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Have you ever asked yourself if it would be nice to have a QRP Cluster ? I did for a long time now and I am happy to announce that Paul, OM0ET and Peter, OM6APN finally made this possible for us all. The cluster is online and working fantastic, both on desktops as well as mobile devices. The cluster is available at qrpcluster.com and I cannot wait for some free time to also use it.
WHY A QRP CLUSTER
Here is what Paul answered to this question:
“Broadcasting with low power is fun, but especially if we manage to make QSO’s or contacts. QRP signals are usually weak and easily missed in noise and interference. That’s why we came up with the idea of creating a QRP self spotting Cluster, where every QRP broadcasting enthusiast can announce on which frequency they are working, in which mode, or with what equipment and power they are working.”
You can read more on qrpcluster.com.
HOW THE QRP CLUSTER SHOULD WORK ?
Again a few words from Paul and Peter:
“Our first idea was to create a Self-Spotting QRP ( TELNET ) cluster, which will be intended only for QRP / mobile / portable stations. Basically something similar to the DX Summit. In other words, some web interface + possibly also a mobile application in the SOTA way. There was also an idea to made a beacons, which will permanently broadcasting cluster data in some DIGI mode for those who don’t have an access to the internet ( mostly in the mountains or distant and not populated areas ). It would certainly be great if anybody could help us with this project. Main idea was to create an Open Source project in which anyone with the necessary knowledge could somehow participate.”
I guess if you have the knowledge and you are willing to help them with this project, you are more than welcome to contact them. I honestly like this QRP cluster a lot, especially the beacon idea as I have really bad internet in my new QTH. And as my future plans are to travel the mountains for landscape photography, the beacon would turn out really useful.
THANK YOU PAUL AND PETER
I like that QRP becomes more and more popular among amateur radio operators from all around the world. I just don’t like those calling as a QRP station but running 300W of power. Honestly I would be embarrassed to say such thing. So I really hope this practice will stop at some point.
This QRP Cluster will sure be used a lot by many in the near future and we all must thank to Paul – OM0ET and of course to Peter – OM6APN for creating the code. Talking about Paul, he has also a website where you can find a lot more interesting stuff that I would recommend you visit. This cluster was great news perfect for a week start for me. I really hope you guys will enjoy it as much as I do. I know Paul was saying that they will continue to improve it in the future. I would also like to see if is possible to create a filter so we can only see stations for a particular mode, CW as an example. I am sure many others will appreciate this feature in the future.
73, YO6DXE
