The QRPer Board

Hi Everyone!

First post here but I have been a member for a while.

I have been watching Thomas's videos and blog posts for a long time, great inspiration!

After chasing DX for years and contesting mostly with 100W I moved to 100% QRP in 2003, still chasing DX (restarted my DXCC to make it 100% QRP) and still contesting. Sitting at around 278 DXCC entities confirmed on QRP, more worked but not (yet) confirmed.

I love hiking and setting up basic field stations so that fits in perfectly with QRP. The very first thing that got me interested in amateur radio was an article in one of the ham magazines, around 1980, that described a guy camping and sitting in his tent working DX with a simple CW rig, that "magic" is still with me!

I have also been involved with SOTA since it's inception but have not been really active for many years after a back problem that spelled the end of my mountain climbing. When POTA came along I saw it as a perfect alternative for SOTA. I am now the South African POTA representative.

My operation is almost 100% CW, only time I might use the microphone is for some local chats on 40m. When activating a POTA entity on CW I can at best expect 3-4 local QSO's, if I am lucky, the rest needs to be DX and often long distance DX of over 8000km so selecting the right time of day and band conditions are vital to get the needed 10 QSO's, great challenge!

I am also sometimes active from my yacht SV Katti (53 foot Bruce Roberts), mostly as ZS6DX/mm.

Hope to work some of the members here in the future on CW, any speed form 10-65wpm is fine!

Thanks for creating this environment and adding me Thomas! Love the like-minded discussions.

73, Rudi de ZS2M/ZS6DX/ZS1BT/V51VE
Web page: https://qsl.net/zs2m/

Hope to have a QRP to QRP QSO with you at some point while you're operating POTA. I just started activating a few parks; mostly a hunter though.

AA5ET wrote: ↑Wed Apr 30, 2025 2:40 pm Hope to have a QRP to QRP QSO with you at some point while you're operating POTA. I just started activating a few parks; mostly a hunter though.

That will be fantastic!

I, we, are obviously spoiled by ham population density and even conditions. If I don't make my 10 in less than 30 minutes, on any mode, I get a bit moody. Usually takes about 10-15 minutes, unless ol' sol is grumpy, as has been the past week or so. QRP is fun, but you must have a significant antenna to be consistent with your activations.
Welcome to the board. I am a casual peeker here, and seldom poster. I have never worked South Africa from a park on CW or SSB. Only digital, and that has been twice. So, you are doing well.
72,
John, NS6X

ns6x wrote: ↑Fri Jun 06, 2025 3:46 pm I, we, are obviously spoiled by ham population density and even conditions. If I don't make my 10 in less than 30 minutes, on any mode, I get a bit moody. Usually takes about 10-15 minutes, unless ol' sol is grumpy, as has been the past week or so. QRP is fun, but you must have a significant antenna to be consistent with your activations.
Welcome to the board. I am a casual peeker here, and seldom poster. I have never worked South Africa from a park on CW or SSB. Only digital, and that has been twice. So, you are doing well.
72,
John, NS6X

Hi John.

Thanks for the reply!

I can only dream about so many local (same country or even continent) stations to work! I really need to pick activation dates/times to co-inside with good propagation so that I can work DX stations.

It is easier with 50-100W and SSB but that is not my "thing", a lot more local stations on SSB.

Hope to work you sometime!
72, Rudi de ZS2M (actually ZS6DX for a few days and then ZS1BT after that before returning to the ZS2M QTH)