Let's face it ........ I suck

when it comes to using a straight key. I am so out of practice, that I was embarrassed how my fist sounded on Straight Key Night. I only made two QSOs, and for the second I switched to my Vibroplex Original. Can you imagine that? I sound better on a bug than I do on a straight key! How pathetic is that? 

I've dropped a long way off from my Novice days, which were completed entirely with a Nye Viking straight key.  I suppose given time, I could get my straight key fist sounding reasonably decent again, but if I'm going to go mechanical, I'll stick with my bug. My fist there may not be the best, either, but it's yards better than my straight key fist! 

As far as only two QSOs go on Straight Key Night, I took a break after the second QSO and came upstairs to get some iced tea. While I was in the kitchen, I saw a bright flash and heard a very loud rumble of thunder. I raced back down to the shack to shut down and disconnect the antennas. We had intermittent thunder and lightning for the next couple of hours. New Year's Eve thunder and lightning - wacky weather!

Tomorrow, Friday, we're supposed to get another Arctic blast and we're looking at a possible snow event next Monday into Tuesday. I'll have to make sure the outside Christmas decorations come in this weekend. We've already have had wind gusts exceeding 20 MPH, that have knocked a few things over. It won't be pleasant doing this in sub-freezing temps, but it will have to get done while the ground is not covered with snow.

On another note, that SpaceWeather Live app has been sending me all kinds of alerts. We're experiencing a lot of geomagnetic activity and just a few minutes ago, I received a notification concerning a large trans equatorial coronal hole that is directly facing the Earth. Looks for band conditions to be on the wild side for the next few days.

The QRP Fox hunts resume tonight on 80 Meters and the Foxes are "local" enough that i should be able to work both. For whatever reason, I slept terribly last night, kept waking up every few hours it seemed like. I may be sawing wood tonight by the time the Hunts begin at 9:00 PM local time.

Mom was right when she used to tell me, "Larry, don't get old." I always used to answer, "There's not much I can do about it." But boy howdy, was she ever right!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Time honored tradition for New Year's Eve and Day:

Straight Key Night!

I already have a couple of tickets for another event tonight:

 But maybe I'll use these after getting on for a QSO or two for Straight Key Night.

As per the ARRL Website:

ARRL Straight Key Night: January 1, 2025

12/25/2024

ARRL Straight Key Night is January 1, 2025, from 0000 UTC through 2359 UTC. This 24-hour event is not a contest but rather a day dedicated to celebrating our CW heritage -- radio communications by Morse code.

Participants are encouraged to get on the air and simply make enjoyable, conversational CW QSOs (radio contacts). The use of straight keys or bugs to send CW is preferred. There are no points scored and all who participate are winners. All authorized amateur frequencies may be used but activity has traditionally been centered on the HF bands.

Entries for Straight Key Night must be received by January 3, 2025. Votes for "Best Fist" and “Most Interesting QSO” will be tabulated and included in the results. Send your information to straightkey@arrl.org or by mail to ARRL Straight Key Night, 225 Main Street, Newington, Connecticut 06111. For more information, contact contests@arrl.org or (860) 594-0232.

Visit the ARRL website for more details: www.arrl.org/straight-key-night.

The cold weather has moderated in NJ with it being rather warmish the past couple of days, so I should be able to spend some time in the shack without turning the space heater on. But there is a local meteorologist that I follow on Facebook, and the reason I follow him is that his forecasts are usually spot on. He's right more often than he's wrong, which can be said to be unusual for a weatherman. His latest post included forecasts for New Year's Eve and Day, but ended with an ominous note.  (Paraphrasing here) "After the New Year, Winter is going to bite us on the butt (his exact words) in early January, with way below normal temperatures and the possibility of significant snow events."

Not exactly my idea of kicking off the new year in good fashion.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

New Year Weekend

Coming up this weekend:

Contests:

RAC Winter Contest - https://www.rac.ca/rac-canada-winter-contest-2023/

YOTA Contest - https://www.ham-yota.com/contest/

Stew Perry Topband Challenge - http://www.kkn.net/stew/

Original QRP Contest - http://www.qrpcc.de/contestrules/oqrpr.html

ARS Spartan Sprint - http://arsqrp.blogspot.com/2009/02/so-whats-spartan-sprint-and-how-do-i.html

Special Events:

01/01/2023 | Plano Amateur Radio Klub 50th Anniversary Special Activation Jan 1-Dec 31, 0000Z-2359Z, K5PRK/50, Plano, TX. Plano Amateur Radio Klub . 14.160. QSL. Plano Amateur Radio Klub, Box 860435, Plano, TX 75086. Commemorating the klubs 50th Anniversary in 2023, klub members will be activating the klub callsign K5PRK with a /50 suffix, throughout the year. K5PRK.net

01/05/2023 | Vasteras Radio Klubb 80th Anniversary Jan 5-Dec 31, 0000Z-2359Z, 8S80AA, Vasteras, SWEDEN. Vasteras Radio Klubb. All bands, all modes; 2 - 160 meters. Certificate. . This is an operating event. www.sk5aa.se

01/01/2024 | Peace in the World - Jan 1-Jan 30, 0000Z-0000Z, VE2JCW, ST-JEROME, QC. VE2JCW. 14.030. QSL. Jean Charron, 17 rue ELISABETH, ST-JEROME, QC J7Z 2S9, CANADA. To bring a little peace in this upside down world...just a contact and a smile of satisfaction... jeancharron@hotmail.com

And don't forget SKN - Straight Key Night -  ARRL  The National Association for Amateur Radio® Straight Key Night (SKN) is held on January 1, 2024, from 0000 UTC through 2359 UTC. Many hams look forward to SKN as one of the highlights of their operating year. Operators participate using Morse code (CW). All you need is your favorite straight key or bug. Many participants dust off vintage radios and keys and put them back into service each year just for this event. SKN is not a contest, so there's no need for quick exchanges. However, all hand keys, regardless of age, are welcome. The number of contacts you make is not important. The reward is meeting new friends as you get together on the air. Send a list of stations contacted, SKN stories and photos, and your votes for Best Fist and Most Interesting QSO to straightkey@arrl.org by January 31, 2024. More information is available at www.arrl.org/straight-key-night

Every morning this week, I thought to myself, "When I get home tonight, I'm going to hook up the AX1 to my KX3 after dinner and see what I can hear."

HA! BIG HA! That last shot I got on December 18th, as the final part of my prostate cancer treatment has really kicked my butt big time! It must have been a double dose or something,  as it was all I could do to eat dinner, watch Jeopardy and then crawl into bed by 8:00 PM each night this week.

The plan is to finally get the AX1 hooked up this weekend and work a few stations. There's not too much going on this weekend other than my weekly grocery shopping trip, and I have to go to the local tire center as it appears that my back driver's side tire has a slow leak. We're not going anywhere or doing anything for New Year's Eve - so hopefully, I'll get a lot of rest in as well as some On The Air time.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

A little activity

 I rang in the new year with just a little bit of activity.

New Year's Eve was of course, Straight Key Night and I got on the air after a little detective work. My W2WK straight key did not work at first. Tapping the key resulted in a big - nothing. I broke out the VOM and checked for continuity. One post to the key arm and I got the confirming "BEEP". The other post to the contact point and I also got the confirming "BEEP".  The only thing I could think of was that Bill may have silver coated the contact point, so I put a little NOXON polish on a Q-Tip and cleaned the actual contact points. Eureka! A functioning straight key! I worked W4NNF in Mobile, Alabama for my SKN QSO. After I finished with Rod, Marianne arrived home from work, so I QRT'ed and went upstairs.

This morning, after Mass, I came home and tried the QRP watering holes to see if there was any activity in the QRP-ARCI New Year Sprint.  I worked Rick NK9G in Wisconsin and Mark WB9HFK in Illinois. Other than those two, there was not much activity that I was able to hear. I did hear Gene N5GW in Mississippi working stations, but he was not calling CQ.

I'm hoping to work some POTA stations tomorrow.

My New Year resolutions for 2022 are very modest and very do-able (why set lofty goals that you have no chance of accomplishing?)

1) Get on the air more than 2021 - very do-able.

2) More relevant and timely posts here - again, very do-able.

3) Get the 2021 Skeeter Hunt soapbox published and the certificates printed and mailed by the end of January. Do-able.

4) Activate some New Jersey parks this year. Very do-able as I can incorporate that with other QRP events, such as QRPTTF, QRP Afield, FOBB and the Skeeter Hunt.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Straight Key Night

This coming Friday night (here in the USA) is Straight Key Night. Here's the official announcement from the ARRL webpage:

Straight Key Night is January 1, 2022 (UTC)

12/27/2021

The annual ARRL Straight Key Night (SKN) returns on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, January 1st, 0000 – 2359 UTC.

Many hams look forward to SKN as one of the highlights of their operating year. It’s not a contest, so there’s no need for quick exchanges. All you need is your favorite straight key or bug. Many participants dust off vintage radios and keys and put them back into service each year, just for SKN. However, all hand keys, regardless of age, are welcome.

The number of contacts you make is not important. The reward is meeting many new friends as you get together on the air. Send a list of stations contacted and any SKN stories and photos, along with your votes for Best Fist and Most Interesting QSO, before January 31, 2022. ~

This year as a special tribute to my friend Bill Koeth W2WK, who I mentioned in yesterday's post, I will use the straight key that he made for me.

I'm sure my straight key fist (I'm a single lever paddle devotee) will be a terror on the ears of whomever has the misfortune to work me, but it seems fitting to get it on the air this SKN. As straight keys go, Bill's creation is a gem to use.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

New Year's Eve possibilities

Lots happening this New Year's Eve - no excuse for NOT getting on the air! (Unless you have family obligations, of course. Family always comes first!)

40 Meter QRP Fox Hunt  - With two excellent Foxes - K4BAI in GA and NC4RT in NC.
0200-0330Z - search between 7.030 and 7.050 MHz - http://www.qrpfoxhunt.org/winter_rules.htm

SKN - Straight Key Night - http://www.arrl.org/straight-key-night

SKCC Slow Speed Saunter - https://www.skccgroup.com/operating_activities/slowspeed/

W2P Special Event Station - Commemorating the Battle of Princeton and the "Ten Crucial Days of the Revolution" - https://bit.ly/2ZD9XYQ

I'm sure this is nowhere a complete listing - probably lots of other events you can join in on.

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

Thoughts of SKN

The weather forecast for New Year's Eve this coming Monday is a rainy one. We rarely go out on New Year's Eve anyway. Marianne and I are not partying people. Our idea of a big New Year's Eve is to go out to a quiet restaurant for dinner and then come home to watch the ball drop in NYC via the television.

Sign of the times - I saw a commercial the other day for WABC's "New Year's Rockin' Eve" and I was able to recognize only two of the performing artists. I am getting old.

I will undoubtedly jump on the air for a QSO or two for SKN. Hopefully they will be nice rag chews. I am debating what to use this year - my Llaves Cootie Key 

or my Vibroplex Original.

I have had more practice with the Vibroplex and while I'm a bit rusty, I don't sound too terrible. After using a keyer and paddles for so long, it is harder for me to transition to the sideswiper. When you get so used to one side of a key making "dits" and the other side making "dahs", it becomes harder for me to send somewhat decipherable Morse Code with the Cootie.

Maybe I'll practice for a bit this weekend with the VOX on the KX3 turned off so that it becomes one of the most expensive code practice oscillators in the world.

72 de Larry W2LLJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Thinking about SKN already

Even though Christmas hasn't come yet, I'm already thinking about what to do for Straight Key Night.  I've decided to put the KX3 into mothballs for the evening and will give the HW-8 the place of honor on the shack desk.

I will use either my W2WK straight key; or maybe I'll break out the ol' Vibroplex Original and will make some ears bleed.

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