AA blessing or a curse?

I got on the air for a bit yesterday to play around on 10 Meters. It was wide open and was buzzing with ARRL DX Contest activity. I only stayed on long enough to work about a dozen foreign countries, all with 5 Watts,of course. After that, I went POTA hunting for a bit.

When the bell tolled midnight UTC, the bands once again became very, very quiet. Almost like a ghost town. The activity during the contest reminded me of my Novice days and even my early days as a General. Back then, it was very often hard to find a vacant spot on which to call CQ. It was not uncommon for there to be wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder stations occupying the bands, on an everyday basis! Not just during the weekends or during contests.

Sadly, it's not that way anymore. I'm going to post a query here that will undoubtedly be unpopular, but I have to wonder if a contributing factor may be the rise of waterfall displays, band scopes, panadapters or whatever you want to call them.

My thought process is like this. Joe Ham turns on his rig. He goes to, let's say 15 Meters. His panadapter shows flatline, no activity to speak of, so he goes to another band, or worse yet turns off the rig.

How many guys are looking at the same picture? All of them assuming there's no one out there, listening? Nobody's there that I can see, so why should I waste my time calling CQ?

Just a thought. Maybe, just maybe we were better off in the days when we would twiddle the dial hunting for someone to work, just calling CQ when we didn't hear anybody.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP- When you care to send the very least!

80 Meter Fox and the weekend

Last night was my final appearance as a Fox for this season. Whew! I pulled both a 40 and 80 Meter stint for Steve WX2S while he was busy dealing with some family issues, as well as my own two 80 Meter sessions. It was a lot, but it was fun! The jury is still out on whether or not I'll volunteer next season. Since I don't post to the K4OAQ real time maps, if I do volunteer again, I might just get turned down. Time will tell and I have a long time to think about it.

Band conditions were not the best last night. The k Index was a tad over 4 and there was ferocious QSB at times. It seemed particularly bad when I was trying to work Don K9DRP. I just could not copy his call! Veteran Ham that he is, Don took his code speed down a notch. Once he did that, his callsign lasted longer than the QSB dropout and I was able to hand him a pelt. Thanks, Don!

I noted in my comments to the Fox Hunt e-mail reflector that slowing down the code speed is something Tim KR0U does, often. When you have 5 or 6 Hounds baying at you all at the same time, a call sign sent at a slower speed really stands out. That's something that I will have to remember myself!

In all, including the two Foxes, I was able to hand out 49 pelts - just one short of my self imposed goal. I'm predicting that between John K4BAI and myself, that we were able to hand out somewhere around 120 pelts - my close to 50 and his probably around 70.

Here's the RBN map from last night:

The screen shot was taken this morning, so the grey line is wrong, but you can get an idea where the skimmers picked me up last night. I made it as far as Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming  - which this map does not indicate.

Now - onto the weekend:

Contests:

ARRL International DX Contest, CW - https://www.arrl.org/arrl-dx

Run for the Bacon QRP Contest - http://qrpcontest.com/pigrun/

FISTS Sunday Sprint - https://fistsna.org/operating.html#sprints

K1USN Slow Speed Test - http://www.k1usn.com/sst.html

Special Event Stations:

02/14/2025 | Arizona Statehood Day SES

Feb 14-Feb 15, 1500Z-0000Z, K7A, Prescott, AZ. Yavapai Amateur Radio Club. 28.313 21.313 14.313 7.213. Certificate. Mike Belanger, W1DGL, 219 W Leroux St, Apt. 202, Prescott, AZ 86303. We will be self-spotting to let you know where we are in case the above frequencies are either in use already or QRM/N is too high there. We will start on or as close to the 10m frequency listed and work from there as the day goes on. Happy 113th birthday, Arizona! www.w7yrc.org/club-station

02/15/2025 | Ice Station W0JH - Frozen Minnesota Lake Portable

Feb 15-Feb 17, 1600Z-2300Z, W0JH, Stillwater, MN. Stillwater (MN) Amateur Radio Association - SARA. 21.360 14.260 7.260 3.860. Certificate. E-certificate only, send QSL info , to, W0JHrequest@gmail.com. W0JH will operate portable from a frozen lake in Washington County, Minnesota (Grid Square EN34). In a meager attempt to drive away the remainder of Minnesota winter, the Stillwater Amateur Radio Association will be generating as much RF as possible over the President's Day weekend. (Please help us!!) Certificates will ONLY be sent via email in PDF format. (Send requests with standard QSL confirmation info to: W0JHrequest@gmail.com). There is no need to send a QSL card. www.Radioham.org

02/15/2025 | K4US - George Washington's Birthday at Mount Vernon

Feb 15-Feb 16, 1500Z-1600Z, K4US, Alexandria, VA. Mount Vernon Amateur Radio Club. 7.042 7.242 14.042 14.242. QSL. MVARC, P.O. Box 7234, Alexandria, VA 22307. MVARC will host a special event station to commemorate our first president's 293rd birthday. Members will be at the Mount Vernon greenhouse on the original grounds of the former plantation of George Washington and his wife, Martha Washington mvarc.org , K4US@mvarc.org

02/16/2025 | The White House Communications Agency Amateur Radio Club Presidents Day 2025 Commemoration

Feb 16-Feb 18, 0000Z-0000Z, W0H, Jackson, OH. White House Communications Agency Amateur Radio Club. 3.875 MHz 7.275 MHz 14.250 MHz 28.550. Certificate. Lowell Yates, 6809 Four Mile Rd, Jackson, OH 45640. The White House Communications Agency Amateur Radio Club is excited to honor all of our Presidents this Presidents Day. We would like to especially recognize the Presidents for whom the White House Communications Agency "(WHCA) has provided communications support since its founding in 1942. A WHCA-ARC Special Event certificate will be awarded to commemorate this special occasion. For more information, please visit our events page. https://whitehousecomms-arc.org/events/whca-arc-presidents-day-special-event/ https://whitehousecomms-arc.org

BTW, in relation to my post yesterday about the KX3 ........ there are already folks out there discussing what they want to see as the successor to the KH1! That rig was introduced like what? A couple of years ago? Wow!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

KX3 a dinosaur?

Wow! I was slightly taken aback reading a thread on the Elecraft AX/KX/KH1 groups.io reflector the other day. Someone was asking if there was any news about updates/upgrades to the KX3 at Orlando Hamcation.

Admittedly, I'm biased - I absolutely love my KX3 and at this point, the only way you're going to take it away from me is to pry it out of my cold dead fingers. I also admit, I'm not an EE and I'm not the tech wizard either. I also don't need to change rigs as often as I change my underwear - still, I was surprised by ....

"a new model must be designed to succeed the KX3. There are just too many things to improve, including the basic circuitry" - Really?

Another wrote "I agree primarily that the KX3 is a bit long in the tooth."

Still another wrote "Almost everyone I know who either bought a KX3 or seriously looked at a KX3 has gone with the Icom 705." Oooooh! Oooooh! Not me! Not me!

And to be balanced in this post, there were also comments from other Hams (including myself) who voiced favorable opinions about the rig. I guess I'm just old fashioned enough where I don't need a waterfall display (or bandscope, or whatever you want to call it), and just the latest and the greatest bells and whistles. I'm happy to be able to interface with the rig via buttons and dials and menus that don't dive down to the Earth's core. I like the human element - I don't need or want everything to be cyber.

Of course, everybody is entitled to their opinion, and I don't denigrate anyone for it. I was just surprised that so many KX3 owners seem to be less than satisfied with their radio. 

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Took a plunge!

An e-mail popped up on my phone today that eBay had some new listings of RigExperts antenna analyzers. I've been wanting one for a very, very long time and a pre-owned AA-30 Zoom was up for (just) under $150.

The seller, who has a high satisfaction rating, stated that it's in "very good used condition". I decided to take my chances and took the plunge. This will be so handy in setting up / tuning the Buddisitck on the magmount on top of the Jeep. 

I figured that it might be a long while before I'd see a RigExperts analyzer that was affordable, again. It may arrive at my QTH as early as Friday, but knowing my luck, it will probably be here next week. Friday would be nice because it would give me the longer President's Day weekend a chance to get familiar with it.  (Just got a shipping update - Wednesday, 2/19 - of course!)

The nice thing is that even if it does not come with documentation, I can download that from the DX Engineering website.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Did get on the iar last night

For the Saint Max Net, which was very light due to some sort of football game that was taking place in New Orleans last night. I jest, but can you imagine if the Superbowl had taken place a few weekends ago when the Big Easy had that snowfall? The game is moved to a neutral site where the weather is supposed to not be a problem, right?

Anyway, that DuraFlame space heater I purchased last year made all the difference again. It raised the temp down in the basement just enough to make it somewhat comfortable. 

We had snow and ice Saturday night into Sunday morning. just enough to be an annoyance. We have another disturbance forecasted for Tuesday into Wednesday and I hope it does not play havoc with this cardiologist appointment that I have for Wednesday afternoon. I'm looking forward to getting through this chapter and moving on.

The weather guy I follow on Facebook is calling for a continued series of snow/ice events through the month of February. That's only three weeks - the year is moving so fast, already. I am looking forward to the beginning of March and the return to Daylight Savings Time. Anything that makes the daylight last longer is fine with me. I can deal with darkness in the morning on my way to work.

I just checked the 80 Meter Fox Hunt schedule and I see that for my final stint, that I am paired up with John K4BAI on Thursday night. I'm sure that will be epic with the both of us handing out over 100 pelts. His 70 to my 30! HI!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

More updates and some thoughts

I haven't been posting much as of late, and for that I apologize to all of you who follow my exploits. This heart issue has kept me pre-occupied. It's not as dire as my imagination likes to run away with and think that it is, but it still leaves me unsettled at times.

The cardiac catheterization last Tuesday went well. All these years of this American of Polish descent eating ham, kielbasa and stuffed cabbage and my arteries are still clear! However, I do have a  mitral valve leak which needs to be taken care of. So I have an appointment with another cardiologist who specializes in taking care of this kind of thing at a bigger hospital than the one I went to last week. That's this coming Wednesday. I will find out more then.

In the meantime, I'll most likely check into the St. Max Net tonight and I might even get on the air this afternoon for a little POTA hunting.

This coming Thursday evening is my last turn as being a Fox in the QRP Fox Hunts for the season, and it may well be my very last time ever. There is a feature designed by Fritz K4OAQ, where Foxes can real time log to a map, so when a Hound is worked, his QTH pops up as a dot on a map of the US. Ingenious really, as a Hound can ensure he nabbed a pelt and thus it eliminates dupe QSOs to a large extent. All Foxes are strongly encouraged to use this feature.

My problem is that I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time and trying to work stations and then type in call signs and real time log would be an absolute debacle. I can only imagine that if I tried this, my QSO count (which is never very high compared to other Foxes to begin with) would go way, way down.  So I will paper log this last time, publish it the next day and I will bow out of volunteering for Fox duty to more capable hands than mine. I dare say that my difficulty is not an age thing, it's a lack of coordination thing, and I don't want to spoil anyone's fun or be a hindrance to the process.

72 de Larry W2LJ 

QRP - When you care to send the very least!