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