New from Elecraft & the weekend of 4/12 and 4/13

 POTA, whether you like it or not, seems to be a driving force behind new product development, whether it's smaller rigs, antennas or accessories. Elecraft has just announced a new antenna - the AX3, which they describe as "POTA ready".

I'm not going to go into the details here - they can be found at https://elecraft.com/collections/antennas/products/ax1_ax1-multi-band-whip-antenna-copy

My AX1 with the 40 Meter extension will pretty much do the same things, but that built in tripod is a nice addition! It appears to be a lot better solution than that "protractor" type support they were offering. The AX3 also comes with a waterproof nylon bag, which is a nice touch.

On to this weekend's events:

Contests to be aware of (busy weekend for contests!):

QRP-ARCI Spring QSO Party - which starts tonight! - http://qrparci.org/contest/spring-qso-party

JIDX CW Contest: - http://www.jidx.org/jidxrule-e.html

SKCC Weekend Sprintathon - https://www.skccgroup.com/operating_activities/weekend_sprintathon/

Yuri Gagarin International DX Contest - https://gccontest.ru/en/rules-gc-2025/

DIG QSO Party, CW - https://dig-contest.de/rules

Texas State Parks on the Air - https://www.tspota.org/

New Mexico QSO Party - http://www.newmexicoqsoparty.org/

Georgia QSO Party - https://gaqsoparty.com/

North Dakota QSO Party (for those of you needing ND for WAS, listen for this one!) - https://ndarrlsection.com/2025/2025_nd_qso_party_rules.pdf

International Vintage Contest HF - https://vintagecontest.webnode.it/residenti/

4 States QRP Group Second Sunday Sprint - http://www.4sqrp.com/SSS/sss_rules.pdf

And ........ you may hear this digital stuff on the bands:

IG-RY World Wide RTTY Contest, and the Africa FT4 DX Contest.

Special Event Stations:

04/12/2025 | Activation of State Parks in the State of TX Commemorating Tom King, WK5DX

Apr 12-Apr 13, 0800Z-2000Z, K5LRK, The Colony, TX. Lake Area Amateur Radio Klub. CW bottom of +40 kHz; Phone General segment +25 kHz and 28.350; VHF 50.200 144.200. QSL. Ken Rainy, AC3EZ, 529 Kenilworth Ave, Oak Point, TX 75068. www.k5lrk.com

04/12/2025 | Mississippi State Parks on the Air

Apr 12, 1300Z-2300Z, N5OS, Biloxi, MS. Jackson County MS ARA. 14.074. Certificate. Jerry Davis, P.O. Box 234, Gautier, MS 39553. 2nd Annual MS State Parks on the Air event https://jcmsara.org/mississippi-parks-on-the-air

04/12/2025 | Operation Frequent Wind

Apr 12, 1600Z-2300Z, NI6IW, San Diego, CA. USS Midway Museum Ship. 14.320 7.250 14.070 PSK31 DSTAR on Papa System Repeaters. QSL. USS Midway Museum Ship COMEDTRA, 910 N Harbor Drive, San Diego, CA 92101. www.qrz.com/db/ni6iw

04/12/2025 | Venice Florida Shark's Tooth Festival

Apr 12-Apr 13, 1020Z-1017Z, K4S, Venice, FL. Tamiami Amateur Radio Club. 14.136 21.136 28.136. QSL. TAMIAMI AMATEUR RADIO CLUB, PO BOX 976, Nokomis, FL 34274-0976. QSL includes a fossilized shark's tooth from the beach in Venice, FL when S.A.S.E. is sent to W4AC address on qrz.com tamiamiarc.org

Finally, for those of you who are NOT space buffs - April 12th is a significant day. In fact, April 12th is observed as the International Day of Human Spaceflight. On this day in 1961, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin from the (at that time) USSR, became the first human being to orbit the Earth.

Some 20 years later, on April 12th 1981,  Astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen flew the Space Shuttle Columbia into orbit on the very first shuttle mission - STS-1. The shuttle was the first spacecraft designed to be reusable. It's a shame the shuttle project was terminated, it was a huge success.

And for those of you who just love OTA events, there actually is a NOTA - NASA On The Air program. This is a series of special events where the various Amateur Radio clubs at NASA facilities, or clubs with NASA affiliation get on the air to commemorate significant space events, past and current. You can read about it here - https://nasaontheair.wordpress.com/. And there's a Facebook page as well - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1101291730008122/

Have a great weekend, and hope to hear you in the QRP-ARCI Spring QSO Party tonight!

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!

Christmas is a coming

and Santa is getting a few boat anchors ready for some Hams who have been good all year long!

I may end up getting disappointed, but I am looking forward to the 80 Meter Fox Hunt tonight. The Foxes are John K4BAI in Georgia  and Don K9DRP in Illinois. Both should be reachable/workable from New Jersey on 80 Meters.

I am looking forward to seeing which antenna might be successful in nabbing contacts with them. Ever since I've replaced that matching stub on the HF9V it's been like a brand new antenna again! I still have to go out to the backyard and grab a plastic flower pot from our shed. I want to cut a hole in the bottom, and put a slit up the side so that I can invert it and create a protective shield around the matching network so that the wires cannot be accidentally damaged by weedwhackers ever again I'm not sure my word description actually conveys what I want to do, so after the deed is done, I'll take some photos and will post them here.

By the way, speaking of Santa - for those of you who have young kids or grandkids - you probably know all about this, but there's still time left if you want your kiddoes to talk with Santa:

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

As seen on Facebook

I saw this posted on the POTA/SOTA Facebook page, and thought it would be good to share here:

I know that I am myself guilty of not following procedure, with the end result of me muttering swear words under my breath every time I have to untangle my Dacron rope supply. Thanks, Scott W3GTR for the excellent photos!

My instincts for last night's 40 Meter Fox Hunt proved to be true (for once)! I found Steve WD4CFN's Hounds rather easily, went down 1 kHz and was able to hear him amongst the "CQ NA"s that were in plenteous supply - I'm guessing last night was the NAQCC monthly Sprint? Anyway, as I was saying, I found Steve rather easily, but he kept fading in and out. He would be strong for a few minutes and then fade to ESP for a few minutes and back and forth, and back and forth. On a peak, i worked him at 02:28 UTC, 559 both ways.

John AJ1DM was just as I expected. I found "a" Hound calling him and again, went down 1 kHz and listened and heard nothing. In order to not make the same mistake I made last week, I then went back up that 1 kHz, just in case John was working simplex. Nothing there either, so I pulled the plug so I could get some shuteye.

Looking at his log this morning, the closest state to me on the East coast that John worked was North Carolina. It was obvious that his RF was flying as high overhead over New Jersey as these storied drones (which I have not seen) are. And I was surprised to see that neither Jack N2RK or Tom KV2X in NY had worked John. Those two guys must have amazing antenna systems because it seem like they work everyone - sometimes being the only East coasters to make it into a Fox's log.

Once again last night, my weapon from the antenna quiver was my vertical, my Butternut HF9V. Steve WD4CFN's signal was the same 559 on the EFRW and the vertical, but the vertical was not picking as much background noise as the wire was.

The weather for NJ today will be on the warm side with a high in the low 60s. We'll get some drought busting rains with 2 - 3 inches expected between today and tomorrow. We'll still come up short rain-wise for the year, but at least the wildfire/brushfire danger is now pretty much over.  We're also expecting some pretty ferocious wind gusts later today and tonight. I hope the outdoor Christmas decorations don't take flight!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

When I was a school kid

there were a couple  of things I always dragged around. One was the current issue of Sky & Telescope. The  other was either an ARRL Novice License Manual or a copy of QST, when I could get my hands on one. I know ....weird kid, right?  But those two ARRL publications played a big part in drawing me into the hobby.  Both were an odd size back then. They were bigger than TV Guide, but yet smaller than a regular magazine like Sky & Telescope. And the best thing inside them, IMHO, were the cartoons by Phil Gildersleeve. I had a few issues and spent many hours looking at these cartoons thinking that some day, "I want to be part of this!".

I can't explain why I loved these images so much!  For me, they seemed to resonate and  capture the essence and spirit of the hobby and it's Golden Age, just like a tuned circuit. Since Phil there have been many great cartoonists that have graced our hobby, but there will never be another "Gil".

But that being said, a couple of years ago,  Eric Nichols, KL7AJ and Jim Massara N2EST, two talented and excellent cartoonists in their own right, approached the ARRL about reviving the "Jeeves" cartoons. They were shot down. Maybe it was due to copyright law or some other issue, but they were turned down.  More's the pity, as I saw the cartoon image that they pitched. It was totally in the style and essence of Gil and had you seen it, you would have sworn that Gil himself had drawn it. Perhaps the ARRL thought that Jeeves was too old fashioned and would not appeal to a younger crowd, but some things are timeless.

However, the ARRL  did publish a book a few years back with a collection of Phil's work. I think it's still available. I have a copy down in the shack that I like to go through and peruse the images. It has become well worn.

The University of Delaware put together s page called "The Artwork of Phil Gildersleeve" with a small collection of some of his images. Click on the title to go there.

As far as the QRP Fox Hunts go, since this is Thanksgiving week, there are no "regular" Hunts. There is a 160 Meter Foxtravaganza, where all the Foxes and Hounds can try to work each other. I went on for a little while, not the whole 90 minutes and I worked two stations, Dean N2TNN in VA and Ron WU4G also in VA. I heard Jim W1FMR in NH calling "CQ FOX" but he could not hear me.

From the looks of the Reverse Beacon Map, you'd think I would have heard and worked some stations out towards the Midwest. Nope, only Virginia for QSOs and only NH for SWL'ing.

Both QSOs and the SWL'ing were done with the MFJ-1982HP.  The KX3 was able to find a decent match at about 1.7:1 on 160 Meters, which considering the antenna wasn't designed for the band, isn't bad. The HF9V would not load on 160 Meters. The KX3 could not find a match and displayed an "ANT ERR" message. That was strange as it used to load up with the old matching stub, but not this one. If I want to get on 160 Meters, which is a nice band, especially during the Winter months, I'll have to confine myself to using the MFJ.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Fox again tonight

This time on 80 Meters. Subbing for Steve WX2S again. The problem is that I have to work late tonight. I'll be home in time for the Hunt, but I know right now that I'd rather be in bed than on the radio. Wired or not, I don't think I'll have trouble falling asleep tonight. Just hope I don't fall asleep at the key tonight when the pileups dwindle and I start calling CQ Fox on simplex.

Just a final word about Tuesday night's 40 Meter Hunt. I ended up with 51 QSOs, Tim KR0U had somewhere around 75. Slight difference there, eh?  Maybe Tim being smack dab in the middle of the country had something to do with it. More likely is the fact that he's a superb op and that I'm just a "ham and egg'er" way out of my league.

On another topic, after I replaced the stub and matching coil on the HF9V, it remained kind of deaf. I went out to the backyard again this past Saturday, and undid the tape covering the stub/coax connection. Everything looked kosher, but I brought along two wrenches and "gently" tightened the connection better than I was able to do with just my hands alone. The bottom line is that the problem is solved.  The HF9V is just as loud as the wire. In fact, during the 40 Meter hunt this past Tuesday night, I was switching back and forth between the two. Neither seemed to have an advantage over the other. The HF9V has always been a better player for me for nabbing DX on 20 Meters and higher.

A funny thing about this whole HF9V episode, which deserves a little recap. As I've said before, I discovered that I had a problem after the landscapers left when I switched to the HF9V and signals were way, way down. Going out to the backyard, I then saw that the matching stub had been chewed up by their weedwhackers. Looking back on it,  the weak signals that I was hearing were not coming from the antenna, but were being picked up by the coax!  So when you read that the feedline is part of the antenna system - there's nothing that brings that home better than the incident that I went through. Some 125 feet of coax sitting anywhere from 2 - 4 feet of the ground was picking up HF signals. Not very well, but was still picking them up.

Last thing on my mind this morning as I blather on. I think we can safely say that the warm weather is behind us for the year. I awoke to 34F (1C) this morning, and when I got to work which is a good 20 or so miles farther inland from the coast than South Plainfield, the temperature here was 29F (-2C). It's quite easy, for me at least, to see how being closer to the Atlantic, even by a few miles ,affects the temperatures and the weather. If it were to start precipitating this instant, it would probably be snowing here and raining at home.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

I'm NOT crazy! (Depends on who you ask)

Last month, when I wrote about my POTA activation at Krings Point State Park in New York, I mentioned I had worked a station in Alaska. That astounded me. 5 Watts to an Elecraft AX1 antenna, sitting on a picnic table in New York, sending RF all the way to Alaska?

After that, I kept asking myself - did I really hear that right? Maybe I botched the call sign?  Maybe it's an Alaskan call sign living somewhere in the lower 48?

Nope! Confirmed on Logbook of the World! I still find it hard to believe - it really does defy all logic that this little antenna can work so well.

I wonder what I could do with a wet string of spaghetti?

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least1

Gotta apologize

publicly, to the QRP Fox Hunt Committee. The final schedules for 80 and 40 Meters came out over the weekend. I was not forgotten like I thought I was. So I apologize for any premature false accusations  or sour grapes "trash talk" that I may be guilty of.  I am on the 80 Meter schedule for January 17th and Valentine's Day, February 14th. I'm also listed as an alternate for the 40 Meters schedule.

The season starts tomorrow - Election Day - of all days. I hope I can manage to stay awake to join in the Hunts for most of the season. I'll make my assignments, but ss far as the rest of the season goes, this was me yesterday:

Next weekend, I am going to have to re-take a look at the connection between the HF9V's matching stub and my coax.  I'm 100% sure of that connection. When I switch between the wire and the vertical, signal strength is much louder on the wire.  Maybe I didn't make as good a connection as i thought I had. Maybe I need to replace the coax. I hope not, but from looking back at past blog entries, next year this run of coax will be 20 years old.

I checked into the St. Max Net last night and from the conversation, I think the decision to move to 40 Meters is a permanent one. I was able to hear check in stations and Net Control much better on 80 Meters, but I guess I have no choice but to make due. Even with the HF9V "problem" that I may be having, I was switching back and forth between antennas and it was interesting to see how a given station was louder on one antenna over the other. My guess is likewise antenna polarization and/or the distance between us and the size of the skip zone. Frequency response of my headphones played a part, too.  A couple of stations I heard much better on that little golf ball speaker that I have as compared to the headphones.

In closing, for you newbie Amateur Radio ops out there who may be reading this, here's a YouTube video I cam across. I know that this is an expensive hobby and that as a newcomer that can be overwhelming. Here's a video that might be able to help you save some bucks when it comes to the antenna department:

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least.

I worked them!

 

I was able to work Special Event Station WJ0H, honoring the Edmund Fitzgerald, this afternoon. I added the call sign to Ham Alert and it was chirping a ton on Saturday, but the day was way too busy to try and fit them in. Luckily, they were still on the air today and I nabbed them on 15 Meters USB on 21.360 MHz at 17:18 UTC. I fired up the KXPA100 to 85 Watts as they were kind of weak. It was probably about 5X4 each way. 

Gosh! SSB and QRO! I really wanted to work them, though. Now that Marianne and I have been going up to Alexandria Bay and I see those big ships traversing the St. Lawrence River, it has deeper meaning now. i used the MFJ-1982HP which has been performing very well for me since I got it up in the air two weekends ago. BTW, when I double checked the HF9V yesterday, I saw that the radial to antenna connection was fine, just fine. The thick piece of copper braid I used was still intact and not bothered by the landscapers. I still have to make that "shield" out of an old power plastic flower pot, so that this can never happen again.

After WJ0H, I worked several POTA stations (all at 5 Watts) on 17 Meters and on 20 Meters way above the ARRL Sweepstakes traffic on 20. One of the stations I worked was N9ANA, The Voyagers ARC with Eric K9VIC at the key. N9ANA and K9VIC are Skeeters, so that was a special treat! 

I was going to go to the PAL parking lot and put the Washington-Rochambeau on the air, but it's pretty chilly here today with a pretty constant stiff breeze which makes it feel even colder. I'm already decked out in shirt and hoodie sweatshirt inside the house! I'm not quite in the mood to be outside for a prolonged amount of time.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP  - When you care to send the very least!

Ever feel like Homer?

 

I did. Last night.

Flashback to Saturday. I got all my chores done extra early, so I could spend the afternoon replacing the weed-whacked parts on the Butternut. You know what took the longest? Getting the tape off which was protecting the connection between the coax and the matching stub! I couldn't find or feel where my wrapping ended, so I ended up having to cut away the old tape. Talk about a sticky and gooey mess! When I finally got that done and connected the new matching stub, I left a tiny fold over flap of tape at the end of my new wrapping, so if I ever have to do something like this again, I'll have a tab to tell me where to begin unwrapping.

The job went quickly after that, but last night the Homer part came in. I was sitting on the living room couch, thinking about the weekend's events and I suddenly remembered that I forgot to re-attach my radial field to the antenna! DOH! I'll have to do that next weekend, weather permitting. I'll have to dig up the sink strainer that I used as a radial connection point and re-establish the connection to the earth side of the vertical. The strainer is not deep, just even with the surface of the ground so this chore shouldn't take very long at all. The problem is of course, that we have not had any rain since September 28th. So you know what's forecast for next Saturday .........right?

Now that I've displayed MY stupidity to the world, I want to tackle something I saw on Facebook yesterday that kind of irked me. Here's the post:....undoubtedly great intentions, but ............

As you can see, he got a lot of answers. I did not, because I would have undoubtedly been a bit sarcastic, and like Mom always said, "If you can't say something nice ........."

A - This guy is an Extra!!!!!!  He doesn't know this answer? This wasn't covered in any one of the three tests he had to have taken?

B - He doesn't know where to go to look up the answer? It HAS to have been covered in one of the license manuals that he studied from. Right?

Or here's the rub. Did he even use a license manual to study from? Or did he just go to one of the plethora of sites that just give you questions and answers that you can memorize until you feel ready enough to sit down and take the test?

Being an Extra class Ham used to mean something. I dare say it doesn't any more. It used to mean that you spent some time, years maybe, working your way up, gaining experience from operating and building, combined with studying to finally get to that top plateau.

Sadly, I personally know Extra class Hams who have no idea how to build a dipole, program an HT, or even put an HF station together, or how to put up an HF antenna, or even follow directions on how to check into a net! Each time, I've eagerly and courteously helped them all, but each time I also kind of internally shook my head that I even had to! A brand new Tech who has just been licensed for the first time? Yeah, I could see that - most definitely.  But an Extra class Ham who is supposed to have enough experience to be an Elmer (him or herself) to others?  They should know this basic stuff - and even if they don't know it, AT THE VERY LEAST, they should know where to go to find the information that they need (and I'm not talking about asking on Facebook)

It's a sad state of affairs. Really. And again, I'll say it. These stupid Ham Crams aren't helping any. Memorizing answers without learning the theory or practical what and why behind the questions is building up a class of operators who will undoubtedly just get frustrated with the hobby and leave before the first license renewal opportunity comes by.

Harumph!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

When I was a kid

we used to call this "Indian Summer". I don't know why or how the term originated, and I suppose it's not politically correct to use it anymore. After the first frost or series of really cold nights of Autumn, there's usually a return to a few days of Summer like weather. We're going to experience that today, tomorrow with a tail off on Wednesday with a high of 81F (27C) today, 82F (28C) tomorrow and 78F (26C) on Wednesday. From there on it's down to seasonable temperatures again.  As much as I prefer the warm weather to the cold, I've started getting used to chillier "sweater weather", and the onset of early darkness. I wouldn't mind the warm up if it would hang around for more than just a few days. This is just a tease of my favorite season that I'd prefer to do without. Breakups are best when you don't look back. LOL!

I was delighted to see an e-mail from DXEngineering in my inbox this morning. I placed that order for the Butternut replacement parts yesterday morning and according to FedEx tracking, I will have them by end of day tomorrow. That is fast service! The extended outlook for Saturday is for partly cloudy skies with a high of 66F (18C), so it should be a good day for Butternut repairs. Not sure when Saturday as Hadley Communications Technologies, the 501 C3 company that provides funding for SPARC is having a clothing drive fund raiser and I promised to help out at the drop off point. I will get the repairs done on either Saturday or Sunday, though, as I don't want to place all my bets on continued good weather for the long term. I don't want to go the entire winter without having the HF9V available to me.

Speaking of the early darkness - that means that conditions for 80 and 160 Meters should be improving as we head further into Autumn and Winter. I checked into the St. Max Net last night which has been on 40 Meters for the Summer. The QRM from shortwave broadcast stations has been horrific. I hope the net plans to return to 80 Meters soon, as it was hard copying weaker stations over the heterodynes. 80 Meters may cut down on the reach of the Net a bit, but it's a lot more comfortable listening there.

So far my MFJ-1982 HP seems to be performing as well as KD2FSI's has been performing for SPARC Field Day the past few years.  The antenna fits nicely into a slightly different configuration, as it is a bit longer than the W3EDP. I had to get a little creative to make it fit. My midpoint mast used to be even with the backend of my neighbor's garage. Moving it to the last chain link fence upright post on that side of the yard did the trick.

Of course, the UNUN is bigger on this version, than the one on my 1982 LP, as that was designed to handle 20 Watts maximum. I had really wanted to purchase the MFJ-1982 MP version, which was designed to handle up to 200 Watts, but they were sold out already. Since I run up the power for the St. Max Net up to 85 Watts, the 1982 HP is a bit of overkill, but it was my only recourse.

I suppose I could have gone with an antenna from a different vendor, but I am familiar with the MFJ-1982's from Field Day, so it seemed to make sense to go with what you know that works.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

First the good:

The weather was perfect yesterday and down came the W3EDP and up went the MFJ-1982HP EFHW. The procedure wasn't quite as tortuous as I was anticipating. I'm currently bothered by some bursitis and arthritis in my left hip and bending over to pick up parts and pieces from the ground can be .... let's say extremely annoying, for lack of a better term.

I was able to move that midpoint supporting mast that I use farther back into the one corner of the backyard, so the entire antenna is more stealthy than ever. Not that I live in an HOA or anything, but from my experience from when I lived in East Brunswick before I got married, I don't need any imaginary RFI problems from neighbors.

After finishing the installation, I immediately ran down to the shack and completed a few quick POTA QSOs, just to make sure everything was working right. It was! I got a 559 from Dave AB9CA in Indiana and a 599 from another POTAteer in Virginia. Later in the evening, just for the heck of it, I tuned to 160 Meters to hear the Stew Perry Challenge in progress. The KX3 was able to get a 1.7:1 match and I even made a successful contact with K1EP in Massachusetts with 5 Watts, on the first call.

Now for the bad. As I was finishing up securing the end of the wire antenna to its end point, I happened to look down at my Butternut HF9V.  The coax was no longer at the bottom of the antenna! In fact it was neatly folded back onto one of the garden stakes that I use to keep the coax off the ground.

That's how it looks now after I took a closer look at it and fooled around with it for a bit. It was so neatly folded back that I didn't even notice it until yesterday. The landscapers we had do some cleanup obviously did a number on it with their weedwhackers, To err is human, so I'm not upset by the fact they mistakenly broke it; but I am bothered that they didn't say anything. I wouldn't have made a fuss, but I would have appreciated the honesty.

Now for the ugly. At first look, it didn't seem like such a bad repair. I was thinking that all I would have to do would be to strip back the wire a bit, put on a couple spade lugs and I'd be back in business. When I went out this morning to take a closer look, to see what tools I'd need to bring out, I was checking on the condition of the stainless steel hardware when the matching network coil snapped off in my hand. CRUD!

The antenna is over 20 years old and has survived some harsh winters and even about four hurricanes, so I'm really not surprised. When I bought my HF9V it cost me around $500. Today it is close to $1000, and I cannot afford to replace it.

I can afford replacement parts, however. So it was off to Google to find out the best bet for replacement parts was DXEngineering.  The matching network coil hasn't changed a bit, but the matching stub has undergone a serious design improvement!  The existing stub is just a piece of 75 Ohm coax with the two conductors exposed with spade lugs on each.  From the picture this upgrade looks tons nicer.

Delivery should be Tuesday or Wednesday and the 10 Day weather outlook for next weekend is looking favorable, so I should only be without my HF9V for a week. I can live with that. I've decided that in the meantime, I will purchase a small plastic flower pot, or perhaps a small plastic pail (small Trick or Treat buckets are in all the stores now, it seems). I will cut the bottom out and will cut a slit up the side so that I can effectively create a protective shield and place it around the matching network at the base of the antenna. Believe me, I know myself all too well, and that I am not beyond making the same mistake the landscapers made with their weedwhacker!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

The weekend - October 19th and 20th

 Contests filling the bands this weekend:

YBDXPI FT8 Contest - https://contest.ybdxpi.net/rules/

10-10 Int. Fall Contest, CW - http://www.ten-ten.org/index.php/activity/2013-07-22-20-26-48/qso-party-rules

New York QSO Party - https://www.nyqp.org/

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

Worked All Germany Contest - http://www.darc.de/der-club/referate/conteste/worked-all-germany-contest/en/rules/

Asia-Pacific Fall Sprint, CW - http://jsfc.org/apsprint/aprule.txt

Illinois QSO Party - https://w9awe.org/ilqp/

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

and not this weekend - but next Friday: 2024 Zombie Shuffle - the rules are at:

 http://www.zianet.com/qrp/ZOMBIE/pg.html

Special Event Stations:

10/17/2024 | Wooly Worm Celebration

Oct 18-Oct 19, 1600Z-2000Z, W4W, Johnson City, TN. Kingsport Amateur Radio Club. 7.187 MHz 14.240 MHz. Certificate. John Williams, 303 Autumn Creek Lane, Johnson City, TN 37615. jrwilliams37620@gmail.com

10/19/2024 | 90th Anniversary of Tri-County Radio Association

Oct 19-Oct 20, 1400Z-1800Z, W2LI, Union, NJ. Tri-County Radio Association. 14.250 7.250 other HF frequencies possible. QSL. Tri-County Radio Association, PO Box 3393, Union, NJ 07083. https://www.tricountyradio.org

10/19/2024 | Lester Dent - Doc Savage Special Event

Oct 19-Oct 21, 1400Z-0600Z, W0D, Macon, MO. Macon County ARC. 28.400 14.280 7.250 3.950. Certificate & QSL. Dale Bagley, K0KY, 1402 Eastern Dr., Macon, MO 63552. On October 19 to October 21, the Macon County Amateur Radio Club will operate the Lester Dent-Doc Savage Mystery Special Event WØD, in Macon MO. The purpose of the Special Event is to honor of the accomplishments of Lester Dent, one of the most prolific writers of Pulp Fiction, and an Amateur Radio Operator, WØCBL. It is also the 91st "Birthday" of his creation, the first modern "Superhero" Doc Savage https://www.maconcountymissouriarc.org/

10/19/2024 | North Carolina State Fair Ham Radio Exhibit

Oct 19, 1000Z-1400Z, N4C, Raleigh, NC. NC Ham Radio Operators. 7.230 14.230. QSL. NC Ham Radio Operators, 121 Pebble Dr, Clayton, NC 27520. Special Event stations running during the NC State Fair on multiple days, weekends only.

10/19/2024 | Yorktown Special Event

Oct 19, 1400Z-2000Z, K4RC, Williamsburg, VA. Williamsburg Area Amateur Radio Club. 7.265 14.265. Certificate & QSL. QSL Manager, WAARC, PO Box 1470, Williamsburg, VA 23187. Celebrating the 243rd anniversary of the British surrender to the joint American and French forces under Gen. George Washington in Yorktown, VA. This ended the American Revolutionary War on October 19, 1781. FOR CERTIFICATE: The Virginia Historic Triangle Certificate is available for contacting the Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown Special Event Stations. You don’t need to contact these stations in the same calendar year. For a Certificate send QSO info from the three stations to qslmgr@k4rc.net. https://www.k4rc.net/events/special-event-stations

10/20/2024 | North Carolina State Fair Ham Radio Exhibit

Oct 20, 1000Z-1400Z, N4C, Raleigh, NC. NC Ham Radio Operators. 7.230 14.230. QSL. Travis Russell, 121 Pebble Dr, Clayton, NC 27520.

Personally, another dry and warmish weekend (with not many commitments) may mean that I might finally get a chance to replace my W3EDP with the MFJ-1982 HP End Fed that I purchased a few months back. Marianne had a landscaper come by earlier this week to clean up all the overgrowth coming over from our neighbor's backyard. I think I may have better access to the "terminating mast" that I have in that corner of the backyard, with less of a chance for wires and ropes to get tangled up in foliage and branches.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Success!

Around 10:00 this morning, Marianne looked at me and said, "So you want to go to one of those parks you were talking about?" Of course, I didn't miss a heartbeat and answered in the affirmative, so I placed the gear in the Jeep and we headed off for Keewaydin State Park, US-2088, which only a few miles down the road.

We drove to the lot where people park their boat trailers. Right next to it was a children's playground, a community pool and a very nice pavillion with plenty of picnic tables. The pavillion is all wooden, so no Faraday Cage syndrome.

I began by setting up the AlexLoop. It doesn't take long and I was on the air a few minutes before 11:00 AM - 15:00 UTC. At first, the calls came easy as I worked to really loud N9 stations out of Indiana. But after those two contacts I was calling "CQ POTA" a lot with little to show for it, and I was starting to worry that this was going to turn into a busted activation.

That's when I decided to break out the AX1, From previous posts you all know I've had mixed results and have been ........skeptical about its ability. I have to adnit that once I swithed over, the QSOs just started rolling in, one right after another! I worked stations in Virginia, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Oklahoma, Michigan and Ohio. I worked NL7V who according to QRZ is in Alaska, but I have to believe he was down here in the lower 48 somewhere on vacation. I didn't catch the state when he sent it. Alaska would be a dream QSO!

I didn't want to stay too long, as Marianne has no interest in Amateur Radio whatsoever. In just over a little over an hour, I made 14 contacts which is nothibg as far as POTA activations go, but still it counts as a valid activation.

The good news is that Marianne has agreed to accompany me to Krings Point State park later this week. The bad news is that since I only brought my aging Samsung tablet with me (and no laptop) my log submissions will have to wait a few days. My tablet doesn't have the display format size required to display the log upload page.

Here's the Reverse Beacon Network report for the day:

As you can see, the snr dB figures are pretty good for QRP. This AX1 is starting to turn me into a beleiver!

The rest of the day was spent doing things that Marianne had an interest in, and it turned out to be a very nice day. As we headed out to dinner this evening, we were rewarded with another gorgeous sunset.

Perfect ending to a great Amateur Radio day!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP = When you care to send the very least!

More Experimentation

We made it up here! We arrived yesterday at Alexandria Bay, NY - the land (or water) of big ships and spectacular sunsets.

Those cargo ships travel up and down the St. Lawrence Seaway, carrying tonnage betwwen the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. And as you can see, the sunsets are breathtaking.

This afternoon, while Marianne took a nap, I set up the QMX and the AlexLoop on our balcony, overlooking the river. 20 Meters was a snap. I was able to get a good enough match quite easily, which kept the QMX happy. I even figured out how to get my pre-programmed messages to transmit, and I called CQ several times, just to see where the Reverse Beacon Network would pick me up, I was happy wiiith the result:

The locations of the spotters was great and the s/n db ratios were pretty darn good too. I had double digit s/n figures for a lot of the spots, indicating that I would have been heard by Hams near those skimmers.

On the other hand, 40 and 30 Meters were disappointments. I could not tune either band in well enough to keep the QMX happy. The procedure is to tune the Alex Loop's capacitor for loudest band noise. Once you do that, you're normally close enough for a decent match, No go on both 40 and 30 Meters, No matter what I did, the QMX's SWR circuitry kicked in and the unit refused to generate RF.

Luckily, the QMX is happy with the AX1, as I have previously successfully tried. That and the Buddistick will have to be the mainplayers for 40 Meters if I get the chance to do some POTAing later this week. Of course, if I decide to stick to 20 Meters solely, the Alex Loop is a more than viable alternative.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Productive weekend

It was busy, but at the same time productive. Saturday started off with the monthly ETS of NJ VE Session. We had three candidates and only three VEs. I can't tell you the last time that happened as the number of VEs that show up usually way outnumbers the candidates! In fact, I was sweating it out for a while worrying that I would have to tell the candidates that for lack of VEs, they'd have to go home.. Fortunately, a third showed up and we were fine.

We brought one new Tech into the fold and another Tech upgraded to General. The third candidate walked away with nothing, which was extremely disappointing to both him and us. He was a Tech who let his license lapse in 2012. He took the exam and I don't know if it was a case of overconfidence or if he just hurried too fast through the last 10 - 15 questions. He was going great guns, but in that last set of questions, he got enough wrong to put him two over.

I hate when that happens! I offered him the chance to take another version, but he declined. Hopefully, we'll see him again next month after a bit more study. He was so close, I'd hate to see him give up in disgust!

The rest of Saturday was spent doing house chores as on Sunday morning, we had a guest arrive for a visit for this week:

My sister and brother-in-law went down to the Jersey Shore for the week and the AirBnB they are staying at does not allow pets, so Jessie (Harold's "cousin", and also a rescue) has come to stay with us for the week. She took an immediate liking to our son, Joseph as you can see in the photo. She's a good girl, very quiet and very friendly - she loves to be held. A real Momma's girl. She's a demon with her food, though! I put the kibble she eats in her bowl and all I did was blink and it was gone! LOL! Maybe my sister should have named her Hoover!

That reminds me of a story. When I was young, one of the first "real" jobs I had (not working at my Dad's store) was working at a camera store. If you've ever worked retail, you know that when it comes to lunch and eating - you eat fast; or you don't eat at all. It got to be such a bad habit, that when I was eating a meal at home, my Mom would always say, "Larry, take human bites!"

Anyway, getting back on track, in between grocery shopping and cleaning, I did manage to get down to the shack to sneak in a few POTA stations. Geomagnetic activity was quite high on Saturday with the K index getting up to 5 for a bit, but I still managed to work a couple, even though signals were down in the mud.

On Sunday, I finally managed to do something that I've been wanting to do the past few weekends. I finally got the chance to try out my KM4CFT EFRW antenna. I wanted to give it a workout before I put the heat shrink over the UNUN circuit board. Again, due to a prior obligation in the afternoon, I only got a few hours in, but I have to say that I am pleased with its performance.

For starters I called CQ on both 40 and 20 Meters - about maybe a 1/2 dozen times on each band, just to see where the Reverse Beacon Network would pick me up:

Not too shabby! Not the greatest signal strengths on 20 Meters, but I was having a hard time getting the Emtech ZM-2's red LED to go out. So later in the afternoon, I switched it out for my 4 States NM0S tuner.

This little guy worked like a champ! I was able to get the red LED to go out completely and the green LED to glow like there was no tomorrow. I promptly worked several POTA stations, including Dan KB6NU - fellow blogger, who you see on the blog roll to the right so often.

I think I'm going to have to open and inspect the connections inside the ZM-2. as it has always worked reliably for me in the past. Even so, this was the tuner I keep in the shack for when I fire up my HW-8. I may purchase another of these to keep in the QMX bag. And speaking of the QMX, I'm getting to the point where it's becoming more routine to operate without having to pause to think what do I have to press in order to............... It's slowly becoming second nature but I still have a ways to go.

I was happy with the KM4CFT, and I was happy with the 4 States tuner and the QMX. Like I said, it was a productive weekend.

Last thing - something I saw on Facebook on the EFHW Antenna page that was posted by K4IVN. I am guessing he fabricated this via his 3D printer:

This will hold his UNUN and at the same time it has a spool for the wire of his EFHW or EFRW. How neat is this? I don't know if he fabricated a cover to keep the UNUN safe from the elements, but I'm guessing he either has, or will do do.  

Another project for me - to make one of those daisy wire spools like the ones Dave KD2FSI made for me so I can better store the KM4CFT EFRW.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Weekend happenings?

For those of you who are going to get on the air and ask, "What contest is THIS?"

Contests

Hawaii QSO Party - http://www.hawaiiqsoparty.org/

ALARA Contest -  http://www.alara.org.au/contests/

World Wide Digi DX Contest - https://ww-digi.com/ - (I'm sure this one won't come down into the CW portions at all!)

 U.S. Islands QSO Party - http://usislands.org/qso-party-rules/

YO DX HF Contest -  http://www.yodx.ro

Kansas QSO Party - https://ksqsoparty.org/rules/KSQPRules2024.pdf?1

Ohio QSO Party - http://www.ohqp.org/index.php/rules/

SARL HF CW Contest - http://www.sarl.org.za/public/contests/contestrules.asp

FISTS Ladder  (Operating Activity) - https://www.fists.co.uk/activitiescalendar.html#fistsladder2024

Special Event Stations:

08/10/2024 | 247th Anniversary of the Battle of Bennington

Aug 10-Aug 24, 1200Z-2359Z, K1B, Bennington, VT. K2HX. 18.100 21.070 24.915 28.074; all modes in General band. QSL. Ed Landry, N2HX, 50 Jayne Ln., Bennington, VT 05201.

08/24/2024 | 2024 Buhl Day

Aug 24-Sep 2, 0000Z-0000Z, W3B, Sharon, PA. Mercer County Amateur Radio Club. 7.074 14.074 7.240 14.245. QSL. Mercer County Amateur Radio Club, PO Box 673 , 32 Shenango Ave, Sharon, PA 16146. We will be on the air during Buhl Day in Hermitage, PA. This year is the 109th anniversary of Buhl Farm Park, which covers 300 acres and was given to the community by Frank Buhl (local industrialist) for use and recreation purposes of the community. Labor Day and occasionally the week before. www.w3lif.org

08/24/2024 | Radio & National Railway Historical Soc

Aug 24, 0000Z-2359Z, K3IEC, Mechanicsburg, PA. Cumberland Amateur Radio Club. 7.250 14.250 21.300 28.400. QSL. Frank Mellott, 1010 Good Hope RD, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050. Cumberland Amateur radio Club celebrating the 2024 National Railway Historical Society convention in Harrisburg, PA. Modes expected to be CW/SSB and digital. see https://www.radioclub-carc.com/ for more details and QSL info. https://www.radioclub-carc.com

Myself? This Sunday is our annual ETS of NJ Picnic. That should be a good time with lots of good food. And, if the weather cooperates tomorrow and I have enough time, I might just attempt to take down the W3EDP and replace it with the MFJ-1982HP. If not this weekend, then perhaps over the long Labor Day Weekend next weekend. Time is going to be the bigger factor as I'm still slogging through getting the Skeeter Hunt Results entered into the Scoreboard and the Soapbox comments and photos into the Skeeter Hunt Facebook page. If I put in a long session tonight, I might have enough time for antenna work tomorrow.

Oh, and of course ........ in between all that I want to try and get the QMX on the air and make a maiden QSO. Not too much planned, eh? And then on Monday mornings I wonder why the weekend whizzed by!

Labor Day? Already? Where has the Summer gone?

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to sebd the very least!

We may never come this way again

This is going to sound very weird - but here goes. I was driving home the other day and I heard the Seals & Crofts song with the same lyric - "We may never come this way again." And oddly enough, it brought to mind MFJ and how perhaps we may never see the likes of it again. It's very odd how my brain works, sometimes! Scares even me!

I got to thinking that if there was any MFJ product in particular that I liked, now would be the time to try and find it. Stock is depleting and there haven't been any announcements of an interest coming forward to take on the torch, as it were.

I really, really like my MFJ-1982LP End Fed. Coupled with Dave KD2FSI's MFJ-1982HP, these have been our Field Day antennas for years now with nary a complaint from anyone from SPARC. And the fact that they let us place high in our category every year doesn't damage their reputation any. I've also used it for the Skeeter Hunt and FOBB with satisfactory results. The SWR is excellent on all the bands and really the only band that requires the KX3's autotuner is on 30 Meters.  And even there, it doesn't take the KX3 a long time to match it up. I realize that it's not a tr-band Yagi up at 50 feet, but I'm never going to have one of those, anyway. You play with the hand that you're dealt.

So I decided to try and find one for home, as a replacement for the W3EDP. I found a HP (high power) version at GigaParts. Not only does the LP version seem to be out of stock everywhere, but I do turn up the power to 85 Watts to participate on the St. Max Net on Sunday evenings.

So I purchased one. This antenna is 132 feet long so there might be some finagling to get it to fit in the backyard. I'm thinking I might have to bring the last 20 feet or so down as a sloper. That's not the end of the world, and I'll find a way to make it fit. I had a full sized G5RV up at one time - this should be not much more difficult than that to make fit.

My OCD notwithstanding, from early on in my Novice days, I have found out that antennas don't have to be "perfectly" installed in order to work. My very first antenna was a MOR-GAIN fan dipole. In no way, shape or form did that antenna get installed with the two legs in a straight line!  It was a sharp, horizontal "V", and my Ham friends would come over and look at it and ask me, "How in the world do you make contacts with THAT?" But I did and it served me well for years!

So this is the current configuration of the W3EDP:

If I move that mast all the way back to the corner of our lot (or as far back as I can get it) and make that run a hard "L" instead of  a shallow "V", that will "eat up" more of the wire. Then I'd run it to the other mast at the extreme right back corner of the yard and if there's any wire remaining, I would bring it down as a sloper along the property line on that side of the yard, thusly:

Anyway, that's the plan - and you know that saying about plans, mice and men. But I do want to get this done before Winter sets in. I know, it's still August, but time flies, and before you know it .........

One thing I do know, though. Before any installation, that UNUN will get opened and the solder joints double checked and re-enforced if necessary. I like MFJ products, but you learn from experience.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

A Tale of Two Maps

I thought it would be interesting to compare a couple maps. First map is a repeat. It's the Reverse Beacon Network map from Sunday's FOBB outing.

Now this is where my signal was being picked up by skimmers. Basically, computers that can detect signals, even those beneath the noise floor, that other ops might not be able to hear.

This is a map of my QSOs made with K2DSL's QSO Mapper:

A wee bit different, wouldn't you say?  I did not work any stations as far as Arizona or Western Canada. But I did work a few stations where the skimmers did not pick me up.

Moral of the story - RBN is a good guide, but it's not gospel. Just because you're being picked up by a skimmer doesn't necessarily mean that a pair of human ears at the same location would be able to pick you out of the noise. As they say on TV, "It's for entertainment purposes only."

Rule of thumb that I picked up from Joe N2CX. If you're going to go by what you see on RBN, pay attention to the s/nr levels. If it's double digit dB numbers, a good receiver and a good set of ears should be able to pick you out of the mud.

That all being said - that's for QSOs between humans. If you're working the digital modes, or just testing out a new antenna to see how it gets out, you'd have to interpret the RBN results a little differently. In those cases, what you see is probably what you're going to get, especially with FT8 and the like.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

FOBB - A comedy of errors

I am almost embarassed to write this post. My goodness, you would think that this was my first ever attempt at a portable operation.

I got to Cotton Street Park an hour early 12:00 PM - 16:00 UTC. Plenty of time, right? As it turned out nothing could be farther from tbe truth. First off, let me introduce you to the spud eating tree.

I need to buy a yellow shirt with a black zig-zag stripe on it.

You've heard of Charlie Brown's kite eating tree, right? That tree right there, the one behind my car ate two of my antenna launcher bullets, or spuds if you will. Getting them up high and over a branch was no problem. Getting them to come down was another. No amount of jiggling and finagling the fishing line worked. In both cases, the fishing line ended up breaking with the spud still up in the tree. I only brought two with me, so it was on to another solution.

Next I tried putting up the Jackite in my PVC holder. I've done that literally dozens of times without a problem. Not today, my friends! I put it up twice ..... twice it fell down. The difference today was that I learned something. Wanting to keep the bottom of the Jackite as clean as possible, I put a cap on the bottom of the PVC so the Jackite would not touch dirt. The problem with that, I eventually figured out, is that the cap is rounded, and is thus, slippery The pipe needs to be uncapped at the bottom so the hard edge of the PVC can actually "bite" into the soil, creating a firm grip. Once I took the cap off the Jackite stayed up and stable with no problem.

In between that discovery and the failed attempts, I tried using my drive on mast holder to hold the Jackite upright. What a piece of garbage! It is so flimsy that the Jackite was actually causing the metal of the drive on part to bend! The next stop for that thing is a dumpster.

I eventually got everything set up and I was about to get on the air when another unwelcome surprise reared its nasty head. I got the chair, table, radio, key and earbuds all plugged in. All I had left to do was connect to the battery. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was going to use the big deep cycle battery to see how long it would last.

The medium sized battery is a 7 Ah. Underneath the plastic tub is another smaller 5 Ah. 

From the photo you can see I ended up using one of my smaller batteries because the big battery was reading 0 Volts! It was just at 13.8V the other day and has not been hooked up to anything in the mean time. How a battery can lose all of its charge like that without blowing up or catching on fire is beyond me. This one did and is going to the metal recycling center in town next Saturday.

After all these fits and starts, I finally got on the air at 17:54 UTC and made contact with Dave AB9CA in Indiana. Scouring the 20 Meter band, it became apparent that signals were sparse and the signals that were present were way down in the mud. Even when I heard a station with a relatively strong signal, QSB made them disappear in a matter of seconds. I made four contacts in my first hour.  I was shaking my head, because I thought that for all the trouble I went through, THIS is what my day is going to be like? I started the day with a personal goal of 40 QSOs. HAH! Put a pin in that balloon, baby!

However, at 19:00 UTC, it was like someone turned a switch on and propagation returned! The signals weren't terrific, but at least I was hearing and working people. At about 20:00 UTC, I switched over to 40 Meters and worked some stations there. Signals were much louder on 40 Meters and QSB wasn't quite so deep.

I shut down with about 20 minutes to go as I wasn't hearing anyone new and my CQs on 40 Meters dried up. I worked 21 stations in all. 18 Bees and 3  Five Watt stations. And I learned some things.

1: You can never have too much time to set up.

2: If it ain't broke don't fix it - me putting that bottom cap on my PVC mast holder caused much unnecessary aggravation.

3: You can never have enough juice. By the way, that smaller battery started the day at 13.2 Volts and I checked it again at the end and it was down to only 12.8 Volts. This one is a good one.

4: The EFRW antenna with 9:1 UNUN and the 41 foot radiator was the bomb! The KX3's autotuner had no problems providing a match on any band, 40 through 10 Meters. I would not hesitate to deploy it again as it gives me a few more band options than the PAR ENDFEDZ 40-20-10 can.

About 3:30 PM or 19:30 UTC, I heard a "thunk" off in the distance. The spud eating tree must have had too much to eat and puked up one of the spuds, either that, or maybe a squirrel knocked it down. Whatever, I'm minus only one spud. I'll have to go to Home Depot for some PVC and end caps in order to fabricate a few more spares.

Some photos from the day:

PVC with bottom end cap = bad. PVC without bottom end cap = good.

A panoramic shot of my Cotton Street Park location.

Two views of the set up. Nothing complicated here, unless I make it complicated!

Cant' see it well, but the EFRW went from the tree to the Jackite pole. I highlighted the Jackite in blue, the EFRW in red

Hey Moe! Hey Curly! Thanks for the help in setting up!

Where RBN spotters heard me. Colorado and Wisconsin were about as far west as I got for QSOs.

It got up to 90F, even in the shade. This Summer has been a hot one!

The neck fan got delivered yesterday and performed superbly. Between the fan and a thermal bottle of ice water, I was quite comfortable.

I sure hope the Skeeter Hunt goes more smoothly!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!