Hi I'm new - some QRP questions

[KQ4EHE]

Hi! I'm a new ham, I got my tech and general in Nov 22. After all my piddling around with V/UHF repeaters, GMRS, APRS, and DMR I was getting very bored until I found POTA and qrper.com. Then I watched some satellite work with Sean KX9X and now I'm hooked and I want to try these things. So I went a little overboard over the weekend and now have an FT-818, ZM-2 tuner kit, and arborist throw line among other things on the way to me now. I'm interested in home-brewing antennas, really home-brewing as much as I can since I solder all day for work anyway (I repair guitar amps for a living).

So, anyway, thanks in advance for your patience with my questions:

1. I don't have an HF shack set up at home. I have a 100w icom rig, but I haven't set it up yet and I'm considering selling it because being mobile appeals to me much more. Indecision surrounding where to set up my shack at home where it's comfortable and also easy to make the ground and RF connections needed have stalled me for a couple months and the more I consider it, the more I just want to set up in a park and relax. Am I going to really hate going out to a park with 6w for SSB? Tom K4SWL makes it look so easy, I don't know what the big deal would be as long as antenna is tuned up and propagation is good, but everyone I've heard from says QRP is going to suck.

2. Do I need a 9:1 unun for a random wire If I'm using a tuner like the ZM-2?

3. Don't worry, I plan to listen for 1,000 years before I jump in, but how soon is too soon?

4. I don't know CW although I bought into a lifetime membership to LICW Club, I just do not presently have the time to devote to it. Does there exist encode/decoders and are those a no-no ?

again, thanks yall

Wiggins KQ4EHE in Atlanta GA

[K1GC]

First off, congrats on getting your General. I am still fairly new to the hobby with barely four years in and think I have some experience that may overlap with your interests.

1. No need to have a shack at home, though it can be a nice option to have something available when time or weather don't allow getting out portable. Really a personal call there. I do have fairly simple home setup and I use it, but I would estimate 80% or more of my activity is portable (and that is in Maine year round). QRP SSB will likely be a challenge at times, but at least we are coming into a good part part of solar cycle. That said, with an efficient antenna, I made many QRP SSB contacts in my first year of portable starting summer 2020. I was never disappointed or discouraged operating QRP SSB, but I was also able to operate from very RF quiet places.

2. I will let others with more tech knowledge on this answer, but I think yes. You need the 9:1 and a tuner with a random wire (happy to be wrong about this so will be watching for more info).

3. I would not hesitate to get out and activate a park or a summit tomorrow. It sounds like you have researched it and know the basic process, so I would get your feet wet as soon as you feel like you have an antenna you are happy with. Experience is a great teacher.

4. I wish I started CW the minute I was involved with HAM. It took me the first year or so on SSB and getting my extra before I started, but if I was starting again I would be working it into my learning from early on. Now it is 95% of what I do on air and it opens a tremendous amount of doors when it comes to QRP and portable. You need not take a deep dive. Start learning characters and before you know it you will be fitting in 15 minutes a day of steady practices. A year from now you will be glad to started. Just my two cents.

Great to hear someone working on guitar amps. I listen to the Truth About Vintage Amps podcast just as soon as each episode drops. I don 't have ant repair chops, but I like keeping my tube amps running well.

73, Douglas k1GC

[KQ4EHE]

Thanks a lot Douglas! Especially good to hear your answer to #3.

re: Guitar Amps - you might have heard the episode on transformers with my friend Bryan Sours, he is a freak of nature when it comes to electricity. I'm surprised he's not a ham (but not really, only so much time in the day). Honestly my background in this is what kind of drew me to amateur radio. Learning about RF, Smith charts, etc, coming from a mostly-DC realm is like seeing a line drawing pop into a 3D picture for the first time.

[SkipRD]

Wiggins -- the response by Douglas above all look good, so just a couple extra thoughts.

First, I see you're in Atlanta. So am I, and if you want to team up for some QRP POTA activations, let me know and we'll meet up. The Chattahoochee River NRA has several good locations and I've activated there a couple dozen times, so it's easy and fun for me if you're interested. There are also several state parks within a short drive.

Second, as to SSB QRP, I mostly do CW and QRP (5 watts) is easy. I've only done a bit of SSB QRP (10 watts) and it's not as easy. And for someone just starting out, it'll be even more of a challenge. But, I wouldn't let that discourage you. You'll be sitting out at a park talking on a radio and if you're not getting big pile-ups in response to a booming signal, so what? It's still fun. Just ignore the people who say you'll hate QRP. It'll take you a while to get into the rhythm of the exchanges, but you'll do fine. And you'll like it.

Next, the Atlanta Radio Club goes to a local park (usually Brook Run Park in Dunwoody) on the second Sunday of each month. They encourage people to either (1) bring their own radio and/or antenna and they'll help you get it set up and operating, or (2) they set up their own radios and antennas and encourage people to operate those.

Finally, on April 1 and 2, there's an event to activate all 50 state parks in Georgia. If you go to this page, you can see the list of parks and the operators who will be activating them: https://gaparks.org/parks-list-and-schedule. Claude AC4SH will be activating Sweetwater Creek on Sunday, and besides being the main guy for the event and a good person to know, he's a really super guy who loves showing new hams the ropes. Feel free to reach out to him through his qrz.com address. There are a gazillion people operating Red Top Mountain. Panola Mountain has a bunch of people on both Saturday and Sunday. You get the idea. I'm sure any of the hams at any of the locations would love to have you come by and watch the process, and maybe even give you some time at their setups.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need any further info. I'm always happy to help.
73 Skip K4EAK

[KQ4EHE]

Thank you Skip! This is all good info, especially the 2nd Sunday ARC meetups.

[Andrew (grayhat)]

2. Do I need a 9:1 unun for a random wire If I'm using a tuner like the ZM-2?

well, there are two ways to use a "random" (or an endfed, for that) either bring the wire end directly to the ATU or feed it using a run of coax; the 9:1 is needed only in the second case, in such a case we're trying to somewhat "adapt" the impedance of the antenna to the one of the coax and then use the ATU at the end of the coax to perfect the match and make our TX happy, also, such a second setup while introducing more losses (transformer and coax) has the advantage of allowing the antenna to be laid out higher thanks to the coax run (remember, the antenna is the whole wire) so somewhat improving the radiation lobes; also, if going for a random, remember that it isn't really random, there are some lenghts which is better to avoid, for details and an explanation, I suggest you to check this https://udel.edu/~mm/ham/randomWire/

HTH

[KQ4EHE]

Makes perfect sense thank you