QRP ARCI Spring QSO Party

I did manage to get on the air for a few minutes today between Church (today is Palm Sunday), grocery shopping and other things to occupy my attention.

All in all, I managed 44 QSOs with my best DX being HP1AC in Panama. I've worked Cam many times and almost never fail to hear him at some point or other during a QRP ARCI event.

I hate to sound like a broken record; but once again, one of my pet peeves occurred yet again today. Amateur Stations coming on air and transmitting without first sending a "QRL?". Now I understand that I'm QRP and there's a VERY good chance that neither station heard me calling "CQ QRP". But does that excuse them from transmitting without sending out a "QRL?" Maybe to them, the frequency DID sound unoccupied - but I was taught that you ALWAYS send a "QRL?" before engaging your key.

In my mind, there was no excuse for F3OW to start calling CQ; or for KØGSV to start calling "CQ MO QP" without the obligatory "QRL?". It's a simple matter of courtesy and it takes what? A minute or less out of your operating time to listen for other stations on the frequency.

There's a few more hours left to the contest; but I've got dinner in the oven (veal parmigiana); and I think I'm done contesting for the day. Tomorrow is the monthly Adventure Radio Society Spartan Sprint; but one of my favorite TV shows is on at the same time - "24". If it wasn't a serial, I'd watch it as a re-run; but I've been very faithful, catching every episode since January.

The only other show that I watch is also on Fox - "Lie to Me". I enjoy that show very much also. In this case though, each show is a stand alone episode; and I can afford to see that as a re-run without losing the timeline.

Speaking of TV ..... even though baseball season is about to start up again, I rarely sit down to watch a game on TV. I prefer to listen to games on the radio. WFAN in NYC is the flagship station of the Mets, and they're a clear channel station. I have no problems getting reception from only 30 miles or so from their transmitter; and I can do other things while carrying a small "transistor radio" (Remember when we called them that?) around with me; so I can keep tabs on every inning of every Mets game.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Double the fun!

Got some solder melted on the MRX-40 tonight and also managed to work 32 stations in the QRP-ARCI Spring QSO Party. A little bit tough when someone answers your CQ and you're in the middle of soldering a component in!

As suspected, 40 Meters was once again clogged with RTTY signals down all the way to about 7.035 MHz. But luckily, it was clear enough around 7.030 MHz.

80 Meters was great! A bit of QRM and some QSB; but this was my "money" band as I made a majority of my contacts there. The contest runs right up until 8:00 PM tomorrow night; so maybe I'll get a chance throughout the day to try for some 15 and 20 Meter contacts.

It's not helping that the sun spot number hasn't gone up in a long, long time.

73 de Larry W2LJ

What's that old saying?

Hope springs eternal ...... or something like that?

It's late Saturday afternoon; and I've begun melting solder on the MRX-40 receiver project. I look at the circuit board and see the two DIPs there and say to myself, "Maybe it'd be a good idea to mount those ICs in sockets".

Buoyed by that fact that a lot of guys on QRP-L have been relating how their local Radio Shacks have started stocking "parts" again, I decided to take the gamble and visit my local neighborhood RS. If the truth be told, I haven't been in there for much more than watch batteries; or some heat shrink tubing over the past few years

I walk in and see these big parts bins. There were a couple there before; but now there are more. So now I'm getting psyched - maybe, just maybe, they'll actually have what I want! Of course, one of the sales associates comes by to ask me what I'm looking for; and I'm sure he's secretly hoping that I'll say "cell phone". When I answer, "8 pin dip socket" his eyes glaze over. So then I said, "Umm .... I'm looking for a socket for an 8 pinned IC". Immediately two lights shine in his eyes - the light of recognition (he figured out what I meant) and the light of pity.

"We don't carry many ICs or sockets", I am told, "What we have is in this drawer; and if we have any sockets, they'll be in there". Needless to say, there weren't any.

So it looks like I'll be soldering the ICs directly to the PC board. There's not much risk involved. I doubt very highly that I am going to fry either one; but it would have been a nice touch. I guess this means another order to DigiKey for some various parts - some common transistors, resistors and capacitors and other various parts to begin to re-stock my junk box. I'll also need to visit the Harbor Freight Website to look for some of those 24 drawer parts bins. I could use a couple of those.

How did my parts stock get so low? I donated a bunch last year to a guy in Texas who was getting a bunch of underprivileged kids involved in electronics and Amateur Radio. I figure it's worth whatever I pay out now to re-stock. An e-mail from him a few months ago related the fact that three of his charges actually got licensed.

And speaking of Radio Shack and cell phones ..... do they have a TON of those! The only place that I've seen more types of cell phones was the Verizon store when Marianne and I changed providers and signed up for a family plan last fall. If I had wanted a cell phone, well ..... Radio Shack would definitely have been a good place to be.

In between things this afternoon, I jumped on 20 Meters and made a few contacts in the QRP-ARCI Spring QSO Party. Not a lot of involvement from what I was hearing. Maybe tonight things will be better on 40 Meters - if there isn't a lot of RTTY signals blowing away the band.

Isn't there something in the Bible about that?

73 de Larry W2LJ

Added a new blog and another tip!

I added another blog to the blogroll to the right. You may have noticed it by now; but in case you haven't, I have added Julian Moss G4ILO's blog.

Julian has a blog that is entertaining to read; and is educational as well. And I love to read about Ham's experiences in countries other than the USA. Julian commented on my "Code Practice" post that he also offers code practice software called MorseGen. I have downloaded it; and am in the process of making a code practice CD of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by using the "Input Text File" feature.

Oh, by the way, it's available at no cost - the right price for most Hams that I know.

In the mail today was an envelope waiting from Far Circuits. Yes, my PC board for the MRX-40 receiver came today. This promises to be a busy weekend. I really hope I get some time to melt some solder!

If you get a chance, the QRP-ARCI Spring QSO Party is this weekend, also. I'm sincerely hopeful that I will be able to send some "TU 599 NJ 4488" out into the aether this weekend. Last time I made a decent effort at a QRP-ARCI QSO Party was last spring, I think. I only managed to work about three hours or so and ended up with over 100 QSOs. Unfortunately, I never got around to sending my log in. If I get the chance to participate this weekend, I won't make that mistake again.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Featured Website

When my friend Bob W3BBO mentioned that his next homebrew project was going to be the 40 Meter Tweeter receiver, I did a Google search on it to get a look see. I don't know if this is the Website that Bob got his information from; but this is a cool Website; and I thought it would be nice to share.

http://www.tricountyi.net/~randerse/radios.htm

Entitled "Simple Home-Built Radio Projects" this site, by Rick KE3IJ proves him to be a Ham after my own heart. First off, "simple" is my speed; and second, my projects usually come out looking like the example he has on his first page!

By the way, I have to comment on the speed of DigiKey. I ordered the last of the parts I need for my MRX-40 receiver project on Sunday - some NE612As and some LM380s and a few capacitors. Not a huge order by any stretch of the imagination; but they arrived yesterday! Wow! I should also receive the Far Circuits PCB in a day or so. I should be melting solder soon!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Deep Solar Minimum

From our friends at NASA (confirming what we Amateur Radio ops already new!) :

April 1, 2009: The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower.

2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73%). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days. Prompted by these numbers, some observers suggested that the solar cycle had hit bottom in 2008.

Maybe not. Sunspot counts for 2009 have dropped even lower. As of March 31st, there were no sunspots on 78 of the year's 90 days (87%).

It adds up to one inescapable conclusion: "We're experiencing a very deep solar minimum," says solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center.

"This is the quietest sun we've seen in almost a century," agrees sunspot expert David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

Quiet suns come along every 11 years or so. It's a natural part of the sunspot cycle, discovered by German astronomer Heinrich Schwabe in the mid-1800s. Sunspots are planet-sized islands of magnetism on the surface of the sun; they are sources of solar flares, coronal mass ejections and intense UV radiation. Plotting sunspot counts, Schwabe saw that peaks of solar activity were always followed by valleys of relative calm—a clockwork pattern that has held true for more than 200 years.

The current solar minimum is part of that pattern. In fact, it's right on time. "We're due for a bit of quiet—and here it is," says Pesnell.

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But is it supposed to be this quiet? In 2008, the sun set the following records:

A 50-year low in solar wind pressure: Measurements by the Ulysses spacecraft reveal a 20% drop in solar wind pressure since the mid-1990s—the lowest point since such measurements began in the 1960s. The solar wind helps keep galactic cosmic rays out of the inner solar system. With the solar wind flagging, more cosmic rays are permitted to enter, resulting in increased health hazards for astronauts. Weaker solar wind also means fewer geomagnetic storms and auroras on Earth.

A 12-year low in solar "irradiance": Careful measurements by several NASA spacecraft show that the sun's brightness has dropped by 0.02% at visible wavelengths and a whopping 6% at extreme UV wavelengths since the solar minimum of 1996. These changes are not enough to reverse the course of global warming, but there are some other, noticeable side-effects: Earth's upper atmosphere is heated less by the sun and it is therefore less "puffed up." Satellites in low Earth orbit experience less atmospheric drag, extending their operational lifetimes. That's the good news. Unfortunately, space junk also remains longer in Earth orbit, increasing hazards to spacecraft and satellites.

A 55-year low in solar radio emissions: After World War II, astronomers began keeping records of the sun's brightness at radio wavelengths. Records of 10.7 cm flux extend back all the way to the early 1950s. Radio telescopes are now recording the dimmest "radio sun" since 1955. Some researchers believe that the lessening of radio emissions is an indication of weakness in the sun's global magnetic field. No one is certain, however, because the source of these long-monitored radio emissions is not fully understood.

All these lows have sparked a debate about whether the ongoing minimum is "weird", "extreme" or just an overdue "market correction" following a string of unusually intense solar maxima.

"Since the Space Age began in the 1950s, solar activity has been generally high," notes Hathaway. "Five of the ten most intense solar cycles on record have occurred in the last 50 years. We're just not used to this kind of deep calm."

Deep calm was fairly common a hundred years ago. The solar minima of 1901 and 1913, for instance, were even longer than the one we're experiencing now. To match those minima in terms of depth and longevity, the current minimum will have to last at least another year.

In a way, the calm is exciting, says Pesnell. "For the first time in history, we're getting to see what a deep solar minimum is really like." A fleet of spacecraft including the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), the twin STEREO probes, the five THEMIS probes, ACE, Wind, TRACE, AIM, TIMED, Geotail and others are studying the sun and its effects on Earth 24/7 using technology that didn't exist 100 years ago. Their measurements of solar wind, cosmic rays, irradiance and magnetic fields show that solar minimum is much more interesting and profound than anyone expected.

Above: An artist's concept of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Bristling with advanced sensors, "SDO" is slated to launch later this year--perfect timing to study the ongoing solar minimum.

Modern technology cannot, however, predict what comes next. Competing models by dozens of top solar physicists disagree, sometimes sharply, on when this solar minimum will end and how big the next solar maximum will be. Pesnell has surveyed the scientific literature and prepared a "piano plot" showing the range of predictions. The great uncertainty stems from one simple fact: No one fully understands the underlying physics of the sunspot cycle.

Pesnell believes sunspot counts will pick up again soon, "possibly by the end of the year," to be followed by a solar maximum of below-average intensity in 2012 or 2013.

But like other forecasters, he knows he could be wrong. Bull or bear? Stay tuned for updates.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Code practice

So you say you're not satisfied with your CW skills. Maybe you're just learning the code (WELCOME!); or perhaps you're a veteran who is stuck at a certain speed level and you want "to bump it up a notch".

Let me begin by saying that there's no supremely easy way to accomplish this. By that, I mean that accomplishing your goal will not necessarily be difficult; but there's no easy way to do it, either. By "easy", I mean there's no magical pill you can take; or some magical tape you can listen to, or "method" like sleep learning that will make this a snap of the fingers cinch.

It takes practice and patience - a lot of patience. The biggest enemy you will have will be yourself; as you slam yourself for not accomplishing your goal as quickly as you think you should.

The best practice, of course, is getting on the air and making QSOs, especially in a contest. Devote a weekend to a contest and you will be amazed at how much your code speed will have increased.

But what if you're just learning; or you hate contests? What if you'd like to try and increase your code speed while you do other things? Then I have a possible solution for you; at least it's something you might want to try.

Go and download the Koch Trainer program from www.g4fon.net. Install it on your computer (if you don't already have it) and familiarize yourself with the program. The neat thing about the Koch Trainer is that it will allow you to create your own code practice CDs.

I just made myself a CD of random words at the 35 WPM speed in a session that lasted an hour - this will just about fill up a CD. It's easy to do and here are the steps:

1) Start Koch Trainer and set it up for the speed you want.

2) Go to the "settings" tab and input how long you want your session to last.

3) Go to the file drop down and select "record audio file".

4) Hit the "Common Words" button to start the session.

At this point the code practice session will begin and will last however long you have chosen. The Koch Trainer program will generate a .WAV file of your practice session and will store it wherever you directed your computer to store it.

Next, go to Google or whatever search engine you choose and type in "free WAV to CD converter". You will get a plethora of links to choose from. Personally, I use a free program called AllMusicConverter. What you need to do is convert the .WAV file to an .mp3 file. Once you've converted it; burn it to a CD using Windows Media Player if you have a PC (don't know what you Mac users use) and viola'! You have a code practice CD that you can listen to on your way to and back home from work. You can also put that file in your iPod or your Palm Pilot or whatever mp3 player you might have and you can listen to code practice anytime your heart desires.

73 de Larry W2LJ (struggling to become one of those QRQ guys)

On being a conservative wackaloon

My rant against what I consider to be the great Global Warming Hoax of our time was not accepted well by a lot of you out there. Comments which appear in the "comments section" and through private e-mails that I have received, tell me as much.

So be it.

For the record - I am not in denial. I do believe that the climate is changing. However, I don't accept that this is 100% attributable to humankind. I believe that this is a living planet and that there are cycles that exist that we probably don't even begin to comprehend or know about. To be so arrogant and cocksure that we know the definitive answers seems a tad silly to me. Just 30 short years ago, we were certain and worried about the onset of a new Ice Age; and that the polar ice caps were growing at too fast a rate. There were actually plans to place soot on them to try and limit their growth. Maybe we should just let nature be nature and try not to tamper with it; either by polluting it or "helping" it. Like I said before, conservation of resources and being a good steward to our home is a good thing; and that should be enough. We should always try to remember that there is a "Law of Unintended Consequences".

My comments about religion were not well received, either. Well, I'm sorry if my beliefs make you uncomfortable. I don't see why they should. If you have enough faith in your own belief system; then what I think shouldn't matter a tinker's damn to you. If they do make you uncomfortable; then maybe you need to look inward.

I will not apologize for being what I am. I'm conservative by choice and I happen to be religious by nature and upbringing. That does not make me ignorant, stupid, uneducated, backward, or somehow something less than you. This country was built on the backs of a lot of people just like that - you might do well to read a little history.

If you choose not to read this blog because of any of this; then goodbye and I wish you well and nothing but the best. If you decide to return; then I hope to offer a lot more about Ham Radio - even if I should digress every now and then. It is just my opinion, after all. :)

73 de Larry W2LJ

What to do next?

From earlier posts, you know that I have been ruminating on what project to tackle next. I have been thinking of going in several directions - perhaps a Pixie, or perhaps my QRP paddles kit that I have sitting in the basement.

I think that instead of those (which all need to get done!) that I will build a very simple 40 Meter receiver - ala' the MRX-40 Mini Receiver which first appeared in QST in 1997. My reasoning is several fold:

A) Going through my parts bin, I find that I have 90% of the parts needed for the job. The only thing I need is the NE612 and the LM380N and I've ordered those from DigiKey today.

B) Once this is done, it will be a perfect match the MFJ 40 Meter QRP transmitter that I purchased last year at the Sussex, NJ Hamfest for $5.

C) Inspired by Neal W3CUV, I think I'll order a PCB for it from Far Circuits. I've never used on of their products before; and the cost of the board is very reasonable - only $4.50.

This should be fun. Not only can I use this receiver with the MFJ; but I also have a 40 Meter Glowbug transmitter kit kicking around down there somewhere that I have yet to build. Maybe this receiver and the Glowbug can be my Straight Key Night setup for this coming New Year's Eve.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Returning to our normal programming

OK - political rants aside ...... I received an e-mail from W3BBO yesterday. It concerned Neal W3CUV, who Bob has known for years since their Novice days together; and I have known only recently through a few on the air QSOs and a few e-mails.

Neal has been busy again, and recently completed another project, which is a homebrew amplifier for his SW-40 transceiver. 1.5 Watts in gives him about 35 Watts out.



From these photos (and you can click on any of them for a larger view), you can see the wonderful job Neal has done. As I understand it from Bob, Neal purchased the finished circuit boards from FAR Circuits and then sourced out all the components, hardware and enclosure himself. "Kit building 101A" if you will.


Being a QRP advocate aside, I still lick my chops at the sight of a finished project like this. First, this is obviously a first rate job well done. Second, there are times when QRP just doesn't cut it - like maybe the last day of a DXpedition and you're just not getting through. It would be nice indeed, to have one of these babies that you could pull out from your sleeve, put in line and have a little extra muscle to jump into the fray with.

But there's another lesson here. Neal had a need for something that there wasn't a current kit available for. He found sources for the circuit boards and components and got the job done. Being a homebrewer doesn't necessarily mean you can, or even want to fabricate your own printed circuit boards. It's nice to know that there are services like Far Circuits that can supply those for you. Then it's just a matter of going to the local electronics store or visiting Mouser, or Jameco or perhaps DigiKey on the Web to get the components you need to get going.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Time to be politically incorrect

There's a "debate" raging on QRP-L as the result of a person's posting last night about "Earth Hour". Most of the resulting comments were about the "Global Warming" argument. The one that bothered me the most was not a post itself - but the signature line that appeared at the end of it.

Here is that "tag line":

"Welcome to the Anthropocene Epoch - a point in geologic history characterized by an environment substantially altered/damaged by human activity..."

OK. It's cute - but damaged? Damaged?

C'mon! Give me a break! I'll not deny that as a species, we humans have caused a lot of pollution and have used a lot of resources - but we have damaged the planet? How come for most "Greens", history started yesterday? Yes, since the Industrial Revolution we have put a lot of stuff into the air, water and land. But we're destroying the planet? How about billions of years ago when we had more than a gazillion volcanoes spewing all kinds of carbon into the atmosphere? More than we could possibly ever generate? Guess what, the planet is still here!

How about the untold number of cycles of the sun which have caused periods of warming and cooling - Ice Ages and Warm Periods - and these all happened without humans even being around! It is the height of arrogance and conceit to think that we humans are responsible for everything.

But the Global Warming movement has become the new approved secular religion. Previously accepted organized religion is ridiculed and has been removed from the public square. To invoke the name of God get you labeled as just a little bit weird, perhaps even a little "ignorant" with underlying tones of people accusing you of being a racist or homophobe. Saying a prayer to the Judeo-Christian God in public gets your behind hauled into Court or worse. All instances of religion are looked upon as hokey superstition and are to be vanquished from our midst because "We know better, now".

But worshiping at the Altar of Gaia is not only accepted, it is encouraged! The people who worship Gaia are intelligent, hip; and are "in the know". Funny thing is how intolerant they are of people who don't agree with them. Scientists who dare to disagree are stifled, fired or not hired because of their views. More and more are starting to make their disagreement known now; but for the "Non-Believers" the fate is as bad as any Inquisition.

And the Global Warming movement has become a sacred cash cow, too. Follow where the billions of dollars in grant money is going - it's not hard to figure out. And where's the most Reverend Leader of the Church of Gaia (Al Gore) making his money? Selling "carbon credits" while the rest of us poor fool hardy souls use less energy in years than he does in a day.

Conservation of resources and being a good steward to the planet is a wonderful thing and is to be encouraged. Going over the top and recommending such idiotic practices as self-sterilization in order to not bring more "carbon producers" into the world is so stupid as to be bizarre.

God help us!

73 de Larry W2LJ

It's a whole 'nuther world

My wife and my son and I accompanied my daughter to her second cheerleading competition of the season. My daughter, who is 7 years old, is a Biddy Cheerleader at Sacred Heart School here in town. They have their little routines and they cheer each week at either the 3/4th grade or 5/6th grade basketball games each weekend. Basketball season lasts from November to March and they cheer just about every Saturday morning.

Each year, they also go to two or three cheerleading competitions. Today's was in North Arlington, NJ at Our Lady Queen of Peace High School. The Sacred Heart Biddy, Junior Varsity and Varsity squads were represented, cheering against 6 or 8 other Catholic schools.

We had to be there by 8:30 this morning, and it was an hour long ride - so we were up early at 6:00AM. We got there in plenty of time; but the parking situation was atrocious! I dropped Marianne and Joey and Cara off at the school and finally found a parking spot about 5 blocks away or so.

It was all worth it as the girls had a fantastic time; and my daughter's squad won a trophy and individual medals for being the Biddy squad who performed the best stunts. Nothing earthshaking or dangerous; but pretty involved considering the Biddys are girls who are in Kindergarten through 2nd grade. This is Cara's last year with the Biddy's as she will be in 3rd grade next year; and will move on up to the Junior Varsity squad if she decides to continue to cheer.

I was amazed at my first competition a few years ago how it seemed to be a whole 'nuther world that I had never experienced before! Besides the actual competition, vendor show up selling their wares which relate to cheerleading and tumbling and gymnastics. The moms at these competitions can get pretty worked up and involved - with some taking it way too seriously!

But later I reflected upon the Ham Radio world; and how we have our Hamfests, swap meets and auction events. I guess to the uninitiated, our world is "a whole 'nuther world" and seems awfully alien to them, also. We have our own members of the hobby who take things way too seriously at times.

But in the end, whether it be cheerleading or Ham Radio, the end game is to have fun. Whether you win the cheerleading competition or the QRP Sprint du Jour isn't as important as enjoying yourself and having fun, while trying your best.

73 de Larry W2LJ

The battery is charging

I hooked up my newly arrived 18V wall wart to the ACME QRP gel cell charger and made the adjustments as they appear in the instruction manual. Everything went flawlessly. Now to hook up an actual, live battery. Looking around my various parts bins, I noticed that I do not have the required 5.1mm jack for the output!

Not to be deterred, I took two alligator clip test leads and clipped one to D2 in the circuit and the other to circuit board ground and hooked up a gel cell. The LED ran red for a bit to indicate that the battery was receiving a full charge; and then just a little while later, it switched to green. This indicated that the battery's voltage was at the proper level and the charging current had decreased to "float charging" levels.

Now I'll have to go to either Radio Shack or perhaps Greenbrook Electronics to get a couple 5.1 mm jacks (always good to have a spare kicking around) and mount his circuit in some kind of enclosure bottom. I need to put in something to keep the circuit board insulated from any kind of metal, yet I need to keep the top open so I can view the color status of the LED. Hmmmm .... some type of clear plastic box, perhaps? That way I can totally enclose the charger; but yet still view the LED. Interesting.

When all is said and done, I promise to post some pictures.

What should be next? I have a few untouched kits to choose from. I have a set of QRP paddles from Arizona ScQRPions paddles that I purchased years ago that I never opened. Maybe it's time to get going on those.

73 de Larry W2LJ

A fun night

I got home from work today to see that my 18V wall wart finally arrived through the mail. I did not have a chance to hook it up to the ACME gel cell charger tonight - perhaps tomorrow evening.

The night was spent at my kid's school. They both take Spanish (2nd and 3rd grades!) and their Spanish teacher put on an "International Night". The parents agreed to bring the ethnic foods of each family's heritage. My wife made kielbasa and sauerkraut to celebrate our Polish heritage; and we brought a crockpot full of it!

There was soooooo much food and it was all so good! Some of the counties represented were Poland, Italy, Ireland, the Philippines, Cuba, Guatemala, Germany, Slovakia, and a few others I can't even remember right now. It was truly an international smorgasbord and everybody had a wonderful time. Even my wife commented that she had a better time than she thought she was going to have.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day here - sunny and near 65 for a high. It will really feel like Spring for a change.

73 de Larry W2LJ

The Agony and the Ecstacy

I was substitute Fox last night for the last 80 Meter Foxhunt of the 2008/2009 Winter Season. As always, it was a ton of fun; and I managed to hand out 62 pelts during my 90 minute run.

The evening started off extremely well, and for the first 40 minutes or so, I was making contacts at a rate of one, maybe sometimes two a minute. Then at 0140 UTC, give or take (not sure of the exact time), it all came crashing down.

A loud (EXTREMELY LOUD = like 90 dB over 9 loud!) station came on the frequency N3SW, calling up the 3RN Net. Two things ticked me off here. First, I was occupying the frequency for over half an hour at this point - I was there first. Second, N3SW came on the frequency and started transmitting blindly, without so much as the courtesy of a "QRL?". And I don't want to hear that he couldn't hear anyone on frequency. I had a mini-pileup going. He HAD to hear some of them, even if they were QRPers! Things ended up with me changing the way I was operating; so as to accommodate them. I wouldn't have expected 3RN to move for me if they were on frequency first; and by rights, they shouldn't have made it necessary for me to vacate the frequency.

These guys are important as they move message traffic; and they can end up being a backbone someday if the country's communications network fails in the face of an all out disaster. But they can't figure out how to adapt to a situation such as an occupied frequency? These guys can't figure out how to QSY? I'm sorry - NTS or no - that was very rude and "Amateurish" of N3SW and 3RN.

No one should start transmitting on a frequency without listening first. The Foxhunt started at 0100 UTC. I was down at the rig at 0050 UTC picking a quiet spot and "QRLing" the heck out of it in order to insure that I wasn't interfering with anyone. All I ask is that other stations do the same. I don't care who you are and what you're doing. Unless it's a dire life and death emergency, courtesy should be the rule for everyone.

73 de Larry W2LJ

NJQRP Homebrewer Sprint - the day after.

I must say that I had a good time participating in the Sprint last night. I gave it a go for 2 of the 4 hours; then I headed off to bed as today was a work day.

I made a total of 19 QSOs and as I figure it, my claimed score is 8512 points. As usual, I used my K2 at the 5 Watt setting to my G5RV. 40 Meters was very noisy with a lot of RTTY QRM coming all the way down to almost 7.030 MHz; but I did manage about 6 QSOs on that band. The rest were garnered on 80 Meters; which had some atmospheric QRN - a sure sign that Spring is approaching.

The highlights were working the ever present N4BP, QRP contester extraordinaire, as well as Jim W1PID who had a super loud signal into NJ. Maybe the best QSO I had was with NØEAX out of Missouri who was operating at the 900 mW level. I got an e-mail from Rich stating that I was the only QSO he made during his 60 minute operating period. 80 Meter QRPp is a tough business; and I'm glad the K2 was able to help me pull his signal outof the aether.

I heard some stations going back to K4BAI; but sadly, I wasn't able to pull his signal out - maybe next time!

If you participated in the contest you have 30 days in which to get me your log. Please don't forget. As the deadline draws near, I will make announcements on QRP-L. So far, I have received eight logs. I know there were more of you out there than that!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Another cool thing.

While going through the NØHR.com Website to tell you about Propfire in my last post, I came across Patrick's Hamlinks Ham Radio Toolbar.

I was intrigued and installed it. And I am impressed!

It has a lot of neat features, such as allowing you to listen to Ham podcasts while browsing the Web or doing other Internet related things. It will let you know when you get new e-mails. It allows you to do not only standard Internet searches via Google; but allows you to various Ham Radio sites, also.

It's a useful tool - check it out and I think you'll like it.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Just a few changes

Last night I got in the mood to make a few changes here. Long time visitors will notice the change in color scheme and a new style clock.

I've also added a poll, which I hope to change every week or so. Please feel free to input your vote. This isn't meant to be any kind of scientific fact finding - just fun. So even if every now and then, you find that the questions venture away from Amateur Radio and towards silliness, please bear with me.

In addition, if you scroll down to near the bottom of the blog, on the right side you'll find a table with the current solar conditions. It updates every three hours. So far, since I have added it; it seems to agree with the Propfire propagation bar that I have at the bottom of my Firefox browser.

What's that you say? You have Firefox as your browser and you never heard of this? Well, my friend, please mosey on over to http://www.n0hr.com/Propfire.htm to see what I am talking about. This is a neat little tool to have and the Website will fill you in on all the details. Oh, and by the way, it is free.

I hope to make some changes to my Website in the near future too. I won't be changing the content; just the look and feel of it. I'd like to make it "fancier"; but have to do a lot of experimenting (offline). My Webmastering skills are self taught and I'm not up to snuff with any of the fancy stuff yet.

It's a gray and dreary day here in NJ; and kind of on the damp and chilly side. I wanted to take a ride down to the shore and set up a portable op for a few hours on the deserted beach at Long Beach Island State Park; but wisely, my wife pointed out that the weather isn't really amenable to doing that; and that it would probably feel even worse right by the water. She said that I'd be more comfortable once the temps reach the 60s on average; and I'd have to say that once again, she's right.

I would like to try it though. I think the PAC-12 being close to a humongous body of salt water acting as a ground plane would play very well.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Random thoughts

My 18V Wall Wart that I won on eBay did not arrive this week; much to my consternation. Luckily, the sun will come out tomorrow (What is this, "Annie"?) and I can hook up my 12V SLA battery to the solar panel to let it receive a nice charge.

I was hoping that during the coming week, that I might get a few lunchtime opportunities for some QRP QSOs from the park near work. Last Wednesday, it reached close to 70 Degrees here. Of course now that my gear is ready and the battery charged, I am sure it won't get above 45 Degrees all week!

I see that QRP Kits has announced two new ones. Today, Doug Hendricks KI6DS announced that he has added 2 new kits to his line of kits. They are an RF Probe packaged by Ken Locasale, and an Signal Tracer/Injector also packaged by Ken Locasale.

To check them out go to www.qrpkits.com and scroll down to the News section. Click on the items and it will take you to the page. The manuals for both kits are up and available for download, according to Doug.

I went through my "In Box" today and got rid of a ton of e-mails that I never deleted for some reason or other. I reviewed them, kept the few that were important and chucked the rest. I shouldn't be; but I get amazed at times about the number of e-mails I get a day! Between all the CW and QRP related e-mail reflectors I subscribe to, it can get daunting at times. I subscribe to a good number of them in digest form; but the two major QRP reflectors I get as individual e-mails. I tried digest form on those; but ended up accidentally deleting e-mails that I had wanted to save by deleting the entire digest for that day.

I guess I will continue to make liberal use of the Delete Key.

One last thought - don't forget the NJQRP Homebrewer Sprint tomorrow night!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Wrestling with the computer

I decided to try and synch my Palm Tungsten E with the computer this morning; as I haven't done it in a while. There's a lot of Ham Radio and work related data in there; and I like to keep it backed up. I have resolved perform this chore at least once a week. And I should be doing this way more often during the coming months as I am hoping the Palm will fill up with lunch time QRP QSOs now that the warmer months are approaching!

Much to my frustration, the Tungsten would not synch with the computer. I tried various things, like rebooting the computer, reloading the software and checking all connection settings, trying a different USB cable to no avail. As an experiment, I took the software, loaded it to a thumb drive and uploaded it to my shack laptop. Sure enough, after installation, it worked like a champ.

So now I knew that the Palm and its USB cable were fine. The fault had to rest somehow with my antiquated, dinosaur PC that I have up here.

That's when I had an inspiration. I went into the Windows Control Panel and totally removed the Palm software from the system. I shut the computer down, rebooted it and re-installed the software. It worked!

I have no idea what corrupted the software. I'm just glad that I lucked into a solution!

73 de Larry W2LJ

WorldRadio Online - a success!

The transition of WorldRadio from a paper periodical to an online e-zine seems to have been a big success.

Rich Moseson, of CQ Magazine, posted on the WorldRadio e-mail reflector today that the release of the latest issue has caused a "pileup" on the server. He issued a plea to spread out the bandwidth; and politely asked folks to not overwhelm the server.

I'm glad to see that WorldRadio has taken off as an e-zine; and I hope that it garners tons of success in the future. It is definitely one of my favorite Amateur Radio periodicals.

73 de Larry W2LJ

John Shannon K3WWP

If any of you out there are having trouble reaching K3WWP's Website; please note that the URL has changed.

It is now:

http://home.windstream.net/johnshan/index.html

The change over from "alltel" to "windstream" wasn't supposed to happen until May; but is seems to have already taken effect.

73 de Larry W2LJ

The NJQRP Homebrewer Sprint returns!

After a hiatus, the NJQRP Homebrewer Sprint is on again! And this coming Sunday night, March 22nd is the night. So put down the soldering iron and get on the air and make some contacts with the equipment that you gave your sweat, blood and tears to build!

The original purpose of this Sprint was to encourage the use of homebrewed equipment (kits count!) ; but we're not overly picky and we welcome all entries, whether homebrewed or not.

As always, this event which is sponsored by the NJQRP Club is a 4 hour event from 8:00 PM to Midnight EDT. (0000 UTC until 0400 UTC Monday March 23rd for those of you who prefer UTC).

For all the details and the whole skinny - please visit the following Webpage:

http://www.njqrp.org/data/qrphomebrewersprint.html

Special certificates will be awarded; and they will be suitable for framing!

So grab your Tuna Tin, Sardine Sender, Gnat, Flea, Pixie, ATS (any version), KX1, K1, K2 or K3, Warbler (yes, PSK-31 counts too) or whatever have you and join in on the fun!

See you all Sunday night!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Gotta share this

When I announced on this blog that my lovely wife was buying me the QRP Project Fuchs Tuner kit for my birthday; it intrigued one of my friends to the point of building one based on the documentation available on the QRP Project Website.

He sent me an e-mail tonight letting me know that the project was a success and that it successfully tuned his Inverted L on 80 through 10 Meters.

And he included the picture that you see here. Wow! How good looking is that! As you can see, my friend Bob W3BBO is one heckuva a homebrewer. If I were to attempt the same project, it would end up looking like something that was hit by an NHL goaltender, or possibly something that was found on the street as "roadkill".

I truly envy you folks who can not only homebrew from scratch successfully; but make it look so darned professional to boot!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Oh, man !!!!!

"Oh, man!!!!!!" is an expression that can be used in two ways; one being a state of disappointment and the other for a state of pleasant surprise. I've used it both ways tonight.

The first reason - disappointment. I saw on the ARRL Web Page that Burghardt Amateur Center in Watertown, SD has announced that they will no longer sell Amateur Radio gear. While they will continue to offer radio repair, which is lucrative, selling new gear became unprofitable. Wow! They've been in business since 1937 and I bought my Novice transmitter from them - my Drake 2-NT way back in 1978. I'm sorry to see another Amateur Radio outlet go by the wayside.

The second reason - pleasant surprise. Terry WAØITP announced today that the Four States QRP Group is offering two new kits! The first is the Four State Dummy Load SMD Starter Kit, designed to get builders acquainted with working with surface mount materials. It looks like plenty documentation is included about the various SMD building techniques and they include an parts for an RF Probe so you can calculate your output power using a DMM. Go here for details: http://www.wa0itp.com/dummyload.html

The second kit is the Enhanced Manhattan Islander Audio Amp. This ones uses Manhattan construction and is supposedly very powerful; but yet small enough to fit into the ever versatile Altoids tin. Go here for details: http://www.wa0itp.com/emislander.html

It's nice to see new items being introduced. It helps soften the blow about losing "an old friend".

73 de Larry W2LJ

A couple of things

I built the ACME QRP Gel Cell Charger today, even though I don't have a method for powering it up right now. It went together very easily; and if you're new to kit building, I would not hesitate to recommend this kit to you as a second or even first time build!

It's a small but not tiny circuit board, the parts are all "through hole" and with the exception of one lil' typo (that was easy to figure out), the instructions were a snap to understand and follow.

You can see a few pictures on my Web page here. Or go to my Windows Skydrive page (which I just started) and check out the folder named ACME QRP.

Kudos to Craig NR4E for putting together a neat little kit!

Secondly, a few of you might have read the article in QST two months ago describing how to homebrew a Spud Gun (antenna line launcher). Steve WGØAT (ex NØTU) of "Peanut and Rooster" fame has a YouTube video showing the very same launcher in action. It is impressive! Click here to see it.

I wish I had tall trees in my backyard where I would have a need to have one of those!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Aargh!!!

No, I'm not a pirate - just a bit frustrated with myself.

I am about to begin building the ACME QRP Gel Cell Charger kit today; and of course did another careful read through the assembly instructions. I was about to begin actual assembly when I thought I'd run down the basement to check my old junker Toshiba laptop's wall wart - just to make sure its output was in the necessary 16 - 22 Volt range. That's when I was rudely reminded that the Toshiba doesn't use a wall wart! It uses 115V AC directly - it must have a built in transformer to charge its battery!

The only wall wart I have that has the proper voltage is the one to my Dell laptop, which is my main shack computer. I'm not about to use that!

So a quick search on the E of Bay yielded several inexpensive 18V wall warts. I hit one of the "Buy Now" ones for $3.99 plus shipping; and got one for less than ten bucks.

So I will probably have the kit completed and "ready to go" for later this week, when hopefully, the wall wart will arrive. It's supposed to come via Express Mail - 3 to 5 business days from now.

With all the stupid little wall warts I have just hanging around the house, it's just my luck that I don't have ONE with the proper output voltage and that I had to end up buying one.

Aaarrrgggghhhhh!

73 de Larry W2LJ

An interesting e-mail.

I got an e-mail from a Ham from Slovenia today. This was in response to my going into eQSL the other day and cleaning out my "In Box". I had to reject his QSO and I guess he received an e-mail in turn from eQSL telling him of my action.

So when I got home today, there was an e-mail from him saying, "Hi W2LJ. What do you mean wrong mode? I worked you in the ARRL SSB DX Contest".

To which I replied, "Right mode for you - wrong mode for me. I am a CW only person. I do not own a microphone; and I don't even own a rig that is capable of SSB at the present time. Sorry."

I doubt that I'll get any response as a result of that. I guess there's always the possibility that someone is pirating my call - but seriously, who'd want to pirate W2LJ? You'd have to be pretty desperate!

73 de Larry W2LJ

It came!

When I got home from work this afternoon, I was happy to see a little white package in the mail. It had a customs slip on it and the distinctive logo of the QRP Project of Germany.

My multiband EFHW tuner arrived today! Cool!

I immediately handed it off to my wife and told her to keep hold of it until my birthday. It's no big deal, it's only six weeks away; and I have plenty to keep me busy until then.

Now for something totally different and totally unrelated to Amateur Radio. I see the Secretary General of the UN has called the United States a "deadbeat" nation. Excuse me, Mr. Ban Ki-moon?

Hmmmmmm .... let's see ..... the United States ONLY provides about 22% of the UN's annual operating budget. Foreign diplomats in New York City routinely disobey the parking and traffic rules and NEVER pay their fines - claiming diplomatic immunity. The NY Police department spends a hideous amount of its budget in UN related protection.

Seems to me the UN Secretary General needs to see what kind of financial shape the UN would be in if we taxpayers decided to tighten our national purse strings.

And what do we get for our effort? Not a whole heckuvalot if you ask me.

I'd better stop this before I get heartburn.

73 de Larry W2LJ

A note of passing

I read this on one of the e-mail reflectors I subscribe to:

"...At the tone, Zero Hours, Zero Minutes, Coordinated Universal Time...'BEEP'...This is Radio Station WWV, Fort Collins Colorado..."

WWV voice Silent key

The person behind the recorded voice of Time and Frequency Station WWV has passed away. Announcer Don Elliot Heald, of Atlanta, Georgia, who gave WWV its human touch, passed away on Thursday, February 19th.

He was 86 years old, and worked for a long time for WSB in Atlanta, GA. Among his other notable achievements, he was the first person to hire an African-American as an-air TV reporter; and the first to hire an African-American as an evening news anchor.

73 de Larry W2LJ

80M was tough tonight!

Spring is coming! But by the QRN levels on 80 Meters tonight, you might have thought it was already July!

The local QRN racket on 40 Meters raised its ugly head for the first time in a long time, tonight; which forced me to go on down to 80 Meters. The local QRN was not a problem; but the atmospheric QRN was indeed a problem!

I had a short QSO with Tom W4VHH out of North Carolina. I gave him a 569 and got a 459 in return. The QRM and QSB were bad, forcing a very short QSO upon us. This was a bad thing as I was in the mood for a good "chew".

After Tom and I called it quits, I called CQ for a bit more - however, there were no takers.

For those of you into QRP, I'd like to introduce you to a Website that you might not know about. It's a QRP Cluster, per se, named QRPSPOTS. It's sponsored by the Four States QRP Group and you can get to it by clicking here.

I think this site is a wonderful idea! You can list yourself when your headed for the great outdoors and you want everyone to know that you're out there, braving the elements and tickling the aether with your 5 Watts of RF. Or, you can list yourself when you're at home calling CQ from the home station and you feel like reaching out to other QRPers.

Either way, so far the site seems to have received only light traffic. But it's another wonderful free service to QRPers; and I think we should make the most use out of it that we can! I know Terry WAØITP and the Four States QRP group would love this site to take off and be used worldwide by QRPers.

Personally, I'd love to see "DX" QRPers post their times of operating on there. It's exciting to see how far you can make 5 Watts reach. So spread the word! If you're getting on the air via QRP - let EVERYONE know!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Birthday present

Actually, my birthday isn't for a couple of months; but I talked my wife into purchasing a kit for me as my birthday present this year. The kit is for a matching network for EFHW (End Fed Half Wave) antennas, which are easy to deploy for QRP portable operations.

The kit is sold by the QRP Project out of Germany. I figured it probably won't get here until real close to my birthday, anyway.

http://www.qrpproject.de/UK/multifuchs.htm

The article was an interesting read. I am looking forward to building it, hooking up a piece of wire to it; and seeing what happens.

Of course, I will keep you all informed when the time comes.

73 de Larry W2LJ

W2LJ reporting for duty ..... SIR!

Many of you are probably familiar with a post that appeared on all the major QRP e-mail reflectors a few weeks ago, about keeping QRP alive and healthy. It was written by a prominent and well known figure in the QRP world, with his exhortations as to what we QRPers need to do in order to keep this lil' corner of Amateur Radio alive and kicking.

All filled up with a sense of duty, I went out and ordered a kit. And it is actually something that I can use ! And it arrived today.

It is a Gel Cell charger kit, marketed by of all companies - ACME QRP. It looks like it will be a breeze to assemble and get working. It's all through hole parts and it is definitely something that I can use. Even though I usually charge my gel cells with my solar panel, this looks like a neat little device to have.

In case you're interested, here is where you can find it:

http://www.acmeqrp.com/main/page_products_gc100_gel_cell_charger.html

The only things missing are the little pictures of Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner.

73 de Larry W2LJ

'Nother one bites the dust

I saw this the other day on one of the local club e-mail reflectors:

"Hello RVRC, I have just spoken with the guys on the Cherryville Net and received the news that their hamfest will not be held this year. Hopefully they will get things together for next year, that seemed to be the thought at this time. 73 Mike, KB2VRM"

Hmmmmm ..... it's been my experience that when you see something like this, the odds of them "getting things together for next year" are not good.

Thw Cherryville Hamfest, sponsored by the Cherryville Repeater Group has been around as long as I can remember. I think it might have been the first Hamfest I ever went to after I got licensed. That makes sense, as I was licensed in December; and traditionally, the Cherryville Hamfest kicked off the NJ Hamfest season, holding theirs each March.

Admittedly, the Cherryville Hamfest has gotten weaker and weaker in the past few years. With the advent of E-Bay and the Internet in general, smaller Hamfests have seemed to have gone by the wayside. That's unfortunate as they are not only sales events; but they are also great social events. It's always nice to go and reconnect with folks you haven't seen face to face in a while.

I will keep my fingers crossed that the Hamfest will re-appear in 2010; but realistically, I won't be holding my breath.

73 de Larry W2LJ

March rolls in like a lion .....

I guess that's true. Signs of Spring are everywhere. Next weekend, Daylight Savings Time begins again, the days are getting noticeably longer (I no longer drive home from work in the dark); and those little green tufts of grass are starting to sprout in my backyard.

But Ol' Man Winter isn't done with us yet! By the time I wake up for work tomorrow morning, there's supposed to be around 6 - 9 inches of snow on the ground. It's a raw, cold, bleek day here in Central New Jersey.

If you're like me, you've had enough of Winter back in December; and you're counting the days until you can walk around outside without a coat or jacket. This means the beginning of the 2009 "comfortable" outdoor QRP season; when you can set up the antenna and radio without the risk of hypothermia and frostbite! And you can sit outside with an iced tea or a lemonade (or a brewski!) instead of a thermos of coffee or hot chocolate.

Until that time comes, I have a link to a video that will warm the recesses of your heart. Introduced on the QRP reflectors by Steve NØTU of "Rooster and Peanut" fame, it's about a 50 pound DXpedition to the Caribbean. It seems it's always warm enough down there to sit and do some radio from the great outdoors!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7l8fdgGkHA

is the link; and this should have you inspired and anxious for some good QRP weather that's sure to come our way sooner or later!

73 de Larry W2LJ

CFLs - revisited

From time to time, I like to look through my old QSTs and read articles I missed; or re-read articles that that I may have glanced over too quickly the first time.

In this case, the November 2008 had an article about making your station "green". Now anything that pertains to "green" tends to make me groan. Don't get me wrong ..... I believe in conservation, using energy wisely, not wasting resources and being a good steward towards the planet. But, in accordance with my Catholic upbringing, I believe that the planet was created for us; and not we for the planet. Ecology as a religion is just not my thing.

All that notwithstanding, the article was interesting and useful; as it contained some interesting information about CFLs - compact fluorescent lights. I have started using them about 16 months ago - mainly in my kitchen. The lights in the kitchen are recessed indoor floods and they tended to have very short lifespans. I switched over to Philips CFLs and for the most part have been happy with them. They do not generate any RFI that I can detect. I can have my radio on and if someone turns on the kitchen lights, I am oblivious to it. I can't "hear" them on the K2, which is known throughout the Amateur Radio world for its fine receiver. In addition to them being "radio quiet" the CFLs have lived up to their reputation of being longer lived. I haven't had to change them since I installed them. 14 months may not seem very long to you; but regular incandescent floods were only lasting 4 months or so - so to me, it means a lot. The thing I don't like about them, though, is that they are very dim on start up. I can come downstairs in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning; and when I turn them on, it's just not the same. Regular incandescent bulbs come on at full brightness. These Philips CFLs take about three or four minutes to "warm up" to full output.

Getting back to the QST article, the author recommended GE CFLs as they are the only ones that do not come with an RFI warning printed on the package. So when I went grocery shopping today, I bought two 100 Watt equivalent GE CFLs. And sure enough, there is no RFI warning label on the package (although there is a warning that they have to be recycled properly as these little devils, like all CFLs, contain mercury). I decided to test the author's claims and installed them in the two ceiling fixtures that I have in my basement shack.

His claims are true. No RFI that these 52 year old ears can hear, anyway! BUT, the one big difference I noted was that when I turned these puppies on - they are BRIGHT !!!! I would say at least 90% of their normal operational brightness. No annoying dimness while waiting for them to "warm up". And to me that is a big deal!

I can heartily recommend GE CFLs. They are "radio quiet" and I like the light they put out. The two 100 Watt equivalent bulbs that I installed will use substantially less energy than just one 100 Watt incandescent bulb that I used to use. It might take me a bit of time to get used to their squirrely corkscrew shape, though.

Which brings me to another thought - just how far away are we from the next generation of home lighting - LED based "light bulbs"?

73 de Larry W2LJ

Just in case

you never check out my "Amateur Radio Blogs of Interest" down to the lower right, please do your self a favor and either go to the SolderSmoke blog; or go to:

http://www.wa0dx.org/wa0itp/ns40.html

Either will lead you to a neat little 40 Meter transmitter kit called the NS-40 (No Simpler 40 Meter Transmitter). According to the article, it has only 14 parts and no coils to wind because they are etched right into the PCB! How cool is that?

At the same time, if you decide to buy the kit, your payment will help fund Ozarkcon. So you can have some fun melting solder and do your "patriotic duty" to QRP all at the same time.

I think I'm going to get a check out to WAØITP today!

73 de Larry W2LJ

K5D

Hooray! I worked the DXpedition today!

I got home from Church and saw an announcement by WB3AAL on one of the QRP reflectors that the K5D team was indeed on 30 Meters. He worked them at 1538 UTC.

Even though it was almost three hours later, I decided to say, "What the heck"; and I headed down to the shack and fired up the K2 and switched to the HF9V vertical. K5D was coming into NJ at 599; but I had a bit of a problem. The op was working a lot of Europeans; and propagation was such that I couldn't hear the Europeans answer. Thus, I didn't have a good idea as to how high he was listening. I flipped the K2's "B" VFO up two and kept my fingers crossed; and was lucky enough to grab them on my second call at 1825 UTC.

During my weekly conversation with Bob W3BBO yesterday; he informed me that according to the K5D Website, the CW side of the operation was sitting this weekend out because of the ARRL DX Contest. I told Bob that while I certainly respected their decision to not contest, I couldn't understand why they wouldn't then just operate on 30 and 17 Meters for the weekend, where no contesting is allowed.

We must have been on the same brain wavelength then; because they were on 30 Meters today; and I nabbed 'em! Thanks, K5D team! I think this was an excellent decision., as it gave us "non-serious" contesters and us QRPers a chance to get you without the heavy "normal" pileups!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Two blogs added

To the list of "Amateur Radio Blogs of Interest" to the lower right:

K3WI Blog - which seems to be a newer one; but I like the posts I've read so far.

a brasspounder's cafe - which is authored by JJ8KGZ from Hokkaido, Japan.

I hope you enjoy them!

73 de Larry W2LJ

ARRL DX Contest weekend

I've been playing around in the DX contest today. Not a big effort; just a sit down for a few minutes here and there between chores. It's nice to see 15 Meters open with great signals from the Caribbean and South America.

The Butternut is doing a fantastic job for me today. I'm working just about everyone I hear, even if it takes a few calls with the QRP signal!

Moved on down to 20 Meters for a bit and worked Ireland and Alaska - first try on each! The "magic of radio" rush always comes back during a DX contest!

73 de Larry W2LJ

The Gnat

OK - so I've been burning to build something from scratch for a while now. And today, on QRP-L, I think I found the answer.

Chris Trask N7ZWY published an article about a one-transistor CW transceiver for 40 Meters, called "The Gnat". Here's the link to the .pdf with all the details:

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~christrask/Gnat%2040.pdf

Looks like I'm gonna order a few parts that I don't have from either Mouser or Jameco; and then I'll get to building!

73 de Larry W2LJ

From the ARRL Letter

This appeared on today's release of "The ARRL Letter". I thought it worthy to post here as many of you may remember reading of this man's ingenuity just a few years ago.

JOHN KANZIUS, K3TUP (SK)

John Kanzius, K3TUP, of Erie, Pennsylvania, passed away February 18 in Florida from pneumonia. He was 64. Kanzius was best known for his research into finding a cure for cancer using radio waves, specifically 13.56 MHz.

In 1966 at age 22, Kanzius came to Erie, Pennsylvania to work for JET Broadcasting. After 24 years as a broadcast engineer, he was appointed vice president and general manager of the company in 1980. After retiring, Kanzius was diagnosed with leukemia in 2002. He summarized his chemotherapy in a February 2008 article in QST as "Hoping we kill the cancer before we kill the person". In October 2003 -- thinking there had to be a better treatment -- Kanzius had the idea to kill the cancer cell with radio waves, not a new idea. But Kanzius went a bit further: Instead of using needles, as was currently used, why not "trick" the cancer cells into absorbing a metal target -- sent by RF -- into the inside of the cancer cells, leaving the healthy cells alone?

In 2005, Kanzius teamed up with cancer researchers at M. D. Anderson (part of the University of Texas health system in Houston) and Rice University (also in Houston). Using nanoparticles -- metallic objects measured in billionths of an inch -- heated by RF using a machine that Kanzius invented, the researchers were impressed: "The research scientists at Rice were stunned to see that my device could heat nanoparticles at the 13.56 MHz frequency," Kanzius said.

Kanzius credited his father for his inspiration: "Trying to build an array that would heat particles one billionth of a meter in length was challenging. But building equipment all of my life was inspired by my dad, W3NRE, who was licensed in 1934."

Kanzius told ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, that if it were not for his Amateur Radio background, "and all the days of experimentation to improve my station, this new procedure for treating cancer, which continues to show such promising results, would
probably not be on the cutting edge at the largest cancer center in the world [M. D. Anderson]."

But Kanzius did more than just try to find a cure for cancer. In 1991, he was Top of Honor Roll in the ARRL DXCC program; at his death, he had 347 countries confirmed. In the March/April 1987 issue of NCJ, Tim Duffy, K3LR, described K3TUP as "a relatively new contest call," but said Kanzius had been DXing for many years: "As he has caught the contest bug, John has taken a station which was designed for busting DX pileups and converted it over to have the flexibility and brute force required to compete in Multi-Single contesting." Duffy described the station as sitting "situated on a high ridge that overlooks Lake Erie. The station is well secluded from city-type radio noise and the rural setting allows John to run several temporary beverages for low band receiving." Both Duffy and Randy Thompson, K5ZD, have operated from
Kanzius's station.

Pitts recalled that in 2007, he received an e-mail from a ham, asking if he was aware of the research Kanzius was attempting: "I looked at the attached video clip and I was skeptical. But I became more curious about this kitchen table tinkerer-ham and investigated the claims. I learned two major things: First, this was not a harebrained scheme -- it really worked (!), and -- even more important for me -- John Kanzius was a true gentleman. Bright, polite and enthusiastic without being overbearing, I liked him. Over the next months as I wrote the QST article about his work, I came to know him and his true desire to help other cancer victims. Since then, we stayed in touch by phone and e-mail. I enjoyed his delight as each step in the process of bringing his machine and concept to human use was proven by M. D. Anderson and other cancer
research facilities. Some people just make your world better by being there. John was one of those people. Though I never met him in person, it was always good to hear from him and I enjoyed the friendship. Losing him makes the world a little colder. I will miss him."

Kanzius is survived by his wife Marianne, two daughters -- Sherry Kanzius and Toni Palmer -- and two grandchildren. Calling hours are Sunday, February 22 from 2-5 PM and 7-9 PM at the Duskas-Martin Funeral Home , 4216 Sterrettania Rd, Erie, Pennsylvania. A funeral service is planned for 10:30 AM on Monday, February 23 at the Episcopal Cathedral of St Paul , also in Erie. Memorial contributions may be made to the John Kaznius Research Fund, Palace Business Center, 915 State St, Erie, PA 16501.

END

Rest in Peace, John.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Oh My!

I must profess a certain amount of naivete' when it comes to DX pileups. I am certainly not a big gun DXer although I am not afraid to jump into the fray.

Today while testing the futile K5D waters, I heard behavior that I had never witnessed before in a CW pileup. It was behavior that I've witnessed in SSB pileups in years past; but never in a CW pileup before.

One Ham was calling on K5D's transmit frequency, so inevitably the "pileup managers" all started sending "UP" "UP". This must have frustrated the guy or gotten him angry for some reason, so he replied by sending, slowly and deliberately, "FU" "FU".

Has it come to this?

73 de Larry W2LJ

Struck me as odd.

Last night, as I recounted earlier, I had a QSO with K3OXG. Tonight I got on the air and the first station I worked tonight was K5OGX.

Back to back QSOs (almost 24 hours apart however) where the suffixes have O, X and G in them.

I guess I get amazed by minor things.

By the way, the pileup for K5D on 40 Meters tonight is horrendous, with lots of horrendous behavior. I salute the K5D ops for putting up with the nonsense. I'm sure glad that I didn't have anyone in the shack that I was trying to demonstrate the finer points of Ham Radio to.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Bedlam!

I turned on the rig this afternoon, to see if I could hear the Desecheo Island DXpedition.

I heard it, all right!

The bad news is that it was a mass of bedlam on both 20 and 30 Meters. The good news is that the signal to NJ was strong. I should be able to bag this one during the second half of the DXpedition, after all the Big Guns have gotten their QSOs on all bands from DC to Daylight.

If you're new to QRP - that's a sanity saving hint. Don't spend a lot of effort bagging the rare DXpedition during the opening phase. Save your effort towards the end when things are winding down. You're less likely to want to pull your hair out of your head.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Oh Lord, that felt good!

As a Ham who did the "QSO a Day" thing successfully for an entire year, a few years ago; it's frustrating when I'm not able to get on the air for extended periods of time.

That's why last night was such a treat. My wife came home early from work; and after a nice dinner that I prepared for both of us, I was able to get down to the shack to operate for a while. While she was relaxing, going over her e-mail and surfing the Web, I was able to pound some brass on 80 Meters. And boy, did that feel great!

My first CQ resulted in a call from an old friend, Dave W1DV. Dave lives in Upstate New York and had a solid 599 signal into New Jersey. Dave is a fellow SKCC member and we chewed the rag for a bit. I found out that he's out of retirement and back to teaching high school. It's nice when you can go into the logbook and read notes from past QSOs and carry on a nice conversation, rather than just exchange tidbits about rig, antenna, weather, etc.

After wrapping things up with Dave, I heard a loud CQ coming from a few KHz down the band. The caller was K3OXG, who turned out to be Lou from Waynesburg, PA. This was a fun QSO which I really enjoyed. Dave was using a K1 that he had bought used to a homebrew Inverted Vee. His really solid 599 signal was a joy to copy. What made it even better was finding out that he's just recently licensed (2007). He handled the key like a seasoned veteran! He was easy copy and it was heartwarming to see that a relative newcomer had really embraced CW; and was really enjoying it, too. Looking up Lou on QRZ, I see that he's active with the North American QRP CW Club, FISTS and the Straight Key Century Club - three organizations that I hold near and dear.

After the QSO with Lou, I turned the big switch and shut the station down, after being back on the air for about an hour. After all, it was St Valentine's Day and I didn't want to ignore my wife, the love of my life! A Ham is supposed to be balanced ...... right?

73 de Larry W2LJ

A new link

After a conversation with Bob W3BBO, I am proud to offer a link to a new blog in the bottom right hand corner.

It's called, "Trail-Friendly Radio Extra" by none other than Richard Fisher KI6SN, who also authors the blog, "The QRPer"; and who also writes for WorldRadio.

Even if your more of an outdoorsman "at heart" than than in action, like me; I think you'll enjoy glancing at this new blog from time to time. It offers to be entertaining and educational.

73 de Larry W2LJ

No Atlanticon this year

As seen on the NJQRP e-mail reflector today, this was George Heron's response when someone asked if whether or not Atlanticon would be held this year:

"Sadly, no Atlanticon this year (again). Economic troubles, attendance problems, coordination time problems.

Maybe next year."

Now that my kids are getting older, I was hoping to attend one of these, one of these years. Looks like my chances are dimming.

Could this be a sign that the "Golden Days" of QRP are waning? I certainly hope not!

73 de Larry W2LJ

QQ

Another surprise waiting in the mail for me when I got home from work! Today I received the Winter 2009 edition of "QRP Quarterly", the journal of the QRP-ARCI. QQ is a wonderful publication; and is well worth the subscription price. Even though by no means do I have the technical skill or knowledge to grasp all the contents, it's still a treasure trove!

This QQ features a good Ham Radio friend, Jim Cluett W1PID. It's always a pleasure to catch Jim on the air; and it's always fun to read his stories about QRP in the great outdoors. I haven't read the article yet; but am very much looking forward to it. I noticed that the editors of QQ did something different this issue with regards to Jim's article. In the main body of QQ, the photos that occur are published in black and white. Jim's article was accompanied by some many wonderful color photos that they took the extraordinary step of eliminating advertising from the back inside cover and published Jim's photos in color! That's a tribute!

BTW, if you want to visit W1PID's Website - click here.

Other articles that I want to spend some time reading are Roy Lewallen W7EL's article on QRP Field Day with Tips and Tales. And in the QRP World News department, there's a short bio of how Oleg Borodin RV3GM got into Ham Radio. For those of you who don't know, it was Oleg who coined the term "72" that we QRPers use in addition to or instead of "73". To us it means, "Wishing you good QRP".

Also, there's an article about working the Ham Satellites using QRP. Hmmmmm .... an article in QQ and QST about the same subject in the same month. Is someone trying to tell me something?

Finally, one of the most enjoyable part of QQ for me is the contest section. While I am no means a big hot shot contester, I do enjoy reading the Soapbox comments every issue. I have come to know and become friendly with a lot of the Hams that send in contest logs; so it's a treat for me to read their comments.

If you are a QRPer and you don't belong to QRP-ARCI, you really should consider it. You'll find that a lot of the "Cream of the Crop" of the QRP crowd belong. And it seems the best new ideas and technical articles make it into QQ sooner or later. Even if you're like me and don't pretend to understand half of it with any authority, you still have to shake your head in admiration of the guys who come up with this stuff.

73 de Larry W2LJ

QST

The February issue of QST came in today's mail; and from the looks of things, there seems to be a few articles there that have actually caught my eye this month!

When RS10 and RS12 were happily orbiting the earth, I was quite the fan of them. While I didn't achieve WAS on them, I did manage a QSO with a Ham from the UK, which was pretty rare, as the two LEO satellites didn't have huge footprints. Related to this, there's an article on working the LEO FM satellites which has piqued my interest. Yes, I know it's voice and not CW (still QRP however!); but "man was not meant to live on bread alone", eh?

There are also articles on logging, which is always a favorite subject of mine. Also, during a cursory glance of the issue, there appears to be an interesting Vibroplex related article. Love those bugs!

The last article that I want to investigate further, is entitled "Build a Battery in a Box" which is about a contained AC to DC power system. That might spawn some ideas for a better portable QRP power system.

Happy reading!

73 de Larry W2LJ

CQ and WorldRadio

I was very sad to see WorldRadio cease publishing a hard copy edition. I started getting the publication back in my Novice days and it has always been my favorite. In fact, it was so much my favorite that I became a lifetime subscriber way back when. I had my lifetime subscription to WorldRadio long before I decided to become an ARRL Lifetime member and that was back in the dinosaur days!

I loved the non-glossy newspaper feel of the magazine and I loved its content. It seemed to be the right mix of news, contest info, technical stuff with a healthy dose of Ham human interest stories blended in.

The new version will be just as good, I am sure; but I can't roll it up and carry it in my back pocket anymore! Certainly can't take it to the "Library" with me for some leisurely reading, either. Well yes, I suppose I still can - but I'm not about to print out a 40 page issue every month!

But I'll tell you one place they did make good on their word .... with this business of extending my subscription to CQ. I got my February issue of CQ the other day, and I see on the mailing label that my subscription has been extended to 2012.

Technically, CQ didn't have to do anything at all. I became a lifetime subscriber to WorldRadio back in 1979 or 1980, and I have gotten more than my money's worth of that initial payment years ago. To have my CQ subscription extended for a couple of years, gratis, is icing on the cake!

Thank you, CQ ! And I hope that WorldRadio continues to be a drawing card for you for many years to come.

73 de Larry W2LJ

'Tis gone

Not to belabor the personal health situation here; but ......

Mr. Kidney Stone left the building today - exactly four weeks to the day since that dreadful day of pain on New Year's Eve.

I was at work using the Port-O-John (the building that I work at is in the final stages of construction, so we still have to use these) when I felt it leave and I heard the stupid thing strike against the side of the plastic urinal. It sounded like a twig snapping!

This was much to my relief because I went for a follow up visit to the urologist yesterday; and he told me that if the pain came back like it did that first day, then the stone was probably trapped in the ureter and surgery would be required. I'm always glad when the only knives that come near my person are those used for cutting steak!

On a radio note, solder has begun melting on the 160 Meter board for the K2 ! So maybe things ARE starting to turn around from the dismal beginning to 2009 (knock wood).

73 de Larry W2LJ

Melting solder

I've been getting on the air lately, at nights after work, only to find that 40 Meters has gone super long; and that 80 Meters has very few signals on it. A few of the QRP e-mail reflectors have had guys raving about conditions on 160 Meters.

So I've buckled down and have begun sorting out the parts on my 160 Meter board for the K2. I hope to start melting solder this coming week. It's a small project and I'm sure I'll get the board done in no time flat.

The part that gives me the willies though, is opening my perfectly operational K2 to begin messing around with its innards. Logically, I know that I've done things like this in the past with no problems. And hey, I used to repair $12,000.00 professional studio strobes down to the component level for a living for 20 years. So why the unease? No idea - just foolishness on my part, I guess.

Hopefully, given enough spare time, I should be on 160 Meters real soon. I'll keep you posted.

73 de Larry W2LJ

No Luck

I went down the basement last night, to get on the air; only to find both 40 and 80 Meters totally dead. Well, I shouldn't say totally; but the signals were few, far between and definitely weak. I heard some Europeans coming through on 80 Meters, participating in some contest. I wasn't familiar with the exchange and was not much in the mood for non-substantial contest QSOs.

This afternoon, things haven't improved much. I'm hearing various nets; but not much in the realm of regular ol' ragchewin'. I called CQ and tuned around on both 20 and 40 for about 45 minutes and came away empty handed.

So, for the moment, I thought I'd share something else - not radio related. But it's definitely something you can do when the bands are pitifully dead. My dear wife gave me two books for Christmas and I finished the second last night after my lack of success on the air.

I love to read! My Mom instilled a love for reading in me and my sister early in our lives. A treat for us was to go to the library and check out a bunch of books. I don't read as much as I should; or would like. However, since last summer, I have read a series of books that I would highly recommend.

The author is James Rollins; and the books are thrillers, much in the tradition of Tom Clancy, Larry Bond and Dan Brown. The title of the books, which should be read in order are:

1) Map of Bones
2) The Black Order
3) The Judas Strain
3) The Last Oracle

The stories revolve around a central character, Grayson Pierce, who works for Sigma Command, which is part of DARPA. The Sigma Command is made up of professional scientist/soldiers and the stories involve their adventures, a la' "save the world from destruction" scenarios.

It's definitely fun, action paced reading and the books are very hard to put down. They're not involved with radio in any way; but the plots do involve science and scientific theory. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Re-joining the land of the living!

Thanks to all of you who sent private e-mails and comments with regards to my kidney stone(s). And, yes, I did go to a specialist and he told me that the CAT Scan revealed the 4mm stone in the right kidney and a 3mm stone in the left kidney. Double whammy!

I have now been pain free for the last four days. I am simultaneously drinking a ton of fluids and knocking on wood and praying to God for no recurrences of that pain attack I had New Year's Eve. For those of you who have never had to deal with these little devils, the only way I can describe the pain is as follows:

Imagine someone taking a wooden spoon and putting the business end in their hand. Then they take the handle end and press it into your side and hold it there, applying as much pressure as they possibly can. And they follow you EVERYWHERE that way. You can't get comfortable, you can't think; and all you want is something, ANYTHING to take the pain away.

The urologist and I both think I have passed the stones; and that the remaining discomfort that I was experiencing was just that my kidney was swollen from the ordeal. I have to go for a kidney-ureter-bladder X-ray on Monday just to be sure there are no blockages.

Sorry to get so personal and graphic; but remember when you were a kid; and you JUST COULDN'T WAIT to grow up? Adulthood DOES have its disadvantages.

Anyway, enough of the icky stuff. I worked through it; and am feeling about 95%. I issued some SKCC Centurion awards today and got back on the computer for the first time in about a week. I even went down to the shack and did some listening tests on the K2 with the new DSL modem.

I have heard that these little guys can be RFI generators for some people. So I turned on the K2 and listened for noise. Every time I found some, I came up here and turned off the DSL modem. Gladly, I did not find any noise that I can attribute to the DSL line or modem.

I haven't worked anyone today, so far; but hope to get on tonight and get on 40 or 80 Meters for a bit. The basement shack is especially cold with this Arctic blast that we have been experiencing. It was 0 degrees when I woke up this morning and Zero or below temps are extremely rare in NJ! However, I'll put on an extra sweater and will head down and see if I can hear any of the K3Y SKCC Special Event stations on the air.

By the way, I found a Morse Express 2004 Christmas Key waiting for me under the tree on Christmas morning! It is one of the "camel back" type and it's one that I don't have. I'm hoping to wire it up tonight and have some fun!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Happy New Year !!!

Geez, I hope your 2009 started off better than mine!

I spent New Year's Eve in bed, fighting off what I though was a stomach virus. The discomfort in my stomach area was considerable. However, at 4:00 PM, I was feeling much better and thought the thing had run its course. I was soon to be disappointed at 7:00 PM, when the discomfort came back worse - this time bordering on true pain.

It was localized on my right side this time; and I got to begin worrying about appendicitis. I couldn't do anything about this until my wife got home from work. And being the idiot that I am, I thought that I could tough it out until the morning.

About 12:30 AM, 30 minutes into 2009, I decided that enough was enough. I headed out to the local hospital emergency room in 15 degree weather. Fortunately, even though it was New Year's Eve, the staff wasn't too busy.

They started an IV and gave me three different kind of pain meds, which was a welcome relief. I even nodded off for a bit when the nurse brought me about a quart of this stuff that I had to drink in preparation for a CAT Scan. Contrast dye is what he called it. He mixed it in with some apple juice and it actually wasn't terrible.

5:00 AM came and I went for the CAT Scan. The doctor told me he was trying to confirm that it was appendicitis, as he was beginning to have doubts. When he placed his palm in certain areas, he thought that I'd be howling in pain; and I wasn't.

I came back from the CAT Scan and fell asleep again, on the gurney in a hallway. The next thing I new, the nurse had handed over to me about 5 of these paper cone things that have mesh at the bottom of them.

The official diagnosis? I'm in the process of passing a kidney stone. Hopefully, it will pass over the next 2 to 3 days. It's small enough where it is passable. I was sent home with some Cipro and some pain meds; and the admonition to drink plenty of water.

So starts 2009 - I sincerely hope your New Year celebration was better than mine!

73 de Larry W2LJ