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
It was great to receive a eQSL card from Yu (JS1DEH) on 15m.
Hearing YU calling out CQ just above the noise floor, we still managed to make contact. However, unfortunately we had to keep it short due to QRM.
Thanks for the card Yu.
It was great to receive a eQSL card from Kevin (VK3AUQ). There wasn't too much on the 10m band at the time, so hearing Kevin calling out was great. Unfortunately we had to cut it short do to my XYL calling for a hand with a job.
Thanks for the card Kevin.
Mucking around last night on 20m, whilst tuning up I smelt this faint tinge of smoke in the air. Looking around the equipment, I couldn't see anything so I continued eventually powering up to 100 watts (SSB).
Later that evening, I decided to go down to 1/2 watt (CW) as I heard this loud station and thought maybe I could get him. After going down to 5 watts on the Icom 7300, I switched on the Attenuator and ...nothing. No power. After a bit of clicking the switches on and off (they can get "sticky" at times) I then realized that it was switched on when I went up in power previously. Whoops....I just FRIED it.
I had a feeling this was going to happen sooner or later with those push button switches. They are just too small and finicky and can get stuck "on" due to being "sticky"
Anyway... time to build a new one. Only better
Here's a couple of good sites out there on the web regarding attenuators.
https://www.pasternack.com/t-calculator-pi-attn.aspx
https://a29.veron.nl/hams/pa1b/
I also had a look around on you tube for a few ideas and found WV2YAU who had build his own. It looked nice and robust with good switches. He uses 1 watt resistors which is good for 1 to 2 watt tx power output, but I'll use 2 watt resistors (better suited for the 5 watt output of my TX). Overall.. a nice unit
Anyway.. made a list of the required parts. Stay tuned
Over the past few weeks, I've been having issues with my old Kenwood TS-140 and after pulling it apart numerous times, it's finally kicked the bucket. (its now 35 years old, so time to upgrade).
What I didn't realize is that its been on it way out for a long time. So many times I would be speaking to other hammies whereby they would be hearing Europe/ USA or whatever and on my end..nothing.
At first I thought it was my antenna, So after building new antennas one after the other, it wasn't until recently that I realized that the old Kenwood was dying.
So time to buy a new TX.
After looking around and speaking to a mate of mine... Graeme (VK5GG who has one), I finally decided on the Icom 7300. Why? Most radio's have a minimum power output of 10 watts, whereby the Icom goes down to 1 watt. If I want to go QRPp, I can simply use my attenuator.
Anyway. its now on order and I should be able to receive it mid Feb/ end Feb when they come back in stock. Until then.. I'm off the air
Today my new Begali Pearl arrived! What a work of art. I even had my callsign engraved on it for a couple of extra bucks.
Overall I decided it was finally time to bite the bullet and learn the paddle. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my straight key, but one of the problems with QRP and listening around on the air is that most CW ops are 20wpm +. Doing this with a straight key can be problematic and typically if one is using a straight key, you're typically ignored.
So to overcome this, I decided to by the Begali for my home QRP base station. Now its time to learn how to use it and more importantly... pick up my speed.
Looking forward to using it
It was great this morning to receive a eQSL card from Zenji (JR1JWR) this morning. This month the noise levels are pretty high at times up here in Far North Queensland (Aust), so working DX can be a struggle some days.
After calling out CQ a few times on 15m, eventually Zenji came back. Even though he was putting out 100 watts, on my end he was just above the noise floor (not sure where the noise floor was on his end). Anyway, after a few repeats we finally managed to do it. Typically I prefer to work 3 watts or less to Japan, but I had to go up to 5 watts just to break thru the noise floor. Antenna used was a 30ft EFHW tuned for 20m thru an ATU.
