James Zuelow, KL2ZZ is active from Juneau, Alaska.
He is working on HF Bands.
QSL via KL2ZZ buro, direct, LOTW.
QTH Locator - CO28rj.
Information from his QRZ page:
I am a casual operator, doing small projects here and there and operating HF on some weekends and during some contests with a compromise antenna.
If I am working JT8 or JT4 and you're in that first skip landing (Washington, Oregon and Northern California) I'm sorry about the 0 or plus signals. If you look at pskreporter or hamspots you'll see that first skip gets hammered, and then the second skip is running a -16. Well, maybe -9 if the band is running long. Of course I'm on your great circle route back to Japan, so when you're working those JAs I'm seeing your +16's as well...
When I am working JT8 or JT4, I am almost always on Hamspots.net. If you call me out of sequence look for a "spot" there. I'll let you know if I decoded you while I'm working another station.
If you are a super light station, and we're working each other at a -22 or -24, check my clublog log (see below). I will usually keep that up to date when I'm working, updating frequently. If you decode a "SRY QRM" it means that another station is transmitting over your signal from my point of view. Please remember that your waterfall is not the same as my waterfall! What might look like a clear frequency to you might not be to me, and vice versa. The "SRY QRM" is my way of saying that I am decoding you well in the clear, but there is a strong station on my waterfall interfering with your signal and I want you to QSY and try again.
On the flip side, if you send me a -9 signal report several times, I will stop transmitting to see if my spot on the waterfall is no longer clear. Please look for me somewhere else if that happens as I may QSY to find a frequency that is in the clear from your point of view.
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STATION:
My station is fairly modest - an FT-DX3000 with LMR600 feeding a non-resonant inverted V strung through the spruce trees in my back yard. I will be building an amplifier over the summer as I aquire parts. The amplifier is from a qrpblog.
I guess the current science project is determining exactly how much water a spruce tree needs in its branches before it starts attenuating HF signals. (Answer, not much!) I've already ditched 450 ohm window line due to the significant increase in loss when the window line is wet, and even 600 ohm ladder line is very sensitive to nearby wet, live, wood. Life in a rain forest means it is almost always wet. This antenna is oriented almost exactly north-south, so the main lobes are east & west. Great circle routes are into central Japan at 270 and the Canadian Maritimes and northern east coast USA on 90.
Working east looks challenging from the house though - here's an image with contour lines at 20 meter intervals. The red dot is my QTH, at just under 20 meters elevation. About 2700 meters (1 3/4 miles) east of me, the elevation is roughly 600 meters (just over 1900 feet). If you work out the geometry, that means that clear sky is at a 12.5 degree angle. (I've always wondered if some of my eastbound signal gets reflected west by that giant rock wall.)
I'm working on a second antenna east and west, but I need to cut some branches first. That's OK, they're overhanging my roof anyway.
The antennas have had some variation over the years, and sometimes I will experiment with other antenna projects such as a tunable copper pipe vertical. That antenna is really pretty when the copper is polished up.
QSL:
Because I like paper QSL cards I try to send one of my QSL cards for every contact. Sometimes I have to make an educated guess as to whether a ham wants a card or not - I will always respect "does this ham QSL by mail?" settings on QRZ pages, or other callbook websites if I find them. If I see electronic methods shown but not mail, I assume you don't want one - unless your bio indicates you do. Sometimes I guess wrong, and every so often I get surprised when I receive a card from another ham who says they don't QSL via mail. If you get a card from me that you don't want, no need to return it - just recycle the paper, and use the SASE for something else.
If you are missing a card from me that you need (for awards, etc.) just send me an e-mail and I can bump it to the top of the list.
DX QSLs are really a problem. The U.S. Postal Service no longer sells IRQs, and I have trouble getting crisp new one dollar bills from my bank. So sometimes I send out the older bills, even though I know that overseas banks don't like them. (Hint - send them to other U.S. hams!) I have Canadian postage for VE SASE so it should be very easy for Canadians to return cards to me, as long as I keep up with the postage changes. (I missed the $1.20 to $1.27 change in 2019).
As always, SWL cards are welcome - I get a few coming in via the Alaska bureau, and they're always interesting. Sometimes I get SWL reports from areas of the world I can't seem to work!
Please send bureau cards to the KL bureau, not the K2 bureau. (Alaska is more than just KL7! The "L" is really the important part.)

He is working on HF Bands.
QSL via KL2ZZ buro, direct, LOTW.
QTH Locator - CO28rj.
Information from his QRZ page:
I am a casual operator, doing small projects here and there and operating HF on some weekends and during some contests with a compromise antenna.
If I am working JT8 or JT4 and you're in that first skip landing (Washington, Oregon and Northern California) I'm sorry about the 0 or plus signals. If you look at pskreporter or hamspots you'll see that first skip gets hammered, and then the second skip is running a -16. Well, maybe -9 if the band is running long. Of course I'm on your great circle route back to Japan, so when you're working those JAs I'm seeing your +16's as well...
When I am working JT8 or JT4, I am almost always on Hamspots.net. If you call me out of sequence look for a "spot" there. I'll let you know if I decoded you while I'm working another station.
If you are a super light station, and we're working each other at a -22 or -24, check my clublog log (see below). I will usually keep that up to date when I'm working, updating frequently. If you decode a "SRY QRM" it means that another station is transmitting over your signal from my point of view. Please remember that your waterfall is not the same as my waterfall! What might look like a clear frequency to you might not be to me, and vice versa. The "SRY QRM" is my way of saying that I am decoding you well in the clear, but there is a strong station on my waterfall interfering with your signal and I want you to QSY and try again.
On the flip side, if you send me a -9 signal report several times, I will stop transmitting to see if my spot on the waterfall is no longer clear. Please look for me somewhere else if that happens as I may QSY to find a frequency that is in the clear from your point of view.
---
STATION:
My station is fairly modest - an FT-DX3000 with LMR600 feeding a non-resonant inverted V strung through the spruce trees in my back yard. I will be building an amplifier over the summer as I aquire parts. The amplifier is from a qrpblog.
I guess the current science project is determining exactly how much water a spruce tree needs in its branches before it starts attenuating HF signals. (Answer, not much!) I've already ditched 450 ohm window line due to the significant increase in loss when the window line is wet, and even 600 ohm ladder line is very sensitive to nearby wet, live, wood. Life in a rain forest means it is almost always wet. This antenna is oriented almost exactly north-south, so the main lobes are east & west. Great circle routes are into central Japan at 270 and the Canadian Maritimes and northern east coast USA on 90.
Working east looks challenging from the house though - here's an image with contour lines at 20 meter intervals. The red dot is my QTH, at just under 20 meters elevation. About 2700 meters (1 3/4 miles) east of me, the elevation is roughly 600 meters (just over 1900 feet). If you work out the geometry, that means that clear sky is at a 12.5 degree angle. (I've always wondered if some of my eastbound signal gets reflected west by that giant rock wall.)
I'm working on a second antenna east and west, but I need to cut some branches first. That's OK, they're overhanging my roof anyway.
The antennas have had some variation over the years, and sometimes I will experiment with other antenna projects such as a tunable copper pipe vertical. That antenna is really pretty when the copper is polished up.
QSL:
Because I like paper QSL cards I try to send one of my QSL cards for every contact. Sometimes I have to make an educated guess as to whether a ham wants a card or not - I will always respect "does this ham QSL by mail?" settings on QRZ pages, or other callbook websites if I find them. If I see electronic methods shown but not mail, I assume you don't want one - unless your bio indicates you do. Sometimes I guess wrong, and every so often I get surprised when I receive a card from another ham who says they don't QSL via mail. If you get a card from me that you don't want, no need to return it - just recycle the paper, and use the SASE for something else.
If you are missing a card from me that you need (for awards, etc.) just send me an e-mail and I can bump it to the top of the list.
DX QSLs are really a problem. The U.S. Postal Service no longer sells IRQs, and I have trouble getting crisp new one dollar bills from my bank. So sometimes I send out the older bills, even though I know that overseas banks don't like them. (Hint - send them to other U.S. hams!) I have Canadian postage for VE SASE so it should be very easy for Canadians to return cards to me, as long as I keep up with the postage changes. (I missed the $1.20 to $1.27 change in 2019).
As always, SWL cards are welcome - I get a few coming in via the Alaska bureau, and they're always interesting. Sometimes I get SWL reports from areas of the world I can't seem to work!
Please send bureau cards to the KL bureau, not the K2 bureau. (Alaska is more than just KL7! The "L" is really the important part.)
