30 meters was hopping the night of March 27. I worked two all-time new ones (ATNOs): 9X5RU (Rwanda) and EY8MM. 9x5RU had a strong signal into Michigan and had decent pileup going. I set up the dual receive bandscope on my IC-7610 and was able to quickly find the frequency of a station he had just contacted and quickly tuned there. It only took me three calls before they heard me.
Just a little later, I heard EY8MM calling CQ just slightly up the band. I was surprised that he hadn’t created a pileup at all. I worked him on my first call.
I have both now confirmed via Logbook of the World, bringing my total to 169 countries.
All you need is….QRP
Another measure of how good the bands are are the number of QRP stations that I’ve been working lately. One such station is W3FSA in Maine. John was running about 5 W with a (tr)uSDX that he’d recently built. We had a very solid, 20-minute contact, with his signal averaging about S7 the entire time.
He paid me a nice compliment, too. He said, “I know we’ve worked before, but I can’t remember your name. You’re the teacher, though, right?”
1000 miles per watt!
Last night was also a good night for QRP on 30 meters. Dave, KC9FLI answered my first CQ, and I gave him a 579 report. It turns out that he was running only 1 W with a Penntek TR-35.
He was so strong, that it occurred to me that he could probably qualify for 1000 mile per watt award. QRZ.Com said that he was 293.5 miles away from me, so I reckoned that if he could reduce power to 1/4 W, that should do it.
I suggested this to him, and he agreed to give it a try. He first reduced power to 500 mW. At that level, he was between S5 and S6. Next, he reduced power to 250 mW and he was still solid copy here in Ann Arbor, MI. How cool is that?
I then did a little searching for 1000 miles/watt awards and found two of them:
- North American QRP CW Club (NAQCC). The NAQCC 1000 Mile per Watt Award is free, but the rules state, “The power used to initiate a QSO is the power that counts is especially true for this award. You can’t start a QSO then keep lowering power to get a better MPW figure.” So, I guess our QSO doesn’t strictly qualify.
- QRP-ARCI. The QRP-ARCI 1000 Miles per Watt Award doesn’t appear to have that restriction, but they charge $10 for their certificate.
Even if he doesn’t get a certificate, Dave will have the satisfaction of knowing that he completed a 1000 mile per watt QSO.
Dave New, N8SBE says
I think if your QRParci membership is ‘current’ (that is you are currently subscribed to and receiving the QRP Quartely magazine) that one or more awards yearly are included with your membership.