My musings on Ham Radio … and stuff!
Somehow, out main repeater antenna has flexed a bit too much! From the picture, it looks like the top may have flexed into the tower structure and gotten caught. We’ll be going to the site on Saturday morning to further evaluate the problem. I haven’t seen the actual antenna yet … just this photo that was sent to me. We’ve still got the backup antenna if needed.
73 de Dick N4BC
The days are longer than the nights, propagation is trending better, the trees and flowers are in bloom, and the temperatures are beginning to feel spring-like … Spring must surely be here!
It’s time to break out the portable gear and give it a good going over and cleaning. I anticipate being more successful in getting out into nature to operate this year … last year was a TOTAL failure due to the pandemic.
73 de Dick N4BC
I finally eked out my 400th unique POTA park on the 6th of April. The last few seemed to take forever, but band conditions really haven’t been stellar (get the pun?) lately. Lots of strong noise and weak signals.
73 de Dick N4BC
I just calculated my QSO confirmation rate on QRZ.com, and I find that I have a rate of 82% … That’s great! On LOTW, my percentage is a bit lower … 73.5%. Still, both really high percentages. To me, it proves that if you make it easy enough, hams are more than happy to confirm.
I use N3FJP ACLog, and have it set up to upload confirmations to eLog, LOTW, and ClubLog as soon as I hit ENTER. For QRZ, I have to go to QRZ.com and manually download from LOTW to their logbook. Not hard at all.
I really don’t chase many awards anymore after 53 years of this hobby, but I realize that many others do, so I upload my QSOs to all these databases, and am happy to do so. Anything that helps others’ enjoyment of this great hobby is good with me!
73 de Dick N4BC
I’m still hanging in there … doing my POTA and digital thing. BUT … in case you haven’t noticed … propagation has been pretty grim lately. Even so, there’s always SOMEONE to work!
My POTA totals are slowly approaching 400. I’m working one or two a day. It’s frustrating hearing the stations calling the activator loud and clear, but not hearing the activator. If it wasn’t for CW, my numbers would be a lot lower. All things come to those who wait, though!
This year, the Virginia QSO Party is the 20th and 21st of this month. I missed it last year, but this year I hope the weekend has some great conditions. I usually enter as a low power CW station. If you hear me on, give a call!
73 de Dick N4BC