you feel ready enough to sit down and take the test?

Being an Extra class Ham used to mean something. I dare say it doesn't any more. It used to mean that you spent some time, years maybe, working your way up, gaining experience from operating and building, combined with studying to finally get to that top plateau.

Sadly, I personally know Extra class Hams who have no idea how to build a dipole, program an HT, or even put an HF station together, or how to put up an HF antenna, or even follow directions on how to check into a net! Each time, I've eagerly and courteously helped them all, but each time I also kind of internally shook my head that I even had to! A brand new Tech who has just been licensed for the first time? Yeah, I could see that - most definitely.  But an Extra class Ham who is supposed to have enough experience to be an Elmer (him or herself) to others?  They should know this basic stuff - and even if they don't know it, AT THE VERY LEAST, they should know where to go to find the information that they need (and I'm not talking about asking on Facebook)

It's a sad state of affairs. Really. And again, I'll say it. These stupid Ham Crams aren't helping any. Memorizing answers without learning the theory or practical what and why behind the questions is building up a class of operators who will undoubtedly just get frustrated with the hobby and leave before the first license renewal opportunity comes by.

Harumph!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

QRP Image of the Day

The photographer inside of me is captivated by images, And if the old adage is true that "A picture is worth 1,000 words:, then these two images are examples of what come to my mind when I think about QRP.

This image from the SOTA Facebook page, in fact it's now their cover page image. Didn't Steven pick a wonderful image? Who doesn't dream of someday taking a minimalistic set up to the top of a mountain and communicating with the world? I know I do, but I'm also wise enough to know my limitations and that I'm no Steve Galchutt WG0AT and the closest I'm ever going to get to this is operating portable from a picnic table somewhere. Still, the thrill is there, even if the panoramic vistas aren't!

The second image:

Isn't Alexey's station just grand? A One Watt homebrewed QRP transmitter. He posted a video of it on Facebook and it sounded oh, so sweet! Again, the closest I'm ever going to get to this is by building a kit of someone else's design. I'm not an Alexey UY1IF or a Bob W3BBO who can seem to cobble up working equipment just about every other day. I'm no engineer or designer - God didn't grace me with that kind of talent. But still, I can build some things (although with SMD, that's becoming harder and harder every day for my poor skill set) and when they actually work, the satisfaction is there that I didn't totally screw things up.

QRP is not for everyone. Sometimes it's actually rather easy, sometimes it's challenging, sometimes it's frustrating, but it's also always immensely rewarding. Whether you're working from a mountain top or from your basement, whether you're operating something you designed and built all by yourself; or maybe just from a kit you bought and built ........ the Ham Radio experience you can get from QRP is like no other.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Oh boy - and not in a good way.

A club meeting (not mine) with guest, ARRL SE Director Mickey Baker. If you want to hear details about the events that effectively shut down the ARRL earlier this year, start listening around the 16 minute mark.

Scary and sad. As an ARRL Life Member, who has always been uber supportive of the League, it would seem that leadership (NOT the staff) is befuddled in some crucial areas, and quite frankly, maybe not doing such a great job.

With my new hearing aid, I'd almost swear that I can hear H P Maxim spinning in his grave.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

You can always tell an AI generated image

Just for the halibut, I asked "Canva" an AI image generator to capture the spirit of POTA. I asked it to generate an image of "A young Ham Radio operator, sitting at a picnic table in a park, sending Morse Code on his radio".

This is what I got:

Not bad, actually, right? But for some reason, AI always seems to get human hands wrong, and I labeled them in the image. In this case, this poor guy seems to have three! Two at the radio, one on the table.  I've noticed this on a lot of AI generated images where people are part of the scene. Weird, very weird. If it wasn't for the third hand, which I guess some of wish we had sometimes, it wouldn't be a bad image. Kind of nostalgic in a way. I like the guy's hat!

Speaking of the spirit of POTA, someone was complaining on the Facebook POTA page that the admins don't keep track of who first activates an entity. They don't - you can look up how many times a park has been activated,  and who has activated it, how many times a person has activated a particular park etc. but not who first activated it. (EDIT - actually as one of the commenters below pointed out, they DO keep track of who first activated a park - but there's no award or certificate for it. That's a more accurate description of what triggered the complainer - mea culpa for getting that wrong! And thank you Mark AI4BJ for pointing that out)

That seemed to crumble the cookies of the poster. "If my friend takes a day off from work and drives 1/2 way across the state to be the first one to activate a new park, he doesn't get recognition for it? Why do we do POTA then?"

"Maybe just to have fun and and enjoy doing radio in the great outdoors?", I answered. 

Does everything need to be a competition? Does everyone need to have a trophy? Has the concept of doing something just for the fun of it become a relic? Sadly, I guess it has.

Heavy sigh.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

"Sad Hams"

Oh, I hate that term! But it's become prevalent among certain Hams who get annoyed and exasperated with certain older Hams. I guess it's better than the previously used term - "Old Fart".

It's the typical generational thing. The newer Hams don't understand the older Hams and the older Hams don't understand the newer Hams. It's like when you were a kid and you got tired of hearing from your parents or grandparents, "When I was your age, I had to walk to school 5 miles in the snow ..... up hill both ways!"

The fact is that if you were licensed before 1980, you had no resource but to study the license manuals that were available at the time. You read and learned the theory and the rules. There were no question and answer books where you could memorize the answers that were on the exams without really understanding the why and wherefore.

That all changed in 1979 / 1980 when Dick Bash came out with his "Final Exam" books. I never had one of those, but as I understand it, these books consisted the questions and answers from the actual license exams. The story goes that the author had people questioned who had just left from taking their FCC proctored tests as to what questions they saw on the exams they just took.

True or not? I don't know. But whether it was true or not, the appearance of the Bash books seemed to trigger or hasten the demise of FCC testing and promulgated the evolution of the VEC system. Maybe it was just the governmental budgetary constraints of the time, but whatever the real reason, the system changed.

The VECs published the questions and answers that would be on the exams in their license manuals. Sure, there were a bajillion questions from which only a relatively few would be picked, but it changed the game. Of course there were still potential Hams who studied the "old school" way (sorry, couldn't resist the pun), but now there were candidates with good enough memories who just memorized what they needed to know in order to pass the exams. It still holds true to this day. I'm a VE and I see both types of candidate preparation all the time. Oh the angst when a question pool is about to change!  As the VE Liaison who arranges our VE Exam sessions, I can't tell you how many times that I hear "Do you have room for me on your session on the XXth? I want to take my exam before the question pool changes!" And in my head I'm thinking ......"The questions aren't changing that much. If you know THE MATERIAL, you'll be fine." But I hold my tongue, as I don't want to ruffle any feathers.

The problem is that. as a result, you have a lot of new Hams out there who really don't know what they're doing. And this may get me in hot water, but we haven't helped the situation by conducting "Ham Crams". Those are another thing that I just abhor. Trying to cram about 8 weeks worth of non-stressful conventional learning into one or two days is just chasing rainbows as far as I'm concerned. I'd love to find some way to find license retention figures of Amateur Radio ops who went that route. I'm willing to lay down money that there is a large percentage of these Hams who are most likely not to renew, or have not renewed their licenses.

As a result, and I have experienced this personally, you have some Extra Class Hams who don't have the foggiest notion as to how to build a dipole or program an HT. To make matters worse, they either don't know where to go to look up the information they need, or sometimes they seem to even lack the desire to do so They just depend on people who know what they're doing to spoon feed the information to them. They absolutely detest when they are told to open a book or "RTFM". I'm not going to spell it out, you know what that means.

And that frustrates the older Hams who either studied the traditional way, or those who have gone the newer route, but graduated from the "School of Hard Knocks" by taking the time to do a little research on their own before asking for help. So when someone asks a basic, simple question that every Ham worth his/her salt should know the answer to, and they get told where to go to get the answer (without actually being given the answer they are looking for) they are label that person as a "Sad Ham".

Sadly, this is the way things are. To somehow mitigate it, older Hams need to be more inclined to do a little more friendly and non-confrontational and patient Elmering. In turn,  newer Hams need to be more willing to show some respect to the veterans who have been in the trenches for a longer period of time, and not chafe when they aren't treated with the kid gloves they seem to expect and demand. If we don't learn to live with each other, it's going to be a lose-lose situation.

Enough of my kvetching - let's end this post on a high note with a really cool photograph. Brian Foltz WQ0A posted this to Facebook after completing his first CW QSO! Congratulations, Brian and thanks for posting the awesome photo!

Who doesn't love a nice set of paddles? And the lighting and composition are superb!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Are we communicating anymore?

Something that John K3WWP has been touching on in his diary entries lately and it got me thinking as well. Bob W3BBO and I also touch on this during our weekly BS sessions.

Whither the rag chew?

If my memory is accurate, back in 1979, when I was a Novice, just about all my QSOs were rag chews, band conditions permitting. You'd meet someone new, or a friend, on the air and there were certain things you relayed. You always gave a brief description of your equipment and antenna, of course. From there you might get into a discussion about the weather or whatever. But they were conversations! And especially with DX contacts you might get a photo of something or other along with your QSL card to see how the fellow at the other end of the QSO lived.

My first award/certificate was for being a certified member of the RCC or Rag Chewer's Club. It was available through the ARRL and again, if I remember correctly, you earned it by submitting a QSL from a QSO that lasted 1/2 hour or longer. There were plenty of those, they were a dime a dozen.

I look at my log book these days, and I have plenty of Sprint QSOs, POTA QSOs, and a smattering of other contest QSOs like CQ WW DX  and ARRL DX - but not many rag chews.

Why is that? It's a paradox. We're communicating more, but at the same time we're communicating less. I listen to the POTA guys who check into Marv K2VHW's "Middlesex County Chat Group Net" every night and they'll tell the tale how they made XXX number of QSOs that day. A nice achievement to be sure, but are they (myself included) communicating anything? Usually it's something like "W2LJ TU UR 559 BK", and of course, my reply is not much more - so let's move on to the next contact, please.

In the days of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other social media, we Hams pride ourselves as having been "the first social media", but it seems we aren't so social, anymore. Now granted, since I hardly ever pick up a microphone, it's probably a very different story on the phone side of things, but on the CW side, rag chews seem to be going the way of the Dodo.

So I am going to make a pledge. In my meager on-the-air time, I am going to try and have at least one or two rag chews per week. I doubt that will change anything, but as Confucius once said, "Every journey of a thousand miles begins with one step".

See you on the air!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

I sometimes wonder

if there will ever be another generation like "The Greatest Generation"?

Life for them was no picnic. My Dad was born in 1921, my Mom in 1929. They lived through the Great Depression, only to have that end with WWII.  It was like they couldn't catch a break. While it wasn't a cakewalk, my grandparents on my Mom's side were practically (almost) self sufficient. My grandfather was a carpenter by trade, but at home he raised turkeys, my grandmother raised chickens. They had a prodigious garden and a cherry and pear tree on their property. Being immigrants of strong Polish stock, they knew how to provide for themselves and their family.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, so many young men and women stepped up to the plate without a second thought.  That included my Dad and every single one of my uncles (and I had PLENTY of uncles) from both sides of my family served, save for one who had a medical condition that would not get him past the Army physical. They knew what their duty was, they knew what was at stake. They took the yoke upon their shoulders and bore it with exemplary bravery and dignity ...... and they persevered and were ultimately victors in the battle to save the world from fascism. 

My Dad, somewhere in the crowd of American G.I.s coming home from Europe aboard the Queen Mary.

They came home, started families and businesses, or went on to work for companies and they gave birth to one of the greatest economies the world would ever know. Their economy would aid in the rebuilding of the European continent from the ravages of war. Their generation gave birth to the Baby Boomer generation, of which I am part. Here's a staggering statistic that is sometimes hard for me to wrap my mind around - when my Dad passed away in 2001, WWII veterans were dying at a rate of 1,000 per day. It's hard to truly comprehend just how many young men and women served in our military during that conflict.

So we remember "The Greatest Generation", on this, the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. We were blessed by their presence, and we can truly say that without them, we would not be here today, and we would not have the freedoms with which we are blessed.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to save the very least!

Why the need?

I come across this so many times on the internet;

"Stations won't work me because I'm QRP!"

Dude ..... why the heck are you even telling them you're running QRP?  That is the biggest mistake you can make, especially in a contest. Don't wear a "QRP Badge of Honor". It's not going to get you much, if anything. You are just another station in an ocean of stations. Maybe a dolphin swimming in a pod of Humpback whales, but you're just another sea creature. Don't obsess about your signal or project to yourself how you're going to be heard at the other end.

For all you know, propagation may be such that you're 59 or 599 at the receiving end. I once worked a station in Madison, WI with a Rockmite at 250 milliWatts. He would not believe me when I told him what my rig was, and told me I was 599+++. Other times you may be 55 or 559, or worse, at the other end. YOU DON'T KNOW, YOU'RE NOT THERE! 

So if you hear a station you want to work .......call them! If they hear you, fine. Work them and move on. If they don't hear you after a number of tries, move on and work someone else and come back at a later time. Propagation may change and maybe you stand a better shot later. As Kenny Rogers famously sang, "You've got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em!" Don't frustrate yourself needlessly just because that 30 over 9 station can't hear you.

Telling the world you're running QRP is not going to give you an edge or win you any friends or influence people. Be happy with your accomplishments AFTER you've made them and just keep plugging away.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

It's Friday! (And some important news at the bottom of the post)

 You know what that means!

Contests:

SP DX RTTY Contest -  http://www.pkrvg.org/strona,spdxrttyen.html

Helvetia Contest -  https://www.uska.ch/events/uska-helvetia-contest-concours-helvetia-hf/

Florida QSO Party - http://floridaqsoparty.org/rules/

BARTG Sprint 75 - http://bartg.org.uk/wp/bartg-sprint75-contests/

10-10 Int. Spring Contest, Digital - http://www.ten-ten.org/index.php/activity/2013-07-22-20-26-48/qso-party-rules

Special Events: (Lots this weekend!)

04/27/2024 | Bolivar Lighthouse

Apr 27, 1600Z-2300Z, K5S, Port Bolivar, TX. Beaumont Amateur Radio Club. 7.220 14.250 28.405 146.520. Certificate. Beaumont Amateur Radio Club , 4839 Hwy 326N, Kountze, TX 77625. w5rin.com

04/27/2024 | Celebration of the Club's 85th Anniversary at the Cox Science Center

Apr 27, 1400Z-2100Z, W4HAW, West Palm Beach, FL. West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Group. 7.250 14/250 21.250 28.250. QSL. WPBARG, P.O. Box 7623, West Palm Beach, FL 33405-7623. wpbarg.org

04/27/2024 | HAMS for PanCAN

Apr 27-Apr 28, 0200Z-2300Z, N3P/PanCan, New Kensington, PA. Skyview Radio Society. 3.960. 7.172. Certificate. Skyview Radio Society, N3P, 2335 Turkey Ridge Rd., New Kensington, PA 15068. This special event's purpose is to raise awareness of the PanCAN resources for patients and families affected by pancreatic cancer. All contacts are on SSB. rybar1949@gmail.com or https://www.skyviewradio.net

04/27/2024 | International Marconi Day 2024

Apr 27, 1700Z-2300Z, W1M, Rochester, NY. ROC-HAM RADIO NETWORK. 20M/14.313 10M/28.405 Allstar2585,47620,47918,531310. QSL. W2JLD/JOHN DERYCKE, 85 AMHERST ST, APT2, Rochester, NY 14607. roc-ham.net

04/27/2024 | International Marconi Day Award Station

Apr 27, 1300Z-2100Z, K3S, Baltimore, MD. Nuclear Ship Savannah ARC. 7.1 14.1 21.1 28.1. QSL. K3LU, 980 PATUXENT ROAD, Odenton, MD 21113. Single transmitter SSB and CW aboard N/S Savannah. Please check spotting networks for frequencies. Info on QRZ.com qrz.com/db/k3s

04/27/2024 | MERT20 Special Event

Apr 27, 1200Z-2359Z, KG4NXO, Ocala, FL. Marion County Emergency Management. 14.262 7.262; D-STAR 146.790 REF-037; 3.862. Certificate & QSL. Kraig Pritts, 6637 NE 5th Lane, Ocala, FL 34470. www.mert20.org

04/27/2024 | N1D - Number One Dawgs

Apr 27-Apr 28, 1700Z-1700Z, N1D, Athens, GA. Radio Club at the University of GA. 3.925 7.250 14.200. QSL. Athens Radio Club, P.O. Box 782, Athens, GA 30603. Celebrating the National Championship University of Georgia football team. We will be operating from the Tate Center, adjacent to Sanford Stadium. https://www.athensradioclub.org

04/27/2024 | N3P/WQ3Q Bonus Station of HAMS for PanCAN

Apr 27, 0900Z-1700Z, N3P/WQ3Q, New Kensington, PA. Skyview Radio Society. 3.960. 7.172. Certificate & QSL. Skyview Radio Society - N3P/WQ3Q, 2335 Turkey Ridge Rd., Upper Burrell, PA. This special event's purpose is to raise awareness of the PanCAN resources for patients and families affected by pancreatic cancer. This bonus station is for an additional contact recognition for participants who can make contact with this remote station's location. All contacts are on SSB. rybar1949@gmail.com or https://www.skyviewradio.net

And now for some news - last night, Martin Jue K5FLU put out the following announcement;

Dear Fellow Hams and Friends,                   

It is with a sad heart as I write this letter.

As many of you have heard by now, MFJ is ceasing its on-site production in Starkville, Mississippi on May 17, 2024.  This is also the same for our sister companies’ Ameritron, Hygain, Cushcraft, Mirage and Vectronics.

 Times have changed since I started this business 52 years ago.  Our product line grew and grew and prospered.  Covid changed everything in businesses including ours.  It was the hardest hit that we have ever had and we never fully recovered. 

I turned 80 this year.  I had never really considered retirement but life is so short and my time with my family is so precious.

 I want to thank all of our employees who have helped build this company with me over the years.  We have many employees who have made MFJ their career for 10, 20, 30, 40 and more years. 

 We are going to continue to sell MFJ products past May 17, 2024.  We have a lot of stock on hand. We will continue to offer repair service work for out-of-warranty and in-warranty units for the foreseeable future. 

 Finally, a special thanks to all of our customers and our dealers who have made MFJ a worldwide name and a profitable business for so many years.  You all are so much appreciated.

         

                                                                                            Sincerely Yours, 73s

                                                                                            Martin F. Jue, K5FLU

I've owned various MFJ products in over 40 years of operating. In fact, the antenna tuner for my Novice station back in 1979 was my first MFJ product purchase. In all the MFJ products that I have owned, I only had problems with two and both were self-fixable. An antenna switch where I had to reposition one of the contacts, and my MFJ-1982LP antenna where I had to re-solder a connection in the UNUN. Despite having to do that, the 1982LP remains my favorite "go to" antenna for portable operations (if there's enough room! Hi!)  I would never call any MFJ product that I've ever owned "a lemon". 

Over the past few years, my MFJ-1982LP has been THE antenna for the CW station in SPARC Field Days. Our results and our placement in the standings are in no small way due to the MFJ-1982 LP that I own and the MFJ-1982HP that Dave KD2FSI owns and deploys for the SSB station. Basically, it comes down to this - if we can hear' 'em, we can work 'em - and in the end, what more can you ask for?

If you've ever visited any Amateur Radio e-mail reflector, or visited any Amateur Radio social media site, you know that MFJ has not always received kind treatment. I've always cringed at the moniker "Mighty Fine Junk" and I often felt that a lot of the disparaging comments posted and published about MFJ were to fulfill the need for retaliation or revenge by dissatisfied customers rather than being constructive in any shape, way or form. If you search this blog for "MFJ", you'll find nary a single post in twenty years worth of posts that disparages MFJ or their products.

So far, all I've seen are condolences about the passing of MFJ. I hope it stays that way and that the nay-sayers and Negative Nancy's have the decency to keep their mouths shut and take the high road - but you and I both know that won't happen.

Personally, I'd like to thank Martin and his company for their dedication and service to the Amateur Radio community for so many years. Enjoy your retirement, Martin - you certainly deserve it!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Another opinion piece

which will get me mixed, or maybe mostly negative reviews. But that's OK, it's just me cogitating.

Yesterday we had our monthly VE session. We had five candidates and all were successful. Five new Technicians, one of which was a young man of about 10 -12 years of age. We also had one Tech come in and upgrade to General - but this post is not about that.

With the question pool for the Amateur Extra class license changing in July, I've gotten a lot of questions about it and a lot of people convinced they should upgrade to Extra by the end of June. Not only that, but I am seeing so many people upgrade so quickly. Some will come in successive three months in a row in order to go from Tech to Extra. 

By now you might be thinking "Where is this going?" or "How can this be a bad thing?" or maybe even "OK, pudding brain, what's got you going now?"

This rush to upgrade is a product of the VE System, IMHO.  It's never been easier to get a license or upgrade your license class than ever before. No more going to the FCC, and in many cases, having to set time aside and travel long distances to do so. A good thing, right? YES! But maybe too good of a thing?

Here's what I mean. Back when I took my Novice test in November of 1978, I had to wait until January 1979 to get my call sign from the FCC. Even though the Novice license became a renewable thing, I was of the old mindset of the need to upgrade to General within a year. I did that six months later in June of 1979. But here's the catch ....... I remained a General for the next four years! I did not upgrade to Advanced until some time in 1983. I spent those years operating, learning, making friends and in general, just enjoying the hobby. After I upgraded to Advanced, I remained in that license class for another eleven years until I eventually became an Extra in 1994 - some fifteen years after I was originally licensed. And my Extra Class exam was the only one taken under the VE System, which I am not knocking, obviously. My point it was the first time that I did not have to travel to Manhattan or Langhorne, PA to enter an FCC office.

Let's face it, going to the FCC was a royal pain in the butt. But in its own way it kind of forced many Hams to slow down, smell the roses and enjoy your license class privileges for what they were. I'm sure for not all of us, but for most of us, there was no self imposed deadline to upgrade as fast or quickly as was possible.

And in that time, if you were active, you learned a lot. Either through an Elmer, if you were lucky enough to have one, or through trial and error as I did. Looking back on it, when I was a Novice and even a new General, I didn't know jack. I knew the theory and I knew the basics, but I still had a lot to learn. And I did, by joining a club and watching other Hams and talking with other Hams and always listening, listening and more listening. And by building Heathkits - learning how to solder, identify and measure components, how to read a schematic and all that other fun stuff.

These days, it seems like so many candidates are more consumed with upgrading, and only learning answers to questions without even bothering to learn the reasoning and why and wherefore behind the question. As a result, I see this with a lot, certainly not all, but a lot of new Extras who, if asked, could not build a dipole if you gave them a supply of wire, feed line and insulators. And even worse, some who wouldn't even know where to go and look up the procedure for doing so. 

The purpose of this post is not to condemn upgrading your license class. Far from it, upgrading is a fantastic and noble thing, However, don't make it your end all and be all in Amateur Radio, just so you can flaunt your credentials that you're an Amateur Extra.  To put it another way, you can purchase and own the latest "smart" refrigerator that does everything for you, including walking the dog. But if there's nothing inside of it, what good is it? Take the time to stuff that fridge with food, so that you can enjoy fantastic and delicious meals for years to come.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Tagging along .....for now.

First off, let me reiterate something I think that all of you who read this blog already know - first and foremost I'm an HF guy. That is my main source of activity in Amateur Radio. I love connecting with other parts of the world using RF energy, especially at QRP power levels. I've not been a big VHF/UHF person. I do keep one in the car, of course, for nets and socializing with friends. The only other serious use I've made of VHF was when I used to utilize 2 Meters for the uplink to RS-10/11.

The club to which I belong, the South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club, had a meeting the other night. I did not attend. The guest speaker from Yaesu and the topic of discussion was hooking our repeater to something called Wires-X.  I believe that's some sort of repeater controller / node linking hardware/software combo that will allow many different things to happen. 

To be honest with you, that doesn't excite me a that much. WIRES-X, DMR, FUSION, DSTAR, ALLSTAR - it's all just a bunch of alphabet soup to me. I am a dinosaur, a relic, an anachronism. I like analog, and I prefer that my radios generate RF, which then travels through the atmosphere to be captured by another radio at the other end of the connection.  Once you start hooking things up to the internet and use hot spots and all other means of "artificial propagation" my eyes get glassy and my mind goes numb. I have used Echolink a few times and my reaction is best summed up with one word - "meh".

That said - that's me. That may be the way the world is going and that's fine. I know there's a world of Ops out there who use these methods to communicate and it makes them quite happy - and in turn, that makes me happy for them. There's absolutely nothing wrong with any of these new technologies, they're just not my bag. Like I said, I'm a dinosaur. So as long as I can communicate on our repeater (and others) with my ancient and outmoded analog radios, I'll be a happy camper. The day that's no longer possible, and that I would be forced to purchase some kind of transceiver capable of digital communications is the day I give up VHF/UHF forever.

Kind of goes against the "pioneering spirit" I guess - but that's just me.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

QRP Sucks!

I see this in so many places, but particularly on the POTA Facebook page - often uttered after failed attempts to activate a park. It's frustrating to see, but I have to keep reminding myself that it's a subjective statement.

The better question is - "Does QRP work?"

And the answer is yes! ........... and no.

As I've stated before, QRP is a mindset. If you go into it thinking "Woe is me! I only have 5 stinking Watts to work with!" - well, then you're probably going to fail. I'm probably preaching to the choir out there, but if you're a newbie to QRP, then this treatise is for you!

In reality, if you look at the math ............

If 100 Watts out gives you an S9 signal (on a perfectly calibrated S Meter) on the receiving end, then reducing the power by 4 times to 25 Watts will bring you down to S8 on the receiving end.  Reducing power by another 4 times to approximately 6 Watts will bring you down to S7. Only two S units! One more Watt less will mean diddly at this point.

Mathematics aside, there are other factors that can insure your success. One HUGE one is putting up the best antenna that you can. Some of the antenna arrangements that I see being implemented are not what I would choose under the same circumstance. Coil shortened verticals require a good ground plane. Mounting one on a vehicle or very close to salt water are the ideal. Planting one on the ground that consists of poor soil with perhaps only one or two radials is a recipe for disappointment. If at all possible, a wire in a tree or supported by some kind of portable mast mashup is much preferable, at least in my mind and my experience.  EFHW, dipole, sloper, or whatever, as high as you can get it will always bring you the best bang for your buck.

Equipment aside, you need to have a decent knowledge of how propagation works and what bands to get on or stay away from. 80 Meters during the day will leave you in the dust. Conversely, the higher bands at night MAY be open to some places, but night time IS a better time to stick to 40 and 80 Meters.

Then there's the mental aspect of it all. Like I said at the top, if you go into a QRP operation expecting to fail, the odds are you will.  If you require instant gratification for each time you tap the key or squeeze the mic, then QRP is not for you. If you have patience and can accept the possibility of not being heard by everyone in the world, then you're better suited for QRP. I've said many times that the mindset of a QRPer has to be, "I'm just another fish in the Amateur Radio sea. I may be a smaller fish, but I am just another fish." I've been a QRPer for so long that I don't even think of my power level when I turn on the rig. If I hear someone and work them, that's fine. If I don't, then that's OK too. There's always another time and another opportunity.

Success in QRP requires a good antenna, good knowledge of propagation and band conditions (where to be and when) and the proper attitude. If you have these, you're good to go, if not, then the best I can say is "QRP works for me, but maybe not for thee."

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

When is it not fun anymore?

This is a personal "rant" and all my own humble and probably misguided opinion, but I'm going to commit it to print, anyway. I'm probably totally wrong, and not many will agree with me, and I'll probably get some hate mail, but so be it., and here it goes: There are some things in Amateur Radio that started out as great ideas, intended as fun, but seem to have morphed into and have taken on lives of their own.

A case in point - NPOTA in 2016. Now don't get me wrong - I absolutely LOVED NPOTA and I have often stated that 100 years from now, it will still be one of the best things that ever came out of the ARRL. It was designed to be a celebration of the Centennial of the National Park System - right? Go out, get some fresh air and have some fun, enjoy being in the Great Outdoors and maybe learn a thing or two about the park or entity that you were operating from - right?

Well, soon it became how many entities can one activate in a day, or a weekend, or a week. I guess the roving thing is fun for you competitive types, but it seemed like it was missing the point to me. When I mentioned this to one Ham of Facebook, who was lamenting that he was not able to activate as many entities in one day as he had planned, I was summarily told to "go jump off a bridge".

The same thing seems to be happening to POTA, another program I dearly love. Look on social media and there are just so many posts of people griping about pileup behavior, ops calling other ops "lids" and the like. How can it be that much fun if you're getting your panties all bunched up in a wad?!? 

I look at FISTS, the SKCC and the NAQCC and sometimes it seems like the QSOs have become just a hunt for operator numbers for awards. Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that, but each of these organizations were founded to provide a FUN way to promote the use of CW, QRP or in the case of the NAQCC - both.  Exchanging member numbers is fine, but that shouldn't be the end all of the QSO.  I can't tell you how many times a QSO has ended shortly after I have given away the coveted piece of info - my membership number.  Whatever happened to the art of the rag chew? I have to state for the record that some of the best rag chews I've ever had never had a membership number as part of the conversation.

I guess I'm just not the competitive type.  When I enter QRPTTF, or FOBB or even when I came up with the idea for the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt, I didn't and don't go out thinking that I'm going to win or even place high in the standings. I go out with the idea of enjoying the ability to get outside get some sunshine and fresh air, have fun and forgetting about the everyday worries of life for a few hours.

I know, I'm weird. Please forgive the rant.

73 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Some post-mortem Field Day thoughts

While I understand the mindset of those who really consider Field Day to be an uber-contest and go whole hog........ as I get older, I see the wisdom of keeping it simple.  A few wire antennas, a few low power portable rigs make set up in 90F weather much easier and by the same token, tear down is much less of a horror after being up for 30+ hours. Taking down hexbeams, yagis and makeshift towers is a younger man's game. Definitely. Plus you get the added bonus of having visitors say, "You were talking to California (or wherever) with just 5 Watts and some wire?"

CW speeds - this one might be a ticking time bomb. If you want to run QRQ - by all means, go ahead. But if you expect a lot of responses on Sunday morning at 9:00 AM from guys who have been at this continuously since Saturday at 2:00 PM - I think you're barking up the wrong tree. There's no disgrace at keeping CW speeds at a more realistic 25 WPM or less neighborhood. And for Pete's sake, if a guy is calling "CQ FD" at about 18 WPM, QRS for him, please! You're not impressing anyone by continuing to send at 40 WPM. You're just annoying the rest of us by you forcing him to ask you to repeat your exchange for 5 or 6 times.

For those of you, who like us, run a club effort ....... I really recommend N3FJP's logging software. We're lucky enough to have Ron N2LCZ, who is a networking guru set up our logging system . He does it so that we're all tied into a portable network. We log at laptops and this all feeds into a master desktop acting as a server. I couldn't set this system up if my life depended on it, but Ron makes it so that the entire FD team can see our collective effort at each and every transmitting position. And it makes reporting results to the ARRL as easy as falling off a log.

Don't discount digital ops. While I'm not a devotee of FT8 or whatever the digital mode du jour is - they are an invaluable tool. Dave KD2FSI was our DX King, working into New Zealand, Hawaii and other distant locals with the digital modes. Plus ........ while they might not everybody's cup of tea, they also seem to attract the younger crowd and that is definitely a plus.  A youngster of say, 15 or 16 may think Morse Code is cool and may really be attracted to the paddles and keyer,. I know this first hand, as I have witnessed it. On the other hand, that same youngster will undoubtedly feel right at home and like an old pro behind the keys of a laptop. I may not be the one to do it, but sit with a youngster and guide him/her through a connection with the other side of the country (or world) in their first few attempts and you may have hooked someone for life. Getting that youngster to realize he/she can enjoy SSB and CW can come later.

Field Day is the most excellent opportunity to get inactive Hams on the air again. For whatever reason, some Ham's enthusiasm for the hobby can dry up. Raising a family, working a job (or two) might leave no time for sitting behind the radio. Let them sit down and make a few contacts and you're going to help re-ignite that old flame. It works....... I've seen guys who have not been on the air for decades, but have kept their licenses active look at my KX3, see what it can do and they're almost salivating! "THAT little rig does all this?!?"

Besides being a contest, Emergency Communication exercise or whatever ....Field Day is perhaps our biggest PR opportunity of the year. Take advantage of it.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Not trying to be political or controversial

 Not trying to get involved in the middle of anything. It just goes to show that there ARE times when "old fashioned" analog radio is the ultimate backup "when all else fails".

When the ARRL introduced their "When All Else Fails" placard and bumper sticker a few years ago - it resulted in chuckles in some places.

"Radio - who needs it? We have cell phones and the internet now!"

"Radio is old fashioned and obsolete ...... Amateur Radio is still a thing?"

The BBC might not be Amateur Radio, but they have resurrected some of their shortwave service. As long as there is an ionosphere, analog radio will NEVER be obsolete!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Well ...... duh......Captain Obvious!

 This came down from the FCC - over the weekend - which is kind of unusual in itself.

Amateur & Personal Radio Users Reminded Not to Use Radios in Crimes

Full Title: Warning: Amateur and Personal Radio Services Licensees and Operators May Not Use Radio Equipment to Commit or Facilitate Criminal Acts

Document Type(s): Public Notice

Bureau(s): Enforcement

Description:

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued today an advisory to remind licensees and operators in the Amateur and Personal Radio Services that they may not use radio equipment to commit or facilitate crimes.

DA/FCC #: DA-21-73

I understand that this came out as a result of the events which took place at the Capital last week. And I have read that various media sources had reported that "Ham radio" was used to coordinate the events that took place. While I fully agree with the statement from the FCC, I have several concerns.

1) I doubt the media even knows what "Ham Radio" is. They see a person using a radio and it's a toss up as to whether it's going to be reported as "Ham radio", "CB" or whatever else they can think of. Remember the old Olympus camera commercial? "I can't tell an f-stop from a bus stop!"

2) I know we have our share of whack jobs, as the Amateur Radio community is a microcosm of society at large, and I have to accept there may be members of our community using our resources for illegal activities, but something about this doesn't pass the smell test with me.

3) Don't assume that just because radios such as the Baofengs may have been used, that these were Hams. We all know the problems and headaches that the proliferation of these handhelds have caused by unlicensed users intruding on our frequencies. And you can buy these thing from Amazon, for crying out loud.

Look, I'm just Joe Ham in the peanut seats, but I think this would have been better worded and would have had more impact if the FCC had penned something like:

"The use of the Amateur Radio Service or any of the other personal radio services to facilitate a crime is a federal offense and will be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law."

In my humble opinion, this not only reminds persons already using these services but is also fair warning to outsiders that "pirating" our frequencies is not a matter to be taken lightly.

I'm probably wrong, but to me it just feels like we're having the finger pointed at us. And unless it can be proven that Amateur Radio ops were indeed a driving force behind those unfortunate events, it's a finger pointing that is unwarranted.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Debating

 I keep debating in my head whether or not I should post about this - but I think I have something of value to offer here, so I am going to go ahead. What's that old saying? "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!".

This post is going to deal with questions - specifically questions asked in our Amateur Radio community.

Last weekend I asked a question in a comment on Facebook. It was a popular Amateur Radio related topic page - which shall remain nameless. Admittedly, I didn't read the original post too well. It was lengthy and I kind of just glossed over it. My fault 10000% and I freely admit it - and I freely admitted it on the Facebook page. However, the question I asked seemed innocuous enough and I expected a three, maybe four word answer. That's all it would have required.

Instead, I got pilloried for even bothering to ask. "Didn't you read the post? AND YOU STILL ASKED THAT QUESTION?  SERIOUSLY? Do you know how many times we get asked that? Do you know how FRUSTRATING that is?"

That's not the word for word diatribe I received, but you get the gist. When I tried to explain why I asked what I asked, it got even worse. I responded (as I will explain below) and for my efforts, someone thought it was cute and funny enough to post this image of a crying towel.

I tried to explain that questions are a part of life. In my own life, I get asked a million questions a day - I know, that's an exaggeration, but it feels that way sometimes. People don't read and people don't listen. Sometimes they're tired, sometimes they're hurried and in a rush, sometimes their minds are focused on other weighty matters. It happens.

But that is NEVER is an excuse to be rude or condescending. One of the hallmarks of excellent Customer Service and just polite human behavior is to answer questions courteously and with a smile.  Even if you're screaming in your mind and ripping your hair out in your mind because it's the millionth time  ...... be kind.

One of the things that drives me crazy the most is when someone, particularly an Amateur Radio neophyte, will ask a very simple and easy question about something and someone answers with "RTFM", or says something like "How did you pass your test?". Is it so hard to give a courteous and polite answer? If you don't have the time to give a detailed answer then suggest a publication or location where they can find the answer and perhaps gain a little knowledge in the process. There's NEVER an excuse for being rude.

If you're frustrated and tired of hearing the same question over and over ...... grow a set and get over it, or better yet keep your mouth shut. If you're in a place or doing something that you really enjoy but part of that involves answering questions from maybe hundreds of people ..... well, that's life and part of what you got yourself into.  Always remember that other old saying, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Be kind. Always. It's a good rule to live by.

73 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!