Archive: Author: aa4ga

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.