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