Author: dick

Catchup

Not the red condiment … just a few notes about what I’ve been up to.

I just did a quick calculation of confirmations. Confirmations are running at 80.3% on QRZ and at 71.2% on on LOTW. I must admit, I NEVER saw rates that high, even when I was at a DX location years ago. Electronic confirmation has revolutionized QSLing. As a practical matter, I really don’t care as much as I did when I first started out fifty-three years ago. I still really appreciate the occasional physical card in the mail … very few and far between nowadays.

I haven’t been active much lately. I’ve had other things to compete for my time. One BIG life-changing thing I’ve done is get my first hearing aids. Truthfully, after the first week, I could kick myself for not doing this years ago. Meetings had become a real ordeal. I could hear fine, but understanding what was said was the problem. My problem is high-frequency loss … moderately severe. That’s where all the speech intelligibility lies. Too many years working around aircraft and in a shipyard, back before hearing protection was a big thing. It’s been a real eye-opener … or should I say ear-opener? 😀 😀

I’ll try to work a bit harder to get back into the radio groove and catch you all later.

73 de Dick N4BC

FrostFest 2020

Saturday, I attended FrostFest, which was held at the Richmond (VA) International Raceway. The 60 some-odd mile drive was quite foggy that morning, but nothing dangerous. I arrived later than usual. I normally get there around 8:30 in the morning, but just couldn’t seem to get moving this year. I arrived around 9:30 and did a quick spin around all the booths.

FrostFest 2020

There was lots of good stuff there. Lots of junk, too, but some really nice examples of older technology. It was like a trip down nostalgia lane. Lots of the stuff, I had either owned or worked on. Charlie (WB4PVT) was there, trying to sell accumulated estate merchandise. Many other familiar faces were seen, too.

I attended a couple of great Forums. There were two featured speakers this year, both by video link. Rich Moseson, W2VU, the Editor of CQ magazine, talked about the history of CQ magazine, which is celebrating its 75th year in 2020, Dr. Tamitha Skov, WX6SWW, the Space Weather Woman (find her on YouTube), gave a great talk on sunspots, solar cycles, and space weather, all put into terms that her audience could grasp. For me, this was the highlight of the event. Well done!

Rich Moseson
Dr. Tamitha Skov

This year, the license testing was free, and it looked to me like the testing room was packed. Hopefully, they all did well!

All in all, it was a great event this year. Every year, it gets better. I’m already looking forward to next year!

73 de Dick N4BC

Silent Key – W4QM, Dale Streiter

I was saddened to read of the passing of another old friend recently …

SB SPCL @ ARL $ARLX002
ARLX002 Past ARRL Southeastern Division Director H. Dale Strieter,
W4QM (SK)

ZCZC AX02
QST de W1AW
Special Bulletin 2 ARLX002
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT January 28, 2020
To all radio amateurs

SB SPCL ARL ARLX002
ARLX002 Past ARRL Southeastern Division Director H. Dale Strieter,
W4QM (SK)

Past ARRL Southeastern Division Director Harmon “Dale” Strieter,
W4QM (ex-W4DQS), of Cocoa Beach, died on January 6. An ARRL Life
Member, he was 92 and a founding member of the Maxim Society.

Strieter was ARRL Southeastern Division Director from 1970 until
1973.

During World War II, he served as US Maritime Service radio officer
in the Pacific. After the war, he received a bachelor’s degree in
electrical engineering from Michigan State. He got his amateur radio
license in 1947. Strieter later earned an MSEE from Michigan State,
and then worked as an audio engineer.

In 1958, Strieter moved to Cocoa Beach to work for General Electric,
a NASA contractor, and he served as the guidance engineer on the
Mercury and Gemini manned spaceflight missions.

Strieter was a prolific DXpeditioner. After 20 years with GE, he
returned to sea in 1979 as a radio officer in the US Merchant Marine
on a ship generally anchored at Chagos. As VQ9QM, Strieter logged
more than 200,000 contacts from nearby Diego Garcia, between 1986
and 2001. He retired in 2002.
NNNN
/EX

I first met Dale when I worked as a contractor for Ford Aerospace on Diego Garcia. He was one of a diverse group of hams there. Some were Navy personnel, some Merchant Marine like himself, and others were contractor personnel, like me. Over time, he became a close friend, and we shared many hours together, operating from the club station there on the island, sharing meals and drinks, or just sitting and talking. He was an interesting person! I was in awe of his CW prowess!

One morning, we woke up and the lagoon was empty of ships, and the normally deserted airfield was full of B-52s and KC-10s. Desert Storm was underway.

I eventually left the island and returned to the States, and like many good friendships, distance caused this one to lapse. Still, I thought about Dale and all the others every now and then, and reminisced about the “good old days.”

Rest in peace, old friend!

73 de Dick N4BC

Happy New Year!!!

Well, it’s the start of a new year, and back to work for me. The break was welcome, but going back is always hard. After getting accustomed to rising at 9 am, 5 am is rough to get used to again!

New Year’s Day, there were too many POTA activations to count, but I could only copy a handful. I managed to work four on forty meters. Admittedly, I didn’t sit at the radio all day … just spotty monitoring.

That total only includes one of the four parks I worked on the 1st. Slowly but surely, I’m working my way through the second hundred.

I see that there have been several sunspots attributed to the new solar cycle, so things are definitely looking up. I’m tired of checking the propagation charts and seeing ZERO sunspots!

73 de Dick N4BC