K2: A small milestone!
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Although this will come as no surprise to many readers of this forum, it is possible at the very trough of the sunspot cycle to persist and even prosper in QRP mode:
K2/10, #5569, was placed in service on 29 August 2007, and has always been operated at 5 W or less. QRP DXCC achieved 22 May 2008 thanks to 5B/LZ2HM. Antennas used: 20 meter attic dipole; 135 foot doublet, ladder line fed, at 50 feet. Longest path: VK3XU, near Melbourne, at approximately 10,527 miles (> 2000 miles/watt; 40 meter grey line!) I offer this as encouragement to those who occasionally lament the dearth of sunspots and opt for QRO! Cheers, and a spot of bubbly to all, Mike, K8CN Durham, NH |
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Congratulations Mike,
That is a most worthy achievement. Having been through several cycles since 1958 (Yikes, that seems like a long time) I gotta say I am never sorry to see the troughts come. Peaks are just overwhelming, sometimes. I once worked WAC on 10 meters in 15 minutes with about 20 watts but at peak times that ain't a big deal and the band was like a cocktail party - too intense. I like the quieter times best. 72, Tom -----Original Message----- From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Mike K8CN Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 9:07 PM To: [hidden email] Subject: [Elecraft] K2: A small milestone! Although this will come as no surprise to many readers of this forum, it is possible at the very trough of the sunspot cycle to persist and even prosper in QRP mode: K2/10, #5569, was placed in service on 29 August 2007, and has always been operated at 5 W or less. QRP DXCC achieved 22 May 2008 thanks to 5B/LZ2HM. Antennas used: 20 meter attic dipole; 135 foot doublet, ladder line fed, at 50 feet. Longest path: VK3XU, near Melbourne, at approximately 10,527 miles (> 2000 miles/watt; 40 meter grey line!) I offer this as encouragement to those who occasionally lament the dearth of sunspots and opt for QRO! Cheers, and a spot of bubbly to all, Mike, K8CN Durham, NH -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/K2%3A-A-small-milestone%21-tp17416782p17416782.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
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In reply to this post by Mike K8CN
Awesome job!!!
Dave Wilburn K4DGW K2/100 - S/N 5982 K3/100 - S/N 766 "For those who fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know." Mike K8CN wrote: > Although this will come as no surprise to many readers of this forum, it is > possible at the very trough of the sunspot cycle to persist and even prosper > in QRP mode: > > K2/10, #5569, was placed in service on 29 August 2007, and has always been > operated at 5 W or less. > QRP DXCC achieved 22 May 2008 thanks to 5B/LZ2HM. > Antennas used: 20 meter attic dipole; 135 foot doublet, ladder line fed, at > 50 feet. > Longest path: VK3XU, near Melbourne, at approximately 10,527 miles (> 2000 > miles/watt; 40 meter grey line!) > > I offer this as encouragement to those who occasionally lament the dearth of > sunspots and opt for QRO! > > Cheers, and a spot of bubbly to all, > > Mike, K8CN > Durham, NH Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
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In reply to this post by Mike K8CN
What modes?
Dave Wilburn K4DGW K2/100 - S/N 5982 K3/100 - S/N 766 "For those who fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know." Mike K8CN wrote: > Although this will come as no surprise to many readers of this forum, it is > possible at the very trough of the sunspot cycle to persist and even prosper > in QRP mode: > > K2/10, #5569, was placed in service on 29 August 2007, and has always been > operated at 5 W or less. > QRP DXCC achieved 22 May 2008 thanks to 5B/LZ2HM. > Antennas used: 20 meter attic dipole; 135 foot doublet, ladder line fed, at > 50 feet. > Longest path: VK3XU, near Melbourne, at approximately 10,527 miles (> 2000 > miles/watt; 40 meter grey line!) > > I offer this as encouragement to those who occasionally lament the dearth of > sunspots and opt for QRO! > > Cheers, and a spot of bubbly to all, > > Mike, K8CN > Durham, NH Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
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Hi David,
This was a CW-only endeavor. Once I get the KSB2 module installed, I will try my hand at digital mode QRP DXCC. Thanks, Mike, K8CN <quote author="David Wilburn"> What modes? |
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Well done. Hope to catch you on some time. Your just right down the
street. 8 call threw me off. My father grew up in Angier. Dave Wilburn K4DGW K2/100 - S/N 5982 K3/100 - S/N 766 "For those who fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know." Mike K8CN wrote: > Hi David, > > This was a CW-only endeavor. Once I get the KSB2 module installed, I will > try > my hand at digital mode QRP DXCC. > > Thanks, > > Mike, K8CN > > > What modes? > > > Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
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In reply to this post by Mike K8CN
Congratulations! This is an outstanding accomplishment - not only sticking with QRP, but also with modest wire antennas. A great example to the rest of us and some of the newcomers thinking that all is lost if you don't have at least 100W and a tribander.
Now, do you give any insights on how this was achieved? Working contests, odd hours, simply lots of time on the air, using announcements of DXpeditions, clusters, studying propagation, etc.? 73 - Kristinn, TF3KX
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Hi Kristinn, Although I've been a ham for 41 years, I was totally unfamiliar with QRP until late August 2007 when I completed the K2 construction and put it on the air. Thus, my observations about how this small (and I do emphasize small) achievement came about will not be great secrets revealed to those who have practiced QRP for many years. Indeed, I have local friends with more than 250 countries worked QRP, so this advice from a "newbie" is given rather self-consciously: (1) Location helps, and don't be afraid of contests. The Northeast U.S. has easy access to the many countries of EU on several bands. I had not even thought of attempting QRP DXCC until a brief entry into the CQ WW CW test last fall convinced me that I could work DX in QRP mode. I've not yet begun a thorough log analysis to see how the long doublet helped, but my recollection is that I worked more than 50 DXCC entities on the 20 meter attic dipole, and many of them in that single contest. I attribute this good fortune to location and to the skilled contesters on the other end who worked hard to dig my signal from the QRN/QRM. The ARRL DX test this spring added another 20 or so entities with just 9 hours of activity -- contests definitely are more time-efficient as a harvesting tool! (2) Study propagation. I had only been casually active on the bands before completing the K2, and my knowledge of best times/bands to reach certain parts of the world was superficial. I began listening more frequently with the K2, even if only for a few minutes, at various times during the day on several bands just to hear what might be coming in. If a station seemed loud, I would try a call. Eventually I built up a sense of just how loud a DX station needed to be so that I might have a chance to be heard there. I didn't take advantage of propagation prediction tools, but would have done so had I not been more concerned with using limited hobby time for on-air listening/making QSOs. (3) Re-arrange schedules if possible. I didn't have a lot of on-air time available to me because of work and family responsibilities, but I did shift those around as best I could to take advantage of propagation patterns that became evident over time. I didn't consider the hours odd -- I tried to be active in the early mornings for grey line propagation into the South Pacific, weekend mid-mornings to EU, mid-to late afternoons for Africa and the Middle East when I could get away early, and early evenings for whatever was still open in the 0000Z-0300Z interval. Can't recall doing any really late night operation even during contests -- those other duties still beckoned the next morning! (4) Use DX spotting clusters off-line. I didn't use clusters in real-time, and still don't do so. However, I did find them to be a tremendous help in discerning when, and on which bands, to be on the air for particular DX regions. I looked for reporter callsigns from the Northeast U.S. to learn what they were working at various times of the day and on which bands they were finding DX entities of interest to me. If I hoped to find a regularly active DX station from a particular region, I would search for that callsign in the cluster archives and determine the most probable bands and times-of-day to listen for that station. (5) Put up more than one antenna if you have room. Both of my antennas run North/South. I could reliably work NZ/AU stations on 40 meter grey line propagation, but battled to pull out a few Caribbean stations that should have been easy pickings. I'll be adding an East/West oriented wire this summer! (6) Be persistent - QRP builds character! I say this from experience: after fighting for large portions of several weekends over the span of nearly 3 months to put up the long doublet high and in the clear above many overhanging tree branches, I learned a new patience and persistence that I didn't have previously. The same may be said of the on-air experience -- I kept calling, refined my timing of calls in pileups, and tried the trick of calling slightly off frequency from the previous station who worked the entity I was chasing. Eventually the log filled up...... 73, Mike, K8CN |
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