"Bumps on the Air" 2018 - QRP in North Norfolk, UK

Today was 2018 ”Bumps on the Air” day for me. Because we don’t have any summits in Norfolk I have to make do with tiny hills, or bumps!

Two years ago Jim G3YLA and I climbed up Beeston Bump (63m) and did some amateur radio operating. This year I wanted to beat that so drove to Norfolk’s mightiest peak – Beacon Hill near West Runton at 103m. Ta dah!

Actually, this wasn’t a very exciting spot as there are just two rotting benches, a flag pole and trees all around.

Nevertheless, I set up my end fed half wave vertical on a 10m fishing pole and connected up my Yaesu FT817. There wasn’t too much about but I worked John F5VKU (also G8MM) near Cannes with 5W SSB. He said he was struggling to hear me.

My 20m QCX radio - click to enlarge any image.

After playing with SSB for a bit and failing to break some pile ups I connected up my 20m QCX radio and tried some CW. I was really surprised as Karl IV3RJH came back to me, 559/549 both ways. I was running about 2W, he was running 3W.

I do have to fix the sidetone on the QCX as calling CQ sounds more like “thump-de-thump-thump-thump-thump-de-thump”. I have the new capacitors, but am waiting for some new BS170 transistors so I can hopefully up the power level to more like 4W too.

But the QCX is an amazing radio for the money and hey, I built it myself, complete with the case and custom label, so any QSO makes me smile.

Another 20m SSB session with the FT817 and I bagged Jack OH3GZ and Juha OH6QAZ.

At this point I packed away and after lunch headed for Beeston Bump on the coast near Sheringham. I’ve written about this before as it has a fantastic view over the North Sea.

Anyway, I put up the EFHW vertical for 20m and set to with 5W CW from my Elecraft K1. This raised Gert OH/DL7UG and Dima RW4C. I then bagged Fabi IK5IiS near Florence.

Also heard were stations in Cypus and Canada, but the Cyprus station on SSB couldn’t hear me and the Canadian seemed to be sending his life story in CW to another station and I got fed up waiting to call him!

I also had a play with my 3W MTR3, but didn’t work anyone as I could see rain clouds coming and decided to pack up.

So not a bad day’s radio. The Elecraft K1 and Yaesu FT-817 worked flawlessly. I think I was getting some RF into the keyer on the QCX as I had trouble sending “/P” – the “/” turned into a right mess sometimes, although I had no trouble sending it on the K1 with the same Palm Paddle.

The moral is that life is NOT too short for QRP!

Update: I checked the reverse beacon network last might and saw that I had been picked up across Europe while calling CQ, but often with no response. Some of these SNR figures are quite large too. In other words I was loud enough.

That's a shame as it would have been nice to have worked some more stations.

Is this because of a lack of activity? Or is it because, as I often wonder, that a lot of people have moved to FT8?

CW fun with the Elecraft K1

I haven’t had much of a chance to get on the radio recently – the day job has been getting in the way!

So I thought I would put my Elecraft K1 into action yesterday evening and see what could be done with 5W of CW. I built this rig last year after having the kit in the loft for about 12 years – you can read about that here.

The great thing is it only has two bands 20m and 40m. This focuses the mind and stops you QSYing to other bands left right and centre.

So, I hooked up to a W5GI dipole and a 65ft EFHW (with loading coil for 80m too) and switched on.

The first station worked was OZ7BQ, Joe near Copenhagen, on 7.026MHz. I had to double check his name as it shows on QRZ.com as Hans Jørgen, although he definitely sent “Joe”.

Then it was IQ7AF on 7.028MHz, a special event station in Southern Italy.

Joe OZ7BQ

Staying on 40m, I narrowly missed Mike GM0HCQ/MM on the James Clark Ross, a research ship just off the coast of Norway and heading for the Arctic.

Then it was on to II2FIST on 20m, celebrating 30 years of the FISTS CW group. Managed that on first call despite a pile-up – not bad with 5W.

And to round the evening off I made contact with Doug ZP6CW in Paraguay on 20m. Other countries heard but not working included Norway, Serbia, Germany, Russia and Czech Republic.

This isn’t to brag, just to show what you can do with 5W CW from a kit-built rig and a compromise antenna. All the 40m contacts were on the home-made W5GI dipole. Half of the 20m ones were with the multi-band EFHW.

I think 5W SSB would have been a different story.

Some Christmas QRP HF operating

Elecraft K1 on 40m QRP frequency.

The period from Christmas to the New Year is traditionally the time for the GQRP “ Winter Sports”.

I don't take this too seriously as there are plenty of other calls on my time, but it is an opportunity to get on the air and work a few stations with 5W CW or 10W SSB.

This year got off to a good start with a contact on 23rd December with SK6SAQ at Grimeton in Sweden – home to the Alexanderson alternator that puts out a 200kW signal on 17.2kHz.

SAQ also has a special event callsign so it was good to get operator Kjell in the log using 5W from a Yaesu FT-991 into an outside EFHW. I really must visit Grimeton one day.

I also dragged out my Bencher paddle as I was sending some awful Morse with my Kent single lever I think I was getting key bounce so will have to take a closer look. The Bencher was fine, which was good news.

After Christmas I turned to my Elecraft K1, which I finished in the summer after owning the kit for about 12 years!

This brought CW QSOs with Peter OM0WR in the Slovak Republic on 7.029MHz with 5W into my loft-mounted zig-zag dipole.

The YT160TESLA QSL card.

Then it was YT160TESLA on 20m celebrating 160 years since the birth of Nikola Tesla in Serbia. I really want their QSL card which looks great and worked them on 40m in March. As they went QRT at the end of 2016 it really was a last chance.

I have an Icom IC-7300 on test, which belongs to my local club and that brought 9A1700SBD in Dubrovnik, Croatia, although it took 25W to get through.

The view across the rooftops of Dubrovnic, Croatia.

2016 was the 1700th anniversary of St. Blaise, patron saint of Dubrovnik – if you ever get the chance to go there, do as it is absolutely beautiful.

Station LZ463PP then went in the log with 10W from the IC-7300 and a W5GI dipole on 17m SSB, so still QRP. It was celebrating 463 years of Saint Patapii.

Finally I had a nice (but weak) QSO with Ian EA7JUK in Lubrin, Spain on 20m CW using 5W from the K1 and an indoor dipole. Ian's UK call is G0WHX.

The Reverse Beacon Network proved everything was working!

Sunday 2nd January marks the QRPARCI New Year's Day Sprint, but I really didn't expect to hear anything from the US due to rotten HF conditions. If I do I'll update the blog!

So, I heard a lot more stations than I worked, but I had fun – which is what it is all about.

Elecraft K1 QRP radio finally finished

My Elecraft K1 (click to enlarge)

You could say that this project has been a long time in the making. The kit for this Elecraft two-band (40m/20m) K1 5W CW radio was actually a Christmas present back in 2004.

Heck, I still have the invoice for $329 plus the £44.97 import duty, making it about £230.97 at the exchange rate of the day (nearly £300 at today's rates).

When I first got the kit I had a couple of reads of the instruction manual, went “wooah” and put it in the loft. It even moved house with me eight years ago.

Anyway, a conversation with Colin M1BUU (a more enthusiastic QRP builder and SOTA operator you couldn't wish to meet) at the 2014 G-QRP Convention convinced me that I really should put it together.

In the intervening 10 years I have built a lot of other kits, including a Hunter SDR, Rockmites, MKARS 80 and a Steve Weber MTR, so I had picked up a lot of construction skills.

Last Christmas I actually started the build and, while not difficult, it was time consuming. Fast forward to July and I thought it was about time I finished it.

The build wasn't too bad, but I had a few problems, such as the wiring on the multi-turn pot for the VFO control – I thought the numbers on the side of the pot represented the numbers in the manual. They didn't.

I also managed to lose a couple of components down the back of the bench, which were subsequently found, and also couldn't find the insulating spacer for the power transistor – this I managed to improvise with insulating tape and fibre washers.

The final c*ck-up was missing out two capacitors, which meant the receiver didn't work at all. I'm glad I eventually managed to debug it without any help.

In all, I think I spent about 22-25 hours putting it together, but the end result is worth it.

The Elecraft K1 has a fantastic little receiver and a built in keyer and puts out around 7W if pushed. I have had a couple of QSOs with it so far and it is a very useable QRP radio.

I can thoroughly recommend it as a QRP project, although Elecraft have now moved on quite a way with the KX2 and KX3 - but then my K1 kit is 12 years old!