Do QRP'ers Have an Identitiy Crisis?

So I was browsing the QRP Blogs today and I read about the most recent QRP contest. It occurred to me that maybe QRPer's have self esteem issues. Two of the activities that seem to attract a lot of QRP'ers are, "The Flight of the Bumblebees" and "The Skeeter Hunt". So, as I contemplated the deeper meaning, both the bumblebee and the skeeter are annonying creatures that bite you and yes, even carry disease. People actually spray chemicals on themselves to keep bees and skeeters away. Now I ask you as a fellow QRP'er; is this really who we are? Skeeters and bees, should these be the mascots of QRPdom? We should rather associate ourselves with the sly, skilled animals of the forests that we are, those that through their guile and agility are able to strike quickly and capture their prey. Why can't we have, "The Flight of the Eagles" or "The King of the Jungle Hunt". These symbols, or mascots if you will, would invoke a much stronger sense of purpose and pride, we can hold our heads high and make cool T-Shirts, while demonstrating to the world that indeed QRP'ers are a force to be reckoned with. We could say, "come join us in our hunt for the Lions this weekend", instead of "hey, wanna go skeeter hunting?". Anyway, just some thoughts, skeeters and bees or Eagles and Lions.

QRP Key?

There are things in our daily lives that we acknowledge as being true, even though technically they aren't. There are all sorts of phrases that just don't make sense, but we say them all the time. I've played a lot of baseball and I am a big fan. There are phrases in that sport that confound logic. For example, when your team needs a rally and the batter at the plate takes a big swing and misses, how many times have you heard the phrase, "Okay , we don't need a homerun, just get on base.......really, you don't need a homerun? When, in any baseball game, do you not need a homerun? Yet, its a common phrase and if you are a baseball fan, I'm sure you've said it. Or, you yell at the pitcher who is having control problems, "just throw strikes". Now do  you really think the pitcher is thinking anything different? Do you think he is intentionally walking the opposing batters just to irritate the crowd? Or if you are a basketball fan, "They need to quit shooting so many three pointers". What you really mean is that you wish they would quit missing three pointers. How can you make a three pointer, if you don't shoot it? For the non US readers, I'm sure there are similar phrases in other sports that confound logic when you literally interpret the phrase.

So, that brings me to the term "QRP Key". We've all seen it, an advertisment or solicitation for a small morse key or paddle. Phrases like, "a nice compact morse key suitable for QRP operation" or the key is "QRP" sized. Now this brings a few questions to my mind. QRP in the technical sense means low power, so can you only sent 5 watts with this key?  I suppose QRP operators are not suppose to use full sized keys or bugs as obviously you wouldn't be QRP any longer. Does using a full size key boost your signal? Does this mean that this small key cannot be used for QRO operation, will this "QRP key" degrade my high power signal? What are the specifications for a "QRP" key?

What about the QRPp operator? What are they to do for an appropriate key? Surely if you have QRP keys, QRPp keys must be even smaller and only those with very small hands can be successful, QRPp operators.

All of this is very confusing from a literal sense. If I am new to QRP must I get a new key? Dare I mix my QRO and QRP paddles or will I have problems if I do? I have this nice desk paddle that I love, but surely I couldn't use it with my KX3, or could I? Since the KX3 is larger than my KX1 maybe I could use my big paddle with it, but definitely not with the KX1. Surely you understand the dilemmas here. What to do?

Now, a few more descriptive terms for these small keys is the term "portable", "small "or the phrase "for field use". These terms, from a literal pespective, seem to make more sense. Certainly these "QRP keys" make sense for the QRO operator on an expediton who doesn't want to carry around a heavy key. Begali uses the term "adventure key", which seems to be self explanatory and doesn't invoke a QRP only use.

So, be careful and use your own judgement on when and where to use your QRP key, someone may be watching.

Miles Per Watt; Another QRP'er/DX'er Adventure

The DX'er came up the hill with a brochure in his hand. The QRP'ers gathered around to see what new toy the DX'er was about to describe. "I just got a new car" he said, "And, I probably get twice the mileage of my old car". The QRP'ers nodded their approval as he expounded, at length, on the features of his new vehicle and when he finished he concluded, "You QRP'ers should do your part to conserve, we can't be wasteful, it's important that we are efficient with our resources". The QRP'ers were taken aback by this comment as conservation hadn't been a concern of DX'er before.

 The QRP'ers looked at each other to silently elect the leader of this counter attack. One of them pulled out a Cerficate that they had been discussing prior the DX'er's arrival on the scene. "We do our part, in fact ,look at this". The DX'er looked at the piece of paper and dismissively said, " Oh, another one of those silly QRP awards, what is so special about 1,000 miles per watt?". The QRP'ers had sly smiles on the their faces as they knew he had taken the bait. "You guys should get real radios so you can be heard, I was talking to my buddy this morning, he said I was 20 over 9". "That's interesting" said the QRP'er, "how far does your friend live from here?" This a question that QRP'ers have to ask because it's in their DNA. "I don't know maybe 1,500 miles, why do you ask?" said the DX'er. "Did you work him barefoot?' asked the QRP'er putting a little honey on the bait. " Absoulutely not" said the DX'er, " I run the full legal limit". The trap had been set and the DX'er had yet to recognize it, although he sensed that danger was just ahead. "So let me calculate that..hmmm..1 mile per watt" said one of the QRP'ers acting like he really had to think hard on the calculation. The DX'er shuffled his feet, now understanding the danger was closer than he thought. There was moment of silence as the QRP'ers moved into position. "So  your new car gets twice the mileage of your old car?"  "Yes" said the DX'er delighted at the change of topic. "Well it looks like you don't do so well with your watts out from your station" The DXer now realized his doom,"as we QRP'ers easily get 1,000 times the mileage with our watts as you do. You should really do more to conserve with your radio as well". The DX'er pondered one of the Mysteries of the Ages, "Less is more and more is less" said the QRP'er, "the less power I use the more miles per watt I get the more power I get the less my miles per watt are".

The DX'er saw no way out," I suppose that's true" he said, but silently he thought, "isn't more, more?".  "I have to get back now, I think my wife has some things for me to do" he said,  The QRP'ers knew this to be false, but acknowledged his need to escape.

"Enjoy that new car" the QRP'ers shouted as he walked back down the hill in silence and they continued to admire the 1,000 Mile Per Watt certificate.

The Electric Bill

Some of you 'not so old timers" may have never heard of Hugh Cassidy, WA6AUD. Cass, as he was referred to, wrote humorous stories about DXing for the West Coast DX Bulletin that featured the QRP'er who went "up the hill" to discuss and get counsel on the Mysteries of the Ages and the Eternal Enigmas of DXing. If  you haven't read any of Cass's work, you really should read a couple before you read my story below. His stories can be found on the this website, www.oocities.org/k2cddx/dxstories.html
So in the vein of Cass, I submit another story of the DXer and the QRP'er

The Electric Bill

The DX’er came up the hill the other day with a stern look on his face. “What’s wrong with you” we said, just trying to start a conversation. “I just received my electric bill and I’m going to have to tell my XYL that we just can’t keep the house as warm as she wants it”. We were very careful not to get too involved in a domestic squabble, but we thought we should explore the situation a little further. “How warm does she want it?” we asked. He ranted, “Not only does it cost a lot of money to keep the house warm, but I break into a sweat when I’m in the shack trying to work a little DX, I don’t know why the thermostat has to be so high” The situation was starting to become clear to us now because we knew that the DX’er had a least one Alpha in his shack plus a mysterious black switch on the wall that he clicked “on” when he didn’t work the DX on the first call.

“Did you ever think that it’s all the tubes in your shack that keep you warm and that maybe it’s cooler in other parts of the house, perhaps where your XYL sits in the living room”, we suggested. He stopped to think for a minute, we knew that the situation was getting clearer for him. He then got an indignant look on his face, “You QRP’ers are always picking on me because I run a little power, I think that you are just jealous”. “Run a little power”, we said, “Last week the power company had 5 complaints in your neighborhood of dimming lights and a loud hum. Wasn’t Bouvet on last week?” “I don’t know what you are talking about” he said, looking away, “but yes Bouvet was on and I bet none of you QRP’ers worked him” he said with an arrogant grin. “On the contrary” we replied, “we all worked them”. “That’s impossible, none of you run more than 5 watts and the pile-ups were huge, I had to fire up both….I mean I had to use my amp or I would have never gotten through on the first day”. We let him have his fun as he bragged of nabbing Bouvet on 6 bands and then we reminded him that it was a three week expedition and that the pileups on the last days were much more manageable and that each of the QRP’ers had contacts on multiple bands with just 5 watts. He was speechless, as he confronted one of the eternal enigmas of ham radio. He was a little deflated and it seemed to us that in his own eyes his accomplishments had been diminished. “You mean each of you guys worked Bouvet?” he said quietly. “Yes” we said in unison “and our electric bills are much less than yours because we don’t need to run two, I mean we don’t need to run an amplifier”. The DX’er was humbled as he headed back down the hill, electric bill in hand, much slower than he came up. He was heard to say, “They worked Bouvet and have a lower electric bill”. Working rare DX with QRP; truly one of the Mysteries of the Ages.

SOTA IS!!!

Some of you 'not so old timers" may have never heard of Hugh Cassidy, WA6AUD. Cass, as he was referred to, wrote humorous stories about DXing for the West Coast DX Bulletin that featured the QRP'er who went "up the hill" to discuss and get counsel on the Mysteries of the Ages and the Eternal Enigmas of DXing. If  you haven't read any of Cass's work, you really should read a couple before you read my story below. His stories can be found on the this website, www.oocities.org/k2cddx/dxstories.html
So in the vein of Cass, I submit the following

SOTA IS!!

The QRP’er came sprinting up the hill last week with a gleam in his eye. We were all surprised as it isn’t often the QRP’er was happy, we were anxious to hear the subject of his happiness. “I’ve found a new way to DX” he proclaimed. We were all confused as we believed that DX is DX, what could be different? “And what sort of new DX have you found?” we asked. “It has been right here all the time”, he said, “Right here on top of this hill”. We were confused as this must be one of the Eternal Enigmas that few could understand, what could possibly be under our feet on this hill?

“Have you ever heard of SOTA” he asked. We were bewildered at such a simple question. “Of course we have, I’m sure we all drink at least a couple every day.” He laughed at us, which really made us uncomfortable; it was different to us that the QRP’er seemed to have the upper hand. “Not soda, but Summits on the Air, S,O,T,A.” We were speechless as he continued, “You see this very hill top is DX, there are guys out there right now who want to make a contact with this hill top and it counts for award points” We stood in silence as he quickly deployed and simple vertical antenna, hooked it up to his QRP rig, called CQ and immediately had a pile-up”.

We were humbled as the QRP’er had truly left us speechless. Right here on top of this hill was on someone's needed list and all this time we thought DX was beyond our borders. We pondered the Mystery of Ages as there is always something new to work and that such fun has been within our reach all this time. We were forced into a new DX state of mind and we all uttered, SOTA IS!!.





Happy Morse Code Day

You probably didn't know that April 27th, Samuel Morse's birthday,  is Morse Code Day and even if you did, my guess is that you forgot. So I have been pondering on how to celebrate Morse Code Day. What is the appropriate protocol for gift giving, celebrations, etc...?

A quick scan of the Hallmark Card site yielded no Morse Code Day cards. I suppose if there were any celebratory Morse Code Day cards they would be written in Morse Code characters, which non-Morse Code knowing people think is clever. The problem is we hear morse code, we don't write it. so it is painful to sound out the characters in your head to interpret the clever message, ....  .-  .--.  .--.  -.--   -- --- .-.  ...  .   -.-.  ---  -..  .  -..  .-  -.--  .-.-.-. Irritating isn't it. So I dimissed the card idea.

Then I went to the party supply store to see what party favors might be available, you know, Morse Code Day plates, napkins, forks, center piece ideas, little plastic morse keys and other morse related party items.  I was very disappointed at the selection. Basically there was nothing. When I asked for assistance, the lady looked at me as if  I had gone mad. "Morse Code Day, is this a joke? I insisted that there must be some unboxed supply of Morse Code Day merchandise in the back of the store. After a frustrating debate with the lady on the relavance of Samuel Morse, I thought I should leave before she called security.

Not to be discouraged, I went by the local bakery so see what Morse Code Day cakes they might have prepared in advance to beat the rush. Either I was too late or the baker forgot. There were no Morse cakes prepared, so I inquired about a custom cake. After I heard the cost of the cake, I realized what a waste of money that would be since there were no Morse plates and no Morse forks with which to enjoy the Morse cake with. How inappropriate.

Then I thought about dropping hints to my wife about Morse Code Day so that she might surprise me with a thoughtful Morse Code Day gift. But how? She probably has no idea who Samuel Morse is  and I'm  sure she probably thinks is "morris code" anyway. So I thought about starting a Morse Code Day awareness campaign with a public demonstration at the park, with news coverage, a collection of old code keys and even a "Learn Your Name in Morse" workshop. But then I thought of all the work that might be and it's very possilble the turn out might not meet my expectations and I would become frustrated. So like the other ideas, I abandoned this one as well.

Then I thought of getting myself a gift in celebration of Samuel Morse's creation, so what would be the appropriate gift? Obviously a morse code key would be appropriate. However before I even knew of  Morse Code Day, I had to self impose a "morse key in , morse key out" rule because of the space my morse key museum were taking up. I couldn't decide which key I wanted to sacrifice, so I gave up on that idea as well.

So what to do, no cards, no cakes and no keys. As I pondered the situation, I concluded to just forget about Morse Code Day, which is what most people do anyway.

QRP Gear: The Temptations

Can you ever have enough radios? I suppose that is the question. As technology advances, it is hard for me to resist upgrading the QRO rig every few years. Better filtering, more sensitive receivers and many other bells and whistles that come with today's new radios. One limiting factor for the big rigs however is that as functionality grows so does the price, which for most of us necessitates that we hold on to what we have for a while before trading. After all, you can't just to drop $3,000- -$5,000 casually to try out the new stuff. Usually the life cycle of my main QRO rig is 5 - 10 years and I know for many its 10 -20 years depending on  your interests and activity level. The same with the rest of my QRO station, it usually changes slowly over the years.

QRP rigs however are quite a different story. As a general rule they are more affordable and this introduces a dilemma to me. Currently I own a K1, KX1, FT-817, ATS-3, ATS-4 and a KX3. This begs the question of how many different ways do I need to cover 20m with a QRP radio? The answer to that question, at least for now, must be six!!

However, operating QRP portable is not limited to transceivers. Unlike a home station that usually has resonant antennas that are at least semi-permanent, QRP/P deals with temporary poles, various antenna configurations, tuners, batteries, backpacks, logging, raingear and on and on. Oh the combinations one can come up with to operate portable. As I have written, I am a backpacker and there is something in my genes that is attracted to the smallest, lightest and most efficient way to be functional when traveling, either with a suitcase in my hand or a pack on my back. So I am always on the lookout for lighter more efficient gear. As I process all the possiblities I find myself driven to eBay searching for any little gadget that I don't have, kit providers for a new piece of equipment and backpacking stores  for lighter ways to travel.  A good is example of my compulsive behavior was just the other day I was looking at the Ten-Tec QRP transceivers. To their credit, Ten-Tec had put together a nice package, to tempt people like me, that included either a 2- band or 4- band radio, with a portable mulit-band wire antenna and a very cool shoulder bag to carry it in. All of this for a reasonable price. It was almost more than I could take and just before I hit the buy button, I came to my senses and realized I didn't need a seventh radio to cover 20M with QRP. I was also looking at a cool portable tuner to add to the three portable tuners that I already have. I just received in the mail another version of the end fed dipole antenna with a 9 to 1 balun to compliment my Alex-Loop, Buddistick, center fed doublet and my End Fedz multiband antenna. Oh the shame of such excess. But, you never know what the situation will call for, right?

This QRP equipment thing is an addiction and I have to re-commit on a daily basis to be rational, the temptations are beyond calculation. But one small success is that I still don't own a Ten-Tec QRP radio, yet.

The Cost of a Summit Activation

For those of us that chase awards, be it DX, Summits, Islands, etc...  we have all heard about the costs of expeditions and in many cases we individually choose to support those  that interest us the most. Costs for expeditions to rare places like Bouvet or Peter I can approach $400,000 or more. Those expeditions require ice class ships, helicopters and tons of equipment. Even a jaunt to rare IOTA qualifying island can run into the tens of thousands of  dollars. Major expeditions have found ways, other than greenstamps in envelopes, to fund their adventures, e.g,  by  offering online QSL requests for a fee and by just making it easy to contribute by accepting PayPal. Often times we will read what the cost per QSO was as the expeditions try to recoup their costs.

This brings me to the costs of my recent trek to the top of East End Summit in Arizona which qualifies for the Summit on the Air (SOTA) award. I was able to fit this into a business trip so it's hard to allocate travel costs to the expedition. I did rent a car to get to the trailhead and some food to eat on the trek and water to drink, none of these costs were outrageous. However, there was a huge expenditure that is worthy of mention and that is burned calories.. Using my "Lose It" app, I burned approximately 2,500 calories on my trip up and down the mountain. Given that this activiation took place on a weekday, the QSO's were limited with 18 QSO's made. So I propose a new measure of expedition economics, and that is, calories per QSO or C/QSO. With the numbers above my C/QSO ratio for this trip was 138.9 to 1. So to help reimburse me for my costs, it might be more appropriate to send me a pastry with the QSL request rather than a green stamp.

So the next time you need to drop a few pounds, maybe you should try the SOTA activation diet, it can burn a lot of calories.

What Kind of QRP'er Are You

As with anything, there are as many reasons and motivations for being drawn to QRP as there are people involved in this segment of the hobby. Just take a look at the blogs, reflectors and publications to get a sense of the variety of interests. In the QRO world there are DX'ers, ragchewers, contesters, award chasers just to name a few of the reasons hams turn on their radios. Of course some of the same motivations exist in QRP, but I don't think to the same degree.

From my observations, there are two main categories in the QRP world. There are the Builders and the Minimalist. What do I mean by these descriptions?

The Builders are those guys who actually understand how to build a circuit, tweak it, connect it to other circuits and produce a functioning radio. They speak in technical terms. They know the color codes on resistors by heart and talk about pin outs, tracings and soldering technique. These guys build radios for the sake of building it and not necessarily to operate it. They may even build the same kit multiple times. They can deal in elegant or ugly design and both styles work. These guys are the backbone of the QRP genre. Without them we wouldn't have small, efficient radio with which to enjoy our hobby.

The Minimalists are the guys who like the challenge of operating with minimal radios, they like to get everything in a single case, bag or backpack to set up a fully functional station, they like QRP for the challenge. This group will walk out of a warm, well equipped shack into the snow so they can shoot a slingshot at a tree in order to erect a wire antenna and then brave the elements to operate their radio on a battery. They might even do this after climbing a mountain. Don't be too hard on this group they probably have built a RockMite that might have even worked or they managed to get a Ramsey kit to transmit, but they will never be confused with the Builders. Three sentences into a discussion on building technique would blow their cover. These guys are radio advernturers the operators who test the designs of the Builders.

We need both of these groups to keep the hobby vibrant, it is a symbiotic relationship within the QRP world that nets out to technological advances and adventures in radio that make QRP interesting.

I suppose there are probably a few Super Radiomen out there who are comfortable in both worlds, but I would guess that, broadly speaking, most of us are one or the other.

So, what kind of QRP'er are you?