Caribbean Trip 2016

Curaçao - one of the Islands We visited during Our cruise on the Royal Carribean ship "Jewel of the Seas". We also had ports at St Thomas,St Kitts and Aruba. It was another fun trip with My family and was very nice to have warm temperatures and fun in the sun.
We came back to snow and cold ! Not fun but April in Minnesota so not entirely a surprise. Had several Hams inquire if I had any radios with Me on vacation! There was no time for radios but maybe in the future. I have been watching the email reflector and realized I was missing several DXpeditions. oh well! Maybe next time.
73--Tim

More QSL cards

W0 bureau sent more QSL cards.Only a few requested return cards so those I filled out and have set aside till I have more.The oldest card was from 2012- which isn't the oldest requested/sent but close.The bureau is slow but can't beat the price!
Remember the DX contest this weekend!
73--Tim

CQ WW 160m SSB contest 2016

I had not planned on operating this contest because of limited time but decided Friday night to check out the activity. The bands actually seemed very good with many signals S9 and above so I thought what the heck--I started My logging program and entered the necessary information and started making contacts. I haven't had the chance to operate a contest for some time and found it again-to be very enjoyable.Top band is called the "gentlemans " band for a reason and the pace was very comfortable. I also reasoned how nice it would be to add some new states toward 160m WAS-- don't know if I did but at least I tried.
I didn't have a huge QSO total but only operating for a short time Friday night gave Me a contest "fix" and an enjoyable evening before calling it quits.No operation Saturday because of prior committments but there is always next year.The bands like 160m should improve as the rest tank with the solar cycle.
No DX but My inverted "L" radiating 100w performed satisfactory!
73---Tim

Serbia for #127

I contacted YT0Z during the CQ WW SSB contest on 10m in October of 2015 and He was a LOTW user- so his confirmation makes for # 127 ! Nice to have ATNO before the sunspot cycle tanks!
I've missed several contests and DXpeditions due to Family committants but hope to be able to start some radio fun times again soon. Winter is slogging along and Spring is within sight-- can't wait!
73--Tim

In and Out Bureau

I received an email today from a Ham Radio operator from Germany requesting a QSL reply to a card He had sent Me.I looked thru My log and seen a QSO I had logged but no indication of a received QSL. I started several years ago to log any and all QSL's received or sent . This process is otherwise very difficult to keep track of.Either the card was lost enroute or as is typical with Bureau transactions--still in transit from the year 2012!
I was aquireing a stack of cards to send to the ARRL outgoing QSL service so I added one more and sent the works.I also sent money to My incoming W0 Qsl service since its been awhile. That wraps up My QSL obligations for awhile--good feeling.Its still fun to receive QSL cards!
73--Tim