RAC Winter contest 2014

I missed this contest last Year so I really wanted to participate this year. We had plans to be out of town this weekend for the Holiday celebration with My relatives so I only had Friday evening to try and get some contacts in the log.I also needed to pack bags and handle other chores before leaving early Saturday morning so ,yes very limited,-oh well!
I did start at 0000 UTC and quickly realized most activity was on 20m and some on 40m. Hardly any on 15 and 10m although periodically I did dial thru 15m and managed to snag the lone VE I heard on the band.Twenty meters had the most activity but thru the evening did make contacts on 40 and 80m also. I was not too chosy this yearand had 2 point QSO's with both Domestic calls and several DX I heard participating. Course the Canadian calls were the ones i mostly wanted.Previous Years I had alot of fun chasing the special RAC stations but with limited time this year only contacted the few I ran across by chance.
Conditions on 160,80 and 40m were noisy for Me, so I preferred to S&P up and down 20m looking for new ones.Having very little time, I tried to not try to break pile ups but instead grab the "lonly" ones. Only managed about 30 QSO's but at least was able to participate. Next Year it is on December 19th so I maybe can devote more time.
73--tim

ARRL Diamond Terrace

A good number of Years ago a fellow Amateur at work offered to include Me and several other Hams in the ARRL Diamond Terrace club which He is a member. His sideline Business membership offered not only Him but several other Hams the opportunity to have a brick placed at the ARRL Headquarters and this nice paperweight momento also. I was honored and jumped at the opportunity and can only hope someday to actually see it at the ARRL terrace in person.
  73--Tim    Thank-you WA0PLB  Hope your enjoying retirement :)

Guam #116

My contact during the CQ WW SSB in October again gave Me another DXCC confirmation thru LOTW.I think that makes about nine confirmations so far-wow! This one with Guam was with AH2R a Guam contest station and if memory serves Me right it was towards the tail end of the contest. Still waiting for several confirmations from the recent 10m contest but very glad to have previous contests be such a goldmine of contacts.Still chasing ARRL Centennial points when not busy with Holiday preparations.

73---Tim

Greece for DXCC #115

Hard to believe I did not have Greece confirmed before this but during the 10m contest had a contact with SV3DCX for #115. Also had contacts with Cyprus and Equador but no confirmation yet. I'm still chasing the ARRL Centennial points and having lots of fun doing so!
73---Tim

ARRL 10M Contest 2014

Conditions were beyond any 10m opening I've ever experienced and I wish I had more uninterrupted time to participate. I had been watching 10m conditions during the previous couple days and realized Friday night at the start I needed to be ready to go. Watching the Dx spots and listening before Friday showed a band that at this northern Latitude was closing 45-60 minutes after 0000 UTC so unless I could find many locals it would be very difficult to have a decent start.
I was ready Friday at the start and just like predicted the band was already closing at the start and My last contact for Friday night was a paltry 28 minutes after the beginning. I am only doing a SSB effort but was curious so I tuned down to the CW area and heard many signals so if I had been doing a "mixed" effort would have afforded Me more chances adding to the log--oh well!
Saturday and Sunday were a total different story. Conditions were better for Me Saturday but Sunday was still amazing. I feel extremely lucky to experience these conditions before the cycle winds down--wow. I felt occasionaly like a big gun station- breaking pile ups and having nice signal reports. Even had nice audio and signal report from one California Ham!
I did an S & P operation because of the time spent in short bursts in between other obligations. I usually find the fringes of the bands the most productive for Me so I started high and worked lower most of the time. Seems a little more casual away from 28.400, where lots of contesters tend to congregate.
I use two antennas for 10m- a Butternut ground mounted vertical and a Hygain 10m monobander at about 20 feet. I operate a Yaesu FT-950 at 100w and use N1MM classic as My contest logger. I noticed a big improvement with signals using the Yagi so almost all contacts were on this antenna. When the bearing direction would appear in My logging program I typically swing the antenna that way but during this contest that was not always the strongest signal. Many times broadside was giving a better signal than aiming directly at the other station--weird. Made for an interesting time!
This was a very fun contest and I contacted several new DXCC's so i hope they confirm thru LOTW. There were many memorable contacts but I think the most satisfying one involved a station in South Africa. I happened to hear a huge pile up and finally realized it was a ZS- South Africa but after just a few attempts i realized the futility of trying to break thru the east coast wall so I moved on. Incredibly tuning down I found someone tuning and lo and behold- I thought I heard him give a ZS call sign. I gave My call and He came right back and We exchanged the contest info and i asked again for His call.Yes- He was a ZS call and he was in My log.Cool!!
I had a respectable score of 34,694 and was very happy to have participated!
73--Tim