M0TEF - QRP and Amateur Radio

I know the year is not quite over yet, so things may change a little, but I have been working out some stats on this years operating at the M0TEF station. This year I have worked 79 DXCC entities, 44 of them worked at 5w or below. That makes 56% of my countries count over the last year have been made by using QRP. In reality though I worked several countries several times on different bands all at QRP or QRPp power levels. My best DX was working VY2TT on 10m with 500mW SSB. This effort has come from very casual operating and a relaxed style using the radio every now and again to make the score. I wonder what could be done with a really solid effort and schedule of operation, let alone better wire antennas with decent gain. I had a quick total up of my points based on our unofficial QRP challenge. I have a grand total of 81 points and at this stage Keith G0RQQ has 94, I have been beaten because there is no way I can get that many extra points in one day with less than great conditio...

It has been a while since I have had the time or the enthusiasm left to post to my blog. There is something that happens in education as things enter the autumn time. I have been flat out with my day job of preparing lectures, marking assignments and general administration duties. This has left me with little energy to play radio, let alone any QRP activity. The good news though is that working in education allows me a decent sized break over the Christmas period. The first thing I have done is to modify the shack slightly So that I only have the FT-847 on the bench for the time being. I have to get the FT-1000MP Mark V repaired for a minor relay fault on the band pass filters and I should make sure it gets done really. I am enjoying the simple operation of this radio and basic layout to my shack. I have at the most 100w and two antennas at present and it is working well when I get the chance to play. Most of the time the FT-847 is dialled up to just 2w output power. Today is ...

Today was that day we all have to go through but all put off as much as possible. The dreaded shack clear up, it had to happen and today was as good as any other day. Of course before I did anything I worked a station in Oman on 10m FM A41LD/ND, Waleed, oddly he was calling CQ but had no takers, it as nice to have a decent QSO with a DX station without having a 59 - 73 type QSO and moving on. I started my shack clearing work by taking everything off the bench and emptying the small computer desk I use and then slowly built the whole thing back up, once it was done I noticed that the bands seemed to be poor despite them being much better before I did anything. It turns out I had some losses somewhere from a combination of switches and patch leads. I undid the whole thing thought up a new plan and started again. Thankfully now it all works well and to test it I had a nice QSO with K8NY ( Bob) on 12m using the Drake TR-7 and Butternut HF-9V. The new setup has the Drake set up perman...

This morning I have visited the Lincoln Short Wave Club shack at Aisthorpe in the hope of infecting a few of the members with the QRP virus, sadly the shack was in use to check a repaired linear amplifier. No luck there to convert them to QRP then. I got talking with Mark M0ZLE about his training sessions planned to get some trainees on the air for the practical part of their exams. I offered to make sure I could monitor their activity to call in should they struggle for contacts, as it was they created their own mini pile up of short contacts wishing the well with exams and encouraging their progress. I had a chance to discuss with them that low power can work. Here in the UK foundation licensees are restricted to 10w PEP and sometimes don't see that it can work as well as it does. I had decided this weekend would be a chance to catch up playing some radio and relaxing from the stresses of everyday work. So far it is a success. Part of that was to fire up the Drake TR-7 for a...

I have had a rather boring weekend stuck mostly at home feeling sorry for myself since my youngest daughter passed me her cold. I did however get a chance to enjoy some time playing radio. I worked EA3EVL on sunday morning on 12m using 2w. When I exchanged my conditions and power output details with Pablo I was met with a comment of very fine business with 2w QRP for a 59+10 report. Now I wish I had got around to building the attenuators I have been looking at plans for. I am sure I could quite easily have worked him with 100mW or maybe even less. My Sunday afternoon however was spent fault finding for RF problems at the shack of M0SIY, Simon is not really a huge fan of QRP and likes the dials turned full right most of the time. (Although I have seen him work several occasions QRP and, dare I say it, have fun.) Simon has a new installation at his place and we were trying to get something set up to reduce RF problems for him, we almost got there but his current setup seems delicate ...

I have been working a few stations this evening in the CQWW SSB contest, I have made my station basic and low power on purpose, it is all about the QRP challenge this year and my setup reflect the rewards that basic operating can give.  I have worked the following stations already with 500mw SSB using the butternut HF9V antenna and patience. Of course it's a standard 59 report being in contest, a shame really that I didn't get a true report from the other side of the QSO.  DF0HQ on 80m DF0HQ on 40m K1BX on 10m VY2TT on 10m  RL3A on 15m RN3F on 20m The mission is to see if I can match Keith's (G0RQQ) 7 band 1000miles per watt award but over a weekend, I'm not far off. I may sneak onto 160m later or wait until morning for 12/17m although I have already got one qso for 1000miles per watt on 12m from a couple of weeks ago with an EA8 station.  Keith has had a run if success on 10m with five 500mw contacts across the Atlantic. Hopefully more QRP...

I have been reading that the noise blanket mod for the FT-1000mp mrk V helps to improve the rx performance. I spent some time taking the radio apart to find the mod had already been done but after checking the resistor used with the DVM it was not quite the value recomended. I swapped it for a new 220 ohm resistor and put the radio back together.  The verdict... I always wondered why my radio performed better under contest conditions than the identical radios with the same filters at the radio club, now I know.  Did the resistor swap I did help? Yes, a small but noticeable improvement especially when listening to weak CW near strong signals.  Happy :)

Keith G0RQQ has contacted me today to let me know how he is getting on with the QRP challenge, he has taken to trying to work everyone with 500mw SSB on all bands possible. So far he has managed to work: - Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, England, Finland, Germany, Gran Canaria, Italy (on both HF and 6m), Portugal, Russia, Sicily, Slovenia, Spain, Ukraine.  All these with just 500mw of SSB power into a roughly 20m horizontal loop in the attic. The other part of the news was that Keith has gained an award for what he has achieved. He now has a 7-band 1000 Miles per watt award from the QRP Amateur Radio Club Inc (QRP-ARCI.) The bad news is there is a delay in the award, the reason... Keith is only the second person ever to claim the award and the only one person to manage it using just SSB. Keith is now aiming to complete the feat on more bands and see if there is a the chance of creating a higher number of bands award. Of course the total list of ...

I haven't posted for a few days because I took a few days out to go camping, to enjoy the outdoors and reset my brain after a first term of chaos at the college I work at. I met my brother at Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire to take a few days off. I am trying my best to get him licensed for Amateur radio, so far he hasn't given in but I will be delivering an Old FT-101 that has no output but still an active RX. I hope he can start to listen and pick up the bug. First off the weather was awful, it rained on and off for most of our stay with the exception of a few hours of nice weather in between. The tent, Jetboil stove and radio provided the entertainment when the weather was not good enough to get out walking comfortably.  I planned to take my ft-847 and large battery with me but changed my mind last minute to take only the ft-817 and QRP kit only. I took my portable vertical antenna and my HF 9-band multiranger antenna. I had very little luck with the vertical but mor...

Some time ago I treated myself to a Yaesu FT-847, I wanted a radio I could use on the higher bands and it had the option to use 4m (Although I am still waiting to experiment with this band.) Everywhere I read about the radio, the comments made it out to be a poor performer on HF, although I wanted the radio for higher bands it seemed a decent backup option for HF and portable operation too. It even had the option to turn the power down as low as 2w. I set about finding out how I could improve the performance of the radio, and among all of the mods out there the easiest one to do that would not impact on an otherwise mint condition radio was the mod to add INRAD filters to the unit. When I first got the radio I was planning a visit to the Isle of North Uist in the Outer Hebredies and decided to take the radio with me to see how it would perform in a low noise environment. While I was there I spoke to a fellow amateur on 40m who had the same radio but with the filters installed. H...

This time of year my day job takes over as the first term gets fully underway at my college. I like to squeeze in time to unwind and play some radio but it doesn't always work out thy way.  I did get to spend a short time doing radio related activities though.  On Tuesday evening I joined Tim M6ZRT and Keith G0RQQ for some activity on 70cm for the UKAC contest. There were quite a few local contacts and after I left some of more distance. This always happened when I leave the portable site. They were using an Elk antenna with 10w from the FT-857 to work stations all over the UK.  After heading home I received a text message asking for assistance. It seems Tim had forgotten to run the engine occasionally and had a flat battery. I had to nip back out to te remote location with a spare battery and jump leads. I hope I don't make the same error in the future. Perhaps I should always operate from an alternative to the car's battery. Still a fun evening and some interesting stat...

A short note about today's QRP contact. I was using the ft-1000 tuned down to just below 2w when I worked EA9IB on 12m SSB. He was shocked to hear my power when he gave me a 5/8 report and complimented my QRP efforts. Of course in terms of the QRP challenge with G0RQQ & M6ZRT it is more points in the bag. 

Last night I had been using the Drake TR-7 again on the bands and decided to try calling CQ on 17m SSB. The band was empty but a few spots existed on the cluster from some big station in Europe. I was surprised to be calling CQ for only a moment when K7PN came back to the call from California. I wish I had been on a radio that allowed me to turn down the power for QRP. Being quite pleased I carried on and was called by a few other stations and the weak spot in the Drake was easily seen, the lack of a preamp made some of the signals too weak on the vertical antenna, it was quite clear I was transmitting enough but the Drake could just not keep up. I may have to check over its alignment again. This led me to start altering around the shack again to allow me to get the Drake on the test bench to get it aligned up. For the time being I pressed the FT-1000MP Mark V back into service and sat the FT-847 up on top of it. I forgot how wonderful the RX on the FT-1000 can be and it can be tur...

This evening I felt the need to put out a cq on 40m I had brief qso with M0OTT followed by a lengthy conversation with G4ALH. Rob called me after I mentioned the Drake TR-7 I was using. Rob is a fan of the Drake radios and had a few pointers and a bit of advice for keeping the old machine in good order and on frequency. It was a pleasure to have a lengthy chat on 40m with Rob about radios, QRP and a shared interest in a glass of wine on a Friday evening hihi. Rob also has a FT-817 and encouraged my ventures into CW which are evolving... Slowly.  Tomorrow I have a plan to visit the National Hamfest where my club run the event. Sadly my day job does not allow me time off for the set up or Friday and my Doctor has insisted I do not do anything strenuous. This year I will visit and take photographs to be published in the amateur radio publications we so often see.  I will look for interesting things to add to the blog at the show.  --... ...--

Another evening on the bands for me while my wife watches some TV and a few contacts on 40m two of which were SQ9OUB and IV3WTJ. I have left QRP alone this evening.... Why? I have been demonstrating my station to a fellow Ham using the Drake TR-7 and I had the antenna connected to that radio. Some of you may be aware that there is no power output adjustment for that radio on SSB aside altering the ALC circuit. It is a wonderful radio that was given to me by the family of the late Sid, G4CTQ/ET3SID SK (among other amazing DX calls). I like to be able to use the old radio, have fun and remember a good friend at the same time. It is not QRP but then Sid was not one for keeping the power low when calling CQ. I guess having been DX for most of his life travelling around the world then he needed to be heard to make an impact on the air. When I was given the radio I spent some time servicing it and getting it back to where it should be and discovered that the serial number made the radio ...

I sometimes wonder why it can be so easy to work a station when QRP while, at the same time, low power can be like a huge brick wall in the way of any contacts.  A few days ago I mentioned the importance of patience when working QRP. Today I took my own advice and stuck with it. I struggled to work very much at all for most of the day but didn't give up.  We had a BBQ lunch catching the last fine day of summer (well I expect it will be.) We returned home, I turned on the radio and started to work my way through a few stations. I started on 12m and had to turn up the power. N2UJN could not quite hear my 2w but did confirm he heard someone calling. I tuned the power up to allow us a short chat and explain the QRP challenge with my friends. The good news is I answered my own question about the amplifier. It is definitely not required, 100w was enough to work DX.  I moved on from QRO to work ON/PA5Z/P on 40m SSB with 2w, R1AN on 20m SSB with 2w, JW9JKA on 20m SSB with 2w but ...

I have just been sitting down to try and work some stations on the bedside radio and realised the iPad and laptop were downstairs. I normally log using Apple kit and use the RumLog software and the iPad App too and share the log using Dropbox. Instead I turned to my iphone and recalled that I have the Hamlog App for portable operations. On opening the App I discovered that I have a run of contacts I had forgotten to export to my main log, all of them are QRP and most count towards the unofficial challenge with G0RQQ and M6ZRT. Maybe I am not so far behind and I had no recollection of working Cyprus with 2w but it is in the log. I am glad that this technology exists and will be exporting the log and adding it to RumLog later today and then maybe have a look at my points gained this year to see where I fit in the game. 

After a discussion last night and a few beers with G0RQQ and M6ZRT I began to question if I really need to own my amplifier. These are expensive toys and even more expensive when they are hardly used. So far my contacts using it are so few and far between it would be fair to say it has perhaps cost me £25-50 per contact when you divide the purchase price over the contacts made using it. I thought I always wanted or needed a decent amplifier, as it turns out it might not really make that much difference to my radio hobby after all and may just be a very expensive thing to have sat there doing nothing. Sure I know there is a place for higher power in the hobby but my question is do I personally need it. It can help with contacts, but I never feel a sense of achievement when I have used it like when using 100w or even on QRP. Conditions have been good recently and the one thing that makes me think twice is that conditions will drop off again soon, but then when they were low befo...

I must have ruined my chances with all of the good luck at the weekend. I have struggled to work two stations this evening. I have worked TM35CDXC on 40m SSB using 2W and SV130PAP 20m SSB having to crank things up to a full 5w after struggling with 2W. There was lots of DX calling even Brazil on 10m at times but sadly none of them could hear my low power signal and tonight I was determined not to turn the power above 5w to try and add a few more countries for the mini QRP competition with G0RQQ & M6ZRT. Recently they seem to be romping off into the lead of countries and points. (See my earlier post 15/9/13 for details of our QRP challenge) I am hopeful that at some point this weekend I will find some decent strong signals to attempt a QSO with or a station with good RX and not many callers. I remain hopeful I can work a few more on perhaps even 500mw to improve my score. Maybe I will have to make a decent QRP effort in large contest to see if I can bump up the numbers. ...

I am sitting here trying to make a few contacts this evening running 2w SSB into the butternut HF-9V antenna so far I have managed a special event station in Bulgaria LZ1406SK and nothing much else.... yet. I have been enjoying a glass of single malt thinking that not only is this a great way to relax at the end of a day but that maybe there are some similarities between fine whiskey and QRP operation. 12 years to mature is about patience and commitment, the same delayed gratification could be said for QRP radio; it may take longer to call and get through, but once you do it makes it all the better. A great way to enjoy radio :)

This evening I turned on the QRP station around 1900UTC to find 10m full of signals. I didn't manage any amazing DX but did sped some time trying to call in the pileup for Bob VP8LP, sadly my 5w was not enough to compete on this occasion. I had the same result trying to work PY2VI, sometimes QRP isn't quite enough but then if it was all easy it wouldn't have quite so much appeal. I did manage to work Manuel EA8JK on 10m running 5w into the attic dipoles. I did try on lower power but he just couldn't hear me this evening. Maybe I will be lucky enough to catch another opening soon and grab a few DX contacts before the pileups begin. Lets hope for more 10m openings soon.

I have been lucky enough to be blessed with enough space to play with a few antennas and mini beams here at my current QTH, I have also been blessed with a tolerant wife; she has put up with lots of aluminium and wire all over the garden not to mention the small mast mounted on the side of my house. My current antennas on the main station on HF are the MQ-1 mini beam for 20,15&10m and a butternut HF9-V vertical antenna covering 160m through to 6m.  I really wanted to put a second radio next to my bed for the evenings when insomnia grips. This means that with a small set of headphones I can listen to CW on the bands to practice my copying skills. The big issue was what antenna to use. I made up a few different experimental antennas and had some success with a wire and a small QRP homebrew 9:1 transforming unun.  The thought came to me to try and fit a small set of nested dipoles for 40, 20,15&10m fed with RG-174 mini coax. It took me about an hour to get a dipole squeez...

I just received a text message from Tim M6ZRT alerting me to a special event station in Tenerife on 12m. The radio was set up at the side of the bed on the 1w power setting. I managed to get the contact on my first call although he did ask for a repeat of my call sign. We exchanged the standard 59 reports and moved on. He was a genuine 57-9 here with QSB but I very much doubt I was 59 in return. After my success Keith G0RQQ messages me to let me know he heard me and worked the same station with 500mw - Another qrp success and my second QSO breaking the 1000m per watt threshold. The station was my ft-817 into my attic dipoles. The twist is I don't have a 12m antenna and quite a high SWR on the 10m part of the fan dipole. Still, the contact was made all the same.

I have been helping to sort through things for a silent key sale and brought this old FT-101B home to test at my station. This is my first real experience of a valve radio and I have really enjoyed the receive quality of the radio and the receive audio is a joy to listen to. It out performs my more modern radios in a way that can't really be described. It is nice to go back to basics and it has made me want to add an old valve radio to the shack here as a permanent addition. I just hope it doesn't find a new home just yet to allow me to listen on it some more. I think along with the Drake TR-7 I am starting to really appreciate the older radios and the way they are so easy to work on and repair.

Here is my main station radio that gets used for QRP, I can turn down the power on the FT-847 to as low as 2w on HF. For the QRO work the radio is hooked up to a Linear Amplifier or I make use of the excellent Drake TR-7 that once belonged to a dear old friend before they went silent key this time last year.

Not so long ago three of us hatched a plan to add some competition to our radio activities. While enjoying a beer one evening along with Keith G0RQQ and Tim M6ZRT we decided we should set up a small competition that rewarded our QRP efforts, placed us all on even ground and that would give us things to talk about amongst ourselves. It was decided that we would work on a system of awarding points for each DXCC we could work and the score would increase as the power reduced. This wasn't about furthest DX or how much further we could get but to see how many entities we could work while enjoying the hobby and being active on the bands. This was early in 2013 and we are now well on through our year, we have all had some great contacts and even some decent DX. I know that Keith has worked into South America, Tim has worked into the South Atlantic and North America and I have worked into the Caribbean and as recently as today Japan. We have all worked lots of european countries too. B...

Ok so here we go. I have been thinking about blogging about my radio activities for some time now and really just needed a push to get on with it and start. So here we are blogging on day one with view to adding more over the coming weeks. I have always had an interest in QRP since first being licensed with the UK system allowing foundation licensees a maximum of 10w power output. I know that being self regulating not everyone sticks to this but I had a limit of my first ever radio being a Yaesu FT-817 and a maximum output power of 5w into a long wire antenna with my initial call of M3LRJ. At the time of my journey into radio no one bothered to tell me about the limits of low power or that the age old comments of life being too short for QRP. I read a few books that said you can work with 5w so I tried and only when I realised that most other people were using more elaborate antennas and more power did I realise the successes appearing in my log were really quite unusual. If I ha...