ARRL 10m contest and some new DXCC additions

 This contest started Friday December 13th at 0000 UTC and ended on Sunday. I only participated on Saturday and just a short time on Sunday. Conditions were very good both days, but I think Sunday seemed best, so it was a little sad not being available much on the last day.

  My antenna is a 10m Yagi at about 25 feet on a short tower attached to a pole building style garage on the back of My property. I used an old piece of Andrews hardline from the outside of My shack to the base of the tower before transitioning to RG-8. I have a tail twister rotor to turn the antenna, but it needs some maintenance, so it's limited on the direction I can turn it before it sticks. Maybe this summer I will get a chance to work on it. I've repaired a ham IV before, so I have some experience.

  I heard and was able to contact lots of Caribbean and south America stations and of course many stateside stations too! This time Europe did not break thru the ether for me as much as normal, but I did have a few contacts with several. I ended up with 123 contacts and no new DXCC's this time, but I did notice looking later at My LOTW log I've had several more confirmed during previous contests. During the CQWW ssb contest in 2021 and 2023 I added one new DXCC during each and recently during the CQWW RTTY I added Belarus and Bulgaria.

happy holidays all and 73

Tim

ARRL SS contest 2024

 The ARRL sweepstakes SSB contest this year was from 2100 UTC November 16 to 0259 November 17th and I was only able to operate towards the end of the contest. The exchange on this contest is rather long but once I was familiar with the cadence of it, it was not bad. This contest is also on the club contest calendar, so a lot of Minnesota stations were participating, and I did hear several comments from other stations about the abundance of state contesters.

 I stayed on the bands with the most activity, so 40m through 10m with 20 and 40 being the best for me. A few stations again commented on a nice signal and fine sounding station so that is always nice to hear. I again ran assisted because My radio computer interface is nice to have operating, logging frequency changes automatically and also following the clusters and showing various needed contacts.

  My goal was modest because of My late start but I again achieved the typical 100 contacts, so I was happy with that. Condions were okay with minor openings on 15 and 10m and most of the QSO's were very cordial and not much interference from non-contesters although I did hear a few grumblings!!

73---Tim

Florida trip 2024

We traveled to Disney world and stayed at the Port Orleans riverside resort from Sunday to Saturday. The weather was very nice, and We were able to visit many parks and even took a boat to Disney Springs. I have decided a few rides are now beyond what an old guy should attempt to ride and definitely enjoy the slower less jarring ones. Staying on Disney property is very convenient with the shuttle buses and even the new Skyliner transport which we rode for the first time. It was a very enjoyable, relaxing trip and hope We can revisit Disney and Florida again soon.

  
 

California QSO party 2024

 The contest club I'm a member of has one contest a season which is a wild card. This year it's the California QSO party which starts on October 5th at 1600 UTC and ends October 6th at 2200 UTC. I participated the first day for about 2 hours before family showed up at our house and of course it was time to end for the day. Bands were doing very well so it was tuff to quit but I had Sunday yet to contest.

  The next day I was back on the air on 20m but not too early-1247 UTC although on the West coast it was still dark. This entire contest I was on 20,15 and 10 meters only. I never heard much activity on the lower bands, so I stayed were the action seemed to be. My favorite band is 10m mainly because it's the only HF band where I have aluminum in the air-my other antennas for Hf are an inverted L and a ground mounted vertical. The 10m Yagi performed well enough I had at least two contacts mention my great signal and nice sounding station!!

  I only managed 71 contacts for 5,112 points on SSB voice. If I was a CW guy my score would be double!! Oh well. Fun contest and the participants were very cordial. Might have to remember this one for next year!

73--Tim

CQ WW RTTY 2024

   I decided to try and double my score from last year's RTTY contest so Friday night I started at the opening and had some good success for about 2 hours. Both of my antennas for 75m are not great with narrow bandwidth for the RTTY frequencies but with the inline VCI tuner I managed to make a few contacts. The rest of the weekend I stayed on 40m and above so the Butternut HF6V ground mounted vertical and 10m yagi were used and they both perform well on the higher bands. 

The bands on 15 and 10m meters had fair openings both days and 20 and 40m seemed to have less activity because of that. I still did my usual start high and work low toward sunset so I was able to spread out the contacts between the bands. It was fun having contacts from around the world and I'm hoping to add a few new DXCC's to my total count. We will check LOTW soon and see ! 

  I was hoping for 200 contacts and when I reached 201 on late Sunday afternoon I decided that was enough and submitted my log with over 75000 points. I do expect that amount to drop since several stations kept dropping my second "J" on my call sign even after I sent it many times to correct them. Oh well such is the challenge of contesting!

 73---Tim