SARL Summer QRP Contest - 20 January 2024

I just got back from the bush after the SARL QRP contest. To be honest it was a total waste of time! The main problem was the timing of the contest, from 9:30 local time till 10:30 on 40m and then from 10:30 till 11:30 on 20m. The problem is 40m closes at around 8am in the morning and only opens again after 4pm, 20m only opens in the afternoon.

So whoever decided on using these time slots for a QRP contest is totally clueless as far as propagation goes!

Anyway, even though I only made 4 contacts I am happy with my station, everything worked well and it was easy to setup. The only thing that failed was my portable station CW paddle, the return spring broke but it had issues before so it is time to retire it. I really need a new compact CW paddle! Fortunately the FT-817 supports "microphone keying", you can use the up and down keys on the microphone to send dots and dashes, actually works quite well once you get used to it. It does limit my sending speed to around 22-25wpm but for local contests that is fine, I have never worked a local station at faster speeds than that anyway.

I did take a few photos of my portable station as I was planning a small report on the contest, now I am not so sure it is worth the effort so I might as well post a few photos here.

Ready for the contest, Yaesu FT-917, ATU-100 tuner (was not needed but you never know with a new antenna), feeding a EFHW antenna in an inverted L configuration kept aloft with a Comet 8m portable mast. Power provided by 2.2Ah 3S LiPo batteries, turned out that 1 was enough despite a LOT of CQ calling. Battery voltage monitored on a cell level.


Other than the mast everything fits into this small backpack.


Radio showing voltage after lots of calling, I would normally change the battery when it drops below 11.4V


Keeping an eye on the LiPo voltage, you do not want to discharge them below about 25% This was after an hour of calling CQ frantically on 40m


My spot in the shade, Baviaans mountains in the background.

The next round of this QRP contest is later during the day and in autumn so it might give better results. I will check propagation during the selected time slots closer to the contest before making a call if it would be worth the effort to compete or if it will be a waste of time again like this round.

SARL Summer QRP Contest - 24 January 2015

Today was the summer leg of the annual SARL QRP contest. I decided to run a ultra light, portable station again. Last year I went to a local nature reserve, I decided to do the same again just changing my antenna. The antenna I used last year was an end-fed dipole but it proved to be noisy and less than efficient. But even with this antenna I managed to win so I had a standard to keep up!

The decision was to run a 2 band, fan dipole this time for 40 and 15m since those were the most productive bands last year. The radio was again the FT-817 powered by 4S 6000mAh LiPo batteries. I added a battery monitor this time to keep an eye on the batteries. I also added a 10V regulator this time as the more than 16V from a fully charged 4S pack is a bit high for the FT-817. Last year I just chucked the antenna into some trees but I decided to take a portable, ex-military, mast this time. It worked well but was rather heavy to carry for the 2km there and 2km back hike to my operating spot under the trees.

Yaesu FT-817 with LDG Z-11Pro II tuner and power supply

Fan-dipole on ex-military mast above the trees.

 The first hour of the 3 hour contest is limited to 40m forcing stations to work locals. I managed to work 26 local stations, all but one on SSB. Part of the reason for this was that I forgot my CW key at home so I had to key the radio via the UP/DOWN buttons on the mike, how stupid can you get?

Once the first hour was over I moved to 15m, unfortunately there was a French contest running so very few non French stations were prepared to work me, they were all looking for French contacts. The result was around 24 DX CW contacts, most of them with French stations. In total I managed to work 10 DXCC counties including a nice surprise, a JY9 right at the end for a new QRP DXCC entity.

My score was better than last year but I am sure the other guys also did better, I will have to wait and see how I did..... 

Operating QRP from a field station.

11/06/2014 I am looking at a QRP "event", maybe a hiking trip and camping or else a SOTA activation. It will depend a bit on the weather, we are experiencing a rather cold spell at the moment, not ideal camping weather.

I would also love too, when it is spring again, to fly out to one of the dry pans in the Kalahari Desert or in Botswana, camp under the wing and have some QRP operating fun.

More coming soon.......

(c)R Venter 2014-2023