CQ WW 160m Contest 2010

I always enjoy the "CQ" contests and this is one of them I've participated in for several Years. The objective is to contact as many Amateurs as possible on the 160 meter band. This is the SSB part and conditions before the contest sounded favorable. I was even hearing some DX stations on My cloud burner antenna Thursday night before the start.


As always , things change and Friday Night conditions were noisy for Me and only made a few contacts before the Olympics and the couch called Me! Saturday Night conditions seemed better and I started after supper but it was soon apparent even though I was hearing most stations S9+ they were not hearing Me. Many repeats and breaks from the Radio to watch the Olympics kept My totals low. Finally after 10:00 pm stations started to hear ME!! I think the noise levels must have dropped for many stations because the number of repeats dropped dramatically, even had one station in Maryland comment about my "nice signal" so now the hunt for stations was on!
It is always fun when a station returns on the first call and now two out of three seemed to be doing just that. The bands were absolutely packed from 1.8 to 2.0 and I had mentally made a note to not go below 1.840 unless DX was operating in the 1.830 window. Well sad to admit this but some of the better contacts had picked the low end to operate so I was forced to make several forays down there in My search and pounce mode. I decided to only S & P since trying to hold a run frequency with My little station didn't seem worth the effort. I also am realizing My Yaesu 857 needs a better SSB filter with stations so close or I need to finally make an interface for My Kenwood 850 for CAT control.
Eventually I was tired and decided to go to bed, I had beat last Years QSO count and score, but no where near My goal . I really needed Friday night to increase the QSO count. Maybe next Year. Final was 62 QSO's, 33 mults for a score of 4488. Total operating time according to My logging program was 4 hours. I always enjoy this contest and again this Year was no exception!!
73- Tim

Barn Radio

I was having a difficult time deciding what Ham shack accessory to buy with money from Christmas and My Birthday. My Wife, bless Her heart, suggested another Radio! Not enough money for an all-band HF but certainly enough for a Yaesu FT-2800 2m FM rig. I have always had radios in My out buildings, mostly old "beaters" for 6m and 2m and it just so happens the 2m rig in My Pole Building ( a poor mans Barn) is old and interrmittant and this Radio will be a great replacement. I have two other 2800's in Our vehicles and they are rugged and reliable and handle the temperature extremes very well.
I powered this new rig on My bench and programmed in the local repeaters and 146.52 which is used in this area alot! I also added many public service frequencies, which I like listening to also.Once Spring finally arrives I'll move the Radio outside and work on the battered ground plane antenna on the pole building.
Its great fun having a radio outside when barbequeing and working around the yard. Keeps Me in"Ham"mode even during those hot Summer days!!

73 to all

Winter Wonderland!

Top Picture is Our Chicken Coop and bottom shows backyard and Vertical Antenna in the Woods. This is about an average amount of Snow for Us and I usually start looking forward to Spring about this time of the Winter. At least most of the below zero temperatures should be behind Us. I kept this relating to Amateur Radio by pointing out My vertical antenna-- Hi,hi. Except for snow removal, haven't taken advantage of the warm temps being outside much. No Cross-country Skiing yet for Me, been too busy!!

73 to all

Minnesota QSO Party 2010

This is one of My favorite Contests and I've participated for the last several Years. Its a rather low key event and a good contest to get your feet wet. I always operate in the "Single Operator low power phone only" category from a fixed location. This is a County hunting contest and We are lucky to have many Mobile stations filling in for Counties where no Operation would normally occur. It is also very popular from out of state Contesters who also can Win Plaques ,certificates and even a cannister of Minnesota Wild Rice!
This contest runs from 1400 to 2400 UTC February 6th, so a nice doable 10 hours. My first QSO was on 80m at 1431 UTC so not too far from the start. I stayed on 80m for a short time and then switched to 40m and started a fairly successful run. Eventually I needed to concentrate on some outside chores but was pleased so far towards My goal of 200 QSO's.

When I finally made it back to the contest, 40m was not as productive and couldn't start a run so tried 20m and eventually settled back to 80m. During the course of the day managed to have single contacts on 15m and 20m but not much activity although it did seem like 15m should be open but no amount of CQing started a run. Time was fast winding down and with only S &P the Q's were not adding up very fast! 80m did start to produce again towards the end but I needed to pull the plug before the end of the contest.

Later I found out that some solar activity might have affected My results but not as much as just not enough operating time! I did have a fun time as always with this contest, My one run on 40m gave Me a confidence boost for the next time. I ended with 103 QSO's , 51 multipliers for a total of 5253 points.

Apple Customer Service

Over the Years I've had occasional periods of owning Apple products and last September when My Wife needed a Cell Phone upgrade, We splurged and signed onto the AT&T iPhone plan. At first She wasn't sure about all the features but eventually has learned to embrace it. UnTil about three weeks ago has been working great, but started to have no bars signal strength and constantly " searching" for service. We first went to AT&T and they replaced the Sim card and did the "big reset", but continued to experience problems so next talked to Apple Support.
Now We have several other AT&T service Cell phones and they were experiencing no problems and We informed Apple of this. They had Us do a "master reset" and after several days problem still exsisted so contacted them again. Heres where the story usually gets be to depressing, but not this time! Apple support talked to Us and We tried reloading default config after saving original to iTunes and eventually the conclusion was -- bad iPhone. New iPhone was sent to Us within Days with better instructions than I've ever seen on changing Sim,putting old phone back to default and loading the new phone from backup iTunes. It also was detailed on the return procedure!
The new IPhone works like a champ and Apple receives Kudos from Us . Great customer service, hope it stays that way. Thanks Mr. Jobs!!