Success with QRP

received characters. I am sure on the EU end the copy of my 1.5 watts was worse. With JT-9 the exchanges are very stereotyped. Call signs, Maidenhead Grid square, signal-to-noise ratio and a sign off "73" are all that are sent and received in order to achieve the amazing distant connections. I was able to complete JT-9 QSOs of more than 5000 Km (3000 miles) quite often at 5 watts as shown in my QRZ log (Finland is 6000 Km from Maine). Phil mentioned that the content of JT-9 QSOs is very similar to the QSOs that take place in CW contests and encouraged me to give it a try as a way of building confidence in my CW abilities. I wasn't sure that would work even with the help of the CW decoder MRP40. My ability to send with the paddles was OK but I frequently made errors which would be hard to fix in a rapid exchange during a contest. The point of CW contests is to make as many contacts as possible in the allotted time. Phil countered that contests at NAQCC were friendly to newcomers to CW. NAQCC is the North American QRP CW Club and membership is free. Before joining I listened to one of their sprints and tried a contact using MRP40 and my paddles. I couldn't get through but actually heard Phil's call as he contacted the person I was trying to contact. I just was not fast enough.

Contesting with MRP40

As I was thinking about the next NAQCC Sprint I happened on a video by Cliff N4CCB. I had watched other YouTube videos of his that were interesting and helpful. This video was about connecting a PC and radio for keying CW. Cliff mentioned that most contesters were not using their paddles or straight key to send CW during a contest. They were using macros in CW software on their PC. So I didn't have to feel like I was "cheating" by using the PC much as I was already doing during PSK-31 and JT-9 QSOs. In the video Cliff presents a simple circuit on a breadboard that sits between a Keyspan 9-pin-USB interface from the PC to connect to the Key's mini jack on the radio.

I had a Keyspan interface and a breadboard. All I needed were a couple of resistors, diodes, a transistor and a 9-pin female connector. The local RadioShack had them. It was pretty easy to put together and worked the first time I tried it.

The weekend after I built the circuit and had a practice QSO with KW2A, the ARRL International DX Contest was on. I listened for awhile and the exchange was similar to what was used during the NAQCC Sprint. If anything it was even simpler as you did not need to send a member number. The exchange went like this:

CQ TEST [SOME STATION'S CALL]

KC1DVT

KC1DVT 5NN K

TU 5NN ME [for Maine]

Pretty simple and you would think I could have done this with my paddles but most stations were calling at 25-35 WPM. The MRP40 software could copy and send at that speed. It was amazing to listen to and I had great success. As you can see from the QRZ log I now was able to make Dx contacts via CW.