50 Feet of Random Wire

My best contact yet into Bulgaria LZ2NP was a few days ago in the city of Ruse. The distance is 5,183 miles and I used my new 50 feet of random wire for an antenna. I'm making a LOT of contacts on the 30 meter band now, and loving every minute of it.

This month (and it's not over yet) I've worked another eight DX stations at better than 1000 miles per watt. They include HA8BM in Hungary, LY5O in Lithuania, SP6EIY and SP7HOV in Poland, S57DX in Slovenia, UA2K in Kaliningrad, and OK1CF in the Czech Republic. My 1000 MPW contacts are now at 26. In addition to those, I've also worked CO2OQ in Cuba and HT9H in Nicaragua.

The HT9H and the UA2K were new DX entities for me. I'm up to 55 now.

I've also discovered a lot of QRP operators on this band and worked seven of them recently. Much to my surprise, nearly all have been NAQCC members!

 LY5O 

There's a few more days left in this month and every night I seem to work another good station. I'm being very selective now and trying to choose the best of the lot.

Thirty meters has become my band of choice.

The 50 foot random is allowing me to work the entire spectrum. According to the meter on the MFJ tuner, I'm getting less than 4 watts into the wire. My results seem to speak otherwise....

My Home Town

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zc7g12rux4

Not a radio posting; but I'm so proud of this....I've always known it.
Charleston is a great place to live.

Making the Best of a Bad Situation

I've been extremely busy this month and therefore no postings for a long time; but I'm now happy to report that I can now work "all bands", since I've made some changes to the "shack"; and although my "new set up" is very "crude", it seems to be working well.

I still choose to keep my station "portable" for outdoor excursions and for this reason, I'll have to tolerate a rather unorthodox routing of a 50 ft. random wire. I've kept the Isotrons for 40 and 20 meters, but after doing a little experimenting, I've discovered that if I keep the "wire" stretched out and away from potential "rf sponges" it works pretty well!

I've been having a fun time with this, and it still leaves me with the option of being portable. I've put an antenna switch on the table and ran the 50 ft random wire through an old tuner.

My favorite band has now become 30 meters where I've found several QRP operators. Just this evening, I worked a "special event station" operating from an old Navy LST. Here's the link to the ship.... LST Memorial 325. The really neat thing about this contact was that I actually operated from this ship a few years ago when it was docked on the Ohio River. It's a long story, but an interesting one;  N8ZYA's QRP Radio Blog: Search results for LST

How well is it working?

I now have two more "1000 MPW" contacts into Bulgaria and Slovenia. The needles on the tuner say I'm putting out a little over 3 watts. I've also worked stations in Poland, the Czech Republic and Cuba.

I'm not going to have a lot of time for blogging the next couple of months, but for all those in Eastern Europe, listen for me on the standard QRP frequencies on 30 and 17 meters. The random wire, although not very sightly, seems to be doing a great job!

Puerto Rico on 40 Meters

I'm beginning to love 40 meters more and more every night. Especially since I worked another "southern" station last night. I heard KP4SJ in Puerto Rico and exchanged the basics. There's a big storm bearing down on them now but it didn't phase our QSO. Pablo had a good signal here in West Virginia.

Afterwards, I watched the International Space station cross West Virginia sky. The pass put it parallel to the Appalachian Trail as it sped up the eastern coast towards Maine.  I've seen it a couple of times recently but forget to take the handi-talkie with me. If there's any activity on the ham bands, it can be easily heard in the brief few minutes that it's visible in the sky.

Barbados 8P6BE on 40 Meters

Sometimes it's not always a bad thing when a person can't sleep well, and even more so, when you're a CW operator. I've found another of the "big advantages" of the Morse Code mode is that it can be absolutely "quiet" while playing radio and using a set of headphones. The wife, the dog, and two cats never heard a thing....

Around 2:30 am this morning, I stumbled into my radio room and spun the tuning dial towards the lower portion of the 40 meter DX band. I was hearing a few stations, but nothing exotic, and was about to try getting back to sleep, when I heard the unusual call of 8P6BE, sending fairly slowly, on 7053 MHz.

He wasn't strong, but crystal clear, and out there all by himself.

It was cloudy, rainy, and 74 degrees in Barbados as Hendy (short for Henderson) transmitted from his Tentec rig and a simple dipole antenna. We sent call signs and names back and forth several times to make sure everything was correct. I don't think he had ever heard of West Virginia and neither of us exchanged our cities.

This was actually a nice QSO and much more than a "handshake". I don't think I've ever gone south like this on 40 meters before. It was a nice nightcap to work this unusual station on the unusual band of 40 meters. We both decided to listen again in the early morning hours on this frequency.

The Month of July

Time sure flies when you're having fun. It's difficult to believe this month has passed so quickly. I've worked 47 stations this month on 40 meters. Of those, 12 have been QRP stations and 19 have been members of the North American CW QRP Club. (NAQCC) . As like last month, just about all have been near the 7040 frequency.

I'm still working on an award with the NAQCC club; and these totals should place me very near my goal of  500 two way QRP contacts. The club offers a nice certificate for this accomplishment as an incentive for club members to use CW at QRP levels.

I'll start counting numbers again and arrange my log book for submission and verification.

I'm amazed that after almost 20 years of working strictly QRP, I still work new stations every day on 40 meters. This month I've again worked many interesting stations.

I recently worked a new station in Charleston, WV. Eric (AC8LJ) has appeared on both 40 and 20 meters. We had an extremely long QSO and I look forward to meeting him in person soon.

An old friend of mine in Pennsylvania (WA3SCM) recently announced his retirement on the first of September. We had a very nice long congratulatory QSO a few days ago.

I've worked two special event stations this month and a mobile station driving home from work in Nashville, Tennessee. (KD4MV/M) I love the bluegrass music there.

The weather is returning to somewhat normal this week. As I walked the state capitol grounds a few days ago, I couldn't help but notice this guy washing windows. I had thoughts of using this fine "pole" for an antenna support. He was washing these windows from the ground level and four floors above.

Two of these poles on a mountain peak should work wonders for a simple QRP station. 

Of course, anything would be better than washing windows like these guys. I haven't seen people this comfortable with a Boatswains Chair since my Navy days. I've done it 20 or 30 feet above the waterline of the sea. Salt water is much softer than hard concrete. I couldn't do this..... 

Despite my obvious wish (it's plainly stated in bold lettering on the QRZ.com site) to confirm all my contacts via the E-QSL site, I still continue to receive cards without a SASE. Yesterday, I got a notice from the ARRL Bureau asking for a large envelope. They have several waiting for me and I sent extra large self addressed and stamped envelopes with some extra cash with them. For the life of me, I don't understand why everyone seems to want a paper card. eh ??

As a parting observation, this month I worked a station at about 700 miles. He boastfully stated he was running a KW and made a nice comments about traveling through Charleston for business purposes. Yea...that's a lot of power; but I only sent him a 559 compared to my 579 signal. I must have insulted him when I sent QRP 5W and indoor Isotron antenna. He never responded afterwards even tho I mentioned relatives living in his area.

It's not about power, it's propagation and taking advantage of unique band opportunities. When the conditions present themselves, go for it!

NAQCC Sprint Contest

I continue to make progress towards "new awards" from the North American QRP CW Club (NAQCC). It was with great pleasure last night, that I worked another nine club members in the July Sprint. Although band conditions weren't that great, I managed to work eight different states, all of which were on 40 meters. 

I Don't See This Very Often: 

I'm sure my standing will change as more members submit their log books today. But for now....I'm ecstatic. 

Here's a list of those I worked on 40 meters last night. 

I've been having a conversation with NAQCC co-founder John Shannon (K3WWP) about my goals in these events. I've determined mine to be "doing the best with what I have" since contesting often becomes a system where "money" and "equipment" often mean everything.

Not so, with these QRP events!

In essence, there's a tremendous reward in challenging a competition with yourself. Considering my simple station and my location here in the valley, this is the path for me to follow.

Working stations with 5 watts and of which are using "simple wire antenna's" is a challenge.

I like this! It puts everyone on a level playing field.

I received flowers (soapbox comments) from N9RLO in Indiana for my 599 signal. I heard him with the same signal strength. I always respond to these praises by jokingly saying it's the result of my 5 watt HF signal bounding off the "gold dome" of the capitol building, just up the street. I also worked a Canadian station. (VE3FUJ)

Check out the NAQCC Club site on the web...I keep at link on the right side of my blog. It cost NOTHING to join this fun club and you'll be amazed at the fun 5 watts and simple antenna will bring to you.

The club newspaper is an interesting read. The July edition is online at the website now.