Missed it !

I can't believe I missed the CQ WW contest but I did. From what I've been reading and hearing the conditions were phenomanal. Maybe best conditions for a world wide contest in years. Several months ago it looked like this weekend would be entirely open but as the weeks went by I noticed the calendar starting to fill up. I still hoped for some small blocks of time thru the weekend but unless I didn't want any sleep..... well just didn't fit in.
I did have alot of quality family time and enjoyed watching some High School sports and We even made it to the local halloween spooktacular pictured above. A very neat Pumpkin display fully lighted after dark. Picture was of course right before darkness. All in all a fun weekend but sure missed some golden QSO opportunities.....maybe next time!!
73---Tim

#103 Iceland

I contacted TF2R from Iceland on both 15m and 20m RTTY during the recent CQ WW RTTY contest.He uploaded his log to LOTW and confirmed Our QSO's. I've had other contacts with stations in Iceland but they didn't send their logs to LOTW. I always have a diffucult time because Iceland stations usually cause huge pile ups. This time the pile up wasn't too bad and 15m was easy but 20m took some time. I kept throwing out My call but TF2R always came back to someone else. Finally after abandoning the pile up and returning on the way back down I was successful. This last RTTY contest was very productive and fun. Looking forward to the end of the month and the CQ WW SSB contest!
73---Tim

DXCC Certificate Arrived!

This took awhile to achieve but I finally made it ! I have 103 confirmed and about 110 contacted so more and more Hams are using LOTW which certainly makes confirming contacts painless. I will still enjoy adding more DXCC's and maybe need to set more goals such as 5 band WAS,etc. ....or maybe not :)
73---Tim

Discontinued!!

Its always a sad day when a beloved radio is officially discontinued! I remember My horror when My -at the time- dream radio the Kenwood Ts-850 was discontinued. That happened before I had even purchased one. I eventually bought a used one years later and loved it but eventually sold it and bought My present radio a Yaesu Ft-950.
Just so happens in watching My blog i noticed recently more activity on my "Updating Software on the Ft-950 "page so out of curiosity I did a web search to see if My radio was at the latest and greatest. One of the many sites in the search was "Universal Radio" so out of curiosity , checking on the price of a new Ft-950, I clicked on the link and there on the left was the hated words--"discontinued" and replace by the New FT DX 1200!! WHAT!! That can't be! Too soon. I've only owned this radio for about three years.
Sad too say it does appear to be discontinued although repairs will go on until parts availibility become a problem. A truly nice radio I firmly believe still had some "life". Obviously Yaesu has there reasons.My radio still works good except for a bad CAT port so no changout planned for awhile!Probably also means no more software updates!
73 for now!
Tim

#102,N1MM update & TQSL

I noticed ES9C from Estonia confirmed in LOTW for #102 for Me. This contact was from the recent CQ WW RTTY contest and even though I've already applied for My DXCC its still nice to add the new contacts.
I just updated N1MM to version 13.9.1 and setup for the upcoming CQ WW SSB contest and seems to work just fine. When I did My recent TQSL certificate for My log to upload to LOTW, I noticed one very nice feature-- after log was converted it uploaded automatically to LOTW.Neat! Heres a link to the announcement and explanation of new features- http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-announces-new-version-of-lotw-software
73--Tim

CQ WW RTTY contest 2013

This contest runs 48 hours and is one of My favorites. Being a low power ,little gun station, all contests which give Me points for any contact is a good thing. I was hoping to beat my score from last year, but just couldn't devote enough time. Conditions were very good and I was very pleased to have some good DX contacts from 40m thru 10m. Never tried 80m- way past My bedtime!
Friday I operated for several hours just to test the station and get My feet wet. Ended the night with My goal of 50 or more QSO's in the log and although 40m was in great shape, it was time to pull the plug.
Saturday I was up early and out the door to meet some "Ham radio" friends for breakfast and head over to a local swapfest.I didn't buy any gear but had a great time chatting. Then it was time to head home and take care of some chores and fit time in for contesting. The bands again were in good shape and doing My usual S & P operation I started on 10m and thru the day worked My way down to finishing again on 40m. Being a low power,small station, I use several tricks to beat pile ups. The first is--avoid the pile ups. Thats usually good for Sunday contacts as desperation sets in and the big guns start noticing even the small stateside guys!
My setup is a Yaesu FT-950 and a butternut Ground mounted vertical for 40m thru 15m and a 10m Yagi at 20'. Not a spectacular setup but it performs well. I had already tested My logging program and homemade interface, but during the contest decided to massage the "macros" in N1MM a bit. I added "Mycall" once more to the call string and changed the "BTU" exchange inserting "MYcall" instead. Last Year I was penalized for broke QSO's and it really affected My score so I made these simple changes in hopes of having a better correct call completion percentage. It did on occasion seem to increase My exchange alot but felt it also made a difference on marginal contacts. Some Hams send such a shortened string I'm amazed its ever completed. A few contacts I felt didn't need the full exchange I did shorten by the "esc" command. I've also been reading about the new "2tone" program having better Rx characteristics so I might have to download it and give it a try. MMTTY works very well but never hurts to increase the arsenal!
I fell short of beating My score from last year but added four new DXCC's and two uploaded their logs to give Me 101 DXCC's confirmed!! Certificate on the way!
QSOs: 228
Score : 80,472
about 50 less contacts but still an OK score for Me
73---Tim

DXCC !!!

I added several New Countries during the recent CQ WW RTTY contest and two of them already are in My LOTW account. Top Flag is Romania and middle flag is Kazakhstan. Bottom one is from clipperton Island which also up loaded their logs. I contacted them in December 2012 on several bands. I already applied for My DXCC mixed certificate! I will write up My contest report when i have time.till then---
73--Tim