price%marlin@nosc.ARPA (James N. Price) (11/06/85)
------- For Pete, VE5BEL, ihnp4!sask!hardie@seismo.css.gov-- My mailer won't seem to talk to your mailer in reverse, so I have to put my reply note here on the net. Sorry for the clutter, gang. --Jim, K6ZH ------- Pete-- Thanks for your netnote. It came thru loud and clear. The next question will be, are you reading this? I was in the CQ WW phone contest which was the last weekend of October. I guess I shouldn't say "in" so much as being a casual observer! I have a Ten-Tec Argonaut which I've had since Dec. of '83 (an Xmas present from my XYL!) I got my WAS in about 6 months with it, but have not seriously considered dedicating my heart and soul to QRP DXCC with the sunspots being as they are. I have worked 54 countries and have about 40 confirmed thus far. Need only Africa for QRP WAC. WAS was easy, and even 40 meters was very good to the East Coast on QRP. DX is much harder, and I finally bought a beam last year. It's not much, a TH-3 JRS, but wow, what a difference! Virtually all of my DX has been on 20 and 15 with the exception of a few on 40. I can therefore suggest that if you don't have a beam, get one. I can also suggest that it's helpful to use "/QRP" with your call when you're trying to get a station's attention. Probably not so useful in pileups, but with only a couple of stations calling it sometimes gets you thru. Most stations will bend over a bit to work QRPers, it seems. Otherwise, patience and persistence are necessities of QRP life. I have a programmable keyer that I use in contests--saves some of the frustration of sending my call a zillion times! Keep in touch. We can try a sked if you'd like some time. Thanks for the QSL info. 73-- Jim, K6ZH ------- -------