The recent 160m SSB contest helped Me gain two more states towards WAS on 160m. Now up to 33 States confirmed thru LOTW on 160m. I might not have huge contest scores but it really helps award chasing! I also added another LOTW confirmed DXCC to bring My count up to 70. The new one, Bosnia-Herzegovina, I've had several contacts with but this was finally a LOTW user. He was not a 160m contact! :)Ham Radio Delux analysis shows I've worked 93 DXCC entities.Hope many more confirm thru LOTW!
Remember the ARRL International DX SSB contest starts at 6:00 CST Friday ( 0000 UTC Saturday) and goes till 5:59 CST Sunday. Hope conditions are good. I need more new DXCC's!!
73--Tim
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
2012 CQ WW 160m contest Results
This contest starts at 2200 UTC which is 4:00 CST Friday for Me. I did turn the radio on but only found a few stations operating and they all were very weak. It's still daylight here now until almost 5:30 so I decided to eat Supper and do some chores and walk Our dog before trying the bands again. I finally was back in the shack after 6:00 CST and even though the band was noisy, I managed a steady stream of S & P contacts.Feeling conditions still were not optimum , I took several breaks on and off before calling it a night . I'm not a night owl , so I might have missed some of the best operating time, but thats the way it is!
Saturday night wasn't much better, in fact because lots of the calls were the same from Friday night, the Q's were few and far between. I tried running several times but felt like I was speaking into a wind tunnel and had few takers. This contest is usually a fun one because of the congenial operators and most have excellant ears. I was amazed at how many could pick out My puny signal! I do wish conditions had been better. The noise and washed out signals left the whole contest with a not completed feel! I did exceed My totals from previous years but not by much. I had hoped for a good improvement because of My inverted "L" antenna. I compared it with My dipole and the "L" was hearing more than the dipole by a large amount. I do think some TRansmit issues reared their ugly head-- My little B&W tuner appeared to struggle to the point I need to take it apart looking for arcing! Not good! Definately need a better setup for next year!
totals- 72 Q's,32 mults for a score of 5,712-- no DX ! :((
73---Tim
Saturday night wasn't much better, in fact because lots of the calls were the same from Friday night, the Q's were few and far between. I tried running several times but felt like I was speaking into a wind tunnel and had few takers. This contest is usually a fun one because of the congenial operators and most have excellant ears. I was amazed at how many could pick out My puny signal! I do wish conditions had been better. The noise and washed out signals left the whole contest with a not completed feel! I did exceed My totals from previous years but not by much. I had hoped for a good improvement because of My inverted "L" antenna. I compared it with My dipole and the "L" was hearing more than the dipole by a large amount. I do think some TRansmit issues reared their ugly head-- My little B&W tuner appeared to struggle to the point I need to take it apart looking for arcing! Not good! Definately need a better setup for next year!
totals- 72 Q's,32 mults for a score of 5,712-- no DX ! :((
73---Tim
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
5000 views and a New One!
I just noticed My blog now has over 5000 views. Thanks to everyone who has paused to read My thoughts on Ham Radio. The two most popular blog posts to read are concerning the FT-950 audio setup and installation of My butternut ground mounted vertical antenna. Both of these blog postings I've revisited and added pertinent information for accuracy. Both were written for informational insight from a real honest to goodness Amateur! Please don't vilefy the messenger if any part is found to be wrong! I've searched many forum,blog and review to find information for many aspects of My Hobbies. I'm amazed at the amount of info available, so I've tried to add to that abundant resource. Again, thanks for reading My meandering prose! :))
Logbook of the world has verified another DXCC for Me-- New Zealand, ZL1BYZ for number 69! Its slow going when i'm totally relying on a LOTW confirmation and no direct QSLing! I will eventually get there! Have 93 unconfirmed DXCC according to Ham Radio Delux-My general logger. Getting closer to WAS on more bands too! Love this hobby!!!
73---Tim
Logbook of the world has verified another DXCC for Me-- New Zealand, ZL1BYZ for number 69! Its slow going when i'm totally relying on a LOTW confirmation and no direct QSLing! I will eventually get there! Have 93 unconfirmed DXCC according to Ham Radio Delux-My general logger. Getting closer to WAS on more bands too! Love this hobby!!!
73---Tim
Monday, February 6, 2012
2012 MNQSO Party Contest results
I started searching the 75m band just a few minutes after 8:00am CST and logged several contacts before trying a "run" frequency. I typically do a search and pounce operation but this the perfect contest to practice running. Everyone is trying to find Minnesota stations and the pile ups should be small and manageable. They ended up being very manageable but way too short! The 75m band for Me was noisy and not too productive . I tire easily when the lull is too long and went searching for more Q's. Wasn't many to be found and going over the same ground I found a logging issue-- My logging program was not showing "dupes" ! I was using the MNQP logger which I've used for many years with no issues! This could be bad- will feel real stupid every "dupe" My program doesn't show. Maybe a fat finger with the letter "O" instead of the number "0" ? Nope- that wasn't it! I spent some time checking the setup and after toggling several setup parameters it magically started working! I still don't know how I fixed it-but it appeared to be good to go!
Since 75m wasn't producing well, I jumped to 40m and did manage a few good runs on and off. I also tried 20m and added just a few contacts but I just was not being heard very well! Later in the day also tried getting somes runs on both 15 and 10m but no luck! Eventually after a brief stop on 20m again ,I settled on 40m till supper time. After supper with Less than an hour left , I jumped to 75m for a few more until rounding out the last 15 minutes on 160m. I only gained 4 QSO's on 160 but two were with a rover I know so the finish was fun, chatting with them till the end as they raced to their final county!
I had set a goal of beating My highest score and having more Q's and Mults than My previous results. This I was able to manage but had really hoped for many more contacts. After adding up all the "on" times ,I was surprised to see just a little more than 5 hours operating time out of 10 hours . Some of this was even with no contacts logged! I thought I had devoted more time but with other distractions I had missed about half of the total operating time. I guess this is very typical for Me!
My biggest mistake in hindsight was not pushing 40m more. 20m and up just was not happening at My far North QTH and 75m was noisy and just did not produce well. 112 Q's,50 mults for a score of 11,200 left Me feeling thirsty for more! Next year!
73---Tim
Since 75m wasn't producing well, I jumped to 40m and did manage a few good runs on and off. I also tried 20m and added just a few contacts but I just was not being heard very well! Later in the day also tried getting somes runs on both 15 and 10m but no luck! Eventually after a brief stop on 20m again ,I settled on 40m till supper time. After supper with Less than an hour left , I jumped to 75m for a few more until rounding out the last 15 minutes on 160m. I only gained 4 QSO's on 160 but two were with a rover I know so the finish was fun, chatting with them till the end as they raced to their final county!
I had set a goal of beating My highest score and having more Q's and Mults than My previous results. This I was able to manage but had really hoped for many more contacts. After adding up all the "on" times ,I was surprised to see just a little more than 5 hours operating time out of 10 hours . Some of this was even with no contacts logged! I thought I had devoted more time but with other distractions I had missed about half of the total operating time. I guess this is very typical for Me!
My biggest mistake in hindsight was not pushing 40m more. 20m and up just was not happening at My far North QTH and 75m was noisy and just did not produce well. 112 Q's,50 mults for a score of 11,200 left Me feeling thirsty for more! Next year!
73---Tim
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