micro-blog
about
micro-signals
Radio Spy Virginia Hall →
Artist’s rendering of Virginia Hall - known as America’s most dangerous female spy - sending code. Details of her heroics are recounted in the book “Wolves At The Door” by Judith Pearson.
Photo with 2 notes
For QRP Flying Pigs members - find this little glass piggie at your local Pier 1 Imports for $3.
“We’ve got telegraph, all across this land”
Orchestral Manoevres in the Dark - ‘Telegraph’
From their concept album “Dazzle Ships”. A must-listen for hams and SWLs with snippets of radio broadcasts woven throughout. As a young WB2VEN, it brought me back to those early, pre-ham SWL days when I first discovered the mysteries and magic of the radio bands. It was a controversial album in that it didn’t strike a chord with many of OMD’s fans at the time, but for those of us who ‘got it’, it quickly became a truly special recording.
If you’re not familiar with it, give it a listen - preferably with your favorite audiophile headphones.
Source: youtube.com
NAQCC Anniversary Week
NAQCC 8th Anniversary
This coming week of October 7 through the 13th is a very special one for the North American QRP CW Club (NAQCC). That week we celebrate the 8th anniversary of the founding of the club by Tom KB3LFC (now WY3H) - President, and John K3WWP - Vice-President. We will have 10 special event stations on the air that week - one from each USA call area - with the calls N1A, N2A, N3A, N4A, N5A, N6A, N7A, N8A, N9A, N0A. The 40 operators of the calls will post their operating schedule at http://naqcc.info/n3a_complete_schedule.php so you will know when and where to look for them as you participate in our celebration.
We are offering special QSL cards and Certificates for anyone who works one or more of our special event stations. To find out how you may obtain one and/or the other, check the information contained on the page at http://naqcc.info/main_n3a.html. You must follow the informatin there EXACTLY or your request may not be fulfilled.
The operation commences at 0000Z October 7 and continues through 2359Z October 13. That is the week of our monthly sprint with which many of you reading this may already be familiar. However this month’s sprint is something special as all 10 of our special event calls will be active for the full two hours. There may be some sort of award or prize to the one working the most different calls. This should make our already extremely popular sprints even more popular than usual when we normally get 175-200 participants, of whom 110-130 or so will submit logs.
The sprint is Tuesday evening October 9 at 8:30-10:30 PM EDT which converts to the more familiar Wednesday October 10 from 0030-0230Z. Hope to see you there as well as at other times during anniversary week.
Ultimate QRSS Kit →
by Steve G0XAR and Hans G0UPL.
The kit supports the following modes:
+ QRSS mode (plain on/off keyed slow CW)
+ FSK/CW mode (frequency shift keyed slow CW)
+ DFCW mode (dual frequency CW, dit’s and dah’s on different frequencies)
+ WSPR mode (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter)
+ Slow-Hellschreiber (frequency shifted slow Hellschreiber)
+ Hellshreiber (full-speed standard Hellschreiber, and half-speed
Hellshreiber)
+ CW (plain CW)
+ Customisable FSK patterns
Link with 1 note
FPqrp - Run for the Bacon - Tonight! →
Flying Pigs QRP Club, Internationalis proud to announce
Run For The Bacon
Every third Sunday night of every month at 9 PM Local time in New York City (Eastern Time)
This contest runs for two (2) hours until 11 PM local time in New York City
RULES: Work CW stations only, once per band on 160-80-40-20-15-10 only
Suggest you work the high freq bands first. Then work your way down to 80 and 160 Exchange: RST, SPC (State/Province/Country), FP# (non-members send power) QSO Points: Member = 3 points, DX members = 5 points, non member = 1 point SPC Multipliers: State/Province/Country total for all bands.
The same SPC may be worked on multiple bands for SPC credit. Fifty (50) members worked Multiplier: Work 50 or more piggies = X 2 multiplier
The same piggie may be worked on multiple bands for credit toward this multiplier. Power: QRP only ( qrp defined as 5 watts or less RF transmitter output) Final Score: (Total QSO points) * (total SPC) * 2 (if 50 or more members worked) Suggested Frequencies CW: 1812, 3562, 7044, 14062, 21062, 27185, 28062
***SPECIAL NOTE *** also check out 7104 KHz +/- an experimental new piggie frequency
NJQRP Skeeter Hunt
.jpg)
This just in from Larry, W2LJ —
The NJQRP Club is announcing a new summertime operating event - “The Skeeter Hunt”. The objective is to get QRPers out of their shacks for the day; and into the fresh air and sunshine, to spread their wings and fill the airwaves with “Skeeters”.
While commercial equipment can certainly utilized, bonus multipliers will be awarded for those who personally home brewed their own or kit built their own equipment (equipment not built by the operator would not count as either home brewed or kit built - it would be considered commercial equipment). The inaugural event is to be held on Sunday August 12th. It will be a four hour sprint - from 17:00 UTC to 21:00 UTC (1:00 TO 5:00 PM EDT).
The theme for this year is “My favorite outdoor place”. You are encouraged to operate from your favorite outdoor place and tell us about it in your Soapbox comments.
Stations who wish to be designated as “Skeeters” can get a Skeeter number by requesting one by sending an e-mail to w2lj@arrl.net Skeeter numbers would be issued from May through the day before the event.
Station Classes and Multipliers
X1 Home stations - commercial equipment
X2 Home stations - home brewed or kit built equipment
X3 Portable station - commercial equipment
X4 Portable station - home brewed or kit built equipment
Portable stations cannot use permanent antennas, i.e you can’t work from your backyard, hook up to your dipole or tower and yagi and be considered a portable station. Also, portable stations cannot be connected to the local power grid - alternative energy sources must be used - solar, battery, wind, etc.
Exchange -
Skeeter Stations - RST, S/P/C, Skeeter number
Non-Skeeter Stations - RST, S/P/C, Output power
Mode - CW
Power - 5W max
Scoring -
Working a Skeeter Station - 2 points
Working a non-Skeeter Station - 1 point
Total score equals the number of QSO points times the number of S/P/Cs worked on all bands (stations can be worked on multiple bands for QSO points and S/P/C credit) times the multiplier for station class.
Bonus points - design and home brew a key or paddle specifically for the event and earn an extra 1000 points.
Suggested frequencies:
The QRP “Watering Holes
80 Meters ~ 3.560 MHz
40 Meters ~ 7.040 and 7.030 MHz
20 Meters ~ 14.060 MHz
15 Meters ~ 21.060 MHz
10 Meters ~ 28.060 MHz
These are suggested starting points, of course. Feel free to spread out and give your “Skeeter” wings a chance to do their thing.
Logs, photos and soapbox comments can be sent to w2lj@arrl.net no later than 30 days after the event. Certificates will be issued to the top scorers of each category as well as others to be determined.
A table of call signs and issued “Skeeter” numbers will appear on a page at http://w2lj.blogspot.com/.
Hope to hear and work all of you during this new event. Special thanks to the NJQRP club for their sponsorship!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Page 1 of 2
