RAC Winter contest 2015

I'm not sure why this happens but The RAC Winter contest tends to alternate either before Christmas or after. Coincidentily Our Family Weekend away visiting Relatives for Christmas has been on those weekends the past few years! OH well, at this this Year I was able to operate Friday for a while. Ten and fifteen meters had no activity and twenty meters was very limited.Fact is on 160-20 the majority of activity was on the CW portion of the bands.Since I'm a voice kind of guy the activity limited My ability to find many contacts. Less than 25 QSO's this year but very limited time so I will settle for what I could.Maybe next year.
Merry Christmas--Tim

ARRL 10m contest 2015

Well the band conditions continue their steady decline but luckily just enough propagation kept My time participating fun. I did experience some strange propagation with especially East coast stations.I was listening South for Caribbean and South American stations but occasionally a station from out East could be heard.Pointing My 10m Yagi East actually caused most of the East coast stations to totally disappear. I soon learned during this contest to just try a contact no matter the direction.
I did get on at the start of the contest Friday but except for some CW, I heard nothing in the voice segments. Saturday was better but just barely.I also had limited time till late afternoon but by then the bands were very quiet. Sunday was more of the same although I did notice some of the strongest stations CQing in My face and weaker stations hearing Me. A very mixed bag of propagation this Year. Less than 100 Q's but also less BIC time--oh well. Each contest is fun no matter the result.
73--Tim

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