2015 SARL Winter QRP contest

As you all know I am a huge fan of QRP, but after reading the feedback below from Roger ZS6RJ (the guy with the rather loud headset) I could not resist sharing his feedback "Ode to a QRP contest".

Conditions on the higher HF bands were rather poor and working QRP DX from the southern tip of Africa was not easy to say the least.

I did not work a single DX station, I sure hope others fared better.

Ode to a QRP contest:

“Come help with QRP”
“It’ll be a hoot, you’ll see”

I raised the hex beam with great glee
Ignoring the fiberglass stuck in me

Calling ad-nausea for more than an hour
Left me disillusioned and rather sour

So as the QRP leader broke down the camp
I whacked him over the head, with my linear amp.

Roger ZS6RJ and Nick ZS6NCK operating ZS6WR club station

 

 

Activating (almost) ZS/GP-001

I have just returned home after my first attempt at being a SOTA activator (goat)

Yesterday, I spent quite a long time carefully packing my kit in preparation for the trip. We awoke before sunrise and SWAMBO and I hit the road early, we arrived at our destination with some time to spare. In fact on the way I stopped to survey yet another summit: GP-002 on the way.

I immediately erected the telescopic fibre glass mask and hauled up the 20/40m linked inverted vee dipole. With that all done, we quickly took a few photographs for prosperity and then sat down and started connecting the Elecraft K2 to all the paraphernalia: Paddle, microphone, feed line and battery….. It was then I discovered a huge problem. The battery cable was not in the bag, I had inadvertently left it at home.

I had no choice, but to pack up and return home.

Even though no QSOs were made it still was a most pleasant experience. I recon I will do this again sometime.

Click on images for higher resolution.

Perdekop ZS/GP-001 view SE

ZS/GP-001 Perdekop

ARRL DX CW contest - QRP

A had a few pleasant surprises yesterday. Due to the saltmine interfering with my contesting I only arrived home late Saturday afternoon.

I was monitoring the solar numbers for the last few days and it certainly did not seem very promising. I was therefore very pleased and surprized to see that 10m was fairly open with many good workable signals from Europe and a while later from Canada, North America and the Caribbean.

Due to the nature of the ARRL DX CW rules much of the “juicy DX” was off limits….

However I was very pleased to make a few QSOs with North American and one station in Canada. I was using my Elecraft K3, running 5 watts and a simple dipole mounted at 8 metres agl.

It was very obvious from the responses that there was a certain amazement/disbelief from most of the stations. In most cases they copied my call on the first try without requiring any retries, but in most cases I had to repeat my exchange “5W” a few times. I suppose they were so used to receiving “KW”, so what is this “5W” business….

I am very impressed with some of the big gun stations, not only do most have good signals, they also have incredibly sharp operators with good receiving abilities to work my weak signal.

I worked the following stations: 

K9CT, VB3E, KE9I, W0AIH, K1KP, N8AA, K2AX, N0NI, W2CG, W2JU, W3LPL

And some say QRP is for the birds…..

ZS6A "One Echo – Golf Papa”

My daypack is packed and I ready for the SARL Field Day event.

I have decided to participate in the new ultra-light portable class - E
I will thus be using "1E GP" as the exchange: One tranceiver, Ultra-light portable from Gauteng province.

Class E – Ultra Light Portable:

Light weight self-contained stations, operating QRP or low power such as RaDAR, Summits on the Air, Parks on the Air (game and nature reserves), Islands on the Air, Heritage sites, etc. The entire station, antenna included, must be carried by the operator to the operating site. The distance carried must not be less than 1 km.

It is rather amazing how quickly the weight adds up:

The K2 transceiver, 3 AH SLA battery, short run of RG58au feed line, link dipole, paddle (Much too heavy), a few tools, Log book, High density foam chassis support (otherwise known as a seat cushion), snacks and 1 litre of ice water.

Total weight 8 kg

I plan to give further feedback a bit later.

Feedback:

I have just returned from my SARL field day excursion to Rynfield dam. The walk from home to the park was around 20 minutes. Once again, I used a tree as the antenna support and the shade for my creature comfort.

Heck, I am unfit. Maybe if I participate in all the local contests as an ultra-light portable station, I might end up becoming fit.

Erecting the 40/15m link dipole took less than 10 minutes and worked very well. Conditions over the short distances were excellent no short skip evident. The longer distances were a problem and only ZS2PE (Port Elizabeth club station) was heard no stations further south were heard or worked.

I logged using pen and paper and in parallel I used the iPhone app HAMLOG. The program worked like a charm and I have my log available as CSV or in ADIF format.

Finding CW QSOs was a problem today, not sure why.......

 I operated using < 5 watt (QRP) for all the QSOs. I was planning to use CW only, but it was evident from early in the event that this would have been a mistake. After all the effort of operating as a ultra-light portable station one needs to have at least a few QSOs to prove the effectiveness and performance of the station.

It is rather sad to see that in South Africa it appears as if there are very few newcomers to the mojo mode CW. Using the muggle modes (SSB) just doesn’t do it for me…..

I only managed to work 23 stations including 6 CW QSOs.

Had fun all the same.

ZS6A SARL FD Feb 2013 QRP

Time to show and tell….

CQ-WW-CW contest 2012

I have been reading a few of the CQ-WW-CW reviews on the various blog sites and I was most impressed at their results they achieved.

John AE5X :   http://www.ae5x.com/blog/2012/11/26/cqww-2012/#more-10632

Phil KL8DX :  http://kl8dx.blogspot.com/2012/11/cq-world-wide-dx-cw-contest-morning.html

I was pretty tied up with work at the moment and only a few hours on Sunday to take part.

The graph below says it all….. 

Even with this dismal attempt I managed to work 3 all time new DXCC entities and 5 new entities on 10m.

I am looking forward to putting in a serious effort next year. Not having great antennas I might have to limit myself to a single band yet again. I must ensure that I am ready with at least one half decent antenna for either 20, 15 or 10m.

There is something very special about CW contests……

This is the first opportunity to put my new Elecraft K3 and KPA-500 through their paces. I think I can honestly say the performance is simply amazing. It has exceeded all my expectations in every regard. The second receiver (Sub) is such a powerful tool. I hope to write something about that soon. It gives us such a huge advantage during split operation that I think once others realize it, it might get banned.

73, Pierre ZS6A

ZS6A CQ WW CW 2012