In the log this week
* MVARC Breakfast Tomorrow (3/22/2025)
* Learn About Batteries for Portable Operations at MVARC's Monthly Meeting Tomorrow (3/22/2025)
* Virginia QSO Party Recap
* QRP Labs Announces Beta SSB Firmware for the QMX and QMX+
* MVARC Nets on the Air
* What's happening with DX?
* Solar Activity Update
* Upcoming Contests
* Interesting Online Radio Content
MVARC Breakfast Tomorrow (3/22/2025)
Tomorrow, Saturday, March 22, 2025, is the date of our next monthly breakfast. As usual we will meet up at 8 AM in the IHOP at 7694 Richmond Highway in Alexandria, Virginia for great conversation, camaraderie, and breakfast too. We have been having a great turn out in the last few months and there is always room for you to join in the fun. We hope to see you all there.
Learn About Batteries for Portable Operations at MVARC's Monthly Meeting Tomorrow (3/22/2025)
Tomorrow, Saturday March 22, 2025 at 10:30 AM we will have our next monthly meeting. This month, Ed N2EC (of the third person) will be giving a presentation on "Battery Power for Portable Operations". I will go over what you need to know about the different battery chemistries out there, how to size your system to your needs, go over some case studies from QRP to QRO, discuss commercially available options and how to build your own, talk about using solar to recharge your system, and even do some show-and-tell so you can see different systems first hand. It should be an informative talk whether you're brand new to portable power or an off-grid pro, so bring your questions and get charged up with us.
Our monthly meeting will be held at the Mount Vernon Government Center at 2511 Parkers Lane, Alexandria, VA in room 119 shortly following our monthly breakfast. We encourage everyone who can make it to join us in person. For those unable to join we will also have a hybrid meeting available via Google Meet at https://meet.google.com/gew-gucu-gbu.
Virginia QSO Party Recap
Last weekend we were lucky to have good band conditions and a lot of participation in the Virginia QSO Party. I wasn't able to operate for the full time, but ended up with 300 in the log, all in CW. I got 32 counties and cities in Virginia, 37 states, and 1 Canadian province. I also was able to get 7 DXCC entities in the log including the Slovak Republic, Lithuania, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and Ukraine. I was excited to work Laci OM2VL on all 5 bands I operated on (80 m, 40 m, 20 m, 15 m, and 10 m), it is almost certain he'll be the top DX op once again this year. He will also be featured on this year's certificates in honor of his consistent participation in the VAQP. Thanks for all the hard work by the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club putting on the contest and thanks to all who participated. I can't wait for next year's edition!
If you have any on-the-air activities you'd like to share, send them along and I can add them to a future edition of Amateur Radio News and Notes.
QRP Labs Announces Beta SSB Firmware for the QMX and QMX+
QRP Labs, makers of several inexpensive and highly regarded QRP kits and radios, announced this week that they have released a beta firmware for their QMX and QMX+ radios that will allow them to transmit on Single Sideband in addition to CW and single tone digital modes. Customers have been eagerly awaiting this since the QMX was first released at Four Days in May in 2023. This is very much a beta release, as there have already been some issues found that are being worked on ... as founder Hans Summers G0UPL says in the announcement update on their groups.io from Wednesday it is "for the brave". But now that it is released we can expect updates as users test to get everything fully functional (the second release came less than a day after the first).
Considering that the 5-band QMX starts at $102.47 and the 11-band QMX+ starts at $125, this new firmware makes the rigs some of the most cost effective and full featured QRP rigs available. I would not be surprised if they are soon backordered! If you have a QMX and are among "the brave" the beta firmware can be found at https://qrp-labs.com/qmxp/ssbbeta.html.
MVARC Nets on the Air
* 2 Meter FM Net: Tuesdays at 7 PM [146.655/- MHz (141.3 Hz PL Tone) ]
* 2 Meter Digital Net: Immediately Follows 2 Meter FM Net [146.655/- MHz C4FM]
* MVARC Slow Speed CW Roundtable: Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 AM [3.565 MHz CW]
* MVARC Cherry Tree Net: Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 AM [3.920 MHz LSB]
What's Happening with DX
There will be a lot of DX on the air in the next week. Stations on the air will include Madeira Island (CQ3W), Avdimou Beach British Sovereign Base Cyprus (ZC4MK), Jamaica (6Y7EI), Antigua (V26K), Rodrigues Island (3B9DJ), Vanuatu (YJ0CA), Guadeloupe Island (TO1Q), Grenada (J38XB), Tanzania (5H3MB), Cayman Islands (ZF2LC), Dominica Island (J79WTA), Cook Islands (E51ANQ), Martinique (FM/F8AAN), Sint Maarten Island (PJ7AA), Mali (TZ4AM), Comoro Islands (D68Z), Solomon Islands (H44MS), Sri Lanka (4S7KKG), Benin (TY5C), Senegal (6W7/ON4AVT), and Antarctica (DP0GVN),
A calendar of DXpeditions can be found at https://dxnews.com/calendar/.
Solar Activity Update
As we go to press the Solar Flux Index (SFI) was 180 and the estimated sunspot number was 170. Over the last week the SFI has slightly increased. Solar activity has been moderate due to an isolated M1.5 flare from solar region 4031. Solar wind was also enhanced in the last day but is expected to diminish today with another enhancement to be seen tomorrow according to NOAA forecasts. Geomagnetic fields were quiet to unsettled yesterday, and quiet to unsettled activity is expected today and unsettled to active activity forecast tomorrow. Yesterday brought a G1 level geomagnetic storm and Kp index values of Kp5. The Kp index is forecast to come down today and tomorrow with values around 2 today and in the low to mid 2s tomorrow rising to above 3 by the end of the day. There is only a 5% chance for S1 or greater solar radiation storms for the next few days according NOAA forecasts. In terms of radio blackouts the chance of an R1-R2 blackout is at 30% and the chance for R3 or greater radio blackouts is at 5%. Conditions have been favorable overall. It remains a fantastic time for amateurs of all license classes to get on the air and work the world.
Good sources of real-time solar information include https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/ and https://solarham.com/. A good overview of conditions can be found at https://dx.qsl.net/propagation/. To see D-layer absorption data and associated radio blackouts, visit https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/d-region-absorption-predictions-d-rap. To see real-time Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF) and Critical Frequency (foF2) information from radiosonde data, visit https://prop.kc2g.com/.
Upcoming Contests
On the contest calendar this weekend we can look forward to the North American SSB Sprint, AWA John Rollins Memorial DX Contest, the Russian YL/OM Contest, the Africa All Mode International DX Contest, the UBA Spring Contest on 6 meters. As always the K1USN SSTs, MSTs, and CWTs will also be on the air.
The full contest calendar with events and exchanges can be found at https://www.contestcalendar.com/weeklycont.php
Interesting Online Radio Content
Hayden VK7HH takes a look at a classic Icom rig that he still loves today -
Michael KB9VBR and Joe KD9CGX activate an ATNO for POTA while Joe does his first CW Activation -
Becky N4BKY and Mike N4FFF share their favorite Morse Code learning tools and games -
Bob WV7W takes a look at the JPC 12 Antenna and uses it to activate POTA -
Ralph of Electronics for the Inquisitive Experimenter goes into the math behind the feedline side of an antenna tuner -
James KE8PZN shows us the Otter Vortex Pro Ice Fishing Tent he uses for POTA -
Jeff KF0MYB shows a battery operated alternative to canned air products -
Kevin W1DED talks to Kody K3KLB about his Winter Field Day operations in a Ice Fishing Tent -
Josh KI6NAZ takes a look at an upgraded speaker mount from Lido -
Hayden VK7HH takes a look at some Chinese duplexers -
IMSAI Guy takes a look at the ZeenKo Log Periodic Antenna for 400 MHz to 8 GHz -
Steve KM9G shows a budget battery load tester -
Chuck KK7USY shows a homebrew antenna he built -
Dugbo KD7DUG shows the essential figure 8 method for wrapping wire and line -
Ramon EA5IW takes his QRP Labs QCX Mini to a mountain top in Spain for 30 meter fun -
Dugbo KD7DUG takes us on a Bike Packing adventure to Orosco Ridge -
Walt K4OGO gets great performance for a low cost with an inexpensive vertical antenna -
Rob N1NUG takes a look at the Power Queen LiFePO4 battery and MPPT Solar Controller -
Sean W9FFF shows a design issue with the Yaesu FT-5D -
IMSAI Guy takes a look at the TinySA Ultra Plus Spectrum Analyzer -
Matt M0DQW shows us the SDRBerry SDR Receiver for Raspberry Pi -
Kevin W1DED talks to Adrian KO8SCA about next year's DXpedition to Bouvet as 3Y0K -
Forrest KI7QCF gives a survey of his favorite keys and paddles for beginners (on the expensive side of things) -
Callum M0MCX of DX Commander talks about the 2 transmitter station he is building -
Morten LB0FI uses an inexpensive monitor to build a HamClock -
Steve KM9G takes a look at batteries and gear from Kevin W0AEZ -
Mark KD7DTS talks to Umesh KK6TXI about home made batteries while they activate SOTA -
That's it for this week.
Best 73,
Ed
N2EC
