Good friend, Alan W2AEW does a POTA activation with a new QRP rig.
Boy howdy! These new QRP rigs are popping up so fast, it's hard to keep up with them - what's new, what's what ....... WOW! Going to sound like an oldster, but I can remember when you could count available QRP rigs with the fingers on both hands. Pickin's were slim ...... no more!
Alan was at my favorite spot - Washington Rock State Park, in Greenbrook, NJ.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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:
Contests:
WAE DX Contest, SSB - https://www.darc.de/der-club/referate/referat-conteste/worked-all-europe-dx-contest/en/
FOC QSO Party - http://g4foc.org/qsoparty/
SKCC Weekend Sprintathon - https://www.skccgroup.com/operating_activities/weekend_sprintathon/
North American Sprint, RTTY - https://ncjweb.com/Sprint-Rules.pdf
Run for the Bacon QRP Contest - http://qrpcontest.com/pigrun/
Special Event Stations:
09/14/2024 | Baltimore Defenders Day
Sep 14, 1300Z-2100Z, K3S, Baltimore, MD. Nuclear Ship Savannah ARC. 7.1 14.1 21.1 28.1. QSL. K3LU, 980 PATUXENT ROAD, Odenton, MD 21113. Single transmitter SSB and CW aboard N/S Savannah. Please check spotting networks for frequencies. Info on QRZ.com www.qrz.com/db/k3s
09/14/2024 | Celebrating Arthur Collins' Birthday
Sep 14, 1400Z-1800Z, W0CXX, Cedar Rapids, IA. Collins Amateur Radio Club. 14.263 MHz. QSL. Brice AntonJensen, 1110 Lyndhurst Dr, Hiawatha, IA 52233. https://www.qrz.com/db/W0CXX
09/14/2024 | Coast Guard Anniversary
Sep 14-Sep 15, 0900Z-0500Z, W1H, Elkins, NH. KB1QXJ. 7.250 14.285 21.300 18.150. QSL. Bill Hopwood, P.O. Box 272, Elkins, NH 03233.
09/14/2024 | Commemorate 85th birthday of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary
Sep 14-Sep 15, 0000Z-2359Z, N1A, East Freetown, MA. US Coast Guard Auxiliary. 28.493 14.300 7.190. QSL. Paul G. Sadeck, 90 Doctor Braley Road, East Freetown, MA 02717.
09/14/2024 | Commemorating the 85th birthday of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
Sep 14-Sep 15, 1415Z-1515Z, N2S, Cape May, NJ. United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. 14.310 7.250 18.200. Certificate. Mike Slepian, 12 Continental Lane, Marlton, NJ 08053. The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary is the volunteer component of the US Coast Guard. We work directly with the Coast Guard in support of an amazing array of missions including search and rescue, on water patrols, communications, public education, watch standing, training and much more. This station will be operating from the historic "shack" originally a Coast Guard station built in 1890, now the meeting place for the Auxiliary Cape May Flotilla. www.cgaux.org
09/14/2024 | Commemorating the 85th birthday of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
Sep 14-Sep 15, 1600Z-2359Z, N6A, Los Angeles, CA. United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. 14330 14065 18160 18075. QSL. Edward Little, 19816 Ridge Manor Way, Yorba Linda, CA 92886. www.cgaux.org
09/14/2024 | Commemorating the 85th birthday of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
Sep 14-Sep 15, 0000Z-2359Z, K4D, Homosassa, FL. US Coast Guard Auxiliary District 7 Division 15. 7.074 14.074 14.080 21.074. Certificate. Melissa Frank, 6854 W. Holiday St, Homosassa, FL 34446. melissa.frank09@yahoo.com
09/14/2024 | Commemorating the USS Midway’s commissioning on 9/10/45
Sep 14, 1600Z-2300Z, NI6IW, San Diego, CA. USS Midway Museum Ship. 7.250 14.320 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
09/14/2024 | Depot Days - Lisle, Illinois
Sep 14-Sep 15, 1500Z-1900Z, W9DUP, Lisle, IL. DuPage Amateur Radio Club. 3.885 14.070 14.045 14.274. Certificate. DuPage Amateur Radio Club - Brian Eder, P.O. Box 71, Clarendon Hills , IL 60514-0071. Annual Depot Days Festival held at Lisle Station Park, celebrating life as it was over 100 years ago. Radio operations will be in the historic 1874 CB&Q train depot. w9dup.org
09/14/2024 | Fred Harvey House Museum on the Air
Sep 14, 1400Z-2000Z, KS0LV, Leavenworth, KS. Pilot Knob Amateur Radio Club. 14.303 21.361 28.355 Also on FT8, JS8Call. QSL. Steve Rice, 6850 Deer Ridge Dr, Shawnee, KS 66226. https://pkarc.org
09/14/2024 | Highest Point in Arkansas
Sep 14-Sep 15, 1400Z-1700Z, W5NX, Springdale, AR. Bella Vista Radio Club. 14.040 14.260 7.040 7.260. QSL. Don Banta, 3407 Diana Street, Springdale, AR 72764. Portable operation from Mount Magazine, highest point in Arkansas. See https://www.qrz.com/db/W5NX for QSL information. https://bellavistaradioclub.org
09/14/2024 | Route 66 On the Air
Sep 14-Sep 22, 0000Z-2359Z, W6H, Rio Rancho, NM. Albuquerque DX Association. 3.866 7.266 14.266 14.033. QSL. Bill Mader, 4701 Sombrerete Rd SE, Rio Rancho, NM 87124. Part of the annual Route 66 On-the-Air event. https://adxa.groups.io/g/main
09/14/2024 | State Line Radio Club Annual Picnic
Sep 14, 1400Z-2000Z, W3A, Holtwood, PA. State Line Radio Club. 7.240 14.240 21.280. QSL. Ted Reichenbach, 108 Park Circle, Elkton, MD 21921. Club's annual picnic at Muddy Run Park. Open to the public. Several operating radio stations. Scout groups welcome. www.statelineradioclub.com
09/14/2024 | US Coast Guard Auxiliary 85th Anniversary
Sep 14-Sep 15, 1400Z-2300Z, N4A, Crystal River, FL. US Coast Guard Auxiliary Division 15 District 07. 14.250 21.350 28.350 7.250. QSL. D Thomas, 4515 N Loquat Pt, Crystal River, FL 34428-5946. solutionsdebra@gmail.com
09/14/2024 | US Coast Guard Auxiliary Anniversary
Sep 14-Sep 15, 1422Z-1412Z, W4CQF, Inglis, FL. Citrus County ARC. 14.280 mhz 21.280 mhz. QSL. John Bescher, POB 947, Inglis, FL 34449. Citrus County ARC with call W4CQF and US Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla will be celebrating anniversary of US Coast Guard Auxiliary. QSL to N4DXI, POB 947, Inglis Fl 34449 on Sep 14-15, 2024 n4dxi@aol.com
09/15/2024 | Battle of Inchon/Operation Operation Chromite
Sep 15, 1500Z-2300Z, NI6BB, Los Angeles, CA. Battleship Iowa Amateur Radio Association. See website for frequencies. QSL. QSL per , instructions on , our website. biara.org
Doesn't anybody put Special Event Stations on the CW portion of the bands anymore?
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
On Facebook, ON7RF provided a picture of his "modest" station.
Only thing I would change here is to use a paddle. My wrist gets tired from using a straight key after a while. Undoubtedly, it's probably just poor technique on my part, but I blame arthritis! LOL!
I saw this on a POTA FB page and saved the image for a closer look. Then I went to the webpage.
Portableflagpoles.com - they sell their drive on mast holder with two diameters. The larger one will accept masts up to 2.25" (about 6 cm) wide. The bottom cap of the Jackite is just a smidge over 2", so it will fit in there nicely. The mast holder is only $39 - the question is ...... do I really need it? I have to decide whether or not my homebrew mockup is worth keeping. It does the job all right, but it's nowhere as elegant a solution as this one. The other thing is that this one is metal, while mine is wooden. In the long run, I have to believe that this one would undoubtedly hold up better to being driven upon. And whatever I decide, I have to do it sooner, rather than later. Marianne and I are heading back up to Alexandria Bay soon and there are two parks up there that I'd like to activate.
When I worked at Sinar Bron, my boss who was a Swiss engineer, would always want the "most elegant" solution to a problem. Not necessarily the most elegant in appearance, but the best solution in terms of functionality, ability, dependability and sleek design (if possible, but not as necessary). I guess that's where that got ingrained in me.
He had a knack for bringing me down to Earth. When I would solve a problem that seemed to elude everyone else (even the factories who manufactured the equipment that we sold) he would say (in his thick Swiss accent), "Doo, Larry, even the blind pig finds an acorn every once in a while." Real confidence booster, right? Even so, I sorely miss those days. Working at Sinar Bron was probably the best 22 years I've ever spent at a job.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
The Elecraft KH1 isn't even a year old yet. So what am I seeing on the Elecraft KX/KH e-mail reflector? "Speculation on the KH2" !
Wow! And it that wasn't enough, someone started expounding on what he'd like to see in a KX4!
I must be weird as my KX3 is now over a decade old and I'm still as happy with it as the day I got it. Now I know some of you may be thinking, "But Larry, you just purchased and are playing around with that QMX!" And you would be correct. But I purchased that to keep in the car for impromptu bouts of "radio activity". The price point was such that if my car ever got broken into, and the radio should become attached to someone's sticky fingers, it would not cause me to go jumping off a cliff like a lemming. i would be devastated if my KX3 ever got lifted, especially knowing whomever stole it would have no idea what it was and the radio would probably end up in a dumpster somewhere as they would probably not be able to fence it.
And in turn, the purchase of the QMX has deepened my appreciation for my KX3 even more. I wasn't even sure that was possible!
I've noticed throughout my Ham Radio career, from experiences gleaned by being members of various clubs and organizations that, in one sense, there are basically two types of Hams. And these two types are similar to car owners. "Type 1" will buy a car (or a radio) and will drive it until the wheels fall off (or the finals give out). "Type 2" has to trade in their car every couple of years for the flashiest new design with all the newest bells and whistles (same with radios). They are forever looking for that "penultimate".
Mind you, this is just an observation, Not meant to be disparaging to one type or the other. The second type that I mentioned surely spears on the economy, that's for sure. And I guess they also supply the market for those who are interested in a "pre-owned: model, perhaps looking for a bargain.
I guess it all goes back to "whatever floats your boat". And perhaps without the "Type 2s" the radio manufacturers would never be motivated to come up with new designs. So "Thank You!" Type 2's for keeping the innovations coming. If it was just us "Type 1s" out here, we'd probably still be using radios that weigh a ton and have tubes in them.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Yesterday was a mixed day. I was happy because I did get to the car at lunchtime and made a POTA contact on 20 Meters with WS4Y at US-1873 in Florida. That was nice. Then, up the band a ways, I heard NV4H in New Mexico. re-tuned the ZM-2 until the red LED went out, as per the instructions, but for some reason, I still got a high SWR warning on the QMX and it went into self-protection mode and would not transmit. I still have a lot of "getting used to" with the QMX ahead of me. I guess I've been spoiled by how easy the KX3 is to use..
When I got home, I was saddened to learn of the passing of two people:
The other person whose passing away touched me is James Earl Jones.
This clip, from Field of Dreams, is one of my absolute favorites. The world will remember him as the voice of Darth Vader and the voice of CNN, but to me, James Earl Jones will always be Terence Mann, delivering perhaps the finest soliloquy about baseball that I've ever heard.
RIP Eddie and James - I hope you get to meet each other on the Field of Dreams.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
I have to admit, unless I'm really interested in a video on YouTube, my short attention span usually zones me out after a few minutes of watching. For some reason, I found this one fascinating. I love to see how QRP is approached on other countries.
Enjoy the video!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Contests - so you know what's going on while you're trying to find space to call CQ this weekend. "#$&^@ Contesters!"
All Asian DX Contest, Phone -https://www.jarl.org/English/4_Library/A-4-3_Contests/2024AA_rule.htm
CWOps CW Open - https://cwops.org/cwops-tests/cw-open/
Wake-Up! QRP Sprint - http://qrp.ru/contest/wakeup/333-wakeup-eng
IARU Region 1 Field Day, SSB - https://www.darc.de/der-club/referate/conteste/iaru-region-1-fieldday/en/
AGCW Straight Key Party - https://www.agcw.de/contest/htp/htp-en/
PODXS 070 Club Jay Hudak Memorial 80m Sprint - http://www.podxs070.com/o7o-club-sponsored-contests/jay-hudak-memorial-80m-sprint (for those of you who will ask, "What are these digital signals doing on 80?")
North American Sprint, CW - https://ncjweb.com/Sprint-Rules.pdf
4 States QRP Group Second Sunday Sprint - http://www.4sqrp.com/SSS/sss_rules.pdf
Special Event Stations:
08/31/2024 | Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival Special Event Station
Aug 31-Sep 7, 1323Z-1323Z, K9A, Auburn, IN. Northeastern Indiana Amateur Radio Association. 40 Meters : 7.180MHz 20 Meters : 14.250MHz 10 Meters: 28.350 MHz. Certificate & QSL. Northeastern Indiana Amateur Radio Association, P.O. Box 145, Auburn, IN 46706-0145. www.w9ou.org
09/07/2024 | Commemorating the Danbury Railway Museum's 30th Anniversary and First Responders Day
Sep 7, 1400Z-2000Z, W2MNR/W1QI, Danbury, CT. Metro-North Railroad Amateur Radio Association (W2MNR) and Candlewood Amateur Radio Association (W1QI). 7.235 14.235; other frequencies as conditions permit. Certificate. PDF certificate, available on , request. www.cararadioclub.org
09/07/2024 | Route 66 On The Air
Sep 7-Sep 15, 0700Z-1559Z, W6Q, Brookfield, IL. Citrus Belt Amateur Radio. 28.366 14.266 146.970 443.300. QSL. Mike Huedepohl, 3532 Raymond Ave., Brookfield, IL 60513. We will be operating HF, CW. SSB,FT8 and FM. w6jbt.org
09/07/2024 | Route 66 on the Air
Sep 7-Sep 15, 0000Z-2359Z, K9ONA, Brookfield, IL. Six Meter Club of Chicago. 28.366. QSL. Mike Huedepohl, 3532 Raymond Ave., Brookfield, IL 60513. https://www.k9ona.com
09/08/2024 | 9-11 Remembering Our Heroes
Sep 8-Sep 12, 0000Z-0000Z, K4A, Cordova, AL. Alabama Contest Group/WA1FCN. 7040 14040 21040 28040 . Certificate & QSL. Robert Sarnecki NF7D, 591 Deer Run RD, Alabaster 35007, OT. Certificate for 3 QSOs on 3 bands any mode/band combination. wa1fcn@charter.net or https://alabamacontestgroup.org
09/08/2024 | Blue Ridge Bonanza
Sep 8, 1300Z-2100Z, W4CA, Roanoke, VA. Roanoke Valley Amateur Radio Club. 7.265 14.265. QSL. Roanoke Valley ARC, P.O. Box 2002, Roanoke, VA 24009. Multiple stations and frequencies, 20 and 40 meters, along the Blue Ridge Parkway. See website for frequencies and QSL card information. https://blueridgebonanza.info
 |
| Photo courtesy of Mario KD2HPF - You can see NYC in the background and the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge all the way to the left, which connects Staten Island to Brooklyn. |
and it's even better when that freebie isn't a piece of junk or something worthless that you'll end up just tossing aside, only to be forgotten and never seen or used again.
So I hope you know about The K9YA Telegraph. It's a high quality, free e-zine devoted to Amateur Radio that can be downloaded each month. For the details, go to https://www.k9ya.org/index.php
After you sign up, you'll receive an e-mail each month with the link where you can download the latest issue.
In addition to the fine writing, good friend and artist exemplar Jeff Murray K1NSS always has an illustration included in each issue.
I'm not affiliated with the publication in any way other than as an appreciative reader. The fact that it's free is icing on the cake! In Senior year of high school, I had a History teacher whose favorite throwaway line was "There's no such thing as a free lunch". And while most of the time that's true, every rule has an exception. In this case, The K9YA Telegraph is that exception.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Just for the halibut, I asked "Canva" an AI image generator to capture the spirit of POTA. I asked it to generate an image of "A young Ham Radio operator, sitting at a picnic table in a park, sending Morse Code on his radio".
This is what I got:
Not bad, actually, right? But for some reason, AI always seems to get human hands wrong, and I labeled them in the image. In this case, this poor guy seems to have three! Two at the radio, one on the table. I've noticed this on a lot of AI generated images where people are part of the scene. Weird, very weird. If it wasn't for the third hand, which I guess some of wish we had sometimes, it wouldn't be a bad image. Kind of nostalgic in a way. I like the guy's hat!
Speaking of the spirit of POTA, someone was complaining on the Facebook POTA page that the admins don't keep track of who first activates an entity. They don't - you can look up how many times a park has been activated, and who has activated it, how many times a person has activated a particular park etc. but not who first activated it. (EDIT - actually as one of the commenters below pointed out, they DO keep track of who first activated a park - but there's no award or certificate for it. That's a more accurate description of what triggered the complainer - mea culpa for getting that wrong! And thank you Mark AI4BJ for pointing that out)
That seemed to crumble the cookies of the poster. "If my friend takes a day off from work and drives 1/2 way across the state to be the first one to activate a new park, he doesn't get recognition for it? Why do we do POTA then?"
"Maybe just to have fun and and enjoy doing radio in the great outdoors?", I answered.
Does everything need to be a competition? Does everyone need to have a trophy? Has the concept of doing something just for the fun of it become a relic? Sadly, I guess it has.
Heavy sigh.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Saturday was a CERT day. No complaints there. The local Elks Lodge had their annual summer picnic and they didn't have enough parking in their lot. There's a church across the street which donated the use of their lot for the day - but it's a busy street, a very busy street. The CERT team was dispatched to help these folks cross safely and not get squooshed,
The weather prognosticators got Sunday totally wrong! Severe thunderstorms were forecast all day and into the night. We never got a boom, flash, or drop of rain but with the forecast in mind, I didn't want to undertake any serious outdoor activity only to have to rush bringing equipment back inside. I was hoping to spend some time on the air in the backyard with my KM4CFT EFRW, checking it out for proper operation before I put the heatshrink over the connector end.
Then on Sunday night, I awoke in the middle of the night with with what turned out to be a stomach bug. Cara, my daughter, had it last week and it must have germinated in me. Sunday night and Monday were miserable. I don't need to go into detail. I'm sure you've all experienced the same. It's no fun at all, and that precluded me from participating in the CERT activities for the South Plainfield Labor Day parade and the fireworks display at night. And it was a good thing that I decided to post the Skeeter Hunt results early Sunday evening instead of Monday, as I was a bit "indisposed".
But if there's a silver lining, while I was taking it easy and surfing the net, I came across this photo on the Facebook POTA page, from Bert Schmitz - he didn't give his call sign:
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Congratulations to the top 5 Finishers!
N0SS - 1st Place
NK9G - 2nd Place
AB9CA - 3rd Place
K0KLB - 4th Place
N5GW - 5th Place
The official 2024 Scoreboard can be seen here.
Out of 220 people who had applied for Skeeter Numbers, 119 sent in log summaries for 54% participation.
As always, thanks so much for all your enthusiasm and participation. The NJQRP Skeeter Hunt is nothing without all of you. It warms my heart to see that so many of you enjoy and have fun - because that's what the Hunt is all about - having fun!
All the photos and Soapbox comments can be seen on the Facebook page.
Mark your calendars for 2025 - the Skeeters will fly again on Sunday, August 17th, 2025.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
First ....... an old image for QRP Image of the Day ....... of me!
Coming up this (long Labor Day holiday) weekend:
Contests
Colorado QSO Party - http://ppraa.org/coqp
Tennessee QSO Party - https://tnqp.org/rules/
MI QRP Labor Day CW Sprint - https://www.miqrp.net/contest-challenge
ARS Spartan Sprint - http://ars-qrp.com/Spartan_Sprint/Spartan_Sprint.html
Special Event Stations
08/01/2024 | San Max Celebration
Aug 1-Aug 31, 0000Z-2359Z, 4A2MAX, Neosho, MEXICO. San Max Operators . 14175 21320 28420 7170. QSL. San Max Special Callsign 4A2MAX, MAXIMILIANO THOUS 16-24, Valencia E-46009, SPAIN. Special event where we celebrate the patron saint of radio amateurs, Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe SP3RN SK, we invite you to contact us and be part of the celebration. https://www.qrz.com/db/4A2MAX
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
08/31/2024 | 33rd Annual Fly-In/Cruise-In Festival
Aug 31, 1200Z-1800Z, W9EBN, Marion, IN. Grant County Amateur Radio Club. 7.260 14.250 21.350 DMR TG 3100 / DMR TG 31656 . Certificate & QSL. L B Nickerson - K9NQW, P O Box 1786, Marion, IN 46952. Also DStar Ref #24B. Send QSL card in a large SASE www.Grantarc.net
08/31/2024 | Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival Special Event Station
Aug 31-Sep 7, 1323Z-1323Z, K9A, Auburn, IN. Northeastern Indiana Amateur Radio Association. 40 Meters : 7.180MHz 20 Meters : 14.250MHz 10 Meters: 28.350 MHz. Certificate & QSL. Northeastern Indiana Amateur Radio Association, P.O. Box 145, Auburn, IN 46706-0145. www.w9ou.org
08/31/2024 | Ellensburg Rodeo and Kittitas County Fair 2024
Aug 31-Sep 2, 1600Z-2200Z, K7R, Ellensburg, WA. Kittitas County Amateur Radio Club. 14.275 MHz 21.335 MHz 14.055 MHz 21.055 MHZ. Certificate. KCARC, 110 West Sixth Avenue, Ellensburg, WA 98926. https://www.qsl.net/kcarcs/rodeo.html
08/31/2024 | Return to Paradise - 46TH ANNIVERSARY
Aug 31-Sep 2, 1700Z-1700Z, K7RDG, Sierra Vista, AZ. Cochise Amateur Radio Association. 7.225 14.074 14.285 21.225. Certificate. Cochise ARA, PO Box 1855, Sierra Vista, AZ 85650-9340. WWW.K7RDG.ORG
09/01/2024 | 100th Anniversary of the Ontario Provincial Air Service
Sep 1-Sep 30, 0000Z-2359Z, CG3CBHC, Sault Ste Marie, ON. Algoma Amateur Radio Club. 14.074 7.074. Certificate. Dave Rowlinson, 315 Old Garden River Rd., Sault Ste Marie, ON P6B 5A7, CANADA. Event will run the month of September, but the most activity will be September 21 and 22 during Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre (bushplane.com) - Bushplane Days Commemorative Certificates will be sent to all contacts during the event. www.aarclub.ca
Last night was the finale of the 20 Meter Summer Fox Hunt season for 2024. I have not participated all Summer, but last night was special. To honor our recently departed friend, Jerry N9AW, the Hounds who wanted to, were given permission to give their name as either Jerry or "AW" for their part of the exchange. I heard Jim N0UR in Minnesota (good ol' Minnesota-Wisconsin pipeline) at a good 599 and worked him at 0108 UTC. I went looking for Earl N8SS in Michigan, and I found some of his Hounds, but no Earl. So I went back to listen to Jim for a bit and he was still very loud. Jim was calling CQ with no takers, so I gave into temptation and worked him again, but this time with the power turned down to 1 Watt. Both times I gave my name as "AW". A small gesture, but one to honor the memory of a friend I never got to meet in person. Requiescat in pace, Jerry.
Oh, I hate that term! But it's become prevalent among certain Hams who get annoyed and exasperated with certain older Hams. I guess it's better than the previously used term - "Old Fart".
It's the typical generational thing. The newer Hams don't understand the older Hams and the older Hams don't understand the newer Hams. It's like when you were a kid and you got tired of hearing from your parents or grandparents, "When I was your age, I had to walk to school 5 miles in the snow ..... up hill both ways!"
The fact is that if you were licensed before 1980, you had no resource but to study the license manuals that were available at the time. You read and learned the theory and the rules. There were no question and answer books where you could memorize the answers that were on the exams without really understanding the why and wherefore.
That all changed in 1979 / 1980 when Dick Bash came out with his "Final Exam" books. I never had one of those, but as I understand it, these books consisted the questions and answers from the actual license exams. The story goes that the author had people questioned who had just left from taking their FCC proctored tests as to what questions they saw on the exams they just took.
True or not? I don't know. But whether it was true or not, the appearance of the Bash books seemed to trigger or hasten the demise of FCC testing and promulgated the evolution of the VEC system. Maybe it was just the governmental budgetary constraints of the time, but whatever the real reason, the system changed.
The VECs published the questions and answers that would be on the exams in their license manuals. Sure, there were a bajillion questions from which only a relatively few would be picked, but it changed the game. Of course there were still potential Hams who studied the "old school" way (sorry, couldn't resist the pun), but now there were candidates with good enough memories who just memorized what they needed to know in order to pass the exams. It still holds true to this day. I'm a VE and I see both types of candidate preparation all the time. Oh the angst when a question pool is about to change! As the VE Liaison who arranges our VE Exam sessions, I can't tell you how many times that I hear "Do you have room for me on your session on the XXth? I want to take my exam before the question pool changes!" And in my head I'm thinking ......"The questions aren't changing that much. If you know THE MATERIAL, you'll be fine." But I hold my tongue, as I don't want to ruffle any feathers.
The problem is that. as a result, you have a lot of new Hams out there who really don't know what they're doing. And this may get me in hot water, but we haven't helped the situation by conducting "Ham Crams". Those are another thing that I just abhor. Trying to cram about 8 weeks worth of non-stressful conventional learning into one or two days is just chasing rainbows as far as I'm concerned. I'd love to find some way to find license retention figures of Amateur Radio ops who went that route. I'm willing to lay down money that there is a large percentage of these Hams who are most likely not to renew, or have not renewed their licenses.
As a result, and I have experienced this personally, you have some Extra Class Hams who don't have the foggiest notion as to how to build a dipole or program an HT. To make matters worse, they either don't know where to go to look up the information they need, or sometimes they seem to even lack the desire to do so They just depend on people who know what they're doing to spoon feed the information to them. They absolutely detest when they are told to open a book or "RTFM". I'm not going to spell it out, you know what that means.
And that frustrates the older Hams who either studied the traditional way, or those who have gone the newer route, but graduated from the "School of Hard Knocks" by taking the time to do a little research on their own before asking for help. So when someone asks a basic, simple question that every Ham worth his/her salt should know the answer to, and they get told where to go to get the answer (without actually being given the answer they are looking for) they are label that person as a "Sad Ham".
Sadly, this is the way things are. To somehow mitigate it, older Hams need to be more inclined to do a little more friendly and non-confrontational and patient Elmering. In turn, newer Hams need to be more willing to show some respect to the veterans who have been in the trenches for a longer period of time, and not chafe when they aren't treated with the kid gloves they seem to expect and demand. If we don't learn to live with each other, it's going to be a lose-lose situation.
Enough of my kvetching - let's end this post on a high note with a really cool photograph. Brian Foltz WQ0A posted this to Facebook after completing his first CW QSO! Congratulations, Brian and thanks for posting the awesome photo!
Who doesn't love a nice set of paddles? And the lighting and composition are superb!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
After reading Craig WB3GCK's blog post, and reading comments from Brian KB9BVN on Facebook and his blog, I've decided I've got to spend more time getting used to (I was going to say "playing around with") my Elecraft AX1 antenna.
My results with it so far, the few times I've used it, have been 50/50. Sometimes it seems to work great, and other times I just end up with a whole bag of frustration.
Tom K4SWL had a great blog post and video of using the AX1 with the Emtech ZM-2 tuner. I'll have to give that a shot. I don't know .......I mentioned to Craig that I seem to have an innate "wire ... the higher, the better" antenna bias. I think the times the AX1 has disappointed me has caused me to consider it more of a last resort kind of thing.
I think this calls for a few evenings of operating from the patio table in the backyard. Actual QSOs and perhaps a few sessions of calling CQ and seeing where the Reverse Beacon Network picks me up. I can kill two birds with one stone and use the time to also get even more familiar with the QMX. I have not even attempted programming the keyer messages yet. It took me long enough how to figure out changing bands and setting up the display and the VFO! I guess I just need to take baby steps.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
QRP Image of the Day, by Hans Terlouw PA1ALV: - as found on the POTA page in Facebook:
In that vein, I started populating my LowePro backpack last night. So far, I have the QMX, two battery packs (very much akin to what Hans has in the photo), the charger, my Emtech ZM-2 tuner, and a couple of 3 foot coax jumpers packed away.
I still have to decide which paddle I am going to include, and I'll probably pick up a new set of earbuds. I plan to store those in a small plastic Hefty food storage container with a a few other miscellaneous necessities - a few BNC to PL-259 adapters, some wire ties and a multi-purpose tool. From eBay, I ordered another small digital travel alarm ($4), so I don't have to keep raiding the KX3 backpack. I wish Radio Shack was still around so I could buy another like the one I have in the KX3 backpack, but if wishes were nickels, I'd be a rich man!
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| This is pretty much life-size. It's very small. |
This is what I plan to take when Marianne and I head back up to Alexandria Bay later this year. There are two state parks that I would like to try and activate while we are there.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
When I got my KX3 so many moons ago, I needed something to store it in for taking it along on portable ops. At the time TJ W0EA had posted a YouTube video extolling the virtues of the LowePro 150 Traveler camera backpack. From the beginning it worked very well, but I soon accumulated enough "stuff" to outgrow its usefulness. Thus, it sat languishing in my computer room. It was too good to dispose, but I also had no use for it ........until now
The photo above is just a random internet photo of the pack. I'll take a photo of mine when I have it configured the way I want and have it filled.
And now, for something completely different. (Shades of Monty Python) Yesterday was the annual ETS of NJ picnic:
It was a beautiful day, you could not ask for better weather for an event like this. Turnout was a little bit lower than expected due to a couple members coming down with COVID. Of course, at this point, COVID has mutated to where it's just another variant of the common cold, but it was gracious of those infected to be thinking enough about the rest of us so as to not spread it around. We're going to be coming upon some really hot weather again this week and having a cold in the summer heat is just miserable.
As I stated, the weather was gorgeous, the food was outstanding and the company most enjoyable. Eric WA2EGE at the far right set up the club's Kenwood TS-2000 and was running FT8. Our President, Vic K2NBC (small hidden guy, back row, center) , brought along his Yeasu FT-891 and a Chameleon antenna (I think it might have been the MPAS) and was running 20 Meter SSB.
I stuck the QMX in my pants pocket and brought it along for "Show and Tell". It would have been nice to have had everything in the LowePro to "set up shop" as it were, but I didn't even think of that until after we got back home.
Another case of W2LJ being slow on the uptake! Hi Hi!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
The little QMX is alive!
I hooked it up to the W3EDP yesterday (I did not switch out antennas like I planned - kinda long story that I won't go into here) through both my Emtech ZM-2 Z-match tuner and my 4 States QRP Tuner and I worked five POTA activations.
K9DXA - Harry, who hasn't competed in the Skeeter Hunt in a few years, he used to be a regular.
WT2P
N3T
K9RDO
WG8X - a two-fer!
It was pretty easy to get into the habit of using a manual tuner again. The only thing I had to look up was the "In/Out" switch on the 4 States tuner. Last time I used it was with my HW-8 and I forgot that "In" meant tune and "Out" meant operate. Common sense, really, but at the moment I wanted to be sure. I didn't want to kill a brand new rig over my forgetfulness/stupidity.
In any case, I had no trouble being heard and I worked all but one station without any repeats. Even there I got a decent RST, there just must have been a pileup on his end.
It's going to be neat having this little guy. I have a couple ideas for putting together a dedicated go-bag and keeping this bad boy in the car for possible spur-of-the-moment operating sessions. I may even start parking in the outside parking lot at work again!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
N9AW Jerry Scherkenbach an avid QRP’er passed away August 22,2024. Jerry since the 80’s has been active in QRP contesting and operating events. He was also active in the QRP Foxhunts as a FOX and a Hound . He has served on the Fox Hunts Committee for a few years. Jerry was a member of the Greater Milwaukee DX Association, W/K Amateur Radio Club of Greater Milwaukee, QRP Cheeseheads A.R.C.. He was cofounder of the W/K Amateur Radio Club and the QRP Cheeseheads Amateur Radio Club. Jerry will be remembered for being a kind and soft spoken gentleman and a mentor for so many hams from all walks of life. He traveled to St. Lucia withe Buddipole DX Team and made some 5K CW QSO’s in a week of operating. The Amateur Radio Community has lost a great mentor and contributor to promote the absolute best in Amateur Radio.
Jerry is survived by his wife Joyce, sons Patrick Randy, stepson Ryan and Daughter Jill.
Please remember Jerry and his family in your prayers
Submitted by NK9G Rick
I did not know Jerry from the 80s. I first met him on the air in 2004. It was probably in some QRP Sprint, or perhaps even the QRP Fox Hunts. Jerry's signal was always loud to New Jersey and I knew that if I heard a super loud QRPer in my shack it was either him, Rick NK9G, or Todd N9NE - my "Minnesota / Wisconsin Pipeline".
We served together on the QRP Foxhunt Committee for a couple of years. He was easy and fun to work with, a true gentleman in every sense of the word.. It's not a lie or exaggeration to say that Jerry was one of the pillars of the QRP community. He will be very sorely missed.
Rest in Peace, my friend.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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