Category: DXCC

A Good Morning

I got up this morning, logged into work from home, grabbed a cup of coffee, and turned on the radio to see what was brewing on FT4/8. Here’s a couple of interesting ones:

Hawaii – 60 Meters
Kazakhstan – 20 Meters

The Kazakhstan contact (UN7LZ) was an ATNO for me. KH6AP was a new one on 60 Meters.

The bands were in surprisingly good shape. I also saw Fiji and China represented, but they were pretty weak and couldn’t hear me. All in all, I worked about 10 stations on 20, 30, 40, and 60 Meters between 7 and 8 EDT before I reluctantly decided to do some real work at my real job 😀 .

73 de Dick N4BC

A Bit of Everything

I actually got to sit down in the shack and operate for HOURS this evening … without any interruptions (except a spaghetti dinner … YUM!). It was a real potpourri of contacts. I worked a little bit of everything … SSB, CW, FT4, FT8, POTA, WWFF … even a new country on 17 meters FT4 – Bahamas! Twenty-four contacts for the evening … Bang! Bang! Bang! … interspersed with a couple of more leisurely contacts. Not ragchews, by any means, but definitely real conversations. 😀

The days are getting shorter. I noticed this morning that the sun had not risen when I went out to drive to work. It was cool, too … about 69 F. Thankfully, the heat wave has been broken for at least a while.

On a more somber note … we buried one of our long-time Radio Club members this week … W. E. “Jimmy” Taylor, W1WE. He hadn’t been active for quite a while, since moving to a nursing home and then hospice care. He was 88 years old and a WW2 veteran. RIP, Jimmy.

73 de Dick N4BC

Old and New

Even though the bands were a bit crappy, I worked a new one this evening … S92HP in Sao Tome and Principe, on 60 Meter FT8. Of course, it’s not confirmed yet 😀 .

I tried to find some of the spotted POTA activations, but no joy! Twenty and forty were not cooperative. Once again, I could hear hunters working them, but the activators were down in the hash. Forty had a constant S5 noise level with static crashes over S9. Rough conditions!

73 de Dick N4BC

Gotcha!

I snagged a new country on 30m FT8 last night … Turkey … TA3AHJ! He answered my CQ. I had called him several times earlier, but he never came back to me. That brings my DXCC total with my newer vanity call up to 99 … one more ’til the magic 100!

I watched a YouTube video by Steve Ellington yesterday afternoon titled IC-7300 Enhanced CW using PBT and Notch —N4LQ. Hey, his suggestions really work! Thanks, Steve! He’s got quite a collection of “how-to” videos that are worth watching. Check him out!

73 de Dick N4BC