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Saturday, April 16, 2011

17 Meters ..... nice ..... VERY nice!

It's been a very rainy day here in Central NJ.  That meant no outdoor chores today; so I spent some time on the air.  There seemed to be quite a bit of contesting activity on 20 Meters, so I decided to hang out on 17 Meters for a bit this afternoon.

The band was hopping and I worked a new DXCC entity via QRP.  ER1LW in Moldova (Moldavia). Slawa was loud into NJ - 599 and I received a 569 report in return.  I even managed to tell Slawa that I was running QRP and got a "FB" in return.  I just checked my DXCC account on the ARRL Website and I see that Moldova is new for me .... period!  Not just QRP!  I also worked ES3AX, August in Estonia and OL2011VP in the Czech Republic, and CT1JGA, Oli in Portugal.

Later in the day, I got on 20 Meters for a bit and decided to call CQ at the 500 mW level.  I posted myself on QRPSPOTS and got a call from Jack W7CNL in Idaho, who saw my spot. I got a 529 and then a 559 from him, while he was a solid 559/569 into NJ.  According to the distance calculator feature on the QRP-ARCI Website - the distance between Jack and I is 2,133.62 miles, so this was a case where I was at the 4,267.25 miles per Watt level.  I know that a lot of times this is meaningless, but I still get a kick out of it!

Looking at the Reverse Beacon Network, my 500 mW signal was being reported as 19dB above the noise floor by OL5Q.   So my 500 mW signal was kind of loud to the Czech Republic - not bad!  In all cases I was using the K2 and the Butternut HF9V.

As I type this, it is REALLY pouring rain - I mean cats and dogs, buckets of rain!  I sure hope it's not like this next weekend.  Not only is next weekend Easter weekend; but next Saturday is QRPTTF - QRP To The Field.  This is the inaugural "outdoor" QRP event for the 2011 outdoor season.  I always enjoy this one and I really hoping for decent weather.

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

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