Oh, man !!!!!

"Oh, man!!!!!!" is an expression that can be used in two ways; one being a state of disappointment and the other for a state of pleasant surprise. I've used it both ways tonight.

The first reason - disappointment. I saw on the ARRL Web Page that Burghardt Amateur Center in Watertown, SD has announced that they will no longer sell Amateur Radio gear. While they will continue to offer radio repair, which is lucrative, selling new gear became unprofitable. Wow! They've been in business since 1937 and I bought my Novice transmitter from them - my Drake 2-NT way back in 1978. I'm sorry to see another Amateur Radio outlet go by the wayside.

The second reason - pleasant surprise. Terry WAØITP announced today that the Four States QRP Group is offering two new kits! The first is the Four State Dummy Load SMD Starter Kit, designed to get builders acquainted with working with surface mount materials. It looks like plenty documentation is included about the various SMD building techniques and they include an parts for an RF Probe so you can calculate your output power using a DMM. Go here for details: http://www.wa0itp.com/dummyload.html

The second kit is the Enhanced Manhattan Islander Audio Amp. This ones uses Manhattan construction and is supposedly very powerful; but yet small enough to fit into the ever versatile Altoids tin. Go here for details: http://www.wa0itp.com/emislander.html

It's nice to see new items being introduced. It helps soften the blow about losing "an old friend".

73 de Larry W2LJ

A couple of things

I built the ACME QRP Gel Cell Charger today, even though I don't have a method for powering it up right now. It went together very easily; and if you're new to kit building, I would not hesitate to recommend this kit to you as a second or even first time build!

It's a small but not tiny circuit board, the parts are all "through hole" and with the exception of one lil' typo (that was easy to figure out), the instructions were a snap to understand and follow.

You can see a few pictures on my Web page here. Or go to my Windows Skydrive page (which I just started) and check out the folder named ACME QRP.

Kudos to Craig NR4E for putting together a neat little kit!

Secondly, a few of you might have read the article in QST two months ago describing how to homebrew a Spud Gun (antenna line launcher). Steve WGØAT (ex NØTU) of "Peanut and Rooster" fame has a YouTube video showing the very same launcher in action. It is impressive! Click here to see it.

I wish I had tall trees in my backyard where I would have a need to have one of those!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Aargh!!!

No, I'm not a pirate - just a bit frustrated with myself.

I am about to begin building the ACME QRP Gel Cell Charger kit today; and of course did another careful read through the assembly instructions. I was about to begin actual assembly when I thought I'd run down the basement to check my old junker Toshiba laptop's wall wart - just to make sure its output was in the necessary 16 - 22 Volt range. That's when I was rudely reminded that the Toshiba doesn't use a wall wart! It uses 115V AC directly - it must have a built in transformer to charge its battery!

The only wall wart I have that has the proper voltage is the one to my Dell laptop, which is my main shack computer. I'm not about to use that!

So a quick search on the E of Bay yielded several inexpensive 18V wall warts. I hit one of the "Buy Now" ones for $3.99 plus shipping; and got one for less than ten bucks.

So I will probably have the kit completed and "ready to go" for later this week, when hopefully, the wall wart will arrive. It's supposed to come via Express Mail - 3 to 5 business days from now.

With all the stupid little wall warts I have just hanging around the house, it's just my luck that I don't have ONE with the proper output voltage and that I had to end up buying one.

Aaarrrgggghhhhh!

73 de Larry W2LJ

An interesting e-mail.

I got an e-mail from a Ham from Slovenia today. This was in response to my going into eQSL the other day and cleaning out my "In Box". I had to reject his QSO and I guess he received an e-mail in turn from eQSL telling him of my action.

So when I got home today, there was an e-mail from him saying, "Hi W2LJ. What do you mean wrong mode? I worked you in the ARRL SSB DX Contest".

To which I replied, "Right mode for you - wrong mode for me. I am a CW only person. I do not own a microphone; and I don't even own a rig that is capable of SSB at the present time. Sorry."

I doubt that I'll get any response as a result of that. I guess there's always the possibility that someone is pirating my call - but seriously, who'd want to pirate W2LJ? You'd have to be pretty desperate!

73 de Larry W2LJ

It came!

When I got home from work this afternoon, I was happy to see a little white package in the mail. It had a customs slip on it and the distinctive logo of the QRP Project of Germany.

My multiband EFHW tuner arrived today! Cool!

I immediately handed it off to my wife and told her to keep hold of it until my birthday. It's no big deal, it's only six weeks away; and I have plenty to keep me busy until then.

Now for something totally different and totally unrelated to Amateur Radio. I see the Secretary General of the UN has called the United States a "deadbeat" nation. Excuse me, Mr. Ban Ki-moon?

Hmmmmmm .... let's see ..... the United States ONLY provides about 22% of the UN's annual operating budget. Foreign diplomats in New York City routinely disobey the parking and traffic rules and NEVER pay their fines - claiming diplomatic immunity. The NY Police department spends a hideous amount of its budget in UN related protection.

Seems to me the UN Secretary General needs to see what kind of financial shape the UN would be in if we taxpayers decided to tighten our national purse strings.

And what do we get for our effort? Not a whole heckuvalot if you ask me.

I'd better stop this before I get heartburn.

73 de Larry W2LJ

A note of passing

I read this on one of the e-mail reflectors I subscribe to:

"...At the tone, Zero Hours, Zero Minutes, Coordinated Universal Time...'BEEP'...This is Radio Station WWV, Fort Collins Colorado..."

WWV voice Silent key

The person behind the recorded voice of Time and Frequency Station WWV has passed away. Announcer Don Elliot Heald, of Atlanta, Georgia, who gave WWV its human touch, passed away on Thursday, February 19th.

He was 86 years old, and worked for a long time for WSB in Atlanta, GA. Among his other notable achievements, he was the first person to hire an African-American as an-air TV reporter; and the first to hire an African-American as an evening news anchor.

73 de Larry W2LJ

80M was tough tonight!

Spring is coming! But by the QRN levels on 80 Meters tonight, you might have thought it was already July!

The local QRN racket on 40 Meters raised its ugly head for the first time in a long time, tonight; which forced me to go on down to 80 Meters. The local QRN was not a problem; but the atmospheric QRN was indeed a problem!

I had a short QSO with Tom W4VHH out of North Carolina. I gave him a 569 and got a 459 in return. The QRM and QSB were bad, forcing a very short QSO upon us. This was a bad thing as I was in the mood for a good "chew".

After Tom and I called it quits, I called CQ for a bit more - however, there were no takers.

For those of you into QRP, I'd like to introduce you to a Website that you might not know about. It's a QRP Cluster, per se, named QRPSPOTS. It's sponsored by the Four States QRP Group and you can get to it by clicking here.

I think this site is a wonderful idea! You can list yourself when your headed for the great outdoors and you want everyone to know that you're out there, braving the elements and tickling the aether with your 5 Watts of RF. Or, you can list yourself when you're at home calling CQ from the home station and you feel like reaching out to other QRPers.

Either way, so far the site seems to have received only light traffic. But it's another wonderful free service to QRPers; and I think we should make the most use out of it that we can! I know Terry WAØITP and the Four States QRP group would love this site to take off and be used worldwide by QRPers.

Personally, I'd love to see "DX" QRPers post their times of operating on there. It's exciting to see how far you can make 5 Watts reach. So spread the word! If you're getting on the air via QRP - let EVERYONE know!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Birthday present

Actually, my birthday isn't for a couple of months; but I talked my wife into purchasing a kit for me as my birthday present this year. The kit is for a matching network for EFHW (End Fed Half Wave) antennas, which are easy to deploy for QRP portable operations.

The kit is sold by the QRP Project out of Germany. I figured it probably won't get here until real close to my birthday, anyway.

http://www.qrpproject.de/UK/multifuchs.htm

The article was an interesting read. I am looking forward to building it, hooking up a piece of wire to it; and seeing what happens.

Of course, I will keep you all informed when the time comes.

73 de Larry W2LJ

W2LJ reporting for duty ..... SIR!

Many of you are probably familiar with a post that appeared on all the major QRP e-mail reflectors a few weeks ago, about keeping QRP alive and healthy. It was written by a prominent and well known figure in the QRP world, with his exhortations as to what we QRPers need to do in order to keep this lil' corner of Amateur Radio alive and kicking.

All filled up with a sense of duty, I went out and ordered a kit. And it is actually something that I can use ! And it arrived today.

It is a Gel Cell charger kit, marketed by of all companies - ACME QRP. It looks like it will be a breeze to assemble and get working. It's all through hole parts and it is definitely something that I can use. Even though I usually charge my gel cells with my solar panel, this looks like a neat little device to have.

In case you're interested, here is where you can find it:

http://www.acmeqrp.com/main/page_products_gc100_gel_cell_charger.html

The only things missing are the little pictures of Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner.

73 de Larry W2LJ

'Nother one bites the dust

I saw this the other day on one of the local club e-mail reflectors:

"Hello RVRC, I have just spoken with the guys on the Cherryville Net and received the news that their hamfest will not be held this year. Hopefully they will get things together for next year, that seemed to be the thought at this time. 73 Mike, KB2VRM"

Hmmmmm ..... it's been my experience that when you see something like this, the odds of them "getting things together for next year" are not good.

Thw Cherryville Hamfest, sponsored by the Cherryville Repeater Group has been around as long as I can remember. I think it might have been the first Hamfest I ever went to after I got licensed. That makes sense, as I was licensed in December; and traditionally, the Cherryville Hamfest kicked off the NJ Hamfest season, holding theirs each March.

Admittedly, the Cherryville Hamfest has gotten weaker and weaker in the past few years. With the advent of E-Bay and the Internet in general, smaller Hamfests have seemed to have gone by the wayside. That's unfortunate as they are not only sales events; but they are also great social events. It's always nice to go and reconnect with folks you haven't seen face to face in a while.

I will keep my fingers crossed that the Hamfest will re-appear in 2010; but realistically, I won't be holding my breath.

73 de Larry W2LJ

March rolls in like a lion .....

I guess that's true. Signs of Spring are everywhere. Next weekend, Daylight Savings Time begins again, the days are getting noticeably longer (I no longer drive home from work in the dark); and those little green tufts of grass are starting to sprout in my backyard.

But Ol' Man Winter isn't done with us yet! By the time I wake up for work tomorrow morning, there's supposed to be around 6 - 9 inches of snow on the ground. It's a raw, cold, bleek day here in Central New Jersey.

If you're like me, you've had enough of Winter back in December; and you're counting the days until you can walk around outside without a coat or jacket. This means the beginning of the 2009 "comfortable" outdoor QRP season; when you can set up the antenna and radio without the risk of hypothermia and frostbite! And you can sit outside with an iced tea or a lemonade (or a brewski!) instead of a thermos of coffee or hot chocolate.

Until that time comes, I have a link to a video that will warm the recesses of your heart. Introduced on the QRP reflectors by Steve NØTU of "Rooster and Peanut" fame, it's about a 50 pound DXpedition to the Caribbean. It seems it's always warm enough down there to sit and do some radio from the great outdoors!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7l8fdgGkHA

is the link; and this should have you inspired and anxious for some good QRP weather that's sure to come our way sooner or later!

73 de Larry W2LJ

CFLs - revisited

From time to time, I like to look through my old QSTs and read articles I missed; or re-read articles that that I may have glanced over too quickly the first time.

In this case, the November 2008 had an article about making your station "green". Now anything that pertains to "green" tends to make me groan. Don't get me wrong ..... I believe in conservation, using energy wisely, not wasting resources and being a good steward towards the planet. But, in accordance with my Catholic upbringing, I believe that the planet was created for us; and not we for the planet. Ecology as a religion is just not my thing.

All that notwithstanding, the article was interesting and useful; as it contained some interesting information about CFLs - compact fluorescent lights. I have started using them about 16 months ago - mainly in my kitchen. The lights in the kitchen are recessed indoor floods and they tended to have very short lifespans. I switched over to Philips CFLs and for the most part have been happy with them. They do not generate any RFI that I can detect. I can have my radio on and if someone turns on the kitchen lights, I am oblivious to it. I can't "hear" them on the K2, which is known throughout the Amateur Radio world for its fine receiver. In addition to them being "radio quiet" the CFLs have lived up to their reputation of being longer lived. I haven't had to change them since I installed them. 14 months may not seem very long to you; but regular incandescent floods were only lasting 4 months or so - so to me, it means a lot. The thing I don't like about them, though, is that they are very dim on start up. I can come downstairs in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning; and when I turn them on, it's just not the same. Regular incandescent bulbs come on at full brightness. These Philips CFLs take about three or four minutes to "warm up" to full output.

Getting back to the QST article, the author recommended GE CFLs as they are the only ones that do not come with an RFI warning printed on the package. So when I went grocery shopping today, I bought two 100 Watt equivalent GE CFLs. And sure enough, there is no RFI warning label on the package (although there is a warning that they have to be recycled properly as these little devils, like all CFLs, contain mercury). I decided to test the author's claims and installed them in the two ceiling fixtures that I have in my basement shack.

His claims are true. No RFI that these 52 year old ears can hear, anyway! BUT, the one big difference I noted was that when I turned these puppies on - they are BRIGHT !!!! I would say at least 90% of their normal operational brightness. No annoying dimness while waiting for them to "warm up". And to me that is a big deal!

I can heartily recommend GE CFLs. They are "radio quiet" and I like the light they put out. The two 100 Watt equivalent bulbs that I installed will use substantially less energy than just one 100 Watt incandescent bulb that I used to use. It might take me a bit of time to get used to their squirrely corkscrew shape, though.

Which brings me to another thought - just how far away are we from the next generation of home lighting - LED based "light bulbs"?

73 de Larry W2LJ

Just in case

you never check out my "Amateur Radio Blogs of Interest" down to the lower right, please do your self a favor and either go to the SolderSmoke blog; or go to:

http://www.wa0dx.org/wa0itp/ns40.html

Either will lead you to a neat little 40 Meter transmitter kit called the NS-40 (No Simpler 40 Meter Transmitter). According to the article, it has only 14 parts and no coils to wind because they are etched right into the PCB! How cool is that?

At the same time, if you decide to buy the kit, your payment will help fund Ozarkcon. So you can have some fun melting solder and do your "patriotic duty" to QRP all at the same time.

I think I'm going to get a check out to WAØITP today!

73 de Larry W2LJ

K5D

Hooray! I worked the DXpedition today!

I got home from Church and saw an announcement by WB3AAL on one of the QRP reflectors that the K5D team was indeed on 30 Meters. He worked them at 1538 UTC.

Even though it was almost three hours later, I decided to say, "What the heck"; and I headed down to the shack and fired up the K2 and switched to the HF9V vertical. K5D was coming into NJ at 599; but I had a bit of a problem. The op was working a lot of Europeans; and propagation was such that I couldn't hear the Europeans answer. Thus, I didn't have a good idea as to how high he was listening. I flipped the K2's "B" VFO up two and kept my fingers crossed; and was lucky enough to grab them on my second call at 1825 UTC.

During my weekly conversation with Bob W3BBO yesterday; he informed me that according to the K5D Website, the CW side of the operation was sitting this weekend out because of the ARRL DX Contest. I told Bob that while I certainly respected their decision to not contest, I couldn't understand why they wouldn't then just operate on 30 and 17 Meters for the weekend, where no contesting is allowed.

We must have been on the same brain wavelength then; because they were on 30 Meters today; and I nabbed 'em! Thanks, K5D team! I think this was an excellent decision., as it gave us "non-serious" contesters and us QRPers a chance to get you without the heavy "normal" pileups!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Two blogs added

To the list of "Amateur Radio Blogs of Interest" to the lower right:

K3WI Blog - which seems to be a newer one; but I like the posts I've read so far.

a brasspounder's cafe - which is authored by JJ8KGZ from Hokkaido, Japan.

I hope you enjoy them!

73 de Larry W2LJ

ARRL DX Contest weekend

I've been playing around in the DX contest today. Not a big effort; just a sit down for a few minutes here and there between chores. It's nice to see 15 Meters open with great signals from the Caribbean and South America.

The Butternut is doing a fantastic job for me today. I'm working just about everyone I hear, even if it takes a few calls with the QRP signal!

Moved on down to 20 Meters for a bit and worked Ireland and Alaska - first try on each! The "magic of radio" rush always comes back during a DX contest!

73 de Larry W2LJ

The Gnat

OK - so I've been burning to build something from scratch for a while now. And today, on QRP-L, I think I found the answer.

Chris Trask N7ZWY published an article about a one-transistor CW transceiver for 40 Meters, called "The Gnat". Here's the link to the .pdf with all the details:

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~christrask/Gnat%2040.pdf

Looks like I'm gonna order a few parts that I don't have from either Mouser or Jameco; and then I'll get to building!

73 de Larry W2LJ

From the ARRL Letter

This appeared on today's release of "The ARRL Letter". I thought it worthy to post here as many of you may remember reading of this man's ingenuity just a few years ago.

JOHN KANZIUS, K3TUP (SK)

John Kanzius, K3TUP, of Erie, Pennsylvania, passed away February 18 in Florida from pneumonia. He was 64. Kanzius was best known for his research into finding a cure for cancer using radio waves, specifically 13.56 MHz.

In 1966 at age 22, Kanzius came to Erie, Pennsylvania to work for JET Broadcasting. After 24 years as a broadcast engineer, he was appointed vice president and general manager of the company in 1980. After retiring, Kanzius was diagnosed with leukemia in 2002. He summarized his chemotherapy in a February 2008 article in QST as "Hoping we kill the cancer before we kill the person". In October 2003 -- thinking there had to be a better treatment -- Kanzius had the idea to kill the cancer cell with radio waves, not a new idea. But Kanzius went a bit further: Instead of using needles, as was currently used, why not "trick" the cancer cells into absorbing a metal target -- sent by RF -- into the inside of the cancer cells, leaving the healthy cells alone?

In 2005, Kanzius teamed up with cancer researchers at M. D. Anderson (part of the University of Texas health system in Houston) and Rice University (also in Houston). Using nanoparticles -- metallic objects measured in billionths of an inch -- heated by RF using a machine that Kanzius invented, the researchers were impressed: "The research scientists at Rice were stunned to see that my device could heat nanoparticles at the 13.56 MHz frequency," Kanzius said.

Kanzius credited his father for his inspiration: "Trying to build an array that would heat particles one billionth of a meter in length was challenging. But building equipment all of my life was inspired by my dad, W3NRE, who was licensed in 1934."

Kanzius told ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, that if it were not for his Amateur Radio background, "and all the days of experimentation to improve my station, this new procedure for treating cancer, which continues to show such promising results, would
probably not be on the cutting edge at the largest cancer center in the world [M. D. Anderson]."

But Kanzius did more than just try to find a cure for cancer. In 1991, he was Top of Honor Roll in the ARRL DXCC program; at his death, he had 347 countries confirmed. In the March/April 1987 issue of NCJ, Tim Duffy, K3LR, described K3TUP as "a relatively new contest call," but said Kanzius had been DXing for many years: "As he has caught the contest bug, John has taken a station which was designed for busting DX pileups and converted it over to have the flexibility and brute force required to compete in Multi-Single contesting." Duffy described the station as sitting "situated on a high ridge that overlooks Lake Erie. The station is well secluded from city-type radio noise and the rural setting allows John to run several temporary beverages for low band receiving." Both Duffy and Randy Thompson, K5ZD, have operated from
Kanzius's station.

Pitts recalled that in 2007, he received an e-mail from a ham, asking if he was aware of the research Kanzius was attempting: "I looked at the attached video clip and I was skeptical. But I became more curious about this kitchen table tinkerer-ham and investigated the claims. I learned two major things: First, this was not a harebrained scheme -- it really worked (!), and -- even more important for me -- John Kanzius was a true gentleman. Bright, polite and enthusiastic without being overbearing, I liked him. Over the next months as I wrote the QST article about his work, I came to know him and his true desire to help other cancer victims. Since then, we stayed in touch by phone and e-mail. I enjoyed his delight as each step in the process of bringing his machine and concept to human use was proven by M. D. Anderson and other cancer
research facilities. Some people just make your world better by being there. John was one of those people. Though I never met him in person, it was always good to hear from him and I enjoyed the friendship. Losing him makes the world a little colder. I will miss him."

Kanzius is survived by his wife Marianne, two daughters -- Sherry Kanzius and Toni Palmer -- and two grandchildren. Calling hours are Sunday, February 22 from 2-5 PM and 7-9 PM at the Duskas-Martin Funeral Home , 4216 Sterrettania Rd, Erie, Pennsylvania. A funeral service is planned for 10:30 AM on Monday, February 23 at the Episcopal Cathedral of St Paul , also in Erie. Memorial contributions may be made to the John Kaznius Research Fund, Palace Business Center, 915 State St, Erie, PA 16501.

END

Rest in Peace, John.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Oh My!

I must profess a certain amount of naivete' when it comes to DX pileups. I am certainly not a big gun DXer although I am not afraid to jump into the fray.

Today while testing the futile K5D waters, I heard behavior that I had never witnessed before in a CW pileup. It was behavior that I've witnessed in SSB pileups in years past; but never in a CW pileup before.

One Ham was calling on K5D's transmit frequency, so inevitably the "pileup managers" all started sending "UP" "UP". This must have frustrated the guy or gotten him angry for some reason, so he replied by sending, slowly and deliberately, "FU" "FU".

Has it come to this?

73 de Larry W2LJ

Struck me as odd.

Last night, as I recounted earlier, I had a QSO with K3OXG. Tonight I got on the air and the first station I worked tonight was K5OGX.

Back to back QSOs (almost 24 hours apart however) where the suffixes have O, X and G in them.

I guess I get amazed by minor things.

By the way, the pileup for K5D on 40 Meters tonight is horrendous, with lots of horrendous behavior. I salute the K5D ops for putting up with the nonsense. I'm sure glad that I didn't have anyone in the shack that I was trying to demonstrate the finer points of Ham Radio to.

73 de Larry W2LJ