Some random thoughts on Qrp

Nothing drives home the thought quicker than the importance of operating with a resonant antenna when operating at Qrp power levels—5 watts or less. Those hams that use a linear amplifier into an inefficient, non-resonant antenna are wasting their time and dollars. Give me a resonant zepp antenna over some of these multi-band verticals or G5RV antennas. Using a resonant dipole keeps it simple AND efficient.

Shakespeare would have been a great Qrper. In Hamlet when Polonius says “…brevity is the soul of wit…” it pretty much captures the spirit of sending good CW. Abbreviations like “sed” for the word said, “cuz” for the word because are just two of many abbreviations that are convenient in the use of CW as a medium for communication. Again, this is the concept of doing more with less. You could argue that avid CW proponents were the first at coming up with shortcuts that are now popularly employed in text messaging.

Operating Qrp by its nature encourages experimentation and innovation. A great example of this is the NUE-PSK Qrp digital modem. Check it out at: http://www.nue-psk.com/
And look at other Qrp kit sites like http://www.qrpkits.com/ or check out the Small Wonder Labs site: http://www.smallwonderlabs.com/ These are folks that have developed well-designed transceivers for the Qrp market. And of course we shouldn’t forget Elecraft at http://www.elecraft.com/ a company that has arguably produced one of the all-time great Qrp rigs, the K-2.

And finally, there is camaraderie in Qrp devotees that stands out among the diverse amateur radio community. Rather than having the clubby, superiority complex that some of the other radio groups evince, Qrpers seem to go out of the way to welcome new-found low-power enthusiasts.

Code Readers

Code readers—any useful purpose? Well, if you are receiving keyboard-sent code then there isn’t a problem. What you see is REALLY what you get. However interpreting sent code is all about CONTEXT. You listen to a typical QSO and the first thing you look for is the call sign, followed by (usually) a signal report using three numbers, most of the time being 599 or 5NN, followed by the name of the operator, and finally the QTH or location. So, even if the code is not sent very well, the letters are not evenly spaced or worse yet there is no space between the dits and dahs you know the CONTEXT within which the information is sent and you intuitively interpret what is being sent. A CW reader doesn’t think. The way it is programmed if the code isn’t sent within its programmed parameters you will see a question mark or a bracket instead of the character sent.

For me, personally, the only useful purpose of a CW reader is to see how properly or how poorly a ham is sending CW. If it helps you to send or receive code more properly, so much the better. However there is no substitute for just listening to and sending a lot of CW. It’s like learning a foreign language: you just have to speak it a lot, be willing to make mistakes and not worry about how you sound. You will eventually become proficient and you will even receive compliments from those of the ham community who appreciate good CW.

Just picked up this tuner. Ordinarily I use auto-tuners such as the LDG line. I think they make very good products but in this case I needed a small non-auto tuner for use with my ARK-40. The ARK-40 does not have an adjustment to set the RF at anything less than its 7-watt output and matching an auto tuner with an MFJ SWR analyzer isn't going to happen with its 15 milliwatt input. As a result I picked up the MFJ 971. I usually avoid MFJ products like the plague. They have had over the years many quality control issues. I took the tuner lid off to set the jumpers for Qrp operation and noted that everything was as it should be with no cold solder joints etc. It turns out that the tuner works quite well with ARK-40. In fact I just had an 8 AM qso with a Philadelphia ham, Jerry, whose call sign is one for the books: N3HAM!
73 for now, Mark.

The ARK-40

Just received my latest Qrp rig, the ARK-40 by S & S Engineering: it's a rugged little rig with a strong extruded aluminum case. For tuning you use a series of four thumb-wheel switches. If you don't have small, limber digits it can be a bit cumbersome tuning around the band. Anyway, this thing puts out about 7 watts and employs a frequency synthesizer module for frequency stability. Just another tool in my Qrp tool box.

Starting up again after all these years.

Anticipating the arrival of a classic radio by Fedex today. It's the S & S Engineering ARK 40. I built one several years ago and regretted selling it. Time to get back into the adventure of low power radio. I will add a photo of it to my web page which is at http://home.roadrunner.com/~mpaley/K8LD_Qrp.html.