I was feeling under the weather this weekend and thought it would be nice and relaxing to spend some time on the radio. It so happens a CW contest was in full swing the Russian DX contest. I was not into competing but just handing out points. The propagation conditions this past week were a struggle to say the least. Today the conditions were on the rebound a K index of 2 and the Sunspots were in at 27 and the solar wind was still up at 615. I parked on 15m and there was lots of DX rolling in for the contest. I made only 7 contacts for Saturday (so far) most were done with QRPp power! I was very pleased that my condo antenna was able to get out to make some great QRPp low power contacts. My K3 is only able to get down as low at 100mW's silly me I sold my attenuator thinking my contacts under 100mW's were over! I was able to make 3 contacts at milli watt power, 2 contacts at 1 watt, one contact at 3 watts and finally 5 watts. My first QRPp contact in the contest was K5WA in the states, my next QRPp contact was with EA3CX in Spain. Then finally F5IN in France with 500mW's of power.
The 7 contacts break down as follows
1. F5IN 500mW 7,500 miles per watt
2. K5WA 100mW 13,213 miles per watt
3. EA5CX 100mW 39,956 miles per watt
4. DK3QZ 1 watt 3,818 miles per watt
5. DL0AO 1 watt 3,818 miles per watt
6. HC2SL 3 watts
7. ZF2DX 5 watts
12 comments:
Nice work Mike. It always feels nice to turn that power down from the QRO of 5W. My 817 only goes down to 500mW but I am thinking of building an attenuator similar to the one Bert, PA1B uses. I'm looking forward to a lot of milliwatting this summer from out doors.
Cheers es 72,
Scott ve3vvf
Good morning Scott, very nice to hear from you I too have seen the attenuator that Bert has on his website and now that I had sold my only one I will have to build one. Have a nice week.
Mike
Hello Scott and Mike, I can recomment the PA1B Fast and accurate attenuator 40 dB attenuator for QSO's. This attenuator is much faster to switch, than the FT-817. This is a great advantage when making low power QSO's. hi. Good luck in QRPpp. 73, Bert
Mike, great job! Super catch with EA5CX! Now that's some serious miles per watt! I'm looking forward to the return of the bands over here. 72, Phil AK7DD
Nice one - Mike. Which antenna did u use?
73 Angel
Ps. Thx fer the comment on my blog.
It was a blast to see what the balcony antenna could to and it seems Im back in the miles per watt game again.
Mike
VE3WDM
Good evening Angel, the antenna is the MFJ 1788 magnetic loop antenna. It's basically a portable loop antenna that is setup on the balcony of my condo here in Toronto. For pictures of the antenna on my blog look up on the side bar MFJ 1788.
Thanks for taking the time to comment and thanks for the question.
Mike
VE3WDM
Incredible what you can do with only a few mW. You did it again Mike. In your heart you more a QRPper then a QRPer. 73, Bas
Hi Mike, great info! I’ve updated my QRP website, I'm sure it's of interest to fellow shortwave radio enthusiasts.
Here’s the link: www.stationqrp.com
73's
Jack
Good evening Bas, it's true I love to see how far I can get with the least amount of power…..it's just way cool
Mike
It's a great site Jack and I hope others will discover it too.
Mike
Very nice to hear from you again Bert I hope all is well? To see the PA1B fast and accurate attenuator again on the web would be great! I am looking for a great attenuator to build.
Mike
Post a Comment