Activity Night

At the South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club, we have two meetings a month, on the first and third Thursdays. The second meeting is our monthly Business Meeting, while the first one is "Activity Night". This was something that Marv K2VHW instituted as our Founding Club President. We got away from it for a while because of the pandemic. It's hard to have an activity when you can't meet in person. When I was s"elected" last year to be Club President, I made it my business to revitalize this.

Our Activity Night meetings are still hybrid, in person and on Zoom, so I try to keep it more of a learning experience rather than a hands on kind of thing so that everyone can benefit. So far we've had Activity Nights where we shared our experiences with the Reverse Beacon Network, how the National Traffic System works and how to send a radiogram, and a presentation on solar panels and controllers among other topics.

This past weekend, I was taken aback on a lot of the comments on social media referring to band conditions. "Who shut the bands off?" ......."Are the bands bad for everyone, or is it just my antenna?" ...... "My POTA activation was a complete bust!" and other comments like that.

We experienced a Coronal Mass Ejection and a series of geomagnetic storms and Hams didn't expect this? They didn't know about this? If you did more than just memorize answers for your Amateur Radio exam, this is basic knowledge. Surely, Techs must have a basic and rudimentary understanding of this, and Generals and Extras should be totally familiar with this. It appears not, from a lot of what I've read over the past few days.

For this SPARC Activity Night, we're going to have a very brief going over of our Field Day preparations, as we have one more Business Meeting before the big weekend. I want to spend the rest of the evening showing this YouTube video.

There are a few good PowerPoint presentations on the subject and a plethora of equally good videos. I chose this one firstly because it's only 22 minutes long, and I don't want to keep our club members occupied all night. Secondly, it treats the subject matter in "plain English" and doesn't get all esoteric, or go off on tangents. It's a very well done "meat and potatoes" kind of presentation, that I think will benefit our members who don't have HF rigs and are not all that familiar with HF operating.  Even for the VHF/UHF only people, this is good stuff to know and every Ham should at least be aware of the Sun and it's effect on our bands.

72 de Larry W2LLJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

FLARC Presentation - Part II

Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nzX9xgPL9Q

Again, here's the link for Part One:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdNDR--Z40Q&t=354s

If you like what you see, please give the videos a "thumbs up" and please consider subscribing to FLARC's YouTube channel - there's a lot of good stuff to be seen there!

I thank you for your time, and I've embedded both videos on my "Mixed Media" page, for archival purposes.

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

I was going to wait on this

And I'm still a bit hesitant, but I'll post it now, anyway.

Part One of my presentation to the Fairlawn Amateur Radio Club has been posted on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdNDR--Z40Q&t=352s

The second half has not been posted and this is kind of like an old movie serial cliff hanger. I'm not exactly sure when Part Two will be posted., but my point here is to suggest that you subscribe to FLARC's YouTube  channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUoeJg2WLdx1agnMWGE2M1A

Not to watch me, but because they've had a lot of good speakers including Joe Everheart, N2CX (SK), Joe Taylor K1JT,  Tim Duffy, K3LR and Alan W2AEW among others.  A lot of interesting topics have been discussed in a lot of excellent presentations. I've been doing some catch up, watching these on YouTube and I think you'll find them to be interesting and enjoyable as well.

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

A couple of "How To" FOBB videos

Good ones by Steve KF5RY and Myron WV0H.

   

Good stuff to keep in mind when planning portable ops.
72 de Larry W2LJ QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Some Skeeter Hunt videos

Amazing what you can find on You Tube!

2012


2014

2015

2016
My thanks to the videographers and my apologies for the shameless self promotion of the Skeeter Hunt!
72 de Larry W2LJ QRP - When you care to send the very least!

New kit offering

From QRP Labs (Hans Summers - with whom I've had the pleasure to work on the air) - a 5 Watt Transceiver Kit.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, "5 Watt transceivers have been done to death!".

Well, look at this one!

And here's the features:

* Easy to build, single-board design, 10 x 8cm, all are controls board-mounted
* Professional quality double-sided, through-hole plated, silk-screen printed PCB
* Choice of single band, 80, 40, 30, 20 or 17m
* Approximately 3..5W CW output (depending on supply voltage)
* 12..15V supply voltage
* Class E power amplifier, transistors run cool… even with no heatsinks
* Good 7-element Low Pass Filter to ensure regulatory compliance
* CW envelope shaping to remove key clicks
* High performance receiver with at 50+ dB of unwanted sideband cancellation
* 200Hz CW filter without ringing
* Si5351A Synthesized VFO with rotary encoder tuning
* 16 x 2 blue backlight LCD screen
* Iambic keyer or straight key option included in the firmware
* Simple Digital Signal Processing for a CW decoder, displayed real-time on-screen
* On-screen S-meter
* Full or semi QSK operation using fast solid-state transmit/receive switching
* Frequency presets, VFO A/B Split operation, RIT, configurable CW Offset
* Configurable sidetone frequency and volume
* Connectors: Power, 3.5mm keyer jack, 3.5mm stereo earphone jack, BNC RF output
* Onboard microswitch can be used as a simple straight Morse key
* Built-in test signal generator and alignment tools to complete simple set-up adjustments
* Built-in test equipment: voltmeter, RF power meter, frequency counter, signal generator
* Beacon mode, supporting automatic CW or WSPR operation
* GPS interface for reference frequency calibration and time-keeping (for WSPR beacon)


All for $49 - and available for later this month.  This looks like a great project for the budding, incoming young Ham.  Keep this one in the back of your minds, Elmers!  Lots of opportunities to teach soldering and kit building skills, CW, and operating techniques among other things. The actual Webpage is found at http://qrp-labs.com/qcx.html
While I was there, perusing around, I purchased his passband filters for 80, 40, 20 and 15 Meters. Those will be used next Field Day in conjunction with the coaxial stub filters for even more isolation between our stations. Lots of good stuff available at QRP Labs!
72 de Larry W2LJ QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Spreading the word

Hoping we can get this to spread like wildfire!  I saw the link on Chris KQ2RP's blog and am embedding the video here - QRP Night ... the night before Field Day.

Let's make this happen!

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

Filters

The last few Field Days, the South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club has been plagued by that perennial old bug-a-boo ........ stations interfering with each other.  Even QRP transmitters at close proximity can wreak havoc on each other! This year, I intend to do something about it. Since we typically run only two HF transmitters, I was thinking of building a set of these K4VX filters.

I've spoken with my good friend Bob W3BBO about this in the past, and he put the bug in my ear about using coaxial stub filters, instead. He has some experience using them and he told me they worked well for him.

I did some Googling and searching of the ARRL Web site last night and found this:

http://www.k1ttt.net/technote/k2trstub.html as well as this YouTube video:

As I'm going to be replacing the coax out to the Butternut as soon as the weather cooperates, I'll have a useful purpose for the old coax, instead of just tossing it.  It would end up being a lot cheaper than purchasing toroids and capacitors and enclosures and antenna sockets needed for the K4VX filters. All I need for the stub filters would be some PL259s (which I have) and a few T-connectors which I can get at a local hamfest.

If they don't work as well as I'm hoping, then maybe a combination of the K4VX filters along with the stubs can be used next year.  But it's already mid-April and time is growing short. Field Day will be here before you know it.  And even just the stub filters will be better than the nothing we've been using.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Skeeter Hunt Videos

I always ask for pictures for the Skeeter Hunt Soapbox. I'm not different from any of my fellow QRPers. I like to see how my peers set up, how they do things and compare it to what I'm doing if possible. That, and plus the fact that it's nice to put a face to the fist of the guys I have worked.

So far this year, two Skeeters have gone above and beyond the call of normal duty and have sent me a couple of short videos - so I will embed them here.

The first is from Nick WB5BKL, Skeeter # 84 from Texas:


and the second is from the fine Hams who make up the Burlington County Amateur Radio Club K2TD, Skeeter # 102 from Delanco, NJ.  This one is from a bit of a different perspective and is way cool (not that Nick's isn't!):


Thanks guys, for sending these in!  I think I'm going to have to ask Santa for a GoPro this Christmas so I can take videos of my QRP exploits, and share them, too. On second thought, maybe it's not such a good idea for you guys to see how I mess up - er, I mean operate. Hi!

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

Speaking of FYBO,

here's a video of Steve WG0AT and Frank K0JQZ's operation in balmy Colorado last weekend. Frank mentions this is Steve's back yard - VERY NICE back yard!

   

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Some Skeeter Hunt video

from Tim, W3ATB.  Not only a beautiful location, but an answer to those new to portable QRP ops who are wondering, "How do they do it?"



Thanks, Tim and I'm glad you enjoyed yourself! THAT is the whole point of this event - for folks to get out and enjoy themselves (Skeeter bites, and all!).

Oh ..... I also added Tim's blog to the blogroll. Make sure to check it out!

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

Speaking of portable ops

Here's a video by Dennis Blanchard, K1YPP who is also the author of "Three Hundred Zeros"

Dennis hiked the Appalachian Trail, among other places and has lived to tell us all about it.  If you haven't read his book, then you're missing a good read.  While there's not a whole lot in devoted to Amatuer Radio, it is a good read nonetheless, and inspiring, too.

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

15 Meters seems to be decent lately

First, before a brief discussion of 15 Meters, I'd like to share a video on QRP - actually it's HamRadioNow Episode 93 - "QRP (Life's Long Enough .......).  This was pointed out by Norm WA4ZXV on the nogaqrp e-mail reflector.

The episode is about an hour long, though, so before starting it, you might want to pop some popcorn and open up a cold one and get comfortable for a bit.  (It's instances like this where tablets and other hand held devices really soar!)

Now on to 15 Meters.  The past few days during lunch, I have been noticing some very loud signals on 15 Meters, even though various propagation tables have been calling for only "fair" conditions on the band. There were a few loud Europeans and South Americans on the band, but I was being beat out in the pileups by stronger signals (Them's the breaks).  Rather than give up on the band totally, I decided to go on up to venerable ol' 21.060 MHz and put out the CQ call for a lil' bit.

I was rewarded with a call from Bert F6HKA who is very well known on the CW portions of the bands. Bert and I have QSO'ed before, but always in a contest situation.  It was nice to be able to spend a few minutes with him today, actually chatting for a bit.

Bert was operating from Limoges, France.  It was a 2X QRP QSO, which made my day.  Bert had the advantage with a beam up at 75 feet.  It really helped to pull my KX3 and Buddistick out of the noise.  Bert was 569 in New Jersey and I received a 539 in return.  But fortunately, even with a little QSB, solid copy was achieved at both ends.

So even when the propagation gurus say a band isn't in the best of shape, it never hurts to put out a CQ.  You might get skunked, but then again, you might be rewarded with a gem of a QSO like the one I had with Bert.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Neat!

A top o' the callsign cap to Wey Walker K8EAB from the NoGa QRP group for pointing me towards this video by K7AGE:



Even if you don't care for the subject matter, the music's pretty catchy!

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

Pleasant surprise

Today was a strange day.  It was my last day at my current job at Goldman Sachs. I've been there just over six years, managing all the Technology Department inventory (servers and networking and storage equipment) for the offices of the NY/NJ Campus.  I was the manager of the department responsible for receiving, inventorying, warehousing, and prepping for install a multi-billion dollar cache of equipment. I was also responsible for shipping re-purposed equipment both domestically and internationally. Believe me, you haven't lived until you've been tasked with shipping millions of dollars of used equipment to places like Seoul, Sao Paolo, and Kuala Lumpur, and you were told it had to arrived undamaged (even though the original shipping containers had since long been discarded) and it had to arrive "yesterday". I can proudly attest that in the six years that I was there, my department oversaw that inventory with a shrinkage percentage (loss due to theft, damage or mis-shipping) of less than 0.001%.

Last summer, Goldman felt that they had too many vendors, so they decided to downsize the number that they have on board. Our contract was farmed out to another vendor, and while my team was RIF'ed (reduction in force) I stayed on for six months to basically teach my replacements how to do the job.  My actual employer is Pitney Bowes Management Services, and through them, I will be starting at a new, non-management (actually glad for that, for a change) position with IBM next week.

My co-workers, the other outside vendors (IPC, Scholes, EMC, CBRE) who also serve Goldman Sachs are the best.  Totally unexpected, I walked into work this morning to find this waiting for me on my desk.

The head of the Security department phoned in for a bunch of pizzas and we had a bit of a going away party at lunch.  I am going to miss these guys like crazy.  Things could get pretty hairy from time to time and I slugged it out in the trenches with some of the best technical talent out there.  I am honored that they felt this way about little ol' me.

Anyway, when I got home, I took the opportunity to get on the air and relax and unwind a bit.  I worked some DX and another FOC station, W9FOC - Gene in Illinois.  But by far the best QSO of the night was when NG9D answered my CQ near the 20 Meter QRP watering hole.  When I heard NG9D, my mind immediately said "Lynn ........YouTube!"  Lynn has produced a bunch of YouTube videos that I have thoroughly enjoyed and it was so cool to be able to work him.  He was using his IC-703 at 10 Watts and he was a good 589 into New Jersey.  Conditions were good, so I received a 579 in reply

Lynn told me that he was trying to decide what radio he's going to take with him when he goes camping this summer. I naturally suggested that he take his PFR3A and he agreed that it might be a good choice as it has the internal battery holders and internal antenna tuner.  Being such a small package is nice when you're trying to keep down the amount of "stuff" that you take with you on vacation.  I asked him what antennas does he use when he goes camping and he told me about his Lambda antenna.  So happens that there's a video that he's done on it:

I thoroughly enjoyed my QSO with Lynn and I hope I get the opportunity to have another, soon.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to say the very least!

Two more QRPTTF videos

From Rem K6BBQ - QRPer and videographer extraordinaire:



From KB3ZHX - not strictly QRPTTF, but this video was done on the same day as QRPTTF (mostly Florida QSO Party QSOs - but hey, they counted towards QRPTTF!):



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