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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Little Victories

There is a song I like by Chris Knight, one of my favorite musical artists, called Little Victories. The chorus goes,"little victories, there alright with me, these days that's all I need". And so it is with QRP operating. Working state side with QRO and a beam is no victory at all, but you cut your power to 5 watts and its cause for a small celebration, work a good DX station and there might be some victory dances in the shack.

I've had a couple of little victories in the last 24 hours. The first was working KH2L on 10m CW for country #121 on QRP. I was reminded during the QSO that a QRP operators have to use all the tools at our disposal to make QSO's more probable. This time I was calling with no success and noticed on the KX3 display that I wasn't quite centered on the KH2's transmitting frequency, for those with a KX3, its the CWT display. I zero beat his signal and bingo, in the log.

My other little victory was this morning. I was chasing a SOTA peak, Gespitzer Riegal, in Austria on 17m SSB. Mike, OE4MXB, was QRP on this mountain top. I was using my QRO rig and beam for this one, as I really wanted the QSO and I'm sure that Mike wanted it also. There was a lot of QRM on adjacent frequecies and Mike was in and out. Finally, the window opened and Mike was a solid 44, heard me and we made the QSO. A little QRP rig on a mountaintop in Austria worked Texas with 5 watts and a portable antenna. Oh the joy of little victories.

4 comments:

  1. Good afternoon Mike, I find that with QRP and QRPp you have more interaction with your radio. With QRO sometimes it's spin the dial make the contact and move on. With QRP there is more dealing with filters, getting spot on and keeping at it to make the contact. Great work on both the summit and getting country 21!
    Mike

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    1. Mike

      You are absolutely correct, I am much more sensitive about zero beating a station when I am operatind QRP. Also, if your radio has filtering its comes in handy when working a QRP station.

      73,

      Mike AD5A

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  2. Hello Mike, thanks for the nice post. QRP is fun on both sides, but you need more patience. 73, Bert

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    Replies
    1. Bert,

      Yes, patience indeed. I don't report on all the stations that I have missed on QRP, hi. But that will make the eventual QSO that much more satisfying.

      73,

      Mike

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