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State of the QRP Report

2012-02-23T01:00:00.000-05:00

Warning – this is a long post!

Well, one year ago today, I made my first QSOs as a full-time QRPer. I thought it seemed appropriate today to report on my QRP adventures…so, read on…

Until last February, I’d spent a couple years off the air entirely, and for a few years before that, I had not been very active at all. So, it’s probably been at least 5 or 6 years since I have done much operating to speak of. And as far as making semi-regular non-contest QSOs, I probably haven’t done much of that in 10 or 15 years. Sometimes six months or a year or two would pass between non-contest activity.

I’d actually been rigless for a couple years. I was getting the itch to get back on the air, knowing that a new solar maximum was on the way. I was living in an apartment, with no immediate antenna farm prospects, yet unlimited RFI potential, so I decided to get a QRP rig that I could carry out with me and operate portable fairly easily. The Yaesu FT-817ND got the nod. I considered a K2 kit, but an impending wedding and subsequent move would have delayed me getting on the air for probably 6 or 8 months.

I had operated QRP a couple times in the past by turning down the carrier on the rig for fun, but for some reason, it’s just not the same as actually making a commitment to run only 5 watts. The ‘817 definitely forced that. I’m also not one who actively embraces using small antennas like a lot of QRP folk do. In addition to limiting their power, they also seem to find more honor in using a small, inefficient antenna. Not me. So far in my QRP career, I’ve only used relatively small wire antennas, but I do hope that will change sometime in the future. I’ve had or used Yagis on 80 – 10 and big verticals on 160 with Beverages…and I like that!

So, where do I stand in the QRP game? I’m really enjoying it immensely. I don’t know all the reasons why, but it has made radio fun. As I’ve mentioned before, I know a lot of the heavy lifting is done by the other guy, who often has to really dig our QRP signals out of the mud. OTOH, I’ve found that many QRPers (myself included) like to work other QRPers, so we’re doing the digging as well.

Take the QRP Fox Hunts – when you’re a Fox, you’re sitting there for 90 minutes doing nothing but digging out other QRP signals – as many as 70 or 80 guys in that hour and a half, many of which are at the noise level.

Another thing is the folks I’ve met. I’m a member of several QRP email groups and everyone there has been extremely helpful and free with their knowledge. And to top it off is the North Georgia QRP Group based out of Atlanta. It is by far the most fun I’ve had in a local radio club since I was first licensed in ’76 – a great bunch of folks!

Building

For most of my 35-year-plus ham career I’ve been an appliance operator: I learned enough theory to pass the Extra exam, but other than putting together the odd kit from time to time, I’ve never really applied any of that knowledge. Being around QRPers that do build has inspired me. In the past year I’ve built a Softrock SDR receiver for 40m, and have started an Ensemble II as well. Also a Hendricks dummy load and a K8IQY Magic Box. Some of this is planned as stepping stones on the way up to one of Steve Weber’s ATS-3B kits. I think I’m about ready to tackle it.

I’m wanting to do more some more building than just kits – I want to actually build some radios from scratch…kit clones to start with, and maybe partially some of my own designs eventually. To that end, in the past year I’ve purchased a Tek 465 oscilloscope, built a frequency counter kit, did my first Manhattan build of the QRPme.com build-along crystal checker from last year’s FDIM, and have plans to build another item or two of test gear.

Operating

I’ve made almost 2200 QSOs in the past year at the five watt level; all CW except four 6 meter QSOs during Field Day. I’ve worked 120 DXCC countries – all on smallish wire antennas. And, I’m well on the way to a QRP 5BDXCC, but 80m will take a long while I’m afraid.

I’ve always been primarily a contester, secondarily a DXer, and not much of a ragchewer. Those patterns have continued with my QRP activities as well. With QRP classes in most of the major contests, I don’t feel at much of a disadvantage – other than my current antenna farm, which would have the same limitations at higher power. Actually, with so many QRPers tending to use smaller antennas, I’m really not all that disadvantaged compared to most of the other QRP class contesters.

Another thing is the QRP Foxhunts – not really a contest, but with a running 20-week season, two nights a week, and a team competition, it really becomes addictive trying to work ‘em all. And there are several QRP contests each month that last an hour or two and are just low-key fun.

What’s Next?

Nothing special – I’m wanting to keep on QRPing…I’m looking at getting a K3, and if I do, I’m pretty sure it will be the 10w model. I’ve got some new antenna ideas, and hope to melt a bunch of solder in the next 12 months. And you’ll find me in the contests and DX pileups!

80m QRP Foxhunt - 2.22.12

2012-02-22T09:08:00.004-05:00

Todd, N9NE regularly calls with milliwatt power levels when he's playing hound in the QRP Foxhunts, and as the Fox last night challenged others to do the same. So I did.

First up was Dave, AB9CA in Alabama. I dialed down to 100mW and nabbed him on the first call. That worked out to 3,507 miles per watt - not bad!

Then off to find Todd. Found him quickly, but it took a half hour for him to hear my 100mW signal...but hear it, he did! That worked out to 7,846 miles per watt - probably a record for me - I may have to start keeping up with this!

This all assumes that Todd and Dave have their QTHs accurately indicated at QRZ.com...and that the K3 loaned to me by ND4V (thanks again Mike!) is really putting out only 100mW when it says it is. I'll have to check that this evening.

ARRL International DX Contest CW - 2012

2012-02-19T21:59:00.000-05:00

Another DX contest in the books! I operated just over 24 hours in the ARRL DX Contest - conditions weren't bad, but they did worsen from day 1 to day 2. They also weren't as good on 10m as the CQWW. I was able to add 4 new countries to my QRP DX total, which was disappointing: I'd hoped for at least 10. Due to the different band distribution of this contest compared to CQWW, I was able to add 79 new band countries. 5BDXCC QRP definitely looks doable, but 80m will be the difficult band! I did work 3 EU countries on 80 this weekend. I'm pretty sure I'll need to improve my 80m antenna before 80 gets done. I was happy to add a CQ zone to the total as well, bringing the total to 34.

No really memorable DX this time around, but I felt it was a decent effort considering my station. I ran 5 watts out of a borrowed Elecraft K3 (thanks ND4V!) to an 80m doublet at 45' and the Par 10/20/40 sloper. The K3 really is an excellent radio. I'm trying to decide if I want to get one for myself or not, which is why Mike loaned me the rig. Using it under actual contest conditions really helped me see how good the rig is. I'm still not sure if I'll get a K3 or a KX3, but after this weekend, I'm leaning toward the K3. I may decide to sell the FT817 to help finance the new rig, but maybe not. If I do, I'll still have an ATS3B to use for portable stuff...once I get it built!

Here are the totals:

Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
80: 23 20
40: 75 41
20: 125 59
15: 108 48
10: 43 31
-------------------
Total: 374 199 Total Score = 223,278

CQWW CW - 2011

2011-11-28T12:31:00.000-05:00

I was able to spend 17 hours operating in the CQWW this year. I wasn't really planning on a big effort, but did want to get on and work some new QRP countries...since February, in a limited amount of non-contest operating, I'd only worked 61 countries, and was well short of my goal of having 100 countries worked by the end of the year.

I also knew I wanted to do some antenna improvements before I operated more seriously in the 'WW - at the beginning of the contest I had an 80m doublet at about 45', a Par End Fedz 10/20/40 hung as a sloper, and a 30m delta loop up about 45 or 50 feet. I'm not convinced the delta loop has been giving me anything over the doublet, so I wanted to try something else. I'd noticed the Par and the doublet would sometimes change over time as to which one worked the best on 40 and 20, so I figured a lot of that was due to angle of radiation more so than pattern, so I thought I'd convert the loop to a 25' vertical doublet. Fed with window line, I'd use it from 18 through 28 mHz. At that length, it wouldn't be so long on 10 meters that I'd lose the low angle of radiation. At least in theory.

So, Saturday afternoon, during the contest, I dropped the loop and cut off about 75' of it and re-hung it as a vertical dipole. As it turned out, I don't recall the vertical doublet ever being much, if any, better than the 80m doublet. So, after a bit more use to confirm that, I'll probably try something else. In particular, I'd like to add a second 80m doublet at 90 degrees to the one I have now to fill in some of the holes in the pattern on the higher bands. I also need to get up a couple of inverted-Ls for 80 and 160...although I'm not so sure how much 160 I'll be operating QRP!

I didn't get on in the contest until about 2am Saturday morning and only worked a couple hours, but was surprised to actually work a couple Europeans with the low doublet and 5 watts. Neat. I slept in on Saturday and got to 10 meters late in the opening, but was still able to make a few Qs. Then antenna work in the afternoon and a move to pick up a few countries on 40 in the evening.

Sunday morning I made sure to get up early enough to take advantage of the good condx on 10 and 15, and about a half hour before sunrise I was chasing (unsuccessfully) JAs on 40 meters. A pass through 20m which had been largely ignored since the beginning of the contest, and then on to 15 meters at about 1245Z. Pretty quickly I noticed 15 was wide open to Europe, and at one point I looked at my log and saw six stations logged in three minutes - all S&P at 5 watts and a low 80m doublet - not bad! In fact, 15 was going so well, I never made it to 10 until after 14Z, which I had to force myself to do! So, I know I missed a lot of the good early opening on 10. Oh well.

Since I was just operating mostly for play and new countries, I decided to operate assisted, so I ended up just looking for interesting spots to chase. That, and a lot of starting and stopping to do stuff around the house meant that this was nowhere near a serious effort. Even so, I ended up with 17 or so hours of operating time. Best DX (not necessarily longest distance) was D2QV in Angola, who was very weak, but with no callers, so I dropped in my call and he came right back, no fills needed. Maybe he was QRP too??

During the contest I worked a total of 92 countries, which boosted my QRP country total from 61 to 108, and my CQ zone count from 25 to 31. Not bad for a weekend of non-serious operating!

Here are the totals:

Band QSOs Pts DXC Zone

1.8 2 2 2 2
3.5 22 52 17 9
7 28 79 25 11
14 20 59 18 9
21 93 262 62 21
28 108 304 58 20

Total 273 758 182 72

Score : 192,532

Remember, this is nothing fancy - 5 watts and mostly an 80m doublet. Fun stuff!

QRP Fox Hunt

2011-11-18T10:27:00.001-05:00

Last night I operated for the first time as a Fox in the QRP Fox hunt. My session was on 40 meters and I ended up with 70 Qs, or "pelts" as we call them in the Fox Hunting biz. The neat thing about being a Fox is that it's like a mini 90-minute DXpedition. Everyone wants to call you and the pileup is pretty big for a while. I've been on DXpeditions before, and that is what this sounded like! Consider that most of my contacts were made on a slightly shortened sloping half wave for 40 and spanned from the East to West coasts of the US - and all of the stations worked were also running 5 watts or less (N9NE was running 100mw!). It really shows what can be done with QRP, using simple antennas. And because it's QRPers working other QRPers, it kinda mitigates the QRO guys' argument that the bulk of the work is done on the RX end - see, the thing is that most QRPers like to work other QRPers, so they know exactly what it sounds like on the other end!

It's a lot of fun, I highly recommend you get involved.

ARRL November SS CW - 2011

2011-11-10T08:01:00.001-05:00

CW SS has to be my favorite contest. You can do reasonably well with smaller antennas, in fact, if your antennas are all *too* high, it can be a detriment. The exchange requires some skill to copy - it's not just 5914 auto-fill CQWW exchange - that's no exchange at all! It's not a full 48 hours, but in order to be competitive, you need to work the full 24 hours allowable, and on Sunday, the rates drop off so low it becomes a form of torture - but you have to endure it if you want to win.

I had decided in the weeks leading up to SS that I wasn't going to be able to shoot for top-10, and my goal was simply to do as well as I could and try to operate at least 18 hours. I only had up a sloping Par 10/20/40 and a 30m delta loop that I fed as a 20m and up multiband antenna. I really needed some more wire in the air, but other things kept getting in the way of me putting up an antenna.

Finally, on SS Saturday, I started working on an 80m doublet fed with 300 ohm window line. I had found a couple of high trees in the back yard that looked like they'd be good for this antenna and would put the highest end up around 80' or so. Unfortunately, because of the way they are situated, I couldn't get a line over them with my saltwater spinning rod, so I had to go with plan B in the front yard. The high end of the antenna is at about 55' or so now I'd guess, and the feedpoint droops to about 45' - not bad, especially for SS!

I had also picked up a new LDG Z-11 ProII tuner for the home station - the attractive features of this tuner were the fact that it will automatically retune for high SWR, meaning, if I switch from one antenna to another on the same frequency, the tuner will automatically adjust. Also, in addition to being able to tune at QRP levels it will handle up to 125 watts...that will come in handy when I start to use the DX40...I may even fix my old TS440 that has the dreaded dots display...but I digress...

So, I got the antenna up with about 15 minutes left to go before the contest. I came inside the shack and dug out a DPDT knife switch so I could switch between the loop and the doublet. I also found a Daiwa 2-position coax switch which I hooked up to swap between the tuner and the Par. So, I was set up with three antenna choices for 10, 20 and 40 meters and two choices for 80 and 15. Five minutes to go and I started up N1MM and configured the program for the SS exchange. Had enough time for one or two quick warmup QSOs and then the contest started.

I was actually pretty happy with the start - my rates weren't super, but I wasn't expecting them to be with my setup. I ended up with 33 QSOs, on 15, 10, and 40 the first hour. I had a bit of noise on 10 I hadn't noticed before that bothered me a bit considering how good condx were there this weekend...I ended up not using 10 much at all because I knew the noise was there and found I could do just fine on 15. But unfortunately, I just couldn't get much in the way of a run started on any of the bands (including 10) so I operated mostly S&P. The rate stayed fairly flat through most of the contest, but my high 10 minutes was when I went to 40m the second time around 23Z on Saturday, with a high 10 minutes of 72/hour. This was also my best hour, when I logged 43 Qs. But the best run didn't occur until late on Sunday, when I was able to run 16 stations in 30 minutes on 3532 kHz, which was no better than my S&P rates really. I ended up S&P about 95% of the contest.

These are pretty poor rates compared to what I'm used to running more power, but overall I was fairly pleased considering the station. The doublet worked very well on all bands - so well I think I'll leave it where it is and put a second one up in the back yard - it just so happens the two antennas will be perpendicular, which will give me some direction choices, especially on the higher bands. I did learn that I liked to have the antenna choices. Often one antenna would be significantly stronger than another, especially on 40 and 20, switching from the doublet to the Par sloper. In addition to the second doublet, I think I'll make the sloper more vertical, and possibly add some vertical antennas for 10 and 15. I'm still thinking about some directive antennas on 20-10, as well as verticals/inverted-Ls for 80 and 160.

Other changes will include trying to CQ more - one thing I did notice about the QRP operation is that the rate didn't fall off as much near the end of the contest like it does when running higher power - I suppose the QSO totals are low enough that there are still folks out there to find that the higher-rate A and B stations have already worked through.

As far as multipliers go, I had no idea of making a sweep before I started, but pretty early I heard VY1EI(?) work someone, and he was plenty strong enough to work. I went up a few kHz and called him and called CQ, but never heard another peep out of him. I did a bit of looking on 15 on Sunday afternoon, and it got down to needing the VY1 and VE4 when I heard a VE4 calling CQ. Again, I thought he was workable, and think he may have heard me call, but couldn't dig me out of the noise, so I ended up missing two mults.

At the end of the contest, I'd put in about 19 hours, making 493 QSOs in 78 sections for a score of 76,908. Not a killer score, but I'm not at all ashamed of it for my first QRP/wires effort, and I've learned several areas where I can improve. Here are the band breakdowns FWIW:

Band QSOs
------------
80: 123
40: 133
20: 134
15: 90
10: 13
------------
Total: 493

Yes, SS is the best!

What Kind of DX Can You Work With QRP?

2011-10-17T12:53:00.000-04:00

It's pretty amazing what a few sunspots, 5w, a little wire and a great bunch of DXpedition operators can do:

While it says 7 out of 28 band slots, it's more like 7 out of 7. I don't have antennas for 80 and 160, and I only operate CW, so that's pretty much all of 'em. 6 of the 7 contacts were made over the past two days - this weekend had great propagation, the best I've seen since getting back on the air 8 months ago. My antennas were pretty minimal: on 40 and 20 I used the Par End-Fedz 10/20/40 hung as a 45 degree sloper with the top up about 45'. The rest of the bands were covered with a 100' loop broadside NE fed with 300 ohm window line thru an Elecraft T1 tuner with the apex at about 45'. A couple of the QSOs were direct, but most were split. And a couple were made on the first or second call.

At last count, over 157k QSOs had been logged with almost 39k different stations. The operation has been going for two or three weeks, which is one secret of getting through - wait until the big sigs have all gotten through and the competition is less!

Check out the T32C website for more info on the operation.

2011 Tennessee QSO Party

2011-09-04T23:24:00.000-04:00

I was first licensed in late 1976...in early 1977, I operated my first contest - the TN QSO party. I may have operated it a time or two since then, but I really don't remember. Tonight I got on for the final half hour, after having gone to Cirque du Soleil with Mrs. AA4GA. We had a great time, and it was fun getting on 40 and working a few of the Tennessee folks. 15 QSOs x 12 counties x 3 points per Q = 540 points. FT817ND at 5 watts to the Par End Fedz.

I did pick up a spool of ladder line and some para-cord at Shelby, so the new antennas are getting closer!

KR1S on QRP Contesting

2011-08-31T13:11:00.001-04:00

Some of this is a little dated (well, it was written over 15 years ago!), but the core info is great stuff that everyone interested in QRP contesting should consider. The article first appeared in the inaugural issue of 72, the New England QRP Club newsletter, and was reprinted in the April 1992 issue of QRP Quarterly. Jim has the article archived on his web site and I highly recommend it. While you're there, poke around his site for more great QRP reading.

This Past Weekend

2011-08-29T10:24:00.000-04:00

We were just finishing up moving out of the apartment into the house, but I was able to spend a little time on the air and make a few contacts in several little contests. The antenna was the Par End-Fedz 10/20/40 hung as a sloper. Rig was 5w from an FT817. In addition to the handfull of QSO party contacts, I worked a radio celebrity (W1VT, Zack Lau, an ARRL staffer) and three new QRP DXCC countries, including SU - first call!

The annual Shelby hamfest is next weekend. I'm hoping to pick up some antenna supplies to go along with the 2500' of wire my ol' hoarder buddy N4OX is sending me. Need to get up some better wires before the contest season, which is fast approaching!

Ohio QSO Party
Class: Single Op QRP
Operating Time (hrs): 1

Summary:
Band CW Qs
--------------------
40: 8
--------------------
Total: 8 CW Mults = 8 Total Score = 128

YO DX HF Contest

Class: SO CW QRP (actually Low Power - don't think there's a QRP class)
Operating Time (hrs): 10 min

Summary:
Band CW Qs Mults
---------------------------
40: 4 4
---------------------------
Total: 4 0 4 Total Score = 56

Kansas QSO Party

Class: Single Op QRP
Operating Time (hrs): 10 min

Summary:
Band CW Qs
----------------------------
20: 3
----------------------------
Total: 3 Mults = 3 Total Score = 27

Hawaii QSO Party

Class: SO CW QRP
Operating Time (hrs): 10 min

Summary:
Band CW Qs Mults
----------------------------------------------
20: 1 1
----------------------------------------------
Total: 1 1 Total Score = 2

Field Day 2011

2011-06-26T22:02:00.005-04:00

ARRL Field Day is the first "major" contest I've had a chance to operate since getting back on the air earlier this year (no need to discuss whether FD is a contest or not - no matter what ARRL says, as long as they award bonus points and list scores in different categories, it's definitely a contest).

I had never operated FD by myself and initially decided to put in a fairly serious effort in 1B-battery, with a trip out to a friend's farm and multiple antennas...my goal was to make top-5 in 1B-battery. Instead, in the weeks prior to FD, the Georgia heat kicked in and I decided to scale back my efforts a bit. Living in an apartment, all my operations currently are Field Day style anyway. So, I built a new 50' doublet the morning of FD and hung it up, cleared off a table in the spare room for the rig, computer and batteries - although I did operate from our apartment it really was a portable operation. My revised goal was to make 400 QSOs.

The antenna ended up as a sloper, at about 45' on the high end and 15' on the low end. A little less vertical than I've been using similar antennas lately, which have worked pretty well for DX...I figured the more horizontal installation might be better for stateside.

For power, I had charged up a couple of 7Ah SLABs and had an 8-cell D-cell holder for backup. By my calculations I figured I'd use up both the SLABs and most of the D-cell pack, but figured I could re-load the D-cell holder in case I needed more juice. The FT817ND is a bit of a power hog for a 5 watt radio. I'd never used the SLABs, wasn't at all sure about my TX/RX duty cycle, and hadn't run the 817 for an extended period, so I was guessing about the amount of battery reserve I needed.

Putting everything together pre-contest took longer than I thought it would, and I didn't have time to run to the store for D-cells and it was still 15 minutes into the contest before I got going. The first hour was fairly slow, and I hoped it wasn't a sign of a long contest. After an hour or so, the rate picked up and I was happy with 30-40 QSOs per hour. Mostly S&P, at 5 watts, the runs were never very long. At one point, the last 10 rate on N1MM was over 100 - not bad for 5 watts and a 50' wire!

The 50' antenna predictably wasn't very effective on 40m and wouldn't load up at all on 80m, so I decided to go catch some sleep on the couch (hey this is FD - gotta rough it!) and ended up sleeping for about 6 hours. I figured if nothing else, I wouldn't have to take a break and run to the store for D-cells with a little luck.

I was using a Watts Up meter to monitor battery voltage and current used and was surprised how low my consumption was - apparently my estimates were fairly conservative. I ended up getting over 14 hours out of the first SLAB, and total usage for the 18 hours I ended up operating was slightly over 8.6 Ah. And I never had to buy the D-cells!

Sunday morning started a little slow, and never picked back up to the Saturday rates...which is pretty normal for contests...but it didn't seem like the conditions were quite as good on Sunday as Saturday - especially on 10 meters.

All in all, it was a successful contest. Happily, there were no thunderstorms, and really very little QRN on 40m - a rarity for FD in Georgia! The FT817 receiver wasn't nearly as bad in a crowded band as I thought it would be...but I'm still wanting to get a KX3 when they become available. I discovered 5w and even a small wire antenna can be effective for contesting...but I'm looking forward to putting up some bigger wires once we move into a house later this summer. I think SS will be fun QRP.

Final totals were:

40: 103
20: 163
15: 106
10: 77
Total: 449 QSOs, all CW

With power multipliers and bonus points, total score of 4,740.

A Little About QRP

2011-04-24T18:19:00.003-04:00

In some ways I've been able to relate to the sentiment that "life is too short for QRP"...I've always been a contester, wanting to make large numbers of QSOs in a short period of time, and QRO definitely helps do that. On the other hand, when operating contests from home, I've usually done so at the 100-watt level. It makes SO2R easier. There are less neighbor complaints. It's generally easier engineering-wise. And I lobbied for 100-watt classes for contests where one didn't exist. But, I've always been somewhat drawn to QRP, and I even owned an Argonaut 509 at one point in my ham career.

A lot of folks say that all the "heavy lifting" in QRP QSOs is done on the receiving end - that the guy using low power isn't the one that has to dig a weak signal out of the noise - it's the guy on the other end with the big station that does all the work. I've been that guy on the other end a lot of times, and yes, sometimes it is a lot of work, but even then I would marvel at how much could be done with low power. And, as I've recently discovered, with small antennas as well.

Yesterday I operated the QRPTTF contest for a couple hours. I think I made 17 QSOs in two hours, which isn't a lot by contest standards...but it's not a big contest. I operated until my battery died, using a 50' doublet I hung vertically in a tree in a park near my new home. And I had a lot of fun...it's amazing what 5w and a small antenna can do, even without super conditions. I had an HA7 answer my CQ. And in a few moments away from the contest I tuned across 18MHz and worked a 5N - yes, it was obvious he was having to work to complete the QSO, but I hope he was as amazed at what a little rig can do as I am!

And the most important thing is to have fun - whether you're QRP or QRO!

To learn a little more about QRP. you may want to check out Rich Arland's ARRL publication Low Power Communication: The Art and Science of QRP.

First QSOs on New Setup

2011-02-28T10:06:00.002-05:00

I got to try the new radio and antenna a couple nights after the end of the 2011 ARRL CW DX contest. While I wasn't QRV for the contest, at least there were a few folks still active after the contest running in contest mode, which seems easier for making quick QRP QSOs. That first night I was able to work a CE and CX on 20m at 5 watts output and on 40m I picked up a VP5 while running 2.5 watts and a J7 while running 5 watts. So, I'm 1/25 of the way to a QRP DXCC without yet working my own country! All QSOs were made using an end-fed multi-band half wave antenna at 50'.

A couple nights later I tried the 40m QRP Fox Hunt but was unable to make a QSO in an hour and a half of trying. I could hear lots of 5 watt stations calling, and at times K0FRP, one of the foxes, was a solid S-7, so I figured it would be an easy QSO. Not true at all as it turns out. I'm just beginning to experience the joys of QRP I suspect!

AA4GA is once again QRV

2011-02-26T18:41:00.000-05:00

After a couple years of QRT-ness, I'm starting to get back on the air. I'd taken down the website because it was in dire need of refreshing, so I figured now is a good time to get it back going again. More to come.