This mornings QSO (and it was a QSO) brought me DL3AZ in Germany and makes my 57th daily DX contact. I had been listening to another German station, just above his frequency and apparently, the other station went QRT. When I heard Andy (DL3AZ) calling, I mistakenly assumed the wrong call.
Embarrassingly, it took me a few moments to realize my mistake but Andy corrected me and we double checked our information. We talked about our rigs and antennas and he congratulated me on the 3 watt QRP signal. Andy was a real gentleman and I enjoyed the short QSO before he moved on to other stations.
There's another big snow storm moving towards us today. The temperature is going to be in the low 50's (f) but tonight will drop below freezing with an expected snow accumulation of 10-15 inches in the mountains.
I'm looking forward to a replacement battery to arrive by post today, and maybe my new 17 meter dipole. I use a "car booster" to run the radio in the field and the current battery "failed" after jump starting my old car a few weeks ago. I hope it arrives before the snowy day tomorrow.
Today was my 31st contact with a German station.
2 comments:
Good morning John, great work on number 57! I was thinking of doing the same (using a car booster) when I am out in the field. The internal battery in the K2 and KX3 are nice but they do run down. I believe I see your booster in the main picture on your blog? Julie and I were watching the news last night and did see the storm on it's way. I hope by the time it gets up here our temp's will be up so it's just rain. Getting a little tired of the snow storms.
Mike
Good Morning Mike,
Yes...I use a Sears 950A Die Hard Car Booster for a field battery. It's a massive battery, (20 amp hours) and much more than I need, but I like the built in charger and the digital display of the battery life.
The newer ones now have a USB port built into it.
It works great when using it from a picnic table and it will run all day! Also a nice thing to keep in the trunk of the car because of the "light" that is built into it.
I replaced the internal battery yesterday ($40 including post) and it should be good for another several years use now. I got around 6 years use from the old one.
This morning we have a few inches of snow in the valley but we're were expecting 10-15 inches of wet snow in the mountains; which is sure to bring down the electric lines again.
Hope you get the rain instead of the snow.
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