Tuning through some CW using my QRP rig in the truck.

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Getting the Tri-Bander battery charged up to try to make some 

QSO's on 40m for the first time from the truck.

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World Radio Day from Greeley, Colorado!

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It's World Radio Day!

13 February, 2016 

 
Today is World Radio Day

The theme is: 
"Radio in Times of Emergency and Disaster"

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What worldwide shortwave stations are on-the-air?
Look here:  
http://www.short-wave.info/

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"In the internet age, radio still rules the world - On World Radio Day, UN says 44,000 radio stations broadcast to five billion people, or roughly 70 percent of the world." - Al Jazeera

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Radio Comms Heard - Greeley, CO
World Radio Day - 2016

6:40am - 449.45MHz - Voice Comms 7am - 146.94MHz - Weather Net 7:46am - 145.34MHZ - Voice Comms 7:47am - 147.00MHz - Voice Comms 8:30am - 145.34MHz Say Good Morning Net Comms 9am - 17.580MHz World Radio Day Edition of VOA Radiogra 10:20am 145.31MHz - Voice Comm 10:21am - 146.79MHz - Voice Comms

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15 Meters on a 40 Meter Dipole With a MFJ-971 Tuner

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Today I decided to try my luck with QRP CW using the 40m simple wire dipole that I have with my MFJ-971 antenna tuner. I knew that this would hypothetically work, but I had not tried it yet because I was focusing my efforts on 40m. Why not since that's what the antenna is tuned to. I was pleasantly surprised by the results: four QSO's in as many hours at 3w PEP. The farthest one being about 1641 miles away That was impressive to me based on my prior experience on 40m. I wonder what my 3 watts could do with an antenna that was actually tuned to 15 meters!
 

Greeley, CO to Harwinton, CT - 1641 Miles!

 

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FEB 2016 QSO's

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Greeley, CO to Lexington, TX

 above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

  QSO: CW QRP / QRS

Date/Time: 19 FEB 2016 / Approx: 0358hrs UTC
Per N9SSA Distance and Miles Per Watt Calculator:

Dist: Approx 816 miles - Pwr = 3w PEP

Dist Per Watt =  204 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole w/ MFJ-971 Tuner
Freq: 7.053 MHz

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Greeley, CO to Harwinton, CT
The farthest my QRP rig has reached yet!

 above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

  QSO: CW QRP / QRS

Date/Time: 11 FEB 2016 / Approx: 2300hrs UTC
Per N9SSA Distance and Miles Per Watt Calculator:

Dist: Approx 1641 miles - Pwr = 3w PEP

Dist Per Watt =  547 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole w/ MFJ-971 Tuner
Freq: 21.050 MHz

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Greeley, CO to Choccolocco, AL

 above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

  QSO: CW QRP / QRS

Date/Time: 11 FEB 2016 / 2144hrs UTC

Dist: Approx 1146 miles - Pwr = 3w PEP

Dist Per Watt =  381 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole w/ MFJ-971 Tuner
Freq: 21.050 MHz

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Greeley, CO to Portland, OR
Made initial contact but lost to QSB

 above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

  QSO: CW QRP / QRS

Date/Time: 11 FEB 2016 / 2054hrs UTC

Dist: Approx 973 miles - Pwr = 3w PEP

Dist Per Watt =  324 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole w/ MFJ-971 Tuner
Freq: 21.050 MHz

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Greeley, CO to Corpus Christi, TX
My first ever 15m QSO! Thanks Mike!

above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

  QSO: CW QRP / QRS

Date/Time: 11 FEB 2016 / 1747hrs UTC

Dist: Approx 967 miles - Pwr < 4w PEP

Dist Per Watt > 239 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole w/ MFJ-971 Tuner
Freq: 21.048 MHz

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Greeley, CO to Cincinnati, OH

above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

  QSO: CW QRP / QRS

Date/Time: 10 FEB 2016 / 0539hrs UTC

Dist: Approx 1066 miles - Pwr < 5w

Dist Per Watt > 213 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole
Freq: 7.053 MHz

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Greeley, CO to  Kent, WA

above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

  QSO: CW QRP / QRS

Date/Time: 10 FEB 2016 / 0129hrs UTC

Dist: Approx 994 miles - Pwr < 5w

Dist Per Watt > 199 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole
Freq: 7.116 MHz

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Greeley, CO to Houston, TX

above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

  QSO: CW QRP / QRS

Date/Time: 09 FEB 2016 / 0021hrs UTC

Dist: Approx 906 miles - Pwr < 5w

Dist Per Watt > 185 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole
Freq: 7.114 MHz

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QSO Feb. 7th, 2016

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2nd QSO from Greeley, CO to Farmersville, TX

Thanks for the great chat!

above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

  QSO: CW QRP / QRS

Date/Time: 07 FEB 2016 / 0233hrs UTC

Dist: Approx 682 miles - Pwr < 5w

Dist Per Watt > 137 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole
Freq: 7.111 MHz

QSO's Feb. 6th, 2016

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Greeley, CO to Farmersville, TX

Another good CW QSO tonight. I've been lucky with my QRP rig the last few days. 

Hope this keeps up! Thanks Jon.

above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

  QSO: CW QRP / QRS

Date/Time: 06 FEB 2016 / 0225hrs UTC

Dist: Approx 682 miles - Pwr < 5w

Dist Per Watt > 137 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole
Freq: 7.1083 MHz


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Greeley, CO to Seguin, TX

Tonight was apparently destined to be a Texas night. This QSO was great for a few minutes before the QRN took over on my end unfortunately. Hopefully the airwaves will be more cooperative on the next go round. Thanks Art!

 above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

  QSO: CW QRP / QRS

Date/Time: 06 FEB 2016 / 0529hrs UTC

Dist: Approx 842 miles - Pwr < 5w

Dist Per Watt > 168 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole
Freq: 7.053 MHz


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QSO Feb. 5th, 2016

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It is always a pleasure to copy crystal clear code with a super strong signal. My first QSO from the state that I called home for 8 years. Thanks Tony!

Greeley, CO to Oxnard, CA

above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

  QSO: CW QRP / QRS

Date/Time: 05 FEB 2016 / 0341hrs UTC

Dist: Approx 903 miles - Pwr < 5w

Dist Per Watt > 181 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole
Freq: 7.114 MHz

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5th CW QRP QSO

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Tonight's QSO was easily the easiest CW to copy (mostly due to excellent signal strength) that I've experienced yet as a ham. It was also the first time that I'd ever heard someone calling my callsign on the air when I wasn't expecting it. That was fun to hear! My radio's battery cut out during my initial response, so I had to quickly fumble around to get the AC/DC power supply up and running. Many thanks go out to Larry in Ohio for waiting around for me to get back on the air, and then for being patient with my QRS/QRP CW as well.

Greeley, CO to Wapakoneta, OH

above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

Date/Time: 02 FEB 2016 / 0418hrs UTC

Dist: Approx 1076 miles - Pwr < 5w

Dist Per Watt > 218 miles per watt

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole
Freq: 7.053 MHz 

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CQ CQ WFD DE...

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Tonight I ran into a station calling CQ WFD, which it turns out is a call for the Winter Field Day. I tried to respond, but the calling station couldn't hear me. I also answered a CQ call from the ongoing K3Y event, and although he could hear that I was responding, he couldn't make out my code through the static. As much as I enjoy the challenge of QRP comms, I will be happy to eventually have a rig with more power when I need it.

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CWops CW Test (CWT) Wednesday Nights

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I was surprised by how much CW I was hearing from 7.120-7.140MHz this evening, so I had to investigate. Turns out that I ran across the weekly Wednesday night CWT contest. Details can be found here: http://www.cwops.org/cwt.html

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4th CW Contact

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This afternoon's QSO came thanks to SKCC's "Elmer" Program.

Thanks SKCC and thanks Dale!

Greeley, CO to Green River WY - Great QSO!

above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

Date/Time: 26 Jan 2016 / 2233UTC

Dist: Approx 260 miles. 

Freq: 7.110MHz 

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Pwr < 5w

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole

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3rd CW Contact

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3d QSO tonight. CW - 4W - 738 Miles. Great Fun!

Greeley, CO to Marcell, MN

 above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

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2nd CW Contact

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Made my 2nd ever CW contact tonight as part of the SKCC's January K3Y event. I've found that using the K3UK Sked Page to figure out who is on the air from SKCC at any given time, and the Reverse Beacon site for the 40m band makes it super easy to locate CW signals on the 40m band, in real-time, that I'll be likely to copy. 

Greeley, CO to Buffalo Grove, IL

 above map courtesy of "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

Date/Time: 7 Jan 2016 / 0118 UTC

Dist: Approx 877 miles. 

Freq: 7.052MHz 

Rig: KD1JV Tri-Bander

Pwr < 5w

Ant. 40m Wire Dipole

Straight Key Night 2016

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Tuning around 40m looking for some CW action:

The sound quality in this video is over-modulated, 

but you can still hear the Morse Code in there.

The band was busy tonight.

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First Ever CW QSO!

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I just made my first ever CW QSO: approximately 647 mile contact (Greeley, CO to Fayetteville, AR) using a KD1JV Tri-Bander and a straight key, transmitting less than 5w through a 40m dipole spanning the back yard. Ready now for Straight Key Night.

Greeley, CO to Fayetteville, AR

Map created using: http://tjpeiffer.com/crowflies.html

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My Rigs

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My KD1JV Tri-Bander and Heathkit Electronic Keyer

Having the keyer is redundant with this radio,
but when these pics were taken, I didn't yet have a straight key.

Russian Morse code key that I have yet to clean up and get attached to the KD1JV.

Baofeng GT-3TP 2m / 70cm HT


UPDATE: November 10th, 2015:

YouKits HB-1B 4-Band QRP Transceiver




Update: December 2nd, 2015:

DJG-K4 Straight Key

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Amateur Radio Log

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20150815

Monitoring CW from Grand Junction, Colorado using a

KD1JV Tri-Bander with a 100ft  18guage wire attached to the MFJ Deluxe Versa Tuner II

0647hrs - 7.035MHz - heard KG0RD calling VE3TP - couldn't hear VE3TP

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20150814

0630hrs MT - listening to the Colorado Weather Net on 146.940MHz.

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20150809 Sunday 1930hrs UTC

Today I read on a Facebook QRP page that the NJQRP 4th Annual "Skeeter Hunt" was happening and so decided to try out my KD1JV with my old, rusting MFJ Deluxe Versa Tuner II and a 100ft longwire antenna.

I'm planning to trim this wire down to either 86ft or 56ft - based on some articles that I've seen on successful QRP antennas, but for now, I just wanted to give the radio a whirl with a random-length bit of wire to see how that worked out.

Using this long-wire, (#22) simply laid out on the grass in the front yard, I was able to hear CW better than I've been able to in the past with other antennas I've had plugged into the same rig in the past.

At the moment I only have a paddle for CW, and I have not practiced with it at all, so I'm not transmitting today, but it is good to know that the long wire works for listening at least, even when it's just lying down on the ground.

Today I only heard Morse on 20 meters, although I tried listening on 40m and 15m as well. No joy there, but I'll look forward to trying out the Tri-Bander when I'm able to hike up to a higher elevation and actually transmit.

While listening around 14.060 I heard the call "CQ WES" (which I had never noticed before) and, upon looking it up, discovered the SKCC Weekend Sprintathon, which I was also new to me. So now I am aware of another venue to start using CW as soon as I get my straight key up and running.