Itunes and Windows XP

I still have Windows XP PC's in My Hamshack which I use for Logging, Internet access and Radio control. I also use My WinXP laptop for updating My Iphone. I noticed Itunes was no longer asking for updates although My wifes laptop upstairs-a Windows 7 machine seemed to be needing updates past Itunes 12.1.2.
This didn't seem to be a problem until I upgraded to an Iphone 6s. Itunes wouldn't let Me Sync My new phone so consequently I couldn't copy any information to it. Browsing with the Keywords "Windows XP and Itunes" brought Me to this page--https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1614?locale=en_US
The apple explanation is I needed this direst download to Itunes 12.1.3 and I was stuck at 12.1.2. Downloading this newer version solved My problem. I'm not sure why Itunes did not automatically do this--maybe Apple and Microsoft are trying to push Me away from My older XP machines. I did just upgrade My Wifes PC from Win 7 to the new Windows 10 and so far no complaints.
73---Tim

RAC Winter contest 2015

I'm not sure why this happens but The RAC Winter contest tends to alternate either before Christmas or after. Coincidentily Our Family Weekend away visiting Relatives for Christmas has been on those weekends the past few years! OH well, at this this Year I was able to operate Friday for a while. Ten and fifteen meters had no activity and twenty meters was very limited.Fact is on 160-20 the majority of activity was on the CW portion of the bands.Since I'm a voice kind of guy the activity limited My ability to find many contacts. Less than 25 QSO's this year but very limited time so I will settle for what I could.Maybe next year.
Merry Christmas--Tim

ARRL 10m contest 2015

Well the band conditions continue their steady decline but luckily just enough propagation kept My time participating fun. I did experience some strange propagation with especially East coast stations.I was listening South for Caribbean and South American stations but occasionally a station from out East could be heard.Pointing My 10m Yagi East actually caused most of the East coast stations to totally disappear. I soon learned during this contest to just try a contact no matter the direction.
I did get on at the start of the contest Friday but except for some CW, I heard nothing in the voice segments. Saturday was better but just barely.I also had limited time till late afternoon but by then the bands were very quiet. Sunday was more of the same although I did notice some of the strongest stations CQing in My face and weaker stations hearing Me. A very mixed bag of propagation this Year. Less than 100 Q's but also less BIC time--oh well. Each contest is fun no matter the result.
73--Tim

CQ WW SSB contest 2015

That was the most fun I've had in recent Years contesting. I so far have gained 3 new confirmed DXCC's and expect more.The higher bands,especially 10m were really hopping and I took advantage of My time to operate and have a maximun amount of fun. This contest reaffirmed My enjoyment of having aluminum in the air--even if it is only on one band.My ground mounted vertical played well for 40-15m and I avoided the crazy noisy low bands and consequently had a good nights sleep both nights!
Thats the ten thousand foot explanation of a great weekend. The day by day replay is this--Friday was a bust! Too tired from a week of work and the usual crazy contest beginnings of too many stations with too much power trying too hard to be heard. After a short time I pulled the plug and decided Saturday is another day. It turned out to be a pretty good day too! I spent some time on 40m in the morning before realizing conditions on the higher bands were starting to get heated up. After a short time on 20 and 15m I settled down to Searching the 10m band. My 10m yagi at 20 feet out performed My vertical by a long shot.What a fun time on 10m!! Its a joy when I'm being heard although Saturday can't hold a candle to Sunday. Sunday I would find a European station calling CQ and many times be heard the first time-- with a monobander at 20 feet pointed East.Incredible! (So thats what its like to have a directional antenna during a contest!). Both days I actually for the most part could leave the antenna East for Europe in the morning ,south for south America and Caribbean stations and just before Twilight turn it West for Hawaii and Australia.How cool is that??
The usual time constraints again kept Me from operating as much as I liked but honestly I have no complaints.When i did operate it was great! Ended up with 174 QSO's for a Score of 47,334 with 16 zones and 43 countries on 10m alone! Cool.Looking at the log times it seems I was in My chair operating for 7.5 hours total making a S&P average of 23 Qso's per hour.Not speedy but for this old guy not bad!
73--Tim

4 new ones for 125!!!

Flag of Montenegro on the left and Saint Barthelemy on the right

I was happy to add 4 new DXCC's during the recent CQ WW RTTY contest and last weekends CQ WW SSB contest.I had a RTTY contact with OJ0DX from Market reef during the RTTY contest.Market reef is a dual affiliated Island with Sweden and Finland.
Three others I contacted during the recent CQ WW SSB contest-- 5J0B on San Andres Island which is part of Columbia, 4O3A from Montenegro on the Adriatic Sea and TO4K on Saint Barthelemy which is an overseas collectivity of France.
I now have 125 confirmed DXCC's and I plan to have a card checker verify some more when available to increase that amount.Recent SSB contest conditions were fantastic and I will try to write that up soon before I forget .
73---Tim

Pope Certificate and more

I received this nice Certificate recently for My participation in the special event which happened during Pope Francis's recent visit. They gave Me credit for 4 of 5 stations I had a QSO with, so I assume one was not logged .Oh well, it would have been disappointing if I had an anticipated clean sweep but was only half way there!
I also printed out some certificates from many CQ contests for more wallpaper.My place in some were not bad but others were nothing to brag about--still nice to have a remembrance of participation.
Listening to some nets on 80 meters has Me wondering if I'm having antenna or radio issues. Not loud and very noisy. I switched in My Yaesu 857 to listen and also checked the antenna thru the MFJ tuner with My antenna analyzer but no problems found. Conditions are just not great. Glad no hardware problems apparent. Twenty meters is sounding Ok on the Maritime net frequency so there You go.All is well !:)
73---tim

Pope Francis Special Event

I noticed this special event and decided a certificate would be a nice remembrance for Pope Francis's visit. Several stations on the East coast were participating and I managed to contact five of the ten stations.I actually made contacts with all stations I noticed being spotted on SSB.Several I never saw any activity so I can only assume they were operating when I was at work.
There are also QSL cards available for contacts but I decided to send for the Certificate only. A five dollar donation has been sent and I expect snail mail to deliver in several weeks!
73--Tim

CQ WW RTTY 2015

This Year I was very proud of My preparation for this contest. Several days before the start ,I opened My logging program and set all appropriate parameters and also did on the air Recieve and transmit tests to make sure all the cobwebs were gone. I was ready except at the start, the band conditions were not. First night was a bust and since it had been a long week I threw in the towel till Saturday.
Saturday was cool and foggy locally and conditions were only marginally better than the previous evening.I did set My sights lower and decided to try for many less QSO's and also to just have fun no matter what!With a new game plan I also decided to bypass most domestic contacts and concentrate on DX and hopefully some new ones.
I was pleased to contact many familiar calls and of course many new ones. I did miss a few I wished I would have contacted like Thailand but signals were not strong and pile ups were bad.I did have luck with OJ0DX from Market Reef, but only after stopping back to His frequency over several hours.I checked His online log after the contest and was very pleased to see My Contact.Not sure if He uses LOTW but does have a bureau contact so a QSL card is already to go!
Europe on 15m Sunday was so-so and 10m even opened for a bit. I also rounded things out on 20m and even managed a few on 40m.Not a stellar contest for Me but I had fun and even fit in outside chores and Family time!
My score of 27440 was way less than I had hoped for but as the band conditions for DX continues its slow decline, this score might seem great several years from now!
73---Tim

13 Colonies,Bureau and September 1st

I received some cards from the incoming QSL Bureau recently from the year 2011 to the present. It does take time to work its way thru the bureau but I'm not complaining.Several need a card sent back so I will work on that some rainy day.
I also have a certificate from the 13 colony special event from July 4th time frame.This is a special event I've participated in for several years and really enjoy it.I had a clean sweep with all 13 colonies contacted but missed the other two bonus stations. Oh ,well- didn't start chasing these stations till later so I believe I did very well considering.
Recently there was another special event for Hurricane Katrina's 10th anniversary but the bands were lousy and time was limited so I made no attempt at participation.
September 1st today--wow were did the summer go? although it was 84f out there today!!
73--Tim

One Bird

We now have only one chicken left since losing two in the last month to injury and old age.One of My favorite was "Chocolate"- a partridge chochin and "Sandy"- a Sicilian Buttercup We hatched ourselves.Our last surviving chicken, shown in the picture is "Marshmellow"- a white Sussex who is also getting up there in age--about 7-8 years old.Long time for a chicken.She is following Me around alot since losing Her mates-imagine she's lonely as chickens tend to be a flock type of bird.We will take care of Her but are looking for a new home since we tend to think She will be happier around other birds.It will be tuff to let Her go but probably better for Her!Raising chickens has been a real learning experience full of satisfaction and funny moments with a few sad times too.I can recommend this experience but because of circumstances, this family will be out the chicken raising hobby.I will miss those great eggs though!!
73---Tim

Not much Ham Radio

I know Summer is a busy time for everyone but this year has been a blur so far. I did manage to spend some time in the shack and operate the ARRL June VHF contest . It was much ado about nothing. Had a few local contacts but missed any propagation-although there might not have been much up North even if i had been listening at the time.
We also traded My truck for a used Honda CRV so I've been busy trying to figure how My 2m rig will fit and what antenna to use. Its a hatchback so I naturally started checking into a trunk /hatchback mounting and I soon realized how expensive these are. The antenna is bought separate so that raises the price even more. After much looking and reading reviews I decided to go with the MFJ 348S mount and because I need to fit this in the garage-- ordered the MFJ 1402/B antenna which is a dual band at 16.5" tall. I don't need 70cm but maybe I will in the future and this seems to fit the bill.
The MFJ option keeps the total price to just around what some of the mount only options would be. I hope it lasts OK but at least if this doesn't work as planned the amount spent won't break the bank!
When I've had time to be in the shack,the bands seem to be less than great. Lower bands have been typical noisy Summer conditions and haven't heard much higher band openings. Might not be listening at the optimum times-oh well!
have a great summer-- longest day of the Year today- enjoy and Happy Fathers Day!
73--Tim

More Outgoing QSL cards

I'm member of the ARRL so I take advantage of their Outgoing QSL service. Like most Bureau services it does take a long time for cards sent back but You can't beat the price. During a recent Ham fest, an ARRL card checker was in attendance and I planned to have some old QSL cards checked towards VUCC and I also explored the possibility of checking for WAC. I found QSL cards for all Continents except Africa which surprised Me. I have many EQSL and LOTW verifications but no actual sent thru the mail QSL cards from anywhere in Africa or surrounding area--Wow!!
I had a small QSL shipment from the W0 bureau last fall and decided to include some QSL requests for contacts from the African continent of which I had many but whittled it down to only contacts that actually mentioned Bureau replies. That does thin the contacts by quite a large margin but enough so I feel confident of obtaining some replies-- maybe several Years from now but thats OK !
73--Tim

World Radio Day

Nice certificate emailed for contacting KP4FD during the "World Radio Amateur Day"
This just happened to be the only station I contacted for this particular event!
73--Tim

Montserrat for #121

My LOTW account was just updated with DXCC#121 from VP2MLL operating on 10m during the recent SSB contest from Montserrat. Montserrat had a devastating Volcano erupt in July 1995 and the damage to the southern part of the Island was severe enough to warrant moving the capital to the Northern part. The United Kingdom also made it easy to immigrate to the homeland since Montserrat is a territory of the UK. Alot more information is available online about this devastating event.
73--tim

Centennial Certificate

Just received My ARRL Centennial points certificate. Another nice piece of "wallpaper" to add to My shack. It was a fun challenge and I found Myself chasing points most nights!. Too bad I only started active pursuit in late October so I missed my chance for WAS and didn't reach the last level of the points challenge.It still was very satisfying to achieve 3rd level!
73--Tim

Caribbean trip

The view as We landed in San Juan, Puerto Rico.Our vacation during Spring Break was a Cruise from San Juan to Barbados,St Lucia,Antigua,St Maarten and St Croix on the Royal Caribbean ship "Adventure of the Seas". Lots of warm weather and Sun and just a very good time had by all! Very fun to visit Islands I've contacted thru Radio QSO's and to dream about a vacation expedition to any Island. Family vacations don't seem to lend themselves to that kind of pause in the itinerary!
73--Tim

Solar storm on St Patty's Day!

A little present for St Patricks day! Currently the A index is around 100 and the K is 8. Don't hear many signals on HF. Rumor is 2 and 6m Aurora are active. Might have to check that out!

73----Tim

 

Happy PI Day !!

3.14159265359

I'm also writing this at 3:14 
in the afternoon :)
73--Tim

ARRL International DX SSB contest 2015

When conditions are favorable this is a very fun contest.I've actually done a 20m only try when I didn't have antenna options and the solar cycle was not great.Its a tough slug with only a dipole! Luckily the past several years I've had many more antenna options and band conditions have been mediocore to exceptional.This year was in between when I was operating and as usual ,from what I've heard,conditions improved some on Sunday before the end.Yes-I had already quit by then-oh well!
  I did operate Friday,Saturday and Sunday but as always not for any long periods of time and only a casual search and pounce endeavour. I did not have any contacts on 160-40m mostly because I only operated during daylight hours and quite frankly never even checked the lower frequencies for contesters!
 I really like when 10m is open because of My antenna choices. Using My ground mounted vertical is just Ok for 15 and 20m but having a Yagi for 10m is great. I could really be spoiled if I had a tri-bander in the air!
 Conditions seemed good and I made fairly easy contacts with European and South America/ Caribbean stations on 10 and 15m. I did not spend as much time on 20m, mostly because I was only hearing North American stations calling CQ for the most part! 10m was active from 28300-28900 at times and I cruised up and down the bands picking out the loudest and least busy stations. Most power levels were 100w or "one kilo" although I did log several 200,400 and 500w  stations.Even a 99w and VP5H was QRP at 5w! I asked for a repeat for that one.Not a bad signal even for only 5w!
 Nice to have at least one all time new DXCC plus many of the regulars.I recognized many call signs and it was nice to have so much activity. Ended up with 163 contacts which is not My best effort but still satisfying.
73--Tim
 

Two more for 119 & 120!

During the recent ARRL DX SSb contest I had a QSO with FP/KV1J from an Island off the coast of Canada for a new entity from Saint Pierre and Miquelon Island.
Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France, situated in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean near Canada.

I also was confirmed for a contact in October 2014 with T30D from Western Kiribati making 120 confirmations--cool.
73 for now---Tim

CQ WW 160 SSB 2015

I usually try and participate in this contest because it seems a little more casual and doesn't infringe on Weekend activities much. This year conditions did not seem as good as in the past and up here in the far North I didn't hear as many stations as I felt I normally would .Definately not as many VE's and only heard one Dx station- HK1T from Columbia. He was coming in about S5 and I tried for a while to get His attention but no luck.
Previous years I've stayed active till midnight or later but not this year. Maybe I missed out on some good activity by calling it too soon.Either way it was still fun too participate and see if I could add some more States towards "WAS" on this band.
73--Tim

K1N and bandscopes

I decided to wait with My comments about the recent K1N Dxpedition to Navassau until I had time to reflect on my feelings. When I heard about this expedition I was excited to be chasing a new one and I surmised it should be easier than some other locations because of the proximity to the United States.I had many contacts to Caribbean stations and figured My biggest challenge would be the huge pile ups.If I waited till they died down a bit I felt assured of some success.
The pile ups did start off huge and only seemed to intensify as time went on.At the end of their allotted time I read they had about 150-160K total contacts. Ducie Island expedition (VP6DX) had totals around 170K and I managed contacts on several bands with them-using less of an antenna assortment than I have now.I think Ducie island is also a greater distance from My shack.
One unpleasant thing I noticed right off the bat was the amount of intentional interference. It was of gigantic proportions.I think maybe the chatter about cutting down on QRM happy Hams before using DQRM only made matters worse--almost a challenge.The Dx crew also because of the huge pile ups and their bandscope capabilities had very wide listening patterns. I think this might have made many unhappy customers who had Hams calling not only at 5 to 10 up but 10-30 up right where non dx chasing Hams wanted to talk. I understand the need for a wider than normal spread but -wow!! Maybe too much!  I also think posting a leaderboard brings out bad behavior in too many overly competitive operators. How many bands and modes is enough??
  I think the wide listening pattern caused Me the most headache. I don't have a band scope and I sometimes felt like I was running blind. I have a middling antenna setup and only run a 100w SSB so I would imagine My signal on a band scope is not as noticeable as some big gun signals. Talk power and clarity won't help Me in a pile up in this situation and I don't have the luxury of seeing where the last answered frequency was at. Is this operator moving up and down the band or snagging the band scopers who actually saw where the last contact was?? See My point? Its like running blind. Don't misunderstand Me-- I wish I had a band scope. Money is the deterrent at this point. Maybe as more are in use price will drop. I can only hope.
  Needless to say even on the last ATNO day on Saturday when they were going to operate on 20m for only new calls, I didn't make a contact.Barely heard them on 20m and on 10m it was a zoo.I doubt I'll be around for the next activation of Navassau- maybe.just maybe!
   One final point-- the K1N team did a great job under difficult conditions. They managed huge pile ups and last thru  very hot weather conditions.I sat comfortable in My basement and had plenty of sleep.I maybe should have tried some late night lower band activity but hindsight is ---well you know :)
73--Tim

Mariana Islands for #118

Another confirmation from the CQ WW SSB Contest of 2014 added to LOTW for number 118 for Me. Contest season has been very productive! This QSO contact with AH0BT, the Saipan BBQ Contest club was the very last one for Me in the contest. I remember this was during a very nice opening on 10m and it included a confirmation to Guam and several JA's and and VK's too. Nice to have a Yagi in the air-made a noticeable difference compared to My vertical.
This contact is listed as the Mariana Islands and this call sign is associated with a group on Saipan Island. The Northern Mariana Islands are a commonwealth of the USA! Cool.The geography lessons I have with Ham radio make Me smile.
I have not been very active since the Centennial QSO party ended.Didn't even participate in the Minnesota QSO party and have had no luck contacting K1N but have only half-heartedly tried.Lots of deliberate interference which is very unbecoming of the Ham community!
73--Tim

ARRL Centennial QSO Party

The ARRL was celebrating its 100 year centennial during 2014 by having a Year long QSO party.They had both W1AW headquarters and mobile/portable operations in all 50 States and Territories plus a Centennial points challenge utilizing every member of the ARRL organization from President right down to Us little guys! I was only worth 1 point as a member whereas the ARRL President was worth 300 points for each band and mode contacted during the Year and other Life members,Voluteer Examiners,Section Managers and so on were worth points between 1-300.W1AW also counted towards points too plus the chance for a WAS certificate contacting each state.
I heard some chatter about this Centennial before it started but didn't pay much attention. The first part of 2014 I only participated in several contests and not much other on air activity. It wasn't until October after several contests I saw some more information on the ARRL website and realized I had already reached the 1000 point level to qualify for a 1st level certificate. If I could obtain 2000 more points I would reach the 2nd level at 3000 and maybe even 7500 points for a 3rd level certificate. I could also chase the W1AW stations of which I had contacted a few but would not have a chance at WAS since some states were already done with their activity for the year.
Reading up on the Centennial rules I noticed several extra activity days ahead where all ARRL staff and members were encouraged to operate and decided to try and reach a goal of 7500 points which at this late stage of the Year I doubted I'd achieve. I started watching the Clusters and listening on the bands for Centennial and W1AW activity. This became a nightly ritual and one I really enjoyed. I didn't spend more than an hour a night but I usually managed 100 points or more. The end of October I was at 2081 points and a month later I had 6810 points after November sweepstakes and Centennial points chasing most nights. The ARRL 10m contest and Canadian RAC contest were still ahead plus a promoted ARRL staff participation day on December 31st.
By December 20th I had 8715 points so I had reached My goal of 7500 points and then some! The 3rd level was assured and I actually gave it a good try of reaching the 4th level at 15000 points but fell short-- oh well! I ended up with 11,141 and 25 states with W1AW contacted-plus several territories and W1AW100HQ !! What a hoot! This was absolutely fun to the max.It felt like a constant contest and I actually felt like a big gun participating in it. My little station performed very well and conditions helped out tremendously. The solar flux and sunspot activity was at elevated levels.During many pile ups ,I was able to break thru with the first call using My ground mounted vertical at 100w output. It seemed like a pipe line to the midwest. Lots of actual "great signal" comments from the other end of pile ups.
It was fun to have QSO's with ARRL staff I normally never hear and It was cool to hear the stateside pile ups.I think most comments from participants indicated it was a positive experience. I added WAS for both SSB and digital and I'm now very close to WAS on several bands. Since the Centennial is over I have noticed My on air time is again back to pre centennial levels-- but I plan to participate in more contests this winter than last year.
The centennial from My perspective was a great success and alot of fun. I miss the anticipation of finding and chasing different calls around the bands. Seeing the points totals add up and feeling a certain comradre with all the participants.I won't be around for the next centennial. Wonder what Ham radio will be like then??
73---Tim

73---Tim

Panama for #117

During the recent ARRL RTTY contest I had a contact with HP2AT on 15m and they are a LOTW user so now I have a confirmed DXCC #117 with a station from Panama. Very typical that it takes several tries before I find a user of LOTW. I've had several other SSB and RTTY with Panama stations but neither ones must have used LOTW.
 All the recent contests and Centennial contacts have increased My WAS confirmations too.I have all 50 for SSB and Digital along with My original Mixed WAS 50. Getting close on a few bands also- 48 on 40m,49 on 20m and 43 on 10m plus 30's on 15,80 and 36 on 160m. Maybe 5 band WAS is in My future!
 73---Tim

ARRL RTTY RU 2014

I spent some time before the contest getting the hardware,software and logging program ready so at 1800 UTC I was ready to go. I started on 10m but the amount of activity was small so moved to 15m. Here the activity was just enough to keep me interested as I tuned up the band.Eventually I moved to 20m where there was a good amount of activity. Lots of 4s and 7s and an occasional DX station too.
Around Supper time I moved to 40m and was pleasantly surprised to have some DX hear Me- I don't often add any DX on 40m so this was a pleasant surprise!Italy,Aruba,Belguim and Spain were added to the log.Eventually i tried 80m but it was very noisy and I only added a couple to the log before calling it a night.
The next morning outside was -20F with a stiff wind so I only did minimal outside activities and spent more time contesting.The bands again seemed to be favoring 15 and 20m so I spent the majority of My time tuning around there with an occasional jump to 40 or 10m.I did call it early- My ears were ringing with "diddles" and I had put in about 8 hours total time in the contest already between Saturday and Sunday. This is actually a big chunk of time and decided to show My face to My family !
Checking statisics from N1MM I had an average of 30.6 QSO's an hour with one 120 QSO hour and a 66 per hour! Not bad considering I was only doing an S&P operation.
My total QSo count was an even 250 with 47 sections and 12 DXCC's for a total of 14,750 points. This contest is always a good time and I really like RTTY contests. Managed to add Panama to confirmed DXCC's for a total now of 117 and 1 contact on 20 and 40m for a total of 49 towards My 5 band WAS.Fun!!
73---Tim

Ham Radio Logging

Most of Us Ham Radio operators can not remember when logging a QSO was mandatory. I have lived in the era of logging for contests and to keep track of DX contacted but I am probably the unusual Ham who actually still logs most QSO's on paper plus Electronically. I have done the paper log since 1992, only skipping the many nets I participate in and also not the contests. I always put several lines in My paper log denoting the contest and where the ADIF or Cabrillo log has been sent. This might seem to be very unnecessary but just today trying to upload to LOTW, I actually needed to look back to 2004 for a log correction. In fact I had about 10 log corrections to make when I accidentally uploaded My entire HRD log from the beginning. --oops. Didn't mean to do that but it did help catch several entries for DXCC and WAS-- I now have 100 DXCC's confirmed for SSB and several more bands nearing WAS !
I have found over the Years that logging for Nets,contests and general logging seem to require a little different type program for each. I typically use N1MM for contesting and export it to my general logging program- Ham Radio Deluxe ver 5.24.0.36-- Yes the free one.Eventually I will need to upgrade but for now this version works OK. I also upload to EQSL and LOTW which are both good programs to keep track of worked QSO's,awards(LOTW & EQSL) and QSL cards( EQSL). It might seem rather cumbersome to use so many programs and services but it's fun for Me- an organization type Guy, to keep track of it all.
ARRL RTTY RU contest is this weekend
73---Tim