www.RogerWendell.com
Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic EvolutionSM
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WBØJNR
First licensed in 1970, Amateur Extra class license since 1982...
(I also hold a General Radio Telephone License)

CQC Field Day 1994
WØAH, Amber and KBØJFH
at CQC's first Field Day
QRP
and Amateur Radio

 

Yellow Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for photos and information about my station...

 

WB0JNR sporting an ORARI T-shirt by YC2UDF - 08-15-2012
ORARI (Indonesia)
First, a definition: Amateur radio, also known as "Ham" radio, is a radio electronics hobby (now including computers!) that's enjoyed by over a million people worldwide. Of these, a few hundred thousand are located in the United State where we often call ourselves "Ham operators" or simply "Hams." I'm not sure where the term "Ham" comes from but it probably has something to do with being on the air or "Hamming it up" in front of an audience - it's just my guess though because I've heard all kinds of explanations over the years...
 
Anyway, to become an amateur radio operator, or Ham, you must first pass an examination. The American Radio Relay League, here in the United States, can be contacted for all kinds of licensing and testing information at www.arrl.org. Ham operators use all kinds of equipment, antennas, and communications modes (FM, Single Sideband, Morse code, teletype, television, etc.) on a variety of frequencies throughout the radio spectrum. In addition to the millions of different frequencies at our disposal, we ham operators also use repeaters, our own satellites (see AMSAT), lasers, computer networks, and just about anything else that's available to experiment with!

QRP, In Amateur "Ham" Radio, means to voluntarily limit your transmitter's output power to 5 Watts or less. In a world of 50,000 Watt AM broadcast stations and 1,000,000-Watt digital TV transmitters why would anyone want to actually reduce their power output?

Well, for me, I reduce my power output nearly all of the time for the pure joy of it! Turning my power down adds to the challenge and requires a lot more skill, on both ends of the QSO (communications), to get the same results as those operators who run a lot more power. Also, I believe the idea of QRP is in keeping with an environmental ethic that helps reduce the already too heavy burden most of us are placing on mother Earth and her resources. If we all attempt a lot of simple things, to reduce the load a bit, a whole lot of benefit can be achieved that will improve the quality of life for not only us, but all of humankind in general! Oh, also, there is always a bit of a health risk when you're around any kind of radiation - that not only includes nuclear reactors and X-ray machines but radio waves and cell phones (I talk a lot about cellphone radiation on my Antennas page...). So, turning down your transmitter's power output is a good safety precaution even though amateur radio transmissions are nothing compared to a cellular tower or TV transmitter!

Finally, most people engaged in QRP seem, to me, to be more "in tune" with the experimenting and a sense of inquiry that was the foundation of amateur radio in its beginning (remember, back when radio was getting "off the ground," in the early 20th century, prefabricated store-bought equipment was unheard of!). That doesn't make low power operators any better or worse than anyone else - it just means they usually seem to have a greater sense of adventure and an interest in experimentation!

Anyway, as time permits I'll devote more time and space (on this page) to all things QRP!

- Roger J. Wendell
WBØJNR, 2001
(Digital TV transmitter piece added in 2008...)

72 From Colorado "72" is a form of radio shorthand that roughly translates as meaning "Best wishes QRP!" This is a scan from page 36 of the May, 1996 Low Down newsletter published by the Colorado QRP Club. I believe I took the photo, sometime earlier that year, while northbound on Highway 93 between Golden and Boulder, Colorado...

 

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Yellow Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for the International Morse code alphabet and phonetics
Yellow Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for my tribute to Morse Telegraphy!
Yellow Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for the QRP Calling Frequencies
Yellow Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for "Q" and "Z" signals
Yellow Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for the QRPp Award

 

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High Altitude Marine Mobile QRP Record:

NØLX High Altitude Marine Mobile QRP! On August 14, 2004 fellow CQCer Jake Groenhof (NØ:LX) achieved what we believe to be an altitude record for QRP Marine Mobile! Click Here to get Jake's full story on running QRP Marine Mobile from a 13,800 foot lake just west of Denver on Mt Evans!

Click Here for some shots of Jake, a few weeks later, as QRP bicycle mobile!

 

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Low Power Long Distance Record:

According to Rich Arland, K7YHA (Now K7SZ), in World Radio Magazine (February 1990, Year 19, Issue 8, pp. 46-47) the long-distance low power record is held by KL7YU and W7BVV using one MicroWatt over a 1,650 mile Ten Meter path between Alaska and Oregon in 1970. This is the equivalent of 1.6 BILLION Miles per Watt!!

It's interesting to note that NASA's deep space missions typically achieve miles-per-watt ratings of over 500 million miles.  One example was the 8-watt signal from Pioneer 10*.  At a power level equal to that of a night light, the craft's signal traveled 11 billion km (6.8 billion miles) to Earth for a rating of 850 million miles per watt, or about half the KL7YU/W7BVV record...

*Launched on March 2, 1972 from Cape Kennedy aboard an Atlas Centaur rocket for a two-year mission to Jupiter.  The probe is now about twice as far from the Sun as Pluto.  At 13 km/s (28,000 miles per hour) it's heading in the general direction of the first magnitude star Aldebaran.

 

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USCGC Chase
Braggin' Rights: Who holds the Coast Guard's record for receiving Morse code?  - ME!
Coast Guard 40 wpm certificate.
Armed Forces Day 25 wpm certificate.
ARRL 20 wpm certificate.

Ex - WN6CDA, at age 14, 1970
Ex - KH6JDO, Wahiawa, Oahu 1976
Amateur Extra Class license since June 1982
General Radiotelephone license since August 1990
Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit since 1995

Roger J. Wendell,  WN6CDA, Aracadia, Californa - circa 1971
WN6CDA circa 1971
(I learned the code at age 14 by memorizing it out of a dictionary!)
Hand Key  Click on this hand key to hear real Morse code! (227k .wav file)

Coast Guard Speed Key Certificate Front
Coast Guard Speed Key Certificate Back

 

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ARES (Amatuer Radio Emergency Service)

ARES Logo Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)

Although I always had an interest in ARES, and emergency communications in general (I was a Coast Guard Radioman in the 70s...), I didn't get involved until 2011 when Dave (W7KJW/HP1XDR) invited me to a District 23 meeting here in Colorado. Although off to a slow start (thanks to my busy but fun travel and climbing schedule), during my first year I was able to participate in a radio alignment and repair workshop, satellite antenna alignment and test sessions, an amateur TV training class, and a variety of nets, meetings and other activities sponsored by D23. The D23 group comprised of dedicated, hard working and capable hams eager to provide service to our county and community - I'm proud to be associated with them!

Below is a rough log to help me keep track of my training, certifications and related activities:

Jefferson County Fire Cache Roger J. Wendell 03-10-2013
  • February 2013 - Participated in JeffCo IMT spring training
  • January 2013 - Participated in the IDOT D-23/Jeffco IMT exercise on January 26th
  • January 2013 - Accepted to the Jefferson County Sheriffs Department's Incident Management Team
  • January 2013 - Completed IS-100.b, IS-200.b, IS-700.a, and IS-800.b FEMA courses
  • November 2012 - Assisted with EMWIN satellite system troubleshooting (through January 2013)
  • October 2012 - Participated in ATV training at (and along the surrounding roads!) the Dakota building
  • March 2012 - I passed the pack test at the School of Mines' Steinhauer Fieldhouse in Golden
  • March 2012 - I completed S-130/190, I-100, L-180 for certification as a Wildland Firefighter II
  • February 2012 - Assisted with VHF/UHF radio alignment and repair at the Colorado State Forest Service office in Golden
  • January 2012 - Attended the D23 orientation meeting at the Dakota building

 

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Beacons:

Wave Animation

 

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Links:

  1. AC6V Origins of Hamspeak
  2. AMSAT Grid Square Conversion
  3. Antennas!
  4. ARRL - American Radio Relay League
  5. Coast Guard Club and Amateur Radio Net
  6. Coast Guard Radioman
  7. CQC Colorado QRP Club
  8. CWCom Morse code over the Internet
  9. Extra Class Amateur Radio License
  10. FISTS The International Morse Preservation Society
  11. IRLP - Internet Radio Linking Project
  12. JeffCo IMT
  13. JeffCo I am responding
  14. K9DE Learning and Using Morse code
  15. Maritme
  16. Memberships and Wallpaper
  17. Memorizing Morse code by Wolf at 1728 Software Systems
  1. MGEF - Mount Greylock Expeditionary Force (VHF and above...)
  2. Morse code
  3. Morse Code Company
  4. NACEC North American Center for Emergency Communications
  5. NAQCC - North American QRP CW Club
  6. Novice Historical Society by AC6C
  7. QRPp Award
  8. QRZ - call sign database
  9. QSL Cards
  10. Radio Reference - world's largest radio communications data provider
  11. Scan America - Live Police, Fire, and EMS Scanners
  12. Solar Flux and Terrestrial Activity
  13. Spark Gap info by John S. Belrose
  14. Spark Gap Recording from 1921 by VK7RO
  15. Travel and Travel Two
  16. ZUT Coast Guard CW Operators Association
  17. Waypoints, Grid Squares, and Navigation

 

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ARRL Diamond
Is your ARRL membership current?

QRPp-I
Click on this handkey for
the QRPp International club!
Spacer CQC Logo
Click on this logo to visit
a great QRP club!
Spacer QRP ARCI Logo
Click on this logo to visit
a great QRP resource!

 

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