Personal "All Bands QRPp 1 watt Challenge" for April

 I decided for the month of April I wanted to crank down to 1 watt (QRPp) and see how many contacts I can get on each band (10m down to 40m)... just for fun and a challenge.  

Everything outside the circle is a QRPp 1 watt 1000 MPW award

One of the programs I like to use to see if I'm getting out is the "Wideband Shortwave Radio Receiver Map (http://rx.linkfanel.net/). This way I can tell how far and how well received I am around the world or locally. Great tool.
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NOTE:

All contacts are done by either 

1/ Calling out "CQ"

2/ Answering a "CQ"

3/ Hearing a QSO taking place which is about to close and on doing so, I give my callsign, hoping they hear me

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Anyway, here's my results so far (updated 12th Apr 2024)  

10m band

1/ - ZL2BFQ - Levin -       2321 MPW
2/ - VK1RF -   Canberra -  1192 MPW
3/ - VK2ARZ - Sydney -    1086 MPW
4/ - ZL2BLQ - Greytown - 2344 MPW
5/ - VK5LA -   Berri    -      1158 MPW

6/ - VK3HY - Melbourne - 1353 MPW

7 -  VK5CZ -  Clare -          1169 MPW

8/   VK2IO  - Sydney -       1110 MPW

9/   VK2IO  -  Sydney -      1110 MPW

10/ ZL2BFQ - Levin -        2321 MPW 

11/ ZL3BO -  Ashburton     2311 MPW

12/ VK7GN - Rosney Park - 1690 MPW

13/ ZL3BO -  Ashburton     2311 MPW

15m band 

1/  - VK5GG  -     Adelaide -           1254 MPW
2/  - VK2EBN -    Newcastle -      1072 MPW
3/  - VK2BHO -   Warilla -            1164 MPW
4/     JJ1FXF -      Yachimata -       3745 MPW
5/     YB8RVI -    Manado -           1982 MPW

6/ -   VK2ARZ -  Sydney -            1086 MPW

7/ -    JG2LGM -  Japan -              3701 MPW 

8/  -   XV9G    -   Vietnam-            3275 MPW 

9/ -    JF2IWW -   Japan -              3710 MPW

10/ -  YB8RVI -   Indonesia -        1982 MPW

11/ -  HL1UA    - South Korea-     4068 MPW

12 /-  VK2IO  -    Sydney -            1110 MPW

13/    XV9G         Vietnam -           3275 MPW

14/    YJ0VK -     Vanuatu -           1456 MPW  (DX expedition)

15/   DL2DXA -   Germany           8987 MPW  (My best distance yet !!!)

16/   JF2IWW -    Tsu  city             3710 MPW

17/   JA1WAV     Japan                  3770 MPW

20m band

1/ - VK2ARZ - Sydney -          1086 MPW
2/ - VK7AB -   New Norfolk - 1693 MPW
3/ - VK2IO  -    Sydney -          1110 MPW
4/    VK7BO  -  Tasmania -       1598 MPW
5/

40m band 

1/   VK2GD -   Oxford  -        2297 MPW
2/   VK2KI -    Yass -              1155 MPW
3/   VK5CZ -   Clare -             1169 MPW
4/   VK2AE -   Sydney -         1118 MPW
5/   VK2IO -    Sydney -         1110 MPW 

6/   VK2DLF - Sydney -         1110 MPW

7/   VK4JM -    Brisbane -        783 MPW
8/   VK7TA -    Tasmania -      1585 MPW
9/   VK5GG -   Adelaide -       1254 MPW
10/ ZL3TK -    Waitārere-       2314 MPW

11/ VK5CZ -    Clare -            1169 MPW
12/ VK2NAP - Marrickville - 1124 MPW

13/ VK2GBR - Adamstown -  1072 MPW

15/  VK1TE   - Pearce -           1195 MPW 

16/  VK2IO -    Sydney -         1110 MPW

17/  VK7TA -    Tasmania -      1585 MPW

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Does long wet grass have an effect on your power output?

 Up here in Far North Qld over the past week, it has been raining non stop, to the point where flooding is happening and the highway is cut. With all the rain, I haven't had a chance to cut the lawn in nearly 2 weeks. However, one thing I have noticed is my power output has slowly reduced from 100 watts down to 90 watts. Why?

Is the long wet grass having an effect on my power output?

So I turned on the radio, tuned all the bands from 40m up to 10m and checked the power output and wrote them down. 

Now time to mow the lawn (between the rains). 

Well.. it was so long and wet, that I had to go over it 4 times with the lawn mower, each time lowering the mower with each pass. (level 5 down to level 2). Finally when it was done, I reconnected the radials and coax then went back inside to finish the test and check the results.

Well.. it would seem that long wet grass does have an effect on power output, as my power output increased from 90 watts to 100 watts. That's a 10 watt increase. 

Now the question is, what of other hammies who bury their radials? Is their's effected ? I dont know. Does all the long grass being WET have an effect? It would seem so, well in my case it did. Is the water partially "absorbing" the output? Don't know. 

I just know from my experiment, it did have an effect. What your conclusions are, I'll leave that up to you. 

For me though... The moral of the story is... keep your grass short,  especially during the wet season

A QRP Technique using the 41 db Attenuator

 Have you ever noticed that when it comes to QRP (or whatever), you turn on the radio, scan the frequencies and if happy with what your hearing, you tune up for the lowest SWR and whatever power output you want (1 watt, 5 watts, 100 watts or whatever) and then you begin tapping out "CQ". Sound familiar? If a station is booming through (599), then naturally you go off frequency, dial the power down, go back on frequency and answer him. 

The problem I found with this procedure is that when he reply's, even at 1 watt he gives you a 559 report. This means that in reality, you you could have gone even lower in your power. 

Well, I got to reading a blog by Bert (PA1B) where he does the opposite. He actually starts out at the lowest power level and then works up.
You can read his blog HERE or his web page HERE

Its interesting because it got me thinking about the way I've been doing things. Yes, I had a 41db attenuator, but was I using it to its full potential? Hmmm.. maybe not.

If you read thru Bert's blog and web page, you'll see how it works, what he does and what he has achieved. So after reading thru his web page and blog, I decided to give his method a go. In other words, start with low power and work up.

Here's what I do now.

I'll power up to 5 watts and tune in with the ATU on whatever frequency. Then using my 41db Attenuator, I'll go down to 250mW and call out "CQ" a few times. If no answer, I'll double my power (3 db) to 500mW and call out "CQ" a few times. If no answer, I'll double my power again (another 3db or 6db in total) and repeat. I'll keep doing this till someone answers. 

Now if I get no response and I'm now at 5 watts, I'll change frequency, for example 10m down to 15m and repeat.

Does it work? Yes ! See my last post with my QRPp contact with Mike (ZL1HJ) down in New Zealand on 500mW and Max (VK2ARZ) with 1 watt in New South Wales. In both occasions, I only called out twice and they both came back straight away. 

Anyway.. something to think about when going QRP.
You never know just how far you can get when you drop your power

Building my Homebrew DX Commander (10/15/20 & 40m bands)

 G'day all,
Its been a while since I've posted, but I decided to: 

1/ Move my antenna system from the backyard to the front yard. The reason being, with all the tall palms/ bamboo and then all the sheds we have, this is all going to effect the antenna. Whereas is the front yard, it had a clear view to the ocean with no obstructions.
2/ Design a whole new antenna. In other words, get back to basics. (verticals/ dipoles or random wire) 
3/ Get up to speed using my new paddle (never used one before) 

Being that I already had a 10m squid pole, I looked around the net looking at various types of verticals, one of which was the DX commander. After a bit of research, I doing a bit of number crunching, I decided to model a 3 element version in EZNEC (antenna modeling program)  to see how the elements interact with each other (if at all) and also to see what the RF patterns would be like compared to a typical 1/4 wavelength vertical. After a bit of pushing and pulling the antenna, I was finally happy with the output. I then I modeled the antenna in AutoCAD, designing the parts to print out and then construction began.

First thing was the spreader plates which I made from some chopping board (HDPE) material from the
 $2 store. 

Next was the ground and element plate. I had an old 3mm aluminium BBQ cover plate tucked away in the corner of the shed, so I grabbed this. Bit scruffy, but after making it I polished it to bring it back to new.

I then dry fitted it all together

In the picture below, you can see on the table another ground plate. This plate I discarded because when I was bending the tongue, it was a bit to close to the element plate. Easier to make another one

My wire arrived from Jarcar, so time to duck down to the hardware store for some SS nuts & bolts, electrical forks, SS clamps and hose and some PVC pipe. Time to put it together

Here I took out the insert of the base cap and found that 40mm PVC pipe fitted perfectly inside the lower tube. So I cut a section of pipe 300mm or 1 ft long and inserted it

Next I had some 50mm PVC pipe, so I bought a cap to fit, marked the centre of the cap and then drilled and dremeled out a 40mm hole. I cut the pipe so that it was 300mm long, ground a chamfer on one end and pushed this into the dirt where I wanted the antenna to be. 

 Time to stand the antenna up for a dry run. Here you can see the antenna cap is now sitting on the PVC cap and with the 40mm pipe inserted into the pole itself and also the 50mm, this antenna base is rock solid and going nowhere

Initially I only used the lower guys to steady the pole and I knew I would be dropping it down again and again with tuning the elements. 

End SWR result:

40m = 1:1

20m = 1.3:1

15m = 1:1

10m = 1:1

I'll just use the ATU to bring 20m down to 1:1

Radials... 9 bundles (4 radials per bundle) = 36 radials in total. Each radial is 10ft-7" ( 3.22m) long

Then it was time to drop it down again, install the upper guy lines and stand it back up. Rock solid in 25 kts winds. Just have to wait for my shock cord to arrive then its finished. 

Total cost to build?

$112 

So overall I was pretty happy with it. Later that day I cranked up 20m and made contact with Mark (VK3MJ) 1377 miles away on 5 watts (579 report) and a day later on 1/2 watt. Trying the rest of the bands on 5 watts I watched the RBN to see if I was getting spotted and saw that the USA/ Canada/ Europe and others were getting my signal. 

All in all.. very happy with the result. 

Catch you on the bands !

QRP by Adventure - Goshin Station

 Heading West, up the range and heading towards Karumba, we found a spot next to a river and decided to squat there for a couple of days. After setting up, time for a swim (temperature in the shade was 40 degrees C or 104 degrees F), then a quick explore. 

After a quick fish in the river catching a few Sooty Grunter, it was time for tea and some QRP. Overall the band was pretty quiet which I felt later was my antenna (it needs to be tweaked), but I still managed to contact VK3MJ (Mark from Geelong in Victoria) on 5 watts - 1111 miles away)

All in all it was a great to get away, but unfortunately we could only spend 1 night. During the night around 11pm, some idiot decided to start a bush fire and the smoke was so intense and thick, you could only see around 10 ft in front of you. What a shitty night. So first thing in the morning (prior to sunrise) we packed up and left.