[Elecraft] No Sun Spot DX -- QSL Cards!

[Mark J. Schreiner]

In case you all find the following boring, at least go to the last 
paragraph for the whole point of this email!  The following is related 
to Elecraft because it describes QSOs I've made mostly with my K2.  It 
is even more appropriate, as you will see if you make it all the way 
through and to the end of this diatribe. 

I was quite busy on the radio about one year ago, when the sunspots were 
few, and sometimes zero.  Lately I haven't been so active on the air due 
to a variety of things, but certainly not due to the lack of sunspots!  
I was pleasantly surprised to get an envelope full of QSL cards from the 
8th Area QSL Buro via the mail today.  These are the real thing, not 
those eQSLs.  These have photographs printed on card stock that feels 
good in your hands and will be fun to look at many years from now.  I 
looked through them all and they were either for QSOs that I had while 
HF mobile (DQ2006X for a special event station during the 2006 World 
Football Cup, that is of course Soccer) or operating from home with my 
Elecraft K2 at 5W (or less). 

Some of the dates and QSOs looked pretty familiar, such as October 15, 
2006 (QSOs with F6FHO for my DX multiplier on 20m CW and VA2SG on 40m 
SSB), the weekend of last year's PA QSO Party when I operated from my 
home QTH in Lehigh County instead of heading out to Potter County or 
like this year to Mifflin County. 

Another familiar date was November 11, 2006, the weekend of ARRL 
November Sweepstakes Phone (QSO with VY2TT on PEI on 40m SSB).  This 
looks like quite the contest station which is available as a rental 
property!  Hmm, another vacation idea!

Not all my QSOs are during contests, of course, and a couple of my most 
memorable DX contacts were also worked QRP with my K2 at 5W from home 
with a Carolina Windom 160.  One of them was QSL'd as HA7TM/HI9 on both 
40 & 160m CW (I've noticed that antenna works best on those bands and 
not so good on 80m, I guess it shows).  My best long haul DX QSL card 
was a QSO I remember well (oh, from April 2005, I thought that one was a 
bit farther back in the logbook) on 40m CW early one morning before I 
went to work, working grayline to the Fiji Islands and snagging 3D2NA on 
Mana Island.  It was especially memorable as I could barely detect a 
signal on the frequency and as I continued to listen and as the sky 
continued to brighten slightly I heard the signal level coming up and 
out of the noise until I figured I had nothing to lose, gave a call, and 
was pleasantly surprised by a reply!  Hey, you never know unless you 
try!  There was also Special Event Station VC3O for the 150th 
anniversary of the discovery of oil in Canada.  This QSL has a nice 
photograph of a drilling rig shack used to keep the men out of the cold 
while drilling and then it is moved to the next location.  It would have 
made a nice antenna tower as well had radio been around back in the 1850s!

Okay, but I saved the very best for last.  I hope you all made it to 
this point.  This was truly a nice surprise and it was the last QSL card 
in the batch that I looked it, so was truly the best for last for me as 
well.  This is a callsign we are all familiar with, and it featured a 
photograph of three things that are near and dear to all of us who read 
this.  The first item of note was young boy, obviously in training for 
ham radio and hopefully a future generation ham in the making.  The 
second was an Elecraft K2 and the third was an Elecraft Hex Key!  Oh, 
the callsign, none other than VA3JFF/QRP, Jeff Hetherington, Contest 
Manager for QRP-ARCI!   Thanks, Jeff, for the QSO, QSO, and hopefully 
for providing a future generation of hams to keep this wonderful hobby 
alive!

72 to all those whom I've QSO'd, QSL'd and hope to work again, at the 
bottom of the cycle to the top of the next!

Mark, NK8Q