Ponta Delgada

View from the room

We had a wonderful holiday in Ponta Delgada on the Azores.
This year we visited the beautiful island of Saõ Miguel.
We stayed in hotel Royal Garden, which is a hotel in Chinese style. The rooms that are situated around the garden all face to the garden.
We choose for Porta Delgada, because it has a ancient city centre in walking distance from the hotel.

In the center of the city you find the square with the gates.

Two pictures of the boulevard. Avida in Portugees.

Very cute, very young YL

I received a beautiful QSL with the picture of a very young YL.
Isn't she cute?

Thanks to daddy Christo LZ3FN.

My QSO data:   Band: 20 m,   Ant: Inverted Vee,   Power: 80 mW,   Distance: 1219 Miles.
This is good for 15240 Miles per Watt
Christo was using 100 W and a dipole antenna.
Thanks, dear Christo for the FB QSO and the beautiful QSL card

1000 Miles per Watt QSL card for Randy K5ZD

Tomorrow I will attent the annual meeting of the Benelux QRP Club in Apeldoorn.
In the same building during a meeting of the VERON, Randy K5ZD will talk there about CQ WW.
I knew that I met Randy in several contests, so I checked my log to see what power I had used in each QSO.

The PA1B 1000 Miles per Watt card for Randy K5ZD

This afternoon I wrote a card for the QSO with the lowest power.

Click to see the power that was used.

Update:
The lecture by Randy K5ZD was performed over a video link.
So my card will be send via the buro.
I met a few HAMs that also had a card for Randy with them. hi

PA1B winner in ARRL int. DX CW contest

I was surprised by the large number of QSO's that I made in the
ARRL int DX CW contest in February 2013.
Yesterday I received the September issue of Electron of the Veron.
I found out, that I am the winner in the QRP, all band section for the Netherlands.

I like this contest very much since the DX stations, like myself, give their power in the exchange.
The receiving station is immediately aware, that I use QRP or even QRPp. hi
The maximum power of my FT-817 is 2.5 watts, since I had a serious mismatch.
Most QSO's were made with 2.5 watts. 9 QSO's were made with 800 mW and 7 with 360 mW.
Some operators were at first confused by my exhange 599 003 for a power of 2.5 watts.
In that case I will give an additinal 3W 3W until it's clear that my power is really that low.
My antenna is an Inverted Vee

Exchange
For a power of 2.5 watt my exchange is 599 003
For a power of 800 mW or less my exchange is 599 001.

Curious how I do it:  Read the Blog article on the ARRL DX CW 2013

Part of the results for stations in the Netherlands

In many contest QSO's, I use the lowest possible power in each QSO.
When the S-meter goes up, my power goes down.
Thank you all for the activity in the contest.