Well many say “life’s too short for QRP”, and well for some that may be true. But I enjoy a good challenge! And QRP, especially phone can be one heck of a challenge! Here’s how I chase CQ callers and deal with pile-ups.
13 Colonies Special Event
Well, I attempted a clean sweep in the 13 colonies special event that happened from July 1 (9AM Eastern) to July 7 (Midnight Eastern) (July 1, 2020-1300 UTC to July 8, 2020-0400 UTC) and fell 1 short of the clean sweep, gaining only 1 of the 2 special event stations.
PI4 GPIO PTT via Hamlib (rigctld)
Well I had the bright idea that I would simply rebuild my audio isolation box and add a relay to key the PTT circuit with the PI’s GPIO pins for digital modes since the IC-730 doesn’t have a traditional rig control.
Net Night & PI4 Update
OK so some functionality that I want to achieve is up and running. GREAT NEWS is the noise floor that’s plagued my station is now gone! From a S5/6 noise floor down to S1/2 let’s hope it stays that way!
Raspberry PI 4 First Impressions
Recently I purchased a PI4 to replace an ageing tower because of the noise floor it was creating on the 40m (7mhz) band. So far the PI has succeeded in reducing the noise floor from s5 to s1 here in the shack.
Online Testing?
Should we be allowing online testing, if so, how should we execute it and maintain volume and integrity of the process while maintaining required social distancing during this uncertain time of COVID-19?
GA QSO PARTY
Well, Saturday April 11 2020 was an abbreviated GA QSO PARTY contest. I didn’t get but a couple of hours to participate from my home station in SC but I hope I did help 16 of my fellow hams with those last few points they needed. Not too shabby really, not great, but not bad 16 QSOs in an hour that’s only 7 min 30 sec to find someone calling CQ and bust through the pileups and get the contact in the log on average. Log below:
Builds and ongoing shack work
But I did get a few minutes to piddle in the shack and I think those few minutes turned out really nice! A new V/A meter, I wont go in depth here as its got it’s own write up under the projects section, go check it out!
Net Night & Portable HF
After the G1M had it’s little microphone issue and the subsequent repair, I finally got the chance to use it for the 100W&AW net. Ian had issues not due to my signal but due to another couple of operators just below the net frequency so the contact was short and struggled for, but I made it in.
On the road, radio trouble and waiting on parts!
Well mixed in would be “crystal clear” reports and the next QSO someone tell me “You’re ate up with RF OM”. Think I finally found it!