Some hints for the Newer QRP Portable Operators

Its a cool Saturday afternoon her in Ottawa and I don’t really feel like heading outside to do anything so here are a couple of suggestions or hints for the newer QRP Operators out there….  Some of them you might of thought of yourself and if you have any I forgot to mention please feel free to leave them in a comment at the end of this post…  Share your knowledge….

Pens freeze in the cold… Use Pencils for logging in the winter time if operating Portable

Watch the weight you carry in your pack…  The gear weighs twice as much on the walk back…

Keep your feedlines as short as possiable to keep line loss and weight (see above) as low as you can…

When operating QRP the fact that you can hear them does not mean they will hear you.  I normally do not use any RCV preamps when in the field.  Why hear them if you can’t work them?  In some cases you can work them but don’t get upset if you can’t.  There is only so much you can do with a 5w signal.

Bring two different styles of antennas if you can.  I like to bring an endfed and if the trees (location) do not cooperate then I also have a Buddistick in my bag just in case

Keep your coax attached to your antennas even when in storage.  Nothing worse is packing the antennas and then finding out you forgot the coax. 

A small solar panel is lighter than a 2nd battery (see above comments about weight)

Not all Parks and operating locations have benches and Picnic tables… Think about a lightweight camping chair and table…

And these are just a few but before you ask…

Yes I have tried to log with Frozen Pens…  Yes I have found out that the trees are far and few between at the summit…  Yes I have done an excellent job of getting my antenna between trees to find out that I forgot the coax at home…. and finally Yes I have operated standing up because I had no where to sit but on the ground…

And Yes I still had fun…

73bob

ps… and like I mentioned earlier…  feel free to share…  leave a comment if you have any good suggestions

Doing it with less

Most of the QRP Ops I see in the blogging world brag about their contacts and I can’t blame them, but most of them are doing it with the Digital Modes or CW…

Seeing that I dislike the Digital Modes and also CW almost as much as I enjoy Tax Audits….  you have to remember that when you see me talking about making contacts….  I’m doing it with QRP SSB…. So if you want to try a hard QRP QSO disconnect the computer…. unhook the key and hook up your microphone and test out your vocal cords….

Today I managed a couple of 20m SSB contacts…. Nothing Rare!!! but they were made with 5w and a vertical and on SSB…

So thanks go out  to :

K5ER (1245 miles from Ottawa)

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PI4COM (just under 3500 miles from Ottawa)

For having a good enough station to hear my piddley 5w of SSB over all the contesting stations today…

73bob

For something different

Well I was supposed to go out and play radio for a few hours today but when it rained it just did not seem worth the effort…  I decided to sit in the shack and just spin the dial….

The dial ended up on 14.300 and I checked in with NF5B who was the NCS for the Maritime Mobile Service Net for the hour…  After checking in with the NCS I heard a station asking for a relay and was saying that he was low power and portable…

I asked the NCS if I could relay and after getting permission I was able to relay KG4LMW who was in Knoxwille TN into the net.  He mentioned he was operating 5w…

Now thats something different for me…  Usually I am the person who is sitting in the park getting checked in while I am operating QRP and today I got to check someone in who was the QRP station instead…

It was kinda neat…

73bob

According to the QRZ website the distance between us was 775 miles which would make his contact 155 miles per watt or my contact with him at 7.5 miles per watt as I was using 100w at home with the FT 450.

 

I just really Really REALLY like this Video

While looking around on youtube I found this very recent video…  I like it… lots…  not a lot of stuff that will make Speilburg jealous but just a clean video with really clear video and audio clear enough I could copy the cw by ear…

Hope you enjoy it

73bob

Its cold out there

Just got back inside after taking the new Par Enz fed antenna and my FT817 out to the local Park for a quick test of the new antenna.

Same setup but no tuner used today.  Used the BNC Connection on front of radio instead.    Radio stayed warm…  I froze…

I stretched it out between two trees with the height being about 9 feet at the coax end of things and about 15 feet at the other end…

Using the built in SWR meter on the FT817 (which I trust) the results were good without pruning the antenna whatso ever…

1:1 on 10m… about 1.5:1 on 12m (not supposed to work there) 1.5:1 on 20m and 1.5:1 on 40m.

Seems fairly broad banded as well as the SWR was good on 7.055, 7.1.53 and 7.255.  In addition the SWR was good on 14.140, 14.250, 14.342.5

Safe to say that so far I am a happy camper…  However I did not dress warm enough to stay outside to try for any contacts so this first try was just to check the SWR…  But the signals were coming in good from the antenna with strong signals in on 20 and 40…

Now the next step is for me to get used to the cold temps.  Last January I was outside for the SPAR Winter Field Day at minus 20 deg C and today its just below 0 deg C and I’m shivering…  Us Canadians are a hardy bunch once we get used to the cold…  Today I’m not so hardy…

73bob

VA3QV/qrp from Mooneys Bay Ottawa

November 11th – Remembrance Day

If you can read this thank a teacher… If you can read this in English then thank a Veteran!

“Lest We Forget”

The weather was not bad today.  Sunny with temps around 19 deg C but it was windy.  But compared with the Weather Bomb that blew through overnight it was a really calm day…

Today I setup at Mooneys Bay Park in Ottawa along with Jose VA3PCJ…

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And if you look at the picture below I was operating from a picnic table immediately west of the tennis courts…  To see the tennis courts move the map south west and increase the magnification just a bit…

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The gear of the day was my FT817 along with a Buddistick antenna clamped to the picnic table.  I operated on 10,12,15,17,and 20m but no contacts were made on 10m and 20m.

Above is a pic of my FT817 setup.  It was not taken at Mooneys Bay.  This picture was taken at the OVMRC Meeting back in May 2010…Remember my earlier comments about my skills as a photographer?  The pic taken of the setup showing the radio did not turn out…

Above- A picture of the operating position.  Shows the Buddipole on the picnic table.

Above- A different shot of the operating position.  Shows where I was operating from with the Beach Building in the background.  It you look at the map a bit earlier in the post the tennis courts would of been on the right hand side of the shot.

Above- Jose was operating with his Icom IC 703 and he was using his freshly constructed W3EDP antenna.

Band conditions were good today’s outing and I managed contacts on 12m, 15m and 17m.   15m was really good with a couple of contest stations starting to warm up the airwaves in preparation for the CQ WW SSB contest running this coming weekend.

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I did have to fight a couple of pile ups but was able to get heard by 3 contesters flexing their muscles.  Very loud signals but they were still able to pick out my call through all the mess.  I was really suprised…  Happy but suprised!!!

Contacts making it into the log today were:

VP5/I8UZA Guiseppe who was warming up his contest station VP5I from the Turks and Caicos Islands.  He pulled my QRP Signal out on 21.320 usb on the 15m band

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Next on the list was OX3KQ Jesper, operating from Greenland with a very strong signal on 21.225 in the 15m band.  Check out his youtube video (below the map) to see why…

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And now you know why his signal was so strong…

I then managed to contact CO8LY Eduardo operating from Cuba on 24.947 on the 12m band.

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The last (but not least) contact of the day was NI5Y Calvin who was in his mobile and lives in Little Rock Arkansas USA.   This made it a QRP Portable to QRO Mobile contact on 18.125 in the 17m band.  His Yaesu FT857 sounded great…

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Of course, as he was operating a Yaesu it had to sound good…

The sun started to drop over the western horizon and with that came the reminder that this is Canada in October.  It got really cool… really quick…  so it was time to tear down, pack up and head home…

All in all it was a great couple of hours with antennas tested, and contacts made and the sunny afternoon with fresh air did not hurt either…

73bob

Upcoming Event Maplecon 2010

Its only a few days away now…

Click on the above logo to go to the Maplecon 2010 website

A weekend of QRP and Portable Operations

Picture courtesy VE3VIG

Not taken at Maplecon

You might see one at Maplecon

Picture courtesy VE3WEH <sk>

Should be a few FT817s at Maplecon as well

From reading the Ottawa Valley QRP Society Yahoo Group mailings it appears Ottawa will be well represented.  It seems that due to some “family issues” I won’t be able to make it for the two days,  but if anyone is going there from Ottawa on the Saturday morning and returning on Saturday evening I would love to hitch a ride and share expenses.

73bob

VA3QV operating QRP for the Canada Day Contest

Good Morning,
For those of you who were out there at the outdoor patio restaurant near my place…. Howz your head this morning???  Actually as you did keep me up with the fireworks you set up way after the Hill Spectacle you are getting no sympathy from me….

But enough of my venting about loud obnoxious people who could of been “overserved”….

The RAC Canada Day event was a GREAT SUCCESS…  I was able to participate for about (0000-0400) and (1200-2200)  14 hours or so which was more time than I had hoped for.  I had decided earlier that I would go QRP in this event and also I would forgo the comforts of the shack.  As I have been doing recently I disconnected the antennas at the baluns and ran new coax lines to the kitchen table.  When the WX was nice this allowed me to move outside to the patio table or move inside to the kitchen table to avoid wind, rain or “skitters…”

The radio system for this was fairly simple as I used my Yaesu FT817 (without the LDG tuner), the HF antenna was my W3EDP (10-160 no tuner needed at QRP Levels) hooked up to the rear antenna jack on the 817 and for the VHF Bands I used my 6m rotatable dipole on 6m and 2m hooked up to the front antenna jack.  Some quick work with the menus got the band selection and the antenna jack selection figured out with no problems and then all was good

In the above diagram you will see the W3EDP but in this case just ignore the radio, tuner and noise filter as I just ran from the 4:1 balun to the antenna jack on the 817 and it worked great.  QRP can be so forgiving…

Now lets get on the the interesting stuff…. How bad did I do???  Well to be honest I’m not sure but I will be submitting my score as I met all three of my basic requirement for a contest.  I have mentioned these before but here they are again…

Have fun-  This is a hobby and hobbies are supposed to be fun.  I will not sit at a radio screaming CQ Contest if there is no one there to talk to.  The bands seemed to be open and I was making contacts

Make contacts-  I figure that in any contest I should be able to work all the lower provinces and most of the lower 48 states if it is an international contest.  As this was the Canada Day Contest the lower 48 did not come into play but I did work across Canada with no problems.  As usual no contacts made in VO2, VY0, VE8 or VY1.  I have worked Labrador in the past but did not hear anyone this year,  I have worked VE8 and VY0 on 20m and I have never had a contact with VY1 although I have made a contact with an Alaska Station so I know that my signals have made it into the general area…

Respectable Score-  As you go through the contest you get to hear who is making the contacts.  For this contest I had decided to operate in the Single Operator QRP Catagory and although I do not use CW I would be competing against CW operators as well.  By Respectable Score I mean that I hope to finish in the top 50% of the submitted score.  I do not expect to win or even place but I should be in the top half..

With the 3 rules met I have decided to submit the following score and before you laugh too hard remember this was done with an 84 foot long antenna with a 17 foot counterpose and a 4:1 balun with no tuner.  The VHF antenna was a basic 1/4 w dipole for 6m.  The rig was operating QRP (5w) on HF and VHF and the whole mess was powered by a Canadian Tire Booster Pack. 

VA3QV- Single Operator QRP Catagory-

VE’s (no RAC’s)= 55

RAC Stations = 7

DX Contacts =15

Total Contacts = 77

Multipliers = 22

Total Score = 15,840

But now lets look at some boring but important stats:

2m- 2 contacts both in Ottawa (Ontario)- groundwave

6m- 3 contacts (Ontario and QC) all 3 were groundwave

10m-6 contacts (Ontario and Manitoba) some DX as well

15m-7 contacts (Ontario and Manitoba) some DX as well

20m-32 contacts (NF, NS, NB, PEI, ONT, MB, SK, AB and BC) several DX including Europe

40m- 7 contacts (NS, PE, ONT) with a couple of DX contacts

80m-20 contacts (PE, QC and ONT) with a couple of DX contacts

I made no contacts on 160m.  I heard no one participating (calling CQ Contest) either but I did hear a few stations ragchewing.  I had no luck trying to get a contact from them as its hard to compete with kilowats when you are QRP…

Now if you take a look you will notice that I made contacts on 2m to 80m with Ontario stations.  Not all of these were groundwave.  The bands were very strange in that I was able to work several North Western Ontario stations on several bands. When 20m started to fade on Sunday afternoon, 15 opened up and I worked the same stations again then 15 faded and I was able to work the same again on 10m.  Then 20 came back for a while and I actually worked stations on 20 that I normally work on 80 and I did it QRP.  Ask Bob Cooke VE3BDB who lives in Orillia as I worked him on 20m…

I have seen some QRP Scores already posted on several of the reflectors and so far I think I will be in the top half… Know I won’t be first but I also know I won’t be last… and I did have fun…

How was your Canada Day Radio activites?

73bob

So I’m nuts am I ????

I recently read a posting from KE9V on his blog, who has an excellent blog and I list it on my blogroll but this time his posting hit me a bit…

Jeff, I am a bit disapointed in this one…  Almost p!ssed but not yet!!!

I ask you to read his posting HERE and then come back and continue reading…

Now if you were to read his comments then substitute Low Power (100w) and High Power (over 100w) and then say that the QRPers (around 5 w or less) were just as bad I believe I would not be writing this article…

All the big lists are just as bad… and yes they are all nuts…but its not a sickness that just runs rampant on the QRP Lists…

How many times have we seen some new ham with a non north american callsign ask how he can modify his new radio to operate out of band???  And then how many people have flamed him quoting back FCC rules and regulations when as he has a non US callsign the FCC rules don’t apply to him!!!

This is just one example…  Look at the eham reviews…..  Some people rate a simple item like an antenna at a “5 ” and other rate it at a  ” 1 ” or even a zero.   Now how can an antenna be so varied??? 

Simple half the people can’t follow instructions and the other half are so set in their ways that they hate it just on the principle of things…

The groups (QRP or otherwise) are just a source of information and not all of it is good information…  Because in our hobby everyone is entitled to their opinions, and everyones opinions vary…

However to be called NUTS because I operate QRP is a bit much….

However as I also operate QRO with my FT847 and my FT897 does that only make me slightly insane?

73bob

PS–> comments pro or con will be graciously accepted on this one … but flames will be cheerfully ignored.  Be polite and nice and you get posted… Your are allowed your comments …  just be nice about it!!!

If any one wants to submit a longer comment on this send it to me via email and I will cut and paste it into a posting (with no editing except for fitting in on the page)  giving you guest blogger status. Once again be polite or at least not nasty…

bob

What a great day…..

The title says it all…  Today we went and played in the park…and we had a blast…

Ante VA2BBW

Bob VA3QV

Martin VA3SIE

Scott VE3VVF

David VE3ZZU (David is on the Right)

with visits from

Bob VA3RKM

VE3JRY Gilberte was also a visitor but was camera shy…

We had agreed to meet at Starbucks at the Elmvale Plaza and then head over to Vincent Massey Park as a group.  Scott who was coming from home in the South and Martin who was coming from another appointment went directly to the park so Bob, Ante and David met for a coffee then headed over…

Scot was waiting for us when we got there and his Ten Tec 40m cw Kit Radio along with a 40m dipole supported by Shakespear Wonder Poles  (20 foot at the apex and 10 feet at each end).

It did not take me long to get unpacked and find two friendly trees so I could string out the W3EDP and get it hooked up to my FT817 along with the LDG QRP Autotuner.

Now I had a couple of sked that I wanted to complete but other than that I wanted to give Ante some radio time as this was his first outdoor event as a Polar Bear and the main contest of the day was the Polar Bear Midnight Madness Event.

Martin was using his KX1 along with a verticals for 20,40 and 80m as shown in his Youtube video (below)

My first contact was a sked with VE2KH Jean Paul from Rouyn- Noranda Quebec which is about 250 miles NNW from Ottawa.  Its close to Kirkland Lake Ontario and I believe his Ice Fishing Shack is on the same lake that Norm VE3NLH has been known to frequent.

He was a solid 5 X 7 here in Ottawa and the report from here was the same and as he was using an IC 703 Icom this was a true QRP Contact.

And I’m willing to bet it was warmer at his Ice Hut on the lake than it was at the picnic table in Ottawa…

We had had a good QSO earlier in the day on 40m before I left home to head out and we had set up the 40m sked for later in the day.

In the park we managed a 5 min or so QSO before he headed back out to check the fishing lines and I had to make the 2nd sked of the day.

I left 40m and jumped over to 80m for the 2nd region Traffic Net on 3.925 which runs at 1345 eastern.  AK2Z Doug was the Net Control and I checked in with him and then had a short QSO with Arnold N1JX after the net.  Ante was looking a bit anxious so I just jumped to 20m and checked in with the Maritime Mobile Service Net on 14.300 and the NCS for the hour was in Florida.  An acceptable signal report  was given concidering I was QRP and then I passed the station over to Ante…

He had borrowed a straight key from Martin and was ready to get started…

Military CW Key strapped to his leg

Now I’m not sure how many contacts Ante made but he sure did have lots of fun and a really silly grin on his face for most of the afternoon.  One contact stands out and that was the one he made with W3FF in Redding CA.  Budd was running 3 watts at his end and Ante was using 5w.  In case you thing the callsign sounds like one you have heard before Budd is the inventor of the Buddipole Antenna System and an avid Portable Operator.

Now if when you followed the link to Budds QRZ Site (above) you will notice that is 2350 miles from Ottawa to Redding CA which at our end works out to be 470 miles per watt using a simple wire antenna up at about 20 feet above the ground.

Now to be honest I am not sure how many contacts were made in total as Martin was making contacts, Ante was making contacts, Scott was making contacts and I made a few contacts but I know everyone had fun…

Martin as you know has a blog and no doubt there will more info there and I’m sure that Scott has updated his blog as well or will be soon so you could check there as well…

Amateur Radio is a hobby and hobbys are supposed to be fun and today that statement is the truth…

We had a blast… or as Martin would say “a  hoot”

73bob