WOW !!!!!!

Is all I can say!

After watching this video sent to me by Marc W4MPS, which shows the WQ4RP 2018 Field Day effort, I feel like Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World.

We are not worthy! We are not worthy!

This, folks, is how QRP Field Day is meant to be done!

I'm sure glad they were 4A Battery and not 3A Battery, SPARC would have ended up WAY DOWN in the standings! Talk about getting your butt womped!
Thanks, Marc - that is one heckuva EXCELLENT video - so glad you shared it!
72 de Larry W2LJ QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Field Day - then and now

I don't mean this post to seem vain; or "all about W2LJ," but I was looking at Field Day pictures on my USB thumb drive and I was just kind of taken aback.

Field Day in the 80s and 90s with the Piscataway Amateur Radio Club:

Field Day with the South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club - current day:

Where'd the skinny guy with all that dark hair go?  Although you can't tell because of the SPARC hat, I've gone completely gray.  I've added on quite the few pounds and the last picture show why - W2LJ is not one to miss a meal! But in all fairness, I've lost about 15 pounds in the last few months in an effort to lose some of the excess weight. It's a start; but I still have a long way to go!

  

Some 20 - 30 years later, in my mind I still feel like the skinny guy with the dark hair. But now, joints hurt that never used to hurt before. I definitely can't move around as fast as I used to and I've lost so much flexibility that it's very frustrating at times.

It's at times like these that I fondly remember my Mom always telling me, "Larry .... don't get old." and my answer always was, "Can't do much about that, Ma!"

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Holding my tongue

A couple years back, when I was interviewed for "QSO Today" by Eric 4Z1UG, he asked me what were some of the things I learned from doing this blog. I answered "Humility" as that was the topmost thing I could think of. And right after that was "Respecting other's opinions".

I learned both those lessons the hard way. When I started this blog some 13 years ago,  I was much younger and a lot less thoughtful and a lot more arrogant. There were times when I was brash, thoughtless and I acted like I couldn't care less if I offended anyone by what I was writing at the time. Folks called me upon it in the comments from time to time; and I took their words of advice or more properly, admonishment, to heart.

It's easy to be brash, snotty and snarky while pecking away at the keyboard. After all, you're by yourself with no one looking over your shoulder while you're typing - it's so anonymous.  However, I didn't want to earn the reputation as someone who a) inserts foot in mouth before speaking, or b) thinks he knows-it-all.

But I have to tell you, boy-oh-boy, would I really like to let loose one of these days.  Over the past few weeks, I've read things from various sources and in various places on line that were either flat out wrong, misleading, frustrating, inanely stupid or just plain "Horse Hocky" as Col. Potter would exclaim on M*A*S*H. Just gets the ol' boiler bubbling.

But as the quote goes "discretion is the better part of valor" - so I'll hold my tongue ....... for now. We're having problems as it is in Hawaii, with one volcano. We don't need another.

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

That wasn't good - that was great!

180 degree opposites! As much as I feared that I wasn't into Field Day this year, that's how much it turned out to be a truly great experience! Just as I thought, as soon as I gathered together with my fellow South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club members, that's just how quickly the adrenaline got to flowing and the fun and excitement began. And thanks be to God, we never got any of the rain or thunderstorms that were predicted for Saturday.

In addition to the gratification that you get from doing a job well done, some added satisfaction came from a lot of the public that came by and visited our enhanced information booth this year. In addition to the normal ARRL informational handouts, we added some multimedia. We set up a 24" TV which was hooked up to my laptop which was running a continuous loop of a video about Amateur Radio.

We had chairs set up so that people could sit down in the shade of the canopy to watch the entire 30 minute video if they wanted to and more than just a few people did. One woman that I spoke to, in order to ask if she needed any more information about our hobby exclaimed to me, "This is great! I learned so much today! More people should come by to watch this." So in that regard, we did what I think was a pretty good job of creating public awareness for the benefits of Amateur Radio.

Marv K2VHW set up some code keys and code practice oscillators in the info tent for people to try. One man brought his nephew along with him to visit our setup and the youngster really got a kick out of the keys. Marv showed him how to use them and he had fun trying to use Morse Code.

The next day, his uncle came back to visit again to tell us that his nephew got such a kick out of Morse Code and Amateur Radio in general, that he spent hours with his friends on the telephone Saturday evening, telling them all about what he saw and did.  That's called "planting the seed", my friends.

This was SPARC's fifth Field Day and you could tell that we are beginning to get into a routine and really know what we're doing now. I think that "they" would call us a "well oiled machine" - thanks mostly to KD2FSI, W2OIL and KC2YRC and Phil KD2HPG who designed and built our HF tower. We started setup at 10:00 AM and were pretty much finished by Noon. Some final incidental "finishing touches" were taken care of and we were absolutely ready by 1:00 PM with an hour to go.  

As always, Ron N2LCZ had our mini logging computer network up and running flawlessly. He was even able to tap into our Wifi account through the help of a wireless router that Bill W2AOF brought along, so that we had full internet access on site ........ in the middle of Spring Lake Park. It was awesome!

Antennas went up as smoothly as a hot knife through butter and with the help of Dave W2OIL and Dan KC2YRC, I was able to get the W3EDP antenna up even higher this year. We had it as high in two trees as we could get it and it sloped from about 40 feet high in a maple to about 30 or 35 feet at the other end in a pine tree, where it terminated. While the W3EDP was my main stay on 40 and 20 Meters, I was able to make at least one contact on all bands, 160 through 10 Meters with it.  However, for 80 Meters, Dave KD2FSI had me hooked up to his 80/40 Meter Inverted Vee and that wire was simply magnificent. With 5 Watts, I was able to work absolutely everyone that I was able to hear on 80 Meters.

While we had a generator going to run the info booth, all the computers were run off solar power charged batteries, so that we could explain to people about how easy it is to make use of alternative sources of power. We had two solar arrays up and running. These were purchased through Harbor Freight and it was amazing (to me at least) that they supplied ample power even under the overcast conditions that we had.

When "go time" came at 2:00 PM, we got down to the serious business of making contacts. Through the entire 24 hour period, I can honestly say that we had all the radios occupied for at least 90% of the time. Dave KD2FSI and I forsook our customary "middle of the night" 10 winks of sleep this year. The group is probably tired of hearing it from me, but once again I was telling them that "these contacts aren't going to make themselves" and it showed, as we reached our highest number of QSOs this year.  We also had our share of guest operators, including some new Hams from the area who got their first taste of HF thanks to Field Day. Their excitement was palpable.

And even one of our Town Council members took a turn behind a radio, while our Mayor and some other members spent some time talking and visiting with us. SPARC is really dedicated to making Field Day more than just making contacts. We really try to make this a fun weekend "Amateur Radio Awareness Event".

 But we also "put our money where our mouths were" and got down to the busy task of making contacts. Our classification was 3A Battery, so by ARRL definition, we were limited to 5 Watts output - true QRP.  We made well over 300 CW contacts and came somewhere around 175 phone contacts for the weekend, with a goodly amount of digital contacts thrown in for good measure, courtesy of Dave, KD2FSI.

KD2HPF getting "artsy" with a photo of yours truly!

So when 3:30 PM on Sunday came around and all was torn down and put away for storage until next year, I came home tired (no, make that exhausted), but yet thoroughly pleased and happy. I had just spent 24+ hours with people I absolutely enjoy being with, doing something that I absolutely love and enjoy doing. How can you possibly ask for anything more than that?

One final shot of SPARC Field Day 2018.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least.

Special thanks to Mario KD2HPF for a lot of fantastic photos of the weekend.

Field Day Quandry

OK, heresy of heresies ...... I am not stoked for Field Day this year.

It's been a really tough couple of weeks here at work as the result of things I'd rather not elaborate about.  Nothing terrible, or job threatening - just a tough situation right now. I know, we all go through these, and I shouldn't feel sorry for myself. It's just that it's so exhausting!

As a result, I'd much rather loaf and nap the weekend away. Add to all this that our local forecast is for general wetness and thunderstorms for Saturday, it looks like we may be in for a repeat of Field Day 2015.  That was the Field Day that we got so soaked, that I was amazed we all didn't come down with pneumonia.

But I will be there at 10:00 AM tomorrow for setup, with a smile on my face, ready to get to work and get down to business.  I'm sure that once my earbuds fill with Morse and my fingers start tapping out those all too familiar dits and dahs, that I will find myself being happy about being in my element.

Hope to hear you! For your part, I hope you will keep an ear out for NJ2SP (our club call). We'll be operating 3A (Battery) NNJ again this year - so we'll be QRP. Yay!

Hoping we don't get soaked or zapped, I remain faithfully "yours truly".

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

Wow!

Them Skeeter numbers are going fast!

Today is the First Day of Summer and we already have 59 Skeeters ready to take flight on August 19th.

I'm glad to see we have a lot of regulars coming back - tried and true Skeeters who have been there since our first run back in 2012. And even more exciting is seeing new calls and names that are making 2018 their first "go".

Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a totally green newbie, it matters not!  The NJQRP Skeeter Hunt is meant to be more fun than anything else. Yes, there are certificates to be had for getting the high scores (and yes, I still have to get the 2017 certificates mailed - my first act of business after Field Day), but even more important is getting outside with your gear and participating. And even if you can't get outside, there is still the fun to be had spending an enjoyable afternoon making contacts with other QRPers.

Remember,, there is a SSB category for those of you who have a disdain for dits and dahs - so no excuses!

72 de Larry W2LJ - Perennial Skeeter # 13
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

You know you're a Ham when ........

So I'm driving to work this morning; and when you commute to work every day, you get a real good chance to look at the behinds of cars that are in front of you.  As I come to a red light and come to a stop, I notice the car in front of me has one of those vinyl decals on his rear window.  It looked like this - but you have to picture in your mind's eye that this was all surrounded by the entire darkness (blackness) of his tinted rear window.

So I immediately start thinking ....... "A A" 

What the heck does "A A" stand for?  "Alcoholics Anonymous"?  "American Airlines? "Associate in Arts"? "Alcoa Aluminum"?

Then it struck me - the owner of the car was of Norwegian descent !  That's the flag of Norway in reverse and not "A A".

I guess that's when you realize you've either been at this Morse Code thing too long; or maybe you just need that first cup of coffee of the day.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

It's getting to be that time!

The NJQRP Club is announcing the 7th Annual " Skeeter Hunt", which will be held on Sunday, August 19th. As in the past, It will be a four hour sprint - from 17:00 UTC to 21:00 UTC (1:00 TO 5:00 PM EDT).

QRP stations who wish to be designated as "Skeeters" can get a Skeeter number by requesting one by sending an e-mail to w2lj@arrl.net  Skeeter numbers will be issued from June 21st (the First Day of Summer) through the day before the event. You do NOT have to be a portable station to be a Skeeter - home stations can be Skeeters if they so desire.

You can send your e-mail requests in now, if you want to; but the Skeeter Hunt roster will not be published until the first day of Summer. We have to have something to look forward to, no?

As in past years - Skeeter numbers are not issued for life. They change each year. This gives everyone an even shot at getting the much coveted lower numbers. The only exception to that rule is that I assign myself lucky number 13, each year.

This year's theme will be "Water - the breeding ground for Skeeters!"  Operate near any sizable body of water - lake, ocean, creek, river, bayou, stream, brook, pond, etc, for an extra 100 bonus points.

The rules can always be found at http://www.qsl.net/w2lj/  The rules are not cumbersome, this is meant to be an easy going, friendly little operating event where everybody gets to have an enjoyable day behind the radio.

So get out of your shack for the day; and into the fresh air and sunshine, and spread your wings and fill the airwaves with "Skeeters"!

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

A neat little app

I ran across this the other day, while I was in the Google Play store and I did a search under Morse Code:

The name of the app is Morse Notifer Free.  There is also a Morse Notifier Pro, which you can pay for; but I chose to download and install the free version. What the app does is to let your smartphone ring using Morse Code instead of the usual bells, whistles, or tunes.

While the app does a whole lot of stuff, the feature I like the most is the SMS text message notification.  When a text message comes through, the phone will not only notify you that you have a message - but also who is sending it.  For instance, when my wife texts me, I hear "Message Marianne" come out of my phone.  On the other hand, if someone is texting me that I don't know - or if I haven't associated a name to the number, the phone will let me know that.  For instance, if I get a Nixle alert the phone will send "Message Unknown 88877".

Another neat feature that I like is there's an hourly chime.  At the top of the hour, your phone will et you know that its "TIME 1000" in Morse. It uses the 24 hour system so when it's 5:00 PM, the phone sends "TIME 1700".

Another neat feature is that Morse Notifier can set the vibrator of your phone to send in Morse. So when you've silenced the phone, you can feel the Morse instead of  hearing it. It takes a little getting used to; but once you realize what it is, you pick up on it pretty fast.

Here's a link to the instruction sheet if you might be interested - http://100dof.com/software/morsenotifier/manual_morse_notifier.pdf

I haven't fully explored all the possibilities, but it's neat to hear morse Code come out of your smartphone instead of the standard stuff.  One caveat, I believe, but am not certain, that this app is for Android phones, only.

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

Hoot Owl Fun

With a much improved right leg, I was able to get down to the basement shack quite easily for the Hoot Owl Shoot Out this past Sunday evening. It was nice to get on the air after being absent for quite a while. I made seven contacts in the allotted hour, two with good ol' reliable Don W2JEK on both 40 and 80 Meters.

The QSO with Don on 80 was the only one had there. The rest were all accomplished on 40 Meters. I heard some very faint signals on 20 Meters at the very beginning of the event, but nothing that was copyable.

Given the crummy band conditions and the fact that we're in the armpit of the solar cycle, one hour was probably plenty for the shootout. But I wish there had been another hour. Even though there was a lot of calling CQ between sparse replies, I still had a ton of fun.

When you're away from the hobby for a while due to circumstances that are kind of beyond your control, it's a blast when you can finally get back into it. We (it would probably better to say "I") take Amateur Radio for granted, knowing that we can go to our shacks at just about any time and jump on the air.  When you can't for one reason or another, it's like that line from that song from the 60's - "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'till it's gone?"

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

Memorial Day 2018

I went to my local grocery store yesterday to do the food shopping for the week.  On my way out to the parking lot, I saw a member of our local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter, selling paper poppies to raise money for disabled veterans.. I stopped, took a buck out from my wallet and handed it to him. As he took the dollar bill from me, I smiled and said, "Thank you for your service". He looked at me straight in the eye, and he answered me, his voice a bit choked up with emotion. "Thank you," he said, "I never got to hear that 52 years ago when I came home from Viet Nam." He held out his hand, and I took it in mine and we grasped each other's hand very firmly.

This weekend, in the United States, we honor and remember those countless brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice while defending our nation. From the grassy fields of Lexington and Concord. to the rocky mountains and valleys of Afghanistan, so many gave everything so that the rest of us back home could continue to live in freedom and liberty, without fear.

While we pay tribute to and pray for those departed souls this Memorial Day weekend, should you by chance see someone who served our country in any branch of the military, and had the good fortune to be able to return home ........ a smile and a "Thank You" will go a long way towards paying a debt we can never adequately repay.

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

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend in the USA always coincides with the QRP ARCI Hoot Owl Sprint.

And I see that according to the rules, it's now called the "Hoot Owl Shootout" and the event has been shortened to only one hour.  This event has always been one of my favorites as we never travel anywhere for this "Unofficial Start of Summer" weekend. And to devote one hour on Sunday evening doesn't seem to be a hardship.

After my hiatus from being away from the radio - I am really looking forward to this. I hope there's a decent amount of activity.

Da Rulz can be found at http://www.qrparci.org/contests/147-hoot-owl-sprint

Hope to hear you on the air!

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

On the mend

This blog has been silent for the past few weeks - quite frankly because I was kind of out of the loop as far as Amateur Radio was concerned. About a month ago the dreaded tendinitis flared up in my right foot again (old dog walking injury).  In order to keep pressure off the toes, I over compensated when I would walk, which unintentionally caused undue stress to my calf and hamstring muscles.  Needless to say, the tendinitis went away a lot quicker than the injuries I caused to my leg muscles.

The pain got so bad that I briefly considered a trip to the Emergency Room at the hospital; but opted for a regular office visit to my primary care physician.  A prescription of muscle relaxers seems to have done the trick and after about a week on them, I am almost walking normally again.

If any of you have never experienced a hamstring injury, let me tell ya - it's NOT fun! The muscles were so tight that every time I tried to bend my knee I felt like the muscle in the back of my thigh was either going to snap or tear.  When my doctor examined my leg, he told me the hamstring felt like it had a knot in it.

So what does this all have to do with Amateur radio?  A lot.

It was too painful to go downstairs to the basement shack, so I avoided the shack like the plague. And to be honest, walking around for the most part was such a pain that I didn't even feel like setting up the KX3 and magloop in the living room.  I was just so pre-occupied with discomfort that I literally had the air let out of my balloon for close to a month.  The routine became go to work, hobble on home, eat dinner, and then go to bed early to elevate my leg for as long as possible.

But now that things are starting to resemble some kind of normalcy, I hope to start bringing the KX3 to work with me for lunchtime QRP sessions as soon as next week.

It's amazing how you can lose interest in even your most favorite things in life when your brain is busy dealing with the nerves in your body telling it that something is wrong.

The only bright side that I can think of is that I didn't purchase Hamvention tickets for this past weekend.  I would have never been able to deal with all the necessary walking, and it would have been massively depressing to have the tickets in hand and then not be able to go.

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

Christmas in April

I'm so happy for my friend Bob W3BBO. He had a major score yesterday and was able to acquire something he's been wanting for a long, long time.

A little background ....... while I messed with QRP as early just a few years after I became licensed, I wasn't what you would call a "dedicated" QRPer. I had joined QRP-ARCI in the early 80s. and I had my HW8 and I even joined in and participated in the very early QRP Fox Hunts all the way when I was still N2ELW. But I still messed around at the 100 Watt level a lot. And don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with that.

It wasn't until one Piscataway Amateur Radio Club Field Day, when Bob brought along the K2 that he had finished building that I really became hooked. That coincided with the fact that my wife Marianne was pregnant with our son at the time, I had a wire antenna hanging from the house just outside a window of what would become Joey's room.  Knowing that there was going to be a baby monitor in there,  and knowing how completely those things are shielded against RF interference, I was concerned that my CW might start the thing buzzing and blaring at all hours of the night while our son was sleeping. That kind of calamity and headache I did NOT need! (YOU WOKE THE BABY!!!!!!!)

That was when I decided to go totally QRP. I just had a gut feeling that 5 Watts would not cause an apocalyptic reaction from a baby monitor, and I turned out to be right. I finished an OHR 40./20 that had been languishing since my single days and went from there. The rest is history. But if it weren't for Bob bringing his K2 to Field Day, and us actually using it when one of the generators conked out ....... things might have turned out differently. So Bob became my QRP mentor, just like he had served as my satellite mentor.

Over the past couple of years, during our weekly Echolink and then Skype talks, Bob would every now and then mention ho he would love to have a Heathkit HW9. He has a K2, a PFR3, various homebrew radios that he has built, but never an HW9. Yesterday his dream came true, when looking at the NAQCC Shop and Swap e-mail, he saw one for sale. it turned out that the party doing the selling didn't live too, too far way from Bob - over in NY State. So after some phone calls and some discussion, they agreed to meet at a halfway point which resulted in Bob taking ownership in these:

After bringing them home and doing some housekeeping, they now look like this:

As Bob said, "a little soap and elbow grease go a long way". And I'd have to agree!  Bob fired up the gear last night and make a QSO on 40 Meters, so all appears to be well.

It's always neat when a fried; or someone you know scores big in their personal goals in this hobby. You can't help but feeling great for them!

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

Tomorrow, April 27th, is Samuel F. B. Morse's birthday

And here is an excellent suggestion by Wayne N6KR:

No matter how busy I am tomorrow, I aim to make at least one QSO on this coming Friday in honor of Samuel Morse’s birth (227 years ago!). I’ll be dusting off my oldest hand key for the occasion, one with a leg strap and Levi’s-style button that was used by the South African army circa WW2. 

If you have an even older hand key, and you manage to get its contacts cleaned in time for this auspicious date, please send me a photo of it. I’ll collect the photos and post them on the Elecraft website photo gallery.

73,
Wayne
N6KR

I have a collection of several fine straight keys, including a McElroy; but none of them are what I would consider to be really old antiques. My J37 and J38 keys are probably from the WWII era. (Funny how for us Baby Boomers, things from the WWII era still don't seem to be that "antique" - Unless you include us!) My Vibroplex Original goes back to the 1920's I think; but that's not a straight key.

In any event, tomorrow might be a good day to pack the KX3 and battery in the car and get out there during lunchtime, in order to inaugurate the W2LJ 2018 Lunchtime QRP Season.

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

What to bring?

I was reading a post on QRP-L the other day that brought a smile to my face. Someone (can't remember the name or call sign) was lamenting on how he went out for QRPTTF last Saturday and discovered that he had just brought along too much stuff. This brought that smile to my face, because I have also found myself in that position........many times.

Let's face it ...... those of us who are Weekend Warriors do not really need to pack like as if we were  SOTAteers. Those intrepid QRPers usually have to hike for many, many miles to get to their final destination. For them to not have a redundant set of just about everything would be a disaster. I can only imagine how much fun it would be to hike five or ten miles to a mountain top, set up the station only to find out that your BNC to SO239 adapter broke and that you didn't carry a back up. That would be a hair-tearing-out day, indeed.

For those of us who go to a local. county or state park and set up at an available picnic table usually have the luxury of parking nearby. That makes life so much easier! I usually leave the backpack full of all extemporaneous stuff in the back of the Jeep.  All that comes with me is the KX3 in its padded case, the battery and a paddle and set of ear buds along with the antenna du` jour. I carry these items in a very light, over-the-shoulder messenger bag that Cafe Press used to offer, but sadly, they no longer do. Glad I got mine while they had it!

This bag fits everything I need for a few hours of operating outdoors in a park-like environment.  Of course if I were to set up somewhere that required a substantial walk or hike, I'd bring the entire backpack with me. It's no fun walking a couple miles back to the car because you didn't bring any zip ties or extra antenna support rope with you in a small day pack. Not only is that frustrating; but it takes away from your operating time. The object it to maximize operating time and minimize set up and tear down time, right?

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that you learn as you go. Do enough portable operations and you'll learn soon enough when to carry light, or when to bring the kitchen sink along with you.

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

Geez! Another kit!

From QRPGuys. No shortage of offerings to the QRP community!

Here is another circuit design from Cliff Donley, (K8TND) he calls “Lucky Strike”. It is a sensitive direct conversion receiver kit that covers the 40m band for cw or ssb reception. It is a through hole kit that uses the popular NE602/612 mixer/oscillator and an LM384 audio amplifier for ear buds or a small speaker. Cliff has incorporated an LED  for the AGC system. There is a switched attenuator on the front end to prevent overloading. All the controls and I/O are board mounted. Front controls are Coarse Tuning, Fine Tuning, and Audio Gain. Rear connections are 12V power jack, 3.5mm audio jack, and the BNC antenna connection. The Power and Attenuator switches are board mounted, with pads for 9V battery operation if desired. We have provided power and signal pads for our Digital Dial if you want to add that option. All the receiver components are included in the kit with the pcb. It is a little over 2.50” square, and the same size as the MMM+ transmitter. Current usage is ~10mA

Yours for $25

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