"QRP Homebrewer", anyone? If not, how about some lighthouses?

News about the fledgling attempts to revitalize the New Jersey QRP Club seems to be getting around. My blog post has been picked up and seems to be making the rounds. So much so that I received this e-mail the other day:

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Larry,

I read with interest your post about resurrecting the New Jersey QRP Club (which I leaned about from the Amateur Radio Daily blog.)

My name is Kay Savetz, and I curate the Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. DLARC is a project of the Internet Archive (the not-for-profit online library best known for The Wayback Machine.) DLARC is growing to be a massive online library of the past and present of ham radio and related communications. It is funded by a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications. You can see what we have so far at https://archive.org/details/dlarc 

I would like to include the QRP Homebrewer magazine in the archive. It looks like there were 10 printed issues, with plans to release them on CD-ROM which may not have actually happened. Do you happen to have the issues on paper, or digital, or in any format? I would love to scan them and make them available in the DLARC library.

This will provide a long-term backup of the content.  They will also be full-text searchable. It would look a lot like this: https://archive.org/details/qcwa?sort=-date 

Here's more information about the DLARC project: https://blog.archive.org/2023/05/03/dlarc-75000/

Thanks and 73,

Kay Savetz

—

Kay Savetz, K6KJN

Internet Archive's Program Manager, Special Collections

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Does anyone out there still have any issues? I'll have to look through my collection of QRP periodicals. I may have a few, but I very highly doubt that I have all ten.

If you do, and are willing to have them scanned, please send me an e-mail (w2ljqrp@gmail.com) and I'll send you Kay's e-mail address.

Now for the lighthouses. This weekend, August 5th and 6th is US National Lighthouse-Lightship Weekend, which celebrates the establishment of the United States Lighthouse Service.

The Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society (ARLHS), founded by James H. Weidner, K2JXW (SK), will be asking amateur radio operators to participate by contacting lighthouses across the United States.

The suggested calling frequencies for SSB are 1.830, 3.530, 7.030, 10.130, 14.030, 18.070, 21.030, and 28.030. On CW, they're 1.830, 3.530, 7.030, 10.130, 14.030, 18.070, 21.030, and 28.030.

These frequencies can be crowded and are only suggestions. Amateur radio operators can use any clear frequency +/- 20 kHz of these suggestions. For digital modes, common operating frequencies are used. On VHF and UHF, repeater operation is allowed, but using the national calling frequencies is encouraged. Of course the ARLHS advises operators to be courteous, use good operating practices, and listen before they transmit. The ARLHS World List of Lights (WLOL), which was updated on June 19, 2023, is a comprehensive collection that contains information on 15,527 lighthouses in 234 amateur radio call areas. You can also find the times and dates of operation for the special events on the website.

The International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend 2023 (ILLW) will take place on August 19 - 20. Each year ILLW attracts more than 500 lighthouse entries located in at least 40 countries. There are few rules, and it is not a usual contest type event. Participation is also free and, there are no prizes for contacting large numbers of stations.

Another good reason to get on the air!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Taking things for granted

Before I start this post, I want to dispel any rumors that all W2LJ does at Field Day is take photographs. Here are two of yours truly actually pounding brass and adding points to the NJ2SP Field Day total - courtesy of Mario KD2HPF.

Field Day, or perhaps better said, the end of Field Day often causes me to wax nostalgic. That definitely happened this year, and a large part of it was seen in that video which I posted yesterday. Watching Marv K2VHW working ZL4TT in New Zealand brought back me back, in an instant, to something that happened to me, as a  newly licensed Amateur Radio operator so many years ago. 

A little context - Bill W2AOF, our Club President, spent a month with friends in New Zealand earlier this year. When he got back, he filled us in on the details of the trip. He had a great time, got to see a lot of wonderful sights, got to eat good food and spend quality time with good people. Yet, there was a price to pay, and I'm not referring to the monetary expense. Sure, there was that, but there was also an expenditure of time. 

With all the technological advancements we've witnessed over the last century, getting to New Zealand from New Jersey is comparatively easy compared to 100 years ago. Back then, the ocean voyage took weeks. Flying by air is a snap compared to that, but even that takes time. You don't often think about it, but even flying on a commercial aircraft, going at speeds never dreamt of by the seafaring ships of the old days, it still takes the better part of a day (around 18 hours) to get from New Jersey to New Zealand.  And in the middle of the overnight, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, with 5 Watts of power to a hunk of wire hanging in the air, we made that trip and back in seconds, the whole conversation taking a few minutes!

I was struck by that, once again. I wish Bill had been there. He had left a few hours earlier to make sure the A/C was working properly in his home as well as to get some much needed rest. Had he been there. Bill is the kind of guy who would have been taken aback and would have experienced that "Wow factor" of what had just been accomplished. We communicate with all parts of the world. There is really no place too far that our radio waves can't reach. But how often do we let that soak in? How often do we get annoyed when that DX contact isn't made. How often do we take our radios and our hobby and all the physics involved for granted?

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, as I had a similar experience happen to me back in 1979, and I'm sure it's been related somewhere earlier in this blog. But I like to think about it, it's an enjoyable memory and I'll re-tell it again.

I passed my Novice exam sometime back in October/November of 1978. The actual paper "ticket" came in the mail the last week of the year. I didn't even get on the air until the end of January of 1979, as I was busy putting my station together, and building my Heathkit Novice receiver kit that I had gotten as a Christmas gift. I upgraded to General in July and I worked my first DX contact with a Ham in Germany shortly thereafter.

Later that year in October of 1979, my best friend and I decided to take a trip up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire to do some photography. We were two young budding photographers who were working together at a local camera shop and we both needed a road trip. We got our much needed time off and eventually made it all the way to Maine, specifically Bar Harbor. From there we decided that we would follow the coast as we made our way back to New Jersey. 

That meant a side trip to Cape Cod, and on the way out to Provincetown for some authentic New England clam chowder we came across a sign indicating that we were approaching the site of Marconi's Wellfleet Station.  I had to stop. We were in my car and I was the driver, so what I say goes .....goes. Right? What newly minted Amateur Radio operator would not want to visit a Marconi site? 

Not my image, but this is what you see when you visit. ^ This site is part of the National Park's Cape Cod National Seashore entity, so it is well maintained and there is a plethora of history to read about. This is what it looked like back in the day:

A few of the cement pylons that anchored the legs of the antenna towers were still there when I visited. Most had washed away into the sea as a result of beach erosion.

But it was the sea that struck me the most, which is a strange thing to say as I was born, bred and continue to live in New Jersey. I've seen the Atlantic Ocean and it bays hundreds, if not close to a thousand times in my time here on earth. But that time was different. 

I had not yet traveled to Switzerland, and would not experience air travel to Europe for another nine years, but standing there, for a VERY long time, where history had been made, just staring at the ocean, looking out upon all that water as far as my eye could see, was an experience unlike any other I had ever had. All I could think of was the radio waves from my Drake 2-NT and my MorGain multiband dipole, flying over all that water to another Ham in Germany. And her radio waves (she was an XYL) travelling back to my Heathkit HR-1680 receiver in a matter of seconds.

That water looked like it would never end. I knew that it did. I knew that on the other side of that vastness was Europe and the rest of the world. To contemplate my radio signals covering all that distance made me feel so tiny, but also filled me with awe at the immensity of Creation at the same time. 

We get so busy on Field Day and the rest of the year with making contacts, conducting ragchews, running nets, competing in contests, speaking into microphones, banging away on keys, typing away on keyboards that we forget to notice what is really happening. It's the magical part of Amateur Radio that never grows old for me and I hope I never take it for granted.

Long winded, I know, but thanks for staying with me!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Every now and then

something happens that just makes your day!

I got an e-mail from Andre WI9AJR asking me to check out Page 83 of December QST.  Well, as a Lifemember and part of a captive audience, it seems like just about every Ham I know gets their QST before I do!  So I did the next best thing - I checked out the online digital edition and this is what I saw:

Two Skeeter Hunters, Andre WI9AJR and his son Etienne WI9EJR both passed their Extra exam upgrade on the same day. Father and son Extras !!! How cool is that? The fact that Etienne is wearing a NJQRP Skeeter Hunt t-shirt is just icing on the cake.

Way to go guys! Congratulations and I look forward to hearing you in the 2020 Hunt next August!

In the same edition, were the 2019 Field Day results. As I expected, NJ2SP wasn't quite up to snuff this year - but still, we had a respectable score.

A few of us came down with some kind of stomach thing and we were definitely not up to our "A Game". 2020 will be different - just wait until next year!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Getting ready for Field Day

Even though it's only April, SPARC is getting ready for Field Day,

I've added our NJ2SP Field Day info to the official ARRL Field Day locator, and we're in full preparations swing.  Once again we'll be operating 3A with a GOTA station. This year, though, I'd like to add a proper 160 Meter dipole so that we can make contacts on Top Band through out the evening. The W3EDP was successful in making contacts for us on all bands last year 160 Meters through 10 Meters, but on 160 Meters it was a compromise antenna. Only the loudest and nearest 160 Meter stations were able to hear us. With a proper resonant antenna, we should be able to make more than just a handful of contacts.

We're also intent on doing more to get the local Scouts to come visit and operate this year. We need to start advertising that to the local troops now, because once the Scouts scatter for the Summer, it will be harder to get the message out.

What does your club/organization do to put Field Day in the eye of your community? Anything?

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

Not playing by the rules

One of the "rules" that always made me chuckle, was from the sages who advise QRPers "not to call CQ". Again, these are the wise ones who equate QRP with weak signal. No one is going to hear your signal, so why even waste your time calling CQ. You're only going to get frustrated, right?

Wrong!

I was down in the basement today, soldering a few more components onto the kit du jour. I decided to put in the easrbuds and allow the KX3 to call CQ while I was happily soldering away. What I didn't expect was to get an answer on the very first shot. I had to hurriedly put down the soldering iron when my query resulted in a call from Alex UR3HC in the Ukraine. We exchanged 559 reports and we both went merrily on our separate ways.

So this confirmed a couple of things for me (once again).

1) Don't believe all the people who bemoan the facts that "the bands are dead". They aren't - at least not always.

2) QRPers definitely SHOULD call CQ. Again, your signal is going to be decent - somewhere. It may not be 599, but it will be audible and answerable - somewhere. Sometimes that may be only down the street, sometimes it will be halfway around the world. You may get lucky, like I did today and you may not. However, you're never going to know unless you give it a shot, so don't be gun shy.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that next Saturday (May 4th, 2019), the South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club will be setting up a field station to put NJ2SP on the air for the purpose of celebrating the Fifth Anniversary of our founding.  We will setting up a CW station (QRP) and an SSB station (QRO) at Putnam Park, here in town. The park has a pavilion, so even if the weather is less than ideal, we will still be out there.

Look for us between the hours of 1500 to 1900 UTC, The frequencies that we will be hanging around will be 7.030 and 14.060 MHz for CW and 7.280 and 14.265 MHz for SSB.  An SASE will get you a QSL card with a special Fifth Anniversary sticker on it.

I'm the trustee for NJ2SP so if you look up NJ2SP or W2LJ on QRZ, both point to my home address.

This is an activity designed for the purpose of getting our newer members (also newer Hams) with less than a lot of HF experience, on the air. Hopefully it will entice a few who seem to get stuck on the VHF/UHF bands to set up HF stations at home.

Hope to work you!

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

Unadulterated bragging

Some more Field Day results - the ARRL 2018 Field Day results are in the database.

As mentioned in a previous post, SPARC came in 4th for our category 3AB, Nationwide.

In our NNJ section, we came in 4th out of a total of 39 stations that participated in Field Day (all classes and categories)

AND, out of ALL the 2018 Field Day stations that utilized 5 Watts of output power - there were 276 - SPARC came in 17th

So all in all, NJ2SP placed well. However, no resting on laurels! I need to come up with a better antenna solution for the CW station, so that we can surpass 400 CW QSOs in 2019 and boost our total even higher.

Maybe a home made hex beam?

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

Field Day 2017

Oh, brother!

Looking at the weather, Field Day in and of itself may not be too bad, but set up is looking to be a soggy affair.  Rain tonight, ending tomorrow somewhere around 8:00 AM, as presently forecast. I wouldn't mind it clearing out a little earlier so it drys out a bit more for our scheduled 10:00 AM set up time.

The South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club will once again put NJ2SP on the air as "NNJ 3A".  We'll be operating QRP / Battery. We'll have a GOTA station on the air and we'll do our best to get as many bonus points as we can.

If you're in the Central New Jersey area, please feel free to stop by. We'd be glad to have you! Look for us in Spring Lake Park on Lakeview Avenue in South Plainfield. We'll be in the big, white tent.

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

Field Day results are in!

If you're anything like me, you were probably scratching your head a couple of weeks ago when the digital and paper versions of November QST came out, sans Field Day results. I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I guess December, then."

Wrong! (This is getting to be a bad habit on my part.)

The ARRL has chosen to release the results of Field Day 2015 via the Web. The only reason I knew this was one of my Facebook friends had pointed it out to me, even before the announcement was made by the ARRL. See? I keep telling you guys that Facebook does have SOME value!

Even before I got dressed for work, I was checking to see how NJ2SP did this year. (I'm such a geek!) It turns out we did pretty darned OK.

We came in fifth in the nation in the 3AB (battery powered, 5W power limit) category.

And we came in tenth in the Hudson Division for all categories.

Now all we have to do is get Marv K2VHW's beam working for next year for the SSB station, and I'm thinking of switching from the EARCHI to the W3EDP for the CW station and we should be able to do even better. Now if we can only keep the deluges away, we'll be "In like Flynn".

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

Not bad for our first effort

The digital edition of the December 2014 issue of QST was posted today.  The first thing I looked at was the 2014 Field Day results.

 

SPARC and NJ2SP came in 3rd Place overall in the 2A Battery category - and only 21 points away from taking 2nd Place. Not bad at all for our inaugural Field Day effort.  Needless to say, improvements are being considered now, in order to elevate our score next June.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Did you participate in Field Day 2014

and submit a log to the ARRL?

You can check to make sure they received it, and if there were any discrepancies with the class/category that you claimed.

Go to: http://www.arrl.org/news/2014-arrl-field-day-logs-received-list-available-for-review

Scroll way down to the bottom of the page and download the PDF.

Even though we got an e-mail confirmation when our log was submitted, I double checked to see if the log for NJ2SP was there. You can call me paranoid, but I just wanted to make sure our inaugural Field Day effort gets counted amongst the masses.

It's there.

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