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