Tag: QRP

Today was the Adventure Radio Society annual Flight of the Bumblebees QRP event. I like to get out and play for a few hours in these; it’s a good excuse to get out and CW a little.

As usual I went to the city park in my neighborhood. I set up in the empty pavilion (no tables, sit on the floor with the bugs); I need to consider taking a picnic table by the softball field next time as nobody came to that end of the park. I also need to scout two riverfront parks that are an easy bike ride, to see if there are good options for mounting an antenna.

It was pushing 90F so I left the dog at home and brought a big bottle of Gatorade instead. Setup was uneventful, and I quickly found a mess of operators on top of each other at 14.060. Eventually things spread out and I made a few QSOs.

QSB was fairly fast, and I lost one QSO to QRM (someone started keying up almost on top of us). I worked Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri on 20m. Heard Tennessee, Massachusetts, and North Carolina on 40 but couldn’t work them. Heard a good call from Washington at the end but he disappeared immediately.

My wife and son dropped by to say hi, arriving just as I was in QSO. A tree branch fell shortly afterwards, fortunately not the one holding my EFHW.

After about 90 minutes operating I got tired of the bugs crawling all over me and my gear, so I packed up and walked home.

Thanks to the ARS for this event. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to scout out the riverfront parks before the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt next month.

I tried to do some RTTY on the KX3 for Field Day but the radio wouldn’t key up. Many months later I thought to look into it, and everything worked fine. Set up for PSK31 on 20m at 5w and got a qso with the Dominican Republic on the first call. Replied to an Olivia 8/250 call from Texas and wasn’t being heard well (qsb and qrm), then discovered my LIFePo battery was dead and the radio was chugging along on 8v from the internal AAs.

still not sure what happened on Field Day, but happy the equipment is ok.

There were a few QRP events this weekend so I set up an EFHW in the back yard and gave it a try. Saturday afternoon was the Leaf Peeper contest, but all I heard was California QSO party (“CQP”) and some SKCC activity. No LP heard. Sunday evening was the Peanut Power Sprint, and as it was after the CQP ended, those signals were booming on 20 and 40m. It was getting dark and the skeeters were coming out so I made a few QSOs then packed it up.

The QRP events are fun as the operators are accommodating and the code is copyable. I only made a few mistakes but didn’t need any fills. Thanks to W3ATB and NOGA QRP for organizing this weekend’s fun.

Two of the local clubs held scaled down Field Day events this weekend but I opted to work from home and contribute points towards one of them.

I didn’t want to be yet another 1D home station, and 1E wasn’t practical (to claim credit, the radio and the computer driving it both had to be on battery or generator, which wasn’t practical). So I set up an EFHW and the KX3 on the back porch like I do for QRP events. I charged up the batteries and laptop, re-pinned a SignaLink for the KX3, and set it all up inside the screen porch.

I surprised myself by making a phone contact on 20m, but that was the only one. I fell back to CW and eventually made nine contacts over a few hours. My technique against the standard 100W stations and my CW need lots of work. When I found a station I’d listen a few times to get his exchange, then throw my call out. If I was heard, I sent my exchange without too much fuss (I still can’t reliably send “SC” on paddles).

I figured I could compete a little better in the digital mosh pit of FT4/8 after grabbing whatever RTTY ops still out there. A nice thought… while my SignaLink keyed up nicely while setting up, once the radio was connected it didn’t work. It appears that the radio puts too much of a load on for the laptop battery. After FD I re-pinned it for the VHF rig and it’s not working right. Uh oh.

I gave a half-hearted effort Sunday morning but it was too hot to be out so I packed it up.

ARRL was smart to allow Class D stations to operate for points. The bulk of stations I saw were 1D. I managed to work six 1D, three 1E, and a 1A. I heard a few stations that are more conventional, but a couple of calls that I think are normally mega-camps (eg. 23 MDC) were 1D. Need to check into that.

Field Day continues to be a non-contest and frustrating to die-hard contesters. But it’s the first time a lot of people are exposed to the potential of contesting, which is good. It would be nice to get more people exposed to good operating tips in advance though.