Over the past few days if not weeks I have been getting updates on my Iphone of the solar conditions and it seemed solar flares were a dime a dozen!! Here at VE3WDM it's QRP all the way and max power is 5 watts. This evening I turned on the K3 and was not expecting to hear all that much and maybe just log some "local" QSO's. I was able to hear S573DX and he was about an S9, I tried to make the contact using 1 watt but was only met with "VE3?" I then doubled the power and that did the trick with 2 watts for a 5NN and 2,222 miles per watt contact. I then spun the dial again and came across H70ORO from Nicaragua and was able to work him with 3 watts. I have for some reason always had trouble with South and Central America from my location but was thrilled to work him with only 3 watts for 729 miles per watt. That's not bad at all considering that part of the globe on a real good day is very hard for me to hit with a contact. Finally I was able to just at one point pick out Z33Z from the noise floor but as I was writing this post and listening Z33Z from Macedonia became an S5 signal. I decided to crank the power to a full 5 watts and give him a go. I made it but with a few repeats and Z33Z is in the log. That was it for the evening with ham radio I was very happy with the contacts that were made.
YOU GOTTA LOVE QRP!!!!
6 comments:
Hello Mike,
I know exactly what you mean. I think QRP is a lot like fishing. You never know what you're going to catch when you throw your signal into the air. When you least expect it; you get a big one on the line.
I love QRP too. There's nothing quite like low power and the ability to go portable at the drop of a hat. You just can't do that with a rig pulling 20 amps on transmit. Hihi
It's by far the most fun of any mode!
Hi Mike, yes I do. 73 Paul
Good morning John, first off Happy Independence day. I was very surprise how dead the 20m's was but the signal that were there were DX signals. QRP operations sure does bring a different slice to ham radio for sure.
Have a nice holiday.
Mike
Good morning Paul and very well said.
Mike
Hello Mike, I agree, great to have fun with a few watts in DX, or a few hundred milliwatts over 1000 Miles. hi. Well done. GL in DX, 73, Bert
Good evening Bert nice to hear from you, years ago I would had thought that 100 watts was needed to make DX contacts....not so!
Mike
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