CQ WW RTTY and CA QSOP 2025

 The contest season has started and the first two on the MWA calendar are the CQWW RTTY and California QSO party. The RTTY contest is my favorite of the year, and I participated a good amount over the September weekend. I always run about 60w since RTTY is full duty cycle and it seems to be enough to be heard. I worked 40m thru 10m and was happy with the amount of activity on each band. Conditions were good! I managed 188 contacts for a final score before log checking of 56,618. Thats a little less than last year but still not too bad for Me.

  This weekend was the California QSO party, and I had less time to participate in this one, but I did manage a few more contacts than last year. Conditions on Saturday were not as good as Sunday but both days had enough stations on to keep it interesting. Propagation seemed okay between California and here in Minnesota. Final score was 5320 with 76 contacts.

 73---Tim

  

13 colonies special event 2025

I've missed 3 years of this special event, and I always enjoy participating although some years I have better luck at contacting stations. This year I found it a little more difficult to find the 13 colony stations but still managed to contact 11 of the 13 but barely heard  the WM3PEN bonus station and never heard GB13COL or TM13COL. I sent for the certificate was glad to chase this event. Maybe conditions will be better next year.

73--Tim
 

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.