¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

ctrl + shift + ? for shortcuts
© 2025 Groups.io
  1. QRPops
  2. Topics

Dec. 10, 2010 14:00-17:00 PST, Bayshore Preserve, Palo Alto

 

Cloudy but warm until about 16:30. No wind. One of the best band condx of the past two years.

My lack-of-ham-activities-induced depression was considerably eased today. I had a few leisurely SSB QSOs on all three bands with 2.5 watts (I din't turn on my 30 watts amp at all); 20, 17 and 15, including JAs on all of them. I was pleasantly interrupted by a newly minted ham (a common hazard of operating in a public parking lot) who wanted to learn everything about HF operation in half an hour. ?I was more positively disposed than usual this afternoon, so obliged him with his queries. Hope he will join our rank soon.

I forgot to bring my mag loop (that's what happens when you don't operate for a long time and my brains are not getting younger, regrettably), so I only had the modified MP-1 vertical. I used a military surplus pole/mast, instead of the original one, which is about 3 times longer. (See attached pic) I cannot use it on a windy day but there was no wind today; that's one nice thing about a cloudy day at the bayshore. It allows me to tune the MP-1 more easily broadbanding it quite a bit and at least in theory produces a bit stronger signal.

JA1CG, whom I had met many times on the air on all three bands, was quite surprised how strong I was coming in. I suggested that he power down and see what I could hear. He powered down from his usual 200 watts first to 50, then 5 and finally to 2 watts. I don't think he fully believed me when I told him that I could copy Q5 at 2 watts. He is one of the most potent signals on 20, if not on other bands, from JAs; his antenna for that band is 5 element mono bander Yagi at ?22 meter high. I had a similar experience with JH1OOC, one of the big guns on 17, before. The Kanto Plane, where Tokyo is located, was covered with snow today.

I heard XE2/VE2 M/M having many QSOs (though he didn't seem to hear me) from off the coast of Mazatran, Mexico. He was on a cruise. Operating M/M is my next project. The majority of cruises still don't readily allow ham activities, but some do and many ingenious hams have managed to operate QRP anyway.

Hope all of you had a good day. (How are you doing, Tim?)

73,

Hiroki AH6CY




?





--- On Fri, 12/10/10, Hiroki Kato wrote:

From: Hiroki Kato
Subject: Come and play with me
To: QRPops@...
Date: Friday, December 10, 2010, 11:21 AM

QRPopsters,

To ameliorate my depression from not having been on the air so long, I decided to spend a few hours this afternoon operating QRP at the Bayshore Preserve in Palo Alto.

If any of you are available, you are welcome to join me. I plan to be there from 2 to 5, WX permitting. Look for the dark gray Prius with my call plate (better yet, look for the mag loop).

73,

Hiroki AH6CY
capesafari
 

Hi all
Hiroki's - report is great and what good propagation! Wow !


Here's a quick report from another westcoast.

While visiting here in ZS, we always take hf on the road.
This week we setup camp on the beach abt 100mi north of Cape Town (atlantic
Ocean side,) off the southern most tip of the continent.
Stn includes 706 + homebrew multiband vert ( and of course a good dose of salt water ) + dinner and a campfire under the Southern skies.

Monday night's dark moon made for a really nice night sky,
with the milky way almost bright enough to read a book by.

No rf pollution out here means no noise floor meaning you can 'tune
In and listen' to the world.

Working mostly night time cw, S. America is an easy target and
besides cw, 40 ssb is very crowded at night like you can't believe with all sorts of EU, AP and other 'misc numeric prefix dx' considered rare dx and very seldom heard from my location in SoCal.
Therefore, from here, most all qso's are dx.
Besides zs, Most of Sub Saharan Africa is rf quiet so
qrp doesnt get too far when the closest dx is a few bounces away across either the
Atlantic or Indian ocean or to EU or Antarctica.
(30-50w) normally does the trick with good propagation.
Na is relatively easy on 20 / 40 around 4am Z ( grayline sunrise hr)

The multiband vert is homebrew from an arrl antenna hadnbook chapter on 'portable antennas'. The single counterpoise bottom loaded design sets up in 5 mins and collapses to 2ft sections - highly practical for portable operations. A single counterpoise is adjusted per each band along with a coil tap to match.
From the tests we've done here, the antenna radiates really well at low angles.
More tests to follow, but compares really well to Hustler 4BTV

Having a great time with hf on safari. We'll be heading out
on another trip to a mountain top location later this month.

Pics to follow.

73 from zs
Deon k6wh, zs1d

--- In QRPops@..., Hiroki Kato <hiroki@...> wrote:

Cloudy but warm until about 16:30. No wind. One of the best band condx of the past two years.
My lack-of-ham-activities-induced depression was considerably eased today. I had a few leisurely SSB QSOs on all three bands with 2.5 watts (I din't turn on my 30 watts amp at all); 20, 17 and 15, including JAs on all of them. I was pleasantly interrupted by a newly minted ham (a common hazard of operating in a public parking lot) who wanted to learn everything about HF operation in half an hour. ?I was more positively disposed than usual this afternoon, so obliged him with his queries. Hope he will join our rank soon.

I forgot to bring my mag loop (that's what happens when you don't operate for a long time and my brains are not getting younger, regrettably), so I only had the modified MP-1 vertical. I used a military surplus pole/mast, instead of the original one, which is about 3 times longer. (See attached pic) I cannot use it on a windy day but there was no wind today; that's one nice thing about a cloudy day at the bayshore. It allows me to tune the MP-1 more easily broadbanding it quite a bit and at least in theory produces a bit stronger signal.
JA1CG, whom I had met many times on the air on all three bands, was quite surprised how strong I was coming in. I suggested that he power down and see what I could hear. He powered down from his usual 200 watts first to 50, then 5 and finally to 2 watts. I don't think he fully believed me when I told him that I could copy Q5 at 2 watts. He is one of the most potent signals on 20, if not on other bands, from JAs; his antenna for that band is 5 element mono bander Yagi at ?22 meter high. I had a similar experience with JH1OOC, one of the big guns on 17, before. The Kanto Plane, where Tokyo is located, was covered with snow today.
I heard XE2/VE2 M/M having many QSOs (though he didn't seem to hear me) from off the coast of Mazatran, Mexico. He was on a cruise. Operating M/M is my next project. The majority of cruises still don't readily allow ham activities, but some do and many ingenious hams have managed to operate QRP anyway.
Hope all of you had a good day. (How are you doing, Tim?)
73,
Hiroki AH6CY



?




--- On Fri, 12/10/10, Hiroki Kato <hiroki@...> wrote:

From: Hiroki Kato <hiroki@...>
Subject: Come and play with me
To: QRPops@...
Date: Friday, December 10, 2010, 11:21 AM

QRPopsters,
To ameliorate my depression from not having been on the air so long, I decided to spend a few hours this afternoon operating QRP at the Bayshore Preserve in Palo Alto.
If any of you are available, you are welcome to join me. I plan to be there from 2 to 5, WX permitting. Look for the dark gray Prius with my call plate (better yet, look for the mag loop).
73,
Hiroki AH6CY
Dave Flack
 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

Great report from ZS, Deon!? Here's a link to an article about why/how a vertical with a single tuned radial counterpoise works so well.

Dave, W6DLF
capesafari
 

Tks for that article Dave

I uploaded a few small pics here:


73, Deon zs1d

--- In QRPops@..., "Dave Flack" <daveflack@...> wrote:

Great report from ZS, Deon! Here's a link to an article
about why/how a vertical with a single tuned radial
counterpoise works so well.



Dave, W6DLF

1 - 4 of 4