03/30/2019z

              Well spring has certainly sprung.  Not a lot of QSO’s are going on.  I’m just not finding the time.   However, I’ve been wanting to operate during lunch.  As luck would have it my good friend Mike NR9R called me on Thursday and wanted to know what I was doing for lunch.  I let him know my thoughts but that I forgot my radio and antenna at home.  No problem!  Mike had his, so I swung by Subway to split a sandwich and met Mike at the park.  In no time we had the hamstick with ground mount and radials set up and we were enjoying food and a QSO!

We answered a CQ and Stan N1ZX responded with a RST of 319.  He was booming into Indianapolis, IN from Florida.  He congratulated us for the QSO in the park so he was copying enough to know what we were up to and wanted to know how much power we were running.  He was also impressed with my SKCC number because it’s below 1000.  Way too soon it was time to pack it up and get back to work.   That work thing really kills the better part of a day. 

              Yesterday I was driving to work and a new ham hopped on the local repeater looking for me.  It’s my regular watering hole on the commute so if your looking or me you will find me on the W9IRA 146.700 repeater.  Anyway, this guy let me know he was looking at the QCX single band radio from QRP Labs.  I don’t think I know anyone who has one so I don’t have good advice.  However, he is technician class license and on a budget.  He is looking for advice to get on HF and thinks CW might be the best way to go.  This is perfect.  This really interests me!  I have often thought if technician licensees had the privileges that they do when I got licensed maybe I would have just stayed there and enjoyed CW on HF and 2 meter.  Anyway, I think this is one reason QRP is so attractive.  It’s inexpensive and very effective.  The barrier to entry is learning code.  I invited him to our QRP Firefly get together this Wednesday night to get collective thoughts.  If you have any thoughts about please comment and I will pass your advice along. 

              Today we have rain and it’s cooling off again.  The temperature has dropped to 40 degrees and will continue to drop until we have the possibility of snow flurries.  That’s spring! 

03.10.2019

OK, well it has been almost a year since I last posted on the blog.  There are many reasons.  One is that I moved to Plainfield, IN in May.  That took a lot of time of course to not only physically move but also just settle in.  It has been very nice though and I am enjoying it here very much.  The bands have also been terrible lately.  Oh, a QSO can be made and I have been making them with my Elecraft K2, but much harder for 1.5 watts.  Well, my good friend Brian KB9BVN just purchased a new radio available at 4 states QRP Club called a hilltopper 20.  It is designed off the SW+ series radios and that should put me over the edge to buy one myself.  However, a couple years ago I bought a MFJ Cub for 20 meters and have never really taken advantage of it as much as I thought I would.  So, I wanted to work with that and see if I could make a QSO before Brian.  My QSO came today by taking advantage of the ID QSO party.  I got two.  K7PI a club station and KA7T.  My regular antenna right now is a off center fed dipole for 80 meters.  I just don’t think it is efficient enough for 1.5 watts output, so I set up my hamstick on a mount with radials I made.  No tuner needed and a takeoff angle that will get me a better distance.  I heard AK and sure tried but to no avail.  As a side note there seems to be interest in the ground mount I make for hamsticks.  I made these several years ago and have been able to use them backpacking and just about anywhere you can shove a rod into the ground and spread out some radials.  It seems to work very well and my friend Mike NR9R received one.  He has also had great luck with it and uses it at lunch time in parks.  I think I will look into getting a freq-mite for the cub and see if I can track my frequency when I am on the air with it.

So…. The MFJ Cub works!  Another reason I am really interested in using the “Cub” is because there is another “Cub” on the way.  It is the new 2019 Honda Super Cub!  This is a new design of the classic Honda Cub introduced in America in the 1950’s with a 125cc engine. 

This little motorcycle wasn’t easy to reserve.  It is a limited release right now so I reserved mine in October and expected it at the end of January.  Like most new things I guess it is delayed.  So here we are getting toward the middle of March and I’m still waiting.  But hopefully before real riding weather gets here I will have the “Cub” in the garage and a "Cub" in the bag ready for QRP adventures together!  I will blog more than once a year.  So Please look for another update from time to time.

72, Ivin