This one's gonna be really close folks.....for the 1,000 mile per watt award. Of course, this one's a CW contact at 5 watts on 14.027.5 MHz. (2135Z)
I worked OE5AA (August) in Austria a few minutes ago and my distance from West Virginia (per the QRZ.com site) shows 4,608 miles.
Of course, I'm not there now.... I'm very near New York City (about 20 miles north) and West Virginia is East of me. The question is:...is it 400 miles?
I'll need to get home and calculate the distance with a Rand McNally program I use on the home computer to know for sure. (using the New York co-ordinates)
Today has been a wonderful day despite working VERY hard doing yard work. My wife and I cut a small tree, trimmed the bushes, cut the grass (I did this with an old "push mower") and hauled the waste to the front of the house. My back is talking to me now.....all the way down to the toes on my left leg.
But between chores, I've managed to work three QRP stations. All on 20 meters (14.060) and the band really stinks right now. The solar flux was 67 today.
My first was K9IS (QRP) in White Lake Wisconsin. The second was KB0PCI (QRP) in Minnesota and the last (but not least) was W7PFZ (QRP) in the state of Washington. That's one's a GREAT catch for a QRP x QRP QSO!
Time to take the rest of the evening off and nurse the back and leg. (Hook up the tens unit) All my contacts were QRP CW today. I tried to work an Armenian station, SSB, but couldn't pull it off (EK6TA).....just goes to show you how more effective CW at 5 watts is compared to 10 watts SSB.....
Getting back home next week, I hope to figure the exact distance for the thousand mile a watt award.
2 comments:
John,
Rather than dig out the Atlas, go to the QRP ARCI Website and use their distance calculator. If you know the longitude and latititudes or the grid squares, it will do the calculating for you.
http://www.qrparci.org/content/blogsection/4/116/
Keep up the good work, you're going to have the 1K MPW award in no time!
73 de Larry W2LJ
Hi Larry,
I've tried the calculator with the co-ordinates of a ham just up the street and don't quite get 3,000 miles. I think Austria is more....
Of course, math is an exact science but I can't imagine this being correct.
I used the Austria co-ords from the Buckmaster site. (not listed on QRZ or ARRL). Maybe they're not right...
Will be home Tuesday night so looking forward to the Rand McNally computer program. I've found it to be "very precise" in the past.
Regardless....I've had a blast up here the last few weeks running QRP from the house. Two new DX countries and a QRP contact from Washington state.
I'm a happy camper!
ps...the "goat man" is sitting on a 14,000 peak in Colorado today. Hope to work him.
Post a Comment