Hurricane Wave Pool Park Event

photo of XE1RK dog 

Dave Higley (KD8WA)  and I were sitting at a picnic table at the Wave Pool Park  in Hurricane West Virginia yesterday morning. We heard XE1RK  from Mexico City barking at around thirty words a minute . A lady from the park asked us if we had seen a little brown dog wandering around the grounds. Sorry to say but we were much too focused on the event at hand. I hope she finds the lost dog. 

The Mexico City station was the perfect example of "good operating procedures" when he immediately matched my sending speed of around 20 wpm. I'm sure that if I reduced my speed to 13 wpm, he would have gladly done the same. 

Dave (KD8WA) who was with me, has been an active SSB ham for many years but has now decided to enter the QRP CW fraternity. He is "testing the waters" so to speak. Twice today, we've worked DX stations which have "matched the sending speed of the inquiring station". Our other DX contact was 6Y5WJ in Jamaica, who by the way, was just as accommodating. 

I'm sure it was comforting for Dave to hear this "on the air" courtesy. I can remember those days very well from my early days using Morse Code. 

It was a beautiful day with temperatures supposedly reaching the lower 70 degree range. I don't think it quite made it while we were doing the event but perhaps close. The slight breeze made it feel a little cooler. 

We operated from around 10:15 am till 2:00 pm from this location. We used an end fed PAR antenna cut for 40-20- and 10 meters. The leafless trees made getting the antenna about 35 ft into the air a quick event. 

We worked 19 stations at our event yesterday. 

Some of the highlights yesterday was working our club President N8XMS who was 599 from Michigan and N4KGL in Florida who was using an "Alex Loop" from a portable location. We also had great signals from W7GVE in Arizona, KC0DD in Iowa, and it's always good to hear Don (KD3CA) in Pennsylvania.  

Information from K1SWL (nice call) has me listening for two hikers in New Hampshire this morning. I've previously worked both W3ATB and W1PID in "hiking mode". On our last NAQCC field event I heard them both working a station in France. (It doesn't get any better than this). 

Yesterdays event brought back the true joy of operating from a field location. Simplicity at its best with an added addition of "adjusting the sending speed to the inquiring station". Yesterdays event makes me proud to not only be a NAQCC operator, but also to be a member of such a unique fraternity of CW ops. 

Stations worked yesterday were: 

WB3T W3ZMN N2CX K4KRW K1SWL KD3CA K3SWZ WA8SAN N8XMS 6Y5WJ WA4SPJ K7TQ K4ARQ N0AR WA2FBN XE1RK KC0DD N4KGL W7GVE 

One Thousand Consecutive DX Contacts !

Our club member John Shannon (K3WWP) and former NAQCC Vice President reached a milestone on November 25th, 2015.

Many of us have been following retired NAQCC VP John, K3WWP’s, amazing and inspirational QRP QSO streaks. John is currently in his 22nd year of making at least one QRP CW QSO per day using simple wire antennas.

That’s right, not a single day missed in over 21 years! 

Absolutely amazing!

On November 25th he reached a significant milestone on his DX sub-streak - 1000 consecutive days making at least 1 QRP CW DX QSO using simple wire antennas!

You can read all about this great accomplishment in the Member Submissions section of the NAQCC December newsletter.

Santa Clause on the Radio

Santa Clause should be moving full speed now with the holiday season fast approaching. Two years ago, I found him testing his wings and the new rig on a pre-flight in the skies over Finland. I'll be listening closely this year for another broadcast. I hope you will be able to make a contact too. 

Special Event from Cedar Lakes in WV

Steve Ashcraft (KC4URI) met me yesterday at the Cedar Lakes Conference near Ripley WV. We operated a NAQCC Special  Event Station and worked fourteen stations between 10:30 am and 1 pm. I used an end fed PAR antenna up about 40 feet and my Icom 703 during the event.

It was comforting to hear and work stations from the South of Georgia and North to New Brunswick in Canada. Thirteen of the fourteen stations I worked were NAQCC members and I talked the lone station in Indiana into joining our group. I considered it a great day!

I found our club member F6HKA, who lives in France, talking to a couple of QRP hikers here in the United States. I patiently waited for the end of his QSO and threw out my call sign. He came back to me, on the first attempt, and gave me a 569 report.

We had a very nice QSO about operating from a picnic table here in West Virginia. I knew he was a club member but he proudly informed me of his membership in the NAQCC Club. We talked about the beautiful day with temperatures near 24 (C) and the joy of operating QRP from a picnic table. I needed to return to Charleston and he needed to eat dinner so we ended the QSO and wished each other a great evening.

This little critter seems to enjoy listening to CW. Time after time again, it walked across the radio or my hands as I sent CW.

Stations worked yesterday were: KI4KXO KD2JC KA0ENU N2CX W8GDP K3JZD N2JJF K1AVE WA4SPJ AJ4SB KM3D W9PP VE1MAM F6HKA 

NAQCC Florida Chapter QSL Card

I love a well designed QSL card and was happy to receive this one from our Florida Chapter Special Event station. I worked Steve with 5 watts while he was sitting at a picnic table in New Smyrna Beach. There's nothing more fun than operating "portable".

N3AQC Special Event Station from the Sky View Radio Society

One of the great joys of QRP is the ability to operate from different locations quickly and easily. Most of us keep our rigs and necessary connections at hand to move at a moments notice.

I worked John Shannon ( K3WWP) from the Sky View Radio Society club site in New Kensington, PA this morning. John was using the club call N3AQC while on the air. I immediately spotted him on the web and it sounds like he is having a great time.

What a beautiful operation site!

The Sky View Radio Society Antenna Farm 

WV QRS Net on August 6, 2015

One of my weekly responsibilities for the NAQCC Club is to run a QRS (slow code) net on Wednesday nights. With the exception of when there's a conflict with another club activity; you can find me on the air at 0100 GMT (9 pm local time) on 40 meters. (7.117 MHz)

This is an important project to get those with minimum code speed an opportunity to "get their feet wet" so to speak. I remember those days quite well, and I'm sure all the DX'ers in our club remember those days well too. I don't know about you, but until my retirement, I never reached the "entry speed" for successful DX work of 20 words per minute. That's a minimum in my opinion.  

Becoming a good CW operator is a long process for most people; hence the necessity of "taking the time" to encourage newbies to try their hand with a telegraph key. My time running this net is a sacrifice I'm willing to make as I make the painfully slow "code speed" available to the new folks. Last night most of my contacts were around 10 words per minute.

For those of us who "grew up" with CW as a necessity for even getting "on the air", we often take our current skills for granted. It should not be so....

After 25 years of Morse code QRP; I still find the same excitement when working a new station, whether it be across town or 1,000 miles on my slow code 40 meter (QRS) net. Last night was such an occasion.

Earlier in the evening I was hearing a station in Barbados quite clearly along with a strong station in Venezuela.  I was hoping the band was going to be "long" last night. It was....

Propagation was nearly perfect into the Caribbean area as it neared sunset.

Much to my amazement during the net, a station from Cuba  burst into the speaker with a near perfect signal from a thousand miles distance.

I admire the Cuban hams because the process of becoming a ham is much more stringent than here in the United States. Looking closely at his biography on QRZ.com, it's quickly apparent that Rafael Castellon Machado (CO8RRM) "built" the transmitter he was using last night; and he knew how to use it.

I've made contact with Rafael several times over the last few years but never had a DX station check into my QRS net. He wished me happy DX and the feeling goes both ways. Ham radio us such an amazing hobby isn't it?

It gives us the ability to be ambassadors, in a small way, to all the world.