Space Weather
SFI = 117
K Index = 2
I turned the radio on a few times today with the bands being quiet. After ducking down town between the rains, I turned the radio on again at 6:46pm (0846 UTC - with the grey line directly overhead) and heard only two JA stations on the 15m band. Ken (JS6UHQ/6) began calling CQ and I quickly got him. He gave me a 439 with QSB. So we kept the QSO short.
The QRP streak continues.
Space Weather
SFI = 118
K index = 3
Turned the radio on just after 0000 UTC (10am my time) and the only band working at the time was 15m. Heard a couple of JA's talking and then a Korean station calling CQ. I tried calling back but he didn't hear me. Later I tried again at around 0515 UTC on 20m and could just hear Gerard (VK2IO/P) working WWFF/ POTA down in NSW. He was right in the noise. Grabbing the paddle, I gave a quick answer and thanks goodness I got him.
Switching back up to 15m the band was quiet, so I gave a quick CQ to see if the RBN would pick me up and suddenly I got into a small pileup. Toshikiyo (JA0RUG) came back followed by Karunya (YD2UWF) and then finally Yutaka (JH4PUS).
Thanks for the Card Tosh.
That was fun for a few minutes. The QRP streak continues
Space Weather :
SFI - 113
K index = 2
Not many stations on the bands today. Only 2 stations on 15m (both JA's) of which Ken JE6UHQ was one. We only managed a very quick QSO, as the band wasn't the best (539). Lucky I got Ken when I did. Now the QRP streak begins.
Late that afternoon I kept checking the bands to see if it would open however once the terminator (grey line) was directly overhead, the bands began to shut down quickly except 40m which began to open slightly, but the signals were very faint from locals down south. About 2 hours later, 40m shut down as well.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better
Just make at least one QSO a day using QRP, CW, and a simple wire antenna. I've also decided to use UTC days rather than local time days since UTC is the generally accepted system of dates and times used in ham radio. That meant my search for a QSO's can generally begin from 10am VK4 EST (0000 UTC) each day on 10m working the US, then down to 15m early afternoon for Asia then down to 20m during the night for Europe and if need be, 40m for local VK/ NZ QSO's. This give me a lot of scope to work during the day if things turn for the worse... propagation wise.
Anyway, there it is.
Time for some fun
This morning it was great to receive an email from Preston, the awards manager from QRP ARCI regarding my application for the QRP DX award. This award is issued for successful communications with 25 ARRL countries while running QRP. Endorsements are available in increments of 25 countries.
Presently I'm now just short of 50 countries where I can update this award further.
Below is my best distance as a MPW Award.
G'day all,
This month had its up and downs in regards to propagation up here in Far North Queensland.
However, there were times when the noise level dropped and the chatter went through the roof. I did manage to get quite a few EU and US contacts, so it was great to receive a couple of QSL cards from them.
Dennis (W7WHO) in the mid USA
Since I last posted, conditions in Far North Queensland haven't been particularly favourable for QRP at times, but every now and then the band opens up.
Early Oct, I managed to have a QSO with Joel (F5VV) in France, which was good. There were other Euro stations (Germany and Sweden on the air at the time, but I just couldn't quite get thru at 1 watt, so I cranked up 5 watts. (LOL).
Anyway.. thanks for the EQSL card Joel. All the best. 73's
It was great to receive a card from Andy (JH2UNG) this morning, my first contact for the month. Typically I go QRPp to Japan, but with propagation not the best at the moment and Andy's signal strength was around 329, I bumped up the power to 5 watts. I just got thru !!
Anyway, at least I got one of the month, so it wasn't a doughnut month.
Hopefully.. next month will be better
For the month of April (1st to the 30th), I decided to go for the QSO-a-Day award. At the same time I was also going for the KMPW award,so going for the QSO a day award made sense.
During the first half of the month, it was relatively easy as propagation for "local" and DX was great. The band were hot up here in Northern Australia. However during the last week, propagation began to fall apart. It was tough just trying to get a contact, even at 5 watts.
Anyway, after much perseverance and at times frustration, I managed to get there.
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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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)
Scanning around, I heard Bilas from Russia calling out CQ on 15m. Cranking up 5 watts I gave a quick reply and it was good to see that he came back and gave me a 559 with my 5 watts. After a brief exchange of the usual.. power/ rig/ antenna etc, we said our 73's.
Thank Bilas for the eQSL card
Until next time
73's
