Quick Login

Author Topic: What was your best QRP QSO?  (Read 5020 times)

Offline IZ5ZCO

  • Admiral
  • *
  • Posts: 405
  • Country: it
  • The world is too small for QRO.
    • QRP Club
What was your best QRP QSO?
« on: November 08, 2014, 01:17:13 UTC »
I'm curious.  :)

In my case: 2-way QRP QSO with Koji JP1HUJ (on 20 m CW).
72 de Nicola

Offline GM0LVI

  • Admiral
  • *
  • Posts: 423
  • Country: scotland
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2014, 19:49:22 UTC »
Hard to decide on "best" as I've had had quite a few I got a real kick out of.
"Best" for distance this year was ZL6HQC in February on 15m @ 18332km or 3666 km/Watt and also worked ZL1BYZ twice. These QSOs were only QRP from this side.
Most recent 2x QRP of any great distance was PV8AD on 20m in September @ 9033km.

What does really make me smile is when I work a station on west coast USA and get a decent report from my 5 Watts and then discover the other station is running 1kW+ with a massive stacked array. "Bangs per buck...?"  :D
Dave

PG4I

  • Guest
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #2 on: November 09, 2014, 15:56:23 UTC »
A couple of years back I participated in the CQWWCW with 5 watts output and a dipole antenna on 20 meters. Around 17z I copied AH0BT (Saipan) with a weak but clear signal. So I thought lets give hime a call, you never know. He copied me straight away, no problem at all. Considering he was running more than 1000 Watts, he must have had very low noise levels...  ;D

This summer I took a litte battery powered QRP rig with 1 Watt output with me on holiday to Corsica. At the campsite close to the sea a dipole was erected and after a couple of CQ's JH1GEX came back to me! It was probably the most fun QSO in years since it was also the first time I operated portable.

Offline KC8AON

  • Chief Petty Officer
  • *
  • Posts: 25
  • Country: us
    • KC8AON's QRP World
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2014, 12:30:49 UTC »
Southern Ohio to Australia on 40  meters SSB with around 8 watts from an old Yaesu FT-7 using an old CB vertical that I had added a B&W coil to the base to resonate it on 40 meters with 3 elevated radials attached.  Couldn't believe I was working Aussie with only 8 watts !

DF5WW

  • Guest
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2014, 14:59:10 UTC »
There´s not only one "best" ... For me are all contacts the best that i work in a huge pile up against HP and LP stations. VK9DLX at 17 m was so a "best of" QSO ....

Farest distance this year abt. 18600 km to VK with 5 w and indoor foldet doublet .... Most horrible try was FT4TA with an extreme wide split range and no ears for the QRP stations .... #8 of the most wanted are not in my log  :( :(

f5gsk

  • Guest
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2014, 15:30:37 UTC »
hello all,
 for me the best qrp qso is CE7AEQ Ted (chili) on 18090 le 15.6.2012 at midnight  (11500km) . I was an ft450D 5w ant FD3 antenna 72/73
Pierre


Offline GM0LVI

  • Admiral
  • *
  • Posts: 423
  • Country: scotland
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2014, 16:51:11 UTC »
Just had another "best" about an hour ago.
Rumi - LZ2RS replied to my CQ (5W) on 15m and we had a real fun half hour seeing just how low in power we could go and maintain contact. At 100mW which is the lowest I can go he was still giving me 579. He could go even lower in power and at 3mW he was a quite readable 419 here.

I've not had so much fun for a long time! :))
Dave

DF5WW

  • Guest
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #7 on: November 15, 2014, 17:56:14 UTC »
Great Job with QRPP to QRPPP  ;D

Offline KC8AON

  • Chief Petty Officer
  • *
  • Posts: 25
  • Country: us
    • KC8AON's QRP World
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #8 on: November 15, 2014, 19:23:34 UTC »
Great Job with QRPP to QRPPP  ;D

That's what amazes me with QRP, its just amazing what one can do with such little power.

LIFE"S TO SHORT FOR QRO !

VE2TH

  • Guest
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #9 on: November 18, 2014, 02:35:14 UTC »
Hello all,

There is not only one "best" ... For me each contacts are the best that i work and it is always amazing!!

Our farthest completed QSO happened  one early morning at 05:30 AM local time on 30 meters when my XTL, Georgette VE2RH (She is also 100%  QRP) worked VK3IO, Ron, located  in Cockatoo, Australia, and after the QSO, she  said, if you want to work him, it is time, I took the key and worked him too. We got 579 both ways.

A very nice complete QSO, name QTH etc.. 

When we got each our QSL, we asked for the KM/WATT Award from QRP ARCI, and we are very proud
to hang it on the wall.

Hey it is 16855 KM  which means with 5 watts it is 3371 KM/WATT 

For us here if we want to give a try, VK/ZL and most of Pacific Ocean countries are always workable early in the morning. And always on 40 or 30 meters. It is the most reliable bands for Oceania.

We have to Wake up early and sometimes we can work someone from very far away places, which is a real fun.-

Antenna here is a simple inverted vee cut for 30 meters, apex, 32 feet, or 10 meters high. I also have another one for 40 meters & 20 meters, on the same flagpole mast.-

Antenna at VK3IO are: two 160 mtr band dipoles, one broadside NE-SW and one broadside N-S, fed with open wire feeders and they are both about 100 feet (30 mtrs) high, connected to simple link coupled tuners, one tuner for each band for dipole 1 and one tuner for each band for dipole 2 (20 tuners in total.

You chan check his QRZ page, it is very interesting.

So QRP IS......  REALLY FUN AND AMAZING!!!

72, Michel didit...
 

DF5WW

  • Guest
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #10 on: November 18, 2014, 23:05:16 UTC »
Great Job with QRPP to QRPPP  ;D

LIFE"S TO SHORT FOR QRO !

That´s what i say all the times... It´s easy to make a DXCC full house within 10 years isf you use 1 kW and big fat antennas but then there is nothing more to do .... I love the QRP work with my attic antennas and each new one is a surprise for me ..... For me it´s o.K. when i have completed the DXCC full house when i´m 99  ;D ;D

Offline M0KCP

  • Leading Rate
  • *
  • Posts: 6
  • Country: england
    • Rob's QRZ page
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #11 on: November 22, 2014, 11:32:18 UTC »
This week I worked Palm Beach FL on 10m CW from England on 5w.
I also worked Istanbul on 10m CW on 2w
Both QSO were just under 1k miles per watt. 
No records broken, but both very satisfying.

Cheers
Rob M0KCP

Offline GM0LVI

  • Admiral
  • *
  • Posts: 423
  • Country: scotland
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #12 on: November 22, 2014, 19:13:23 UTC »
This week I worked Palm Beach FL on 10m CW from England on 5w.
I also worked Istanbul on 10m CW on 2w
Both QSO were just under 1k miles per watt. 
No records broken, but both very satisfying.

Cheers
Rob M0KCP
Istanbul with just 2W is good going Rob.
The upper HF bands have been pretty good over the past few days with some good(ish) openings on 10m. I'd a brief play on 10m this morning and worked EW6DX and Z30U for new band/mode but the LZ contest made things too crowded for QRP later, so I moved to 12m late afternoon-early evening and managed to work quite a few with 5W CW. Best were LU7HF (11206km) and KC0V in Colorado (6993km).
Dave

Offline M0KCP

  • Leading Rate
  • *
  • Posts: 6
  • Country: england
    • Rob's QRZ page
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #13 on: November 22, 2014, 19:18:17 UTC »
Very well done !
I need to try harder :)

Cheers
Rob M0KCP

Offline va2snl

  • Able Seaman
  • *
  • Posts: 2
  • Country: ca
Re: What was your best QRP QSO?
« Reply #14 on: December 05, 2014, 00:33:35 UTC »
Hi Everybody,

My "best" QSO is a short one (contest exchange) but a lonnnng one 9049 miles (14 563 km)!  :))
It was last week-end during the CQ WW DX. This was my first participation in this contest and I decided to give it a try, nothing too serious but enough to get a sense of what it is to operate for long hours trying to catch callsign at 25,30,35 wpm. This was not easy as I thought! So, on the sunday afternoon, after a couple of GOOD hours on 10m, I decided to take a peek on 15m; it was very busy. Has I was rolling the tuner stopping by on strong signal from Europe, grabbing 3 points here and there, I suddenly heard "39" then a bunch of ham calling like crazy.... 39? Ok, I pulled my zone map thinking this must be around 33 or 34 (remember this is my first CQ WW). OMG, all I see it the big Madagascar and a handfull of tiny speck!!!! I must be wrong so I started to listen carefully to confirm that 39 but the huge pillup was surely on something so I needed to find out. His signal was not that strong but strong enough to get a grip on the pillup (no split!) and command some respect but still some QSB gremlins was working agains me. Ok I heard again that "39" and now my hearth start racing! Ok ok, what it's callsign? He's running like hell and I have some difficulty to catch the beginning of is call, I only catching the end.. 'MU' ... 'MU'. I continu to listen and then catch 3B. 3B??? My N1MM screen can help me. It showing only G3B alone in my checklog screen. So I decided to enter the last part I got 'MU'. Bam! I got a 3B8MU showing up with a tiny 8 in bright red highlight! Ok, so I back a little and enter '8MU'. There it was in the bottom of my main screen 3B8 : AF/Mauritius, Zn 39. I looked again; saw the 9049mi in the heading info and cannot believe it right now. So the next minute goes as I try to confirm the 8 that I missed a couple time still in disbelief. But he got back a little bit louder now and catch is full callsign! Ok, this is a big fish and there's a lot of fisherman in the hole. What I'm gonna do with my little 5W hook up on a 42' sloper wire to breakthrough this hell of CW. So I start to call, call, call. Move a little bit higher... call, call, call. Go down a little and call, call, call. Slow down my keyer, sometimes it go thru the fast call like a turtle racing the bunny. But nothing make it. So I decided to wait a bit, maybe the pillup will shrink a little and then I will have my chance. After 5 to 6 looooonnng minutes I hear the last caller asking the station for his zone again? Maybe he was like me at first and was not sure that was really a 39. So the guy send 39 39 and after the usual TU there's a small gap of silence like maybe everyone still shock that this guy ask to confirm the zone so I hit the key, send my callsign and wait. No answer!??!? Oh no, the guy left for a brake? nooooooooo! Then the all mighty pillup start to call. There it is, I miss my only shot to bag that super long QRO. But out of nowhere a hear 'SNL?' WHAT!!! Ok ok stay call man and send your callsign right now!! After 2 extra long seconds I hear my full callsign, the useless rst and the magic 39. YESSSSS! Gotcha! Replied my also useless rst and my too common 5 zone. I drop my headphone and start to yell. My girlfriend show up in the shack, ask if a blowed up something and my answer was : made contact with 3B8MU!!!! She look at me puzzled, turn around and leave the place without asking for more detail.  ???  So I'm sharing it with you tonight, a 1809 miles per watt QSO. I'm still shock and in disbelief but at least, a got it confirm last night on LOTW so I will put some "green" stamp in a envelop and send that QSL card a.s.a.p!  What a wonderful hobby!  :)