My musings on Ham Radio … and stuff!
Well, I’m still wringing out the new vertical. I’m likin’ it! I had time to work a couple of stations tonight — European Russia on 20 and Greenland on 12. The XP3 station was booming in … 59+ at times. He had a respectable pileup going and I grabbed him sending my callsign once.
Overall though, the bands don’t seem too lively. Not much action on either antenna here at just past 0000Z. It was better earlier in the evening. Now’s a good time to catch up on YouTube 🙂 .
73 de Dick
OK, I was pretty happy with the performance of the new vertical. I cleaned up the installation and it looks OK now. I still have to bury the coax, but I did operate with it this weekend. l worked a few new countries/bands/modes and even a couple of US stations on 80-meter CW. I’m quite pleased with it.
The 17-meter band was quite good today. I listened to a Welsh YL working the states for a couple of hours, and she was booming in here. The Scandinavians were coming in well on most bands for the contest. All-in-all, a good weekend for working ham radio.
73 de Dick K4FTW
Even though it’s been a while since I posted, I have done a bit of hamming. This morning, I tuned around and found 9A3OS on 15M CW. He was literally the only CW station I heard on that band … and he was 599. Where was everyone else? Obviously listening — not transmitting.
I’m going to participate in the CQ WW WPX CW contest this weekend. Hopefully, I’ll pick up a few new ones. It’ll be hit or miss, though … it’s our wedding anniversary, and the XYL has plans! I’ll try to fit in some operating when she’s not executing her plans!!
I recently bought and assembled a K1EL WinKeyer USB and really am pleased with it. I’ve got it interfaced to the computer, so I’ll be using it in conjunction with N1MM software to give it a good workout during the contest. The only problem I had with it was no output on KEY 1, but KEY 2 worked fine. An exam with a magnifying glass quickly found an unsoldered pin on U3. Oops, my bad! A bit of solder fixed that just fine.
Well, I’ve got to run and take care of a honey-do … I took some time off from work this week to make a long Memorial Day weekend. I have to use a few days before the end of June. If you’re contesting this weekend … good luck! See you when I can!
Update to my update 🙂 5/28 …
I did get on for a while during the contest and worked 104 stations. I picked up a few new countries, so it was worth it. I did my duty a couple of days as grillmaster, making burnt offerings on my new Weber grill. It’s been so long since I grilled anything outside, that I had forgotten how much flavor charcoal and a few hickory chips can add to a plain old hamburger!
I spent a couple of hours trying to get my WeedWhacker running. It worked fine last summer before I put it away, but now it doesn’t want to start. I’ve got some weeds out by the fence that have stalks that could almost support an antenna!
‘Til next time …
73 de Dick K4FTW
I came across an ad for the QCWA. I’d seen them before, and had said “OK, nice, but that’s for old timers.” Then I realized … I’m an old timer now. I was first licensed in 1967 …that’s FORTY-SIX years ago! Man, time flies! So, I decided to spring for a membership. I’m now the proud owner of Membership Number 36139. I’m usually not a joiner, but I do like a lot of the things they do (scholarships) and they seem like a pretty good bunch of guys.
I got on the air for a while tonight and worked a couple of Russian stations on 20m CW. One was in Europe and the other in Asia. There were quite a few other stations on, but I’m just beat tonight … had a long, hard day making a salary doing radio work. And it looks like there’ll be more of the same all this week. Bah! Off to the woods camping with the Boy Scouts this weekend, though. YAY!
73 and cul …
I do believe that spring is finally here! Snow last week, and highs in the near-80’s coming up this week. Today it’s in the mid-60’s. Too nice to spend in the shack!
I did work a Dominican (J75PX) station earlier this morning on 17 meters. It still amazes me how he came back to me on the first call, even when others were calling. Hey, I haven’t got a great antenna here … it’s an off-center feed, configured as an inverted-vee, with the apex at about 20 feet, and that’s being liberal with my measurements. The ends are literally 5 feet off the ground. That coupled with 100 watts is not a big gun station. I guess I should just be grateful that it works so well.
Well, as I said, it’s beautiful outdoors, so I think I’ll sashay on outside and enjoy it. Who knows … the way things have been going this year, we might see snow again!!