It's charging!! |
going to rise into the +12C or more so I may take my KX3 into work and maybe get on 40m in the morning before I start work.
Today was a snow day for me here at VE3WDM we had a large and non forecast snow fall last night. I have over an hours drive to work on a good day and when I went out to the car at my normal 4 a.m ( not a spelling error yes 4.am) funny I call it the morning and others in my family call it the middle of the night.....I digress.....It was snowing like crazy and I did try to make it in but no roads were not cleared so it was to dangerous.
I got on the radio for some time today and snagged me some QRPp contacts. On 15m this morning I heard Rudy IK4VFD calling CQ. He was in and out at times but I gave him a go with 500mW's of K3 power and I got through to him!! He gave me a 539 report and did not seem to have any trouble getting through our exchange of QTH, Name, RST and a few pleasantries. I sent Rudy an email with more info about my station and the power that I was running as at the time I told him it was QRP. He got back to me with an email thanking me for our QSO. So that contact was 8467 miles per watt!!
I then found F9IE calling CQ from France and it sounded like he was just outside my window. So it was time to switch in the Hendricks attenuator and drop my power down to 150mW's. It took a few calls but Bernard was able to give me a report of 449 along with EU-064 as he is on Noirmoutier Island to boot!! So that contact gave me 24,261 miles per watt of a contact.
6 comments:
Hi Mike, a good job on the KX3. Nice QRPp DX into Europe. Congrats! 73 Paul
Hi Paul, I was very surprised with the openings and I then tried in the evening and things seemed to be dead. Even 30m was a no go last night and that seems to be the band that was always good to me in the evening. Oh well will give it a try again to night.
Mike
Hello Mike,
You do a great job up there in Canada with VERY little power! I see NO reason to worry about putting your antenna outside with the results you have with you indoor antenna. hihi You do a fantastic job there!
Sorry to hear about the snow up there. Oddly, we're having a warm spell the next few days before the cold weather returns on the weekend. I may go somewhere warm. Hihi
Out of curiosity, What antenna are you using outdoors?
LOL you QRP guys sure are gluttons for punishment. The closest I get to QRP is when I fire up the old Johnson Valiant. Would it count if I set it up under the tree out front and operated...
Great article Mike. Would love to get my hands on a KX1 someday, but being a low budget ham, they are WAY out of my price range. 73
Great to hear from you Don, I will say we QRP and QRPp folks are "Wild and crazy guys and gals" Being under the tree out front would be ok but in a T shirt and shorts.....now that's QRP!!Thanks for the complement on the blog piece and Don have a nice week!!
Mike
Good evening John, we are having a sort of warm spell today and tomorrow then the weather man say's it's back to winter again!!! As for the antenna for the outdoor op's I use mobile whip's by Pro-am. I have found these antennas to work great and I just attach them to the car via a trunk lip mount from Diamond. I was considering in the spring picking up the SteppIR portable antenna I blogged about but we will see.
Mike
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