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!

Idiot !!!!!!!!

 Of all the bone-headed, idiotic things that I have done ....... I realized that I have missed the deadline to send in my Field Day results to the ARRL!  I feel like such a moron.

I've let down my fellow SPARC members. Argh!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Ya gotta wonder

I decided to make a foray into the "MM" contest this afternoon. Not to compete, of course, just to hand out points.  As a QRP'er, a QSO with me was worth 10 points. The exchange was "RST" and "Continent" and if you are a QRP'er, you were to add a "Q" at the end. so for example, my exchange was "5NN NA Q".

A few stations waited for the entire exchange and actually thanked me for the "Q" because they realized it granted them extra points.  But there were more than just a few speed demons who didn't wait and started calling CQ again as soon as they heard the "5NN NA". The KX3's QSK is fast enough where you can tell who got the entire exchange and who didn't. In their haste they missed the fact that would have been able to claim a 10 point QSO. Oh, well ..........

Other than the MM Contest there didn't seem to be much activity on the bands .I called CQ near the 20 Meter band QRP Watering Hole for a bit and got a reply from Ty W4TYD. But QSB came in and killed that QSO pretty darn quickly. Sorry, Ty, that we couldn't have somewhat of a rag chew.

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

I did not 13 Colonies this year.

I'll not hesitate to say that the 13 Colonies Event has become a mainstay in the operating year. Amateurs from around the world try to work the 13 States that were the original 13 Colonies as well as WM3PEN and GB13COL for the sweep. You earn a very nice certificate which makes beautiful wall paper for the shack. On top of that, 13 operators and organizers do an outstanding job to pull this off, year after year. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to make something like this work.

All that said, I did not join the hunt this year. More likely than not, my ambition level this year was left kind of flat after that bout of stomach trouble that I had experienced. That, and finding the time. Working full time makes it hard to find the time to work all 13 plus the bonus stations.

And I got annoyed by some of the comments I saw on social media. I know, I shouldn't allow morons to get to me, but some did. The whining, the complaining that this station wasn't on and this station wouldn't do my favorite mode, etc. It just made me weary.

The 13 Colonies event has certainly grown with more ops providing more modes than ever. A few years back, when I accomplished a sweep, not all the states were on the air with CW.  Instead of moaning and groaning, I picked up the microphone and worked the ones I needed on SSB. That was disappointing for me - but it was what it was. If you want something badly enough, you do what you have to do to get it done. Crying and threatening to take your ball home because the game's not being played the way you want it is a bit ridiculous.

And then, of course, there are the jammers and the pirates. These idiots just can't be happy with other people having fun. They have to make everything about themselves.

Maybe next year, I'll join the fray again. When you feel well, your level of BS Tolerance goes way up. I hope it will be that way next year.

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!

QST - To All Radio Amateurs

SB QST @ ARL $ARLB039 ARLB039 Rule Making Petition to FCC Calls for Vanity Call Sign Rule Changes

ZCZC AG39 QST de W1AW ARRL Bulletin 39 ARLB039 From ARRL Headquarters Newington CT October 27, 2016 To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB039 ARLB039 Rule Making Petition to FCC Calls for Vanity Call Sign Rule Changes

The FCC is inviting comments on a Petition for Rule Making (RM-11775) from a Nevada radio amateur that seeks changes to the rules governing the Amateur Radio Vanity Call Sign Program. Christopher LaRue, W4ADL, of North Las Vegas, is proposing that any licensee obtaining a vanity call sign be required to keep it for the full license term. LaRue contends in his petition that excessive and frequent vanity call sign filings are hampering the ability of other qualified licensees to obtain vanity call signs in one of the more desirable 1 x 2 or 2 x 1 formats. LaRue said that since the FCC dropped the fee to file for a vanity call sign, some applicants are taking advantage by regularly obtaining new call signs, thereby keeping them out of circulation.

The petition can be found on the web in PDF format at, https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1004220986407/Petition%20.pdf .

"Some are changing call signs almost monthly, just to keep the newer code-free Extra class operators from obtaining a shorter call sign," he said in his petition. "I even saw an older operator that said he does it all the time and has not even owned a radio in over 6 years. When I looked him up, he has had 16 different [call signs] in 18 months."

LaRue said his proposed minor rule change would require any licensee applying for and obtaining an Amateur Radio vanity call sign "be required to keep it for the duration of the license, which is currently 10 years."

He said this would "alleviate a lot of the stress on the ULS system and manpower requirements" at the FCC. "It will also keep inactive amateurs from changing call signs regularly, thereby tying up call signs for 2 years after dismissal of said call."

Interested parties may comment using the FCC Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) at, https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/ . Comments are due within 30 days of the October 26 posting date. NNNN /EX

I had no idea this was occurring!  Takes all kinds, I guess.

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

Sometimes you can just feel your HBP climbing.

Saw this on Facebook, on the ARRL National Parks on the Air page.  The original post was a question:
"How much power (wattage) do you use for NPOTA QSO's? (Question is for both activators and chasers)?"

I answered with:
"Worked Bill AB4BJ in Utah today from NJ. 5W SSB. When activating, 5W CW."

My comment was immediately followed by someone who said:  
"100W - 95% of the time for chasing. 50 to 100W activating. QRP is unfair to chasers."

Saywhatnow? 

"QRP is unfair to chasers?" How the heck can QRP be unfair to chasers?

If you understand propagation, then a QRP signal will be loud to someone, somewhere.  As I've stated SO many times before, QRP does NOT automatically equal "weak signal".  I gave, as an example, just last Sunday, when I worked that N7 station from Seattle, WA in the Peanut Power Sprint.  His 5 Watts almost blew my earbuds out.  He was 20 over 9, if he was anything. And there were quite a few times that I got the comment "FB SIGS" during a QSO when I was using 5 Watts (but not mentioning that fact).  Heck, I'm sure you have, too.  In fact, I'm sure every QRPer has heard that at least once - probably many, many times more.

So, if QRP is unfair to chasers, how about the times that I can't hear the activators running 100 Watts?  Do I blame them for running "low power"? Should everyone run the full 1.5 kW?  Would that be fair and satisfy everyone?

Bottom line - It is what it is. If you can hear 'em then try to work 'em. If you can't hear 'em - what are you worrying about?

Or maybe it might be better if certain people went back to the ol' study manual and brushed up on that chapter about propagation.

I just don't understand comments like that..

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

Oh my! This IS disturbing!

If you haven't had the chance - go over to Jeff KE9V's blog "Perturbation" and read his post "Broken Trust".  Pay particular attention to, and please click on his link to read the blog post by N6PSE.

All I can say is, "Wow!!!"

Call me naive, but I had no idea that such shenanigans occur. The very concept and idea are foreign to me.

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

CRUD! It happened again!

A few weeks ago, I was using the KX3 in the Jeep - and I wasn't careful.  At the end of my lunchtime session, I unplugged the antenna, paddles and ear buds, but not the battery.  I put the Lexan SideKX cover on and picked up the KX3 to put it in its protective pouch ...... only to find out it had grown a tail.

The battery was hanging, dangling by its connector from the power socket.

ARGH!

I thought I dodged a bullet as everything seemed OK.  I breathed a sigh of relief and carried on, until yesterday.  When I was in the Jeep again yesterday, and this time it just so happened that things were arranged in a way so that the cable from the battery was actually curling "up" as it made its way to the KX3 instead of laying relatively flat in relation to the transceiver.  The stiffness of the power cable was enough to lift the contacts of the power socket away from the circuit board, and cause the power issue - same as last time.

So it was back to the operating room and once again, I re-soldered the power socket back to the circuit board.  I spent more time with it this time; and instead of just using my regular vision, I donned my magnifying headset to make sure that the solder had flowed freely (and liberally - but not too much!) from the socket component (4 pads) to the circuit board.

This is not a well-known or much reported design issue.  This is a clumsiness issue on W2LJ's part - pure and simple.  I do have to wonder though, if it would have been better to use a through-hole socket in this instance.  But since it's not a a wide spread issue (if it were, you'd certainly see a lot of pee'ing and moaning about it on the Elecraft reflector), it is what it is.

W2LJ has to learn to be even less hasty in the future and to be more careful, as I know this socket was never intended to bear the weight of about a 1/2 pound of battery, literally hanging from it.

I might re-open it over the weekend and may spread a tiny bead of electronics approved RTV along the bottom edge of the jack where it rests against the circuit board, to act as a strain relief, in a manner of speaking.

Looking on the bright side, I didn't have to consult the construction manual, in order to read the steps for taking the top circuit board out of the housing.  I guess my short term memory is OK for now.

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!

A few thoughts about RC08.

First, propagation was good that morning.  Here's an image from the Reverse Beacon Network showing some of the skimmers that heard me calling CQ:

Actual stations in California, Saskatchewan and Alberta successfully completed QSOs, so my reach was even farther than the skimmers would indicate.

Secondly, I was surprised by the local ambient noise level.  I was sitting at approximately the middle of a sand spit jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, and I still had an S5 noise level.  I thought it would be way lower than that.  There were a few weak stations that I know were trying their hardest to work me.  I apologize for not being able to dig you out of the noise. Even though the Hook is commercially powered up for the Coast Guard station at the tip, most of the National Park Service buildings along the length of the Hook were still closed as the "season" hasn't started yet.  The service buildings that were open were solar powered. I just expected less noise - certainly not S5 on 40 Meters. My ambient noise level at home is lower than that!

I came home with a sunburn.  It was sunny and there was not a cloud in the sky and I completely forgot, or paid no mind to the fact that the UV rays from the sun would be bouncing off the water to all directions. I was only out for about 90 minutes or so, and I got red.  No big deal, as it wasn't painful or anything like that, but something to keep in mind should I head back for a re-activation later this year. If I do go back, it will be in the Autumn, after tourist season is over so as to avoid paying for parking.  What can I say? I'm as cheap as any other Ham!

Lastly, it came to my attention the other day that Cheesequake State Park is actually part of the National Park System's New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail (AA17), so that's yet another NPOTA activation that will take place later this year.  Perhaps as early as next month.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

A popular misconception

I saw this on Facebook:

Along with this comment:

"Why do we always congratulate the QRP operators...?!?! The ones who REALLY need congratulating are the guys/gals who smash the headphones to their head, desperately trying to make sense out of the distant RF they're hearing to make the QSO. The "skill" in QRP operation is not so much the operator employing it, but the operator trying to pull it out of the mud!"

So let's examine this for a bit ..... is this true?

A lot of times ..... yes.  A lot of time the credit should go to the stations that pull out our sometimes weak signals. And for these times, we offer a hearty "Thank You!"

However, there's a popular and stubborn misconception, or premise here at work here, if you will:

"QRP = Weak Signal"

Many times, this IS the case, but many times IT IS NOT.

This is where propagation and band conditions come into play, my friends.  And if you've spent any time at all on the HF bands, you would know better than to make the above statement, because a weak signal can be produced by any station. It's not necessarily an indicator of how much power they're running.

Many have been the times when I've had problems pulling a 100 Watt or better signal out of the muck. This could be due to the fact that the station I was trying to work was in the skip zone, the band on which we were working was only "so-so" that day, or for a plethora of other reasons.

Many have been the times when other QRPers have literally blown the cans off my ears with their 5 Watt signals (N9NE comes to mind, on a regular basis). So in the end, you really can't "'judge the book by its cover", nor make assumptions about the station based on the loudness of its signal.

The station that's pinning your needle just might be a QRPer, while the station that you can barely hear may be running a kilowatt.  It's all in the antenna, the band, and the ionosphere, and how all these elements are interacting at the moment.

So what's the lesson to be learned?  

1) Don't be afraid to try and work the weak ones.  I have been guilty of this myself.  There have been instances where I thought "Oh, this guy is never going to hear my 5 Watts!", only to find out that he was running 100 Watts, or better ........ but for whatever reason, he was hearing me much better than I was hearing him.

2) Propagation is not always reciprocal. (This is #1 in reverse.)  Just because the station you are hearing is 20 dB over 9 doesn't necessarily mean you will be heard equally as well at their end.  There may be a high background noise level on their end that you don't know about.  Yes, it IS frustrating as all get out, but don't beat yourself up because the "loud one" didn't hear you. Sometimes, it just works out that way.

3) Power is relative, but it's not an absolute. So as I've said so many times before, you should just forget that you're a QRPer. You're just another fish in the Amateur Radio sea. A smaller fish for sure, but just another fish. And sometimes, just sometimes, the smaller fish gets away with snagging the bait and swimming away to play another day, while the big fish gets snagged by the hook and ends up on the dinner plate.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Doctor and patient are doing fine

A few days ago, I went out to the car as I usually do, for some lunchtime QRP.  In my haste to get everything put away after I was done, I inadvertently knocked the external battery off the car seat onto the floor. The KX3 started to move, as it was still attached, but a quick hand stopped it, and all was well. Or so I thought.

Gear on the backseat of the Jeep.

Yesterday, I went out again, and this time the KX3 wouldn't turn on. No problem, I thought to myself, the battery was probably on its way out, as it has been a while since I have given it its last drink.  So last evening, while I was attending a CERT class on animal handling during declared emergencies, I had the battery plugged in at home, charging.

When I got home, around 10:00 PM, I tried reconnecting the battery to the KX3 to see if everything was OK.  Still no sign of life - my KX3 was still flat lining..  Hmmmmmm ........ could the battery have gone totally bad?

I carried the radio down to the shack 13.8V power supply.  Viola!  It turned on! 

And then immediately turned off.

My brain went into over drive. What the %(#@*#$ was going on ?!?

I dread sending stuff out for repair.  Don't know why, I just do.  I was in the professional photographic electronics repair biz for over 20 years. I have fixed studio strobes costing well over $12,000.00.  I have taken apart digital camera backs that cost more than a Mercedes Benz. I have stared down banks of charged capacitors storing up enough electrons to supply 6,400 Joules of energy in one pop - certainly I should be able to figure out a relatively minor KX3 repair? Right?

I rolled up my sleeves and got down to it.  Obviously, this was a power problem.  But why was the rig shutting down so quickly?  Internal short?  Bad connection somewhere? Then I noticed that if I wiggled the power plug a certain way, the radio would stay on.  My mind immediately flashed back to the battery falling incident from the other day.  I must have done something to the power socket.

The power socket is the black, boxy thing to the right.

The advantage of building the KX3 (if that's what you want to call it) is that you know how it goes together, so you're not frightened at the prospect of taking it apart.  You've seen it in all its naked glory and you lovingly put it together at least once, right?  So what's the big deal in taking it apart?

Well, when you built it roughly five years ago, some of the finer details of how it went together get muddled up in the old memory banks.  That's why it's good to never toss the build manual!  Within about 5 -7 minutes I had it apart and had the display circuit in my hand.  A little extra light and a lot of extra magnification from a magnifying glass confirmed my suspicion.

The power socket is a surface mount device, just about like everything else on that display/control circuit board. The weight of the battery tugged the socket enough to unmoor it from its assigned, tinned pads.  When I would wiggle the connector "down" towards the circuit board, everything worked.  As soon as I let downward pressure go, the connector would break contact from the circuit board again and the radio would appear dead.

I ran upstairs for a pair of scrubs and to wash my hands to prep for surgery. NO! Just kidding!

I changed my soldering station tip to the skinniest one that I have for when I work on SMD devices and I re-soldered that connector onto its pads. I took great care to add just a little "extra" solder just to make sure the connection is good, solid and won't come apart so easily in the future.

I hastily (I'll get back to that in a minute) put everything together and fired the radio up. Fixed! Problem solved! High fives and happy dances all around!

I will have to go back sometime over the weekend to remove the front plexiglass display window, though.  In my haste, I wasn't so careful about finger prints.  I'll have to go back and clean that up.  Yes, I know ...... call me anal.  I can't help it!

But as this blog post says - the patient (and more importantly, the doctor) are doing just fine! And even more importantly - no return trip to Aptos!

PROGNOSIS: Excellent!  Today's lunchtime QRP session netted the following:

N0TA - SOTA peak W0C/PR-082 (Squaw Mountain) in CO on 20 Meters.
VP5/AC0W - Turks and Caicos Islands on 20 Meters
CT9/OM3RM - Madeira Island on 20 Meters.
PJ2/NF9V - Curacao on 15 Meters.

I chased KH7Y in Hawaii who was absolutely booming into NJ on 15 Meters, but could not make myself heard. Just goes to show, you can't win them all!

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

First impressions of the Juentai JT-6188

If anyone out there is thinking of purchasing one - do yourself a favor - save your money and don't. At least for now.

I have rarely, if ever, run across a product in the Amateur Radio market that I would advise others to avoid like the plague. This may be the first.  The unit is innocent looking enough and after successfully using both Wouxun and Baofeng radios, it was a reasonable assumption (at least in my mind) that this little unit would be somewhat on par with those.  It's not.

The JT-6188 is small, compact, and not that hard to program (using a computer). It fits nicely in the car, doesn't use too much power and the audio output coming out of the speaker is loud - robustly loud. Of course, it's controllable with the volume knob.  The problem is the receive audio quality. On the dining room table, standing still, it's fine! Once installed and the car start moving? For some reason, it becomes garbled almost to the point of being unintelligible. At first, I thought it was a problem of the transmitting station not making it well into the repeater, but then I noticed even nearby repeaters with strong signals were hard to listen to while the car was moving. Switching out the Juentai with an HT revealed it wasn't an antenna or transmission line problem.

As a tiny little base rig - this is not a bad little unit. It has more "oomph" than your standard HT - about 20 Watts out at the High Power setting. As a mobile radio - it stinks, badly. A little "after the purchase" research revealed others reporting the same problem - but interestingly, others not. As always, hindsight is 20/20, and I guess I was blinded by the low price and convenience factor of not having to run power cables through the firewall to the battery.

I'm not going to toss it, as I can probably find a use for it someday. But it won't be in the car, and I guess I'll go back to using an HT connected to the external antenna along with a speaker mic.

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

Touchy subjects

In my almost 40 years as an Amateur Radio op, I have found there are certain "hot button" topics that should be avoided, if you can. And I ain't talking politics or religion, either. In no special order, here are five that I can think of, right off the bat:

1) Old "Took my license test at the FCC" examination system vs. new VE examination system

2) Code vs. No Code

3) QRP vs. QRO

4) Windows vs. any other OS

5) What constitutes being "A Real Ham".

I am sure there are many more that generate emotional and vociferous debate.  When I see one of these topics brought up on an e-mail reflector, my initial reaction is "Uh-oh, this is going to get bad." And sadly, usually it does. When emotions override reason, things can get ugly and feelings can get hurt. Somehow, keyboards seem to bring out the snarkiness in people.  It has become easier to type things and hit the "send" button, when you would never dare utter those same things to someone in a face to face conversation.

Mea culpa, I have been guilty of that myself.  However, authoring a blog (and the comments you receive) teaches you a few things along the way. You come to realize that words do indeed have consequences and that kindness, humility and gentleness are always good virtues to practice - especially when you want to leave them by the roadside and vent with a vengeance.

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

If you think today's pile ups are a zoo - just wait!

As the Brooklyn Dodger fans used to day, "Wait till next year!"

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!

A double edge sword

I'm not trying to brag here, or toot my own horn. But by virtue of living in New Jersey, I can't even count how many times I've worked into the Caribbean with 5 Watts or even QRPp power. Reaching that part of the world has NEVER been a problem for me.

Until, possibly, now.

K1N should be starting up very soon. Navassa Island is nestled  comfortably in territory that I have always reliably communicated with. But this little spit of land is so high on the DX wish list, that it rivals North Korea on some DX'ers most wanted list.

I expect nothing less than pandemonium in the near future. Expect mile wide pileups on the HF bands as everybody and their uncle try to work this DXpedition. So, while 5 Watts has never failed me up to now, I haven't decided my approach to K1N, yet. If I decide to jump into the fray very early, it will be with 100 Watts. However, I may also wait for the second half of the expedition, when a 5 Watt attempt may be more doable.

UPDATE: K1N is on the air! I am listening to them on 40 Meters on 7.023 MHz, Currently the pileup is going past 7.035 MHz.  I think there might be an issue for the 40 Meter QRP Fox hunt Tuesday night.

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!

What a blockhead!

That would be me.

I totally screwed up big time in the QRP Fox hunt tonight. After corresponding with Don NK6A, I agreed to be the lower Fox. So what did I do? I set up in the upper half.

And I didn't realize it even when someone notified me that we were both in the same half - I went up even higher!

Rookie mistake - totally my fault. My apologies to anyone I messed up.

I am going to go find a hole to crawl into, I feel like a moron.

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