Catching Up …

There’s not much new to report, especially on the operating front, but I do have some new antenna news. Yesterday, I ordered an MFJ-1835 Cobweb antenna, and it is due to be delivered by the big brown truck today from HRO. Can’t beat their shipping and service. There have been some pretty good reviews in the forums and on YouTube, so I decided to go ahead and pick up one.When I get it assembled and up in the air, I’ll report further.

Last night was the combined PARC/SPARK clubs Holiday Banquet at Angelo’s. and it was a really good turnout, at least from the SPARK membership. PARC only had a handful of members present. The food and fellowship was great, as was the service, and the XYL even found someone she knew there to talk to.

73 & Happy Holidays de Dick N4BC

Pretty bad …

I managed to get on last night for a while after I got home from Choir practice … pretty bad. I made a couple of contacts, both in Oklahoma on 40m JT-9. I did start a QSO with a station in Arizona, but he disappeared on me about halfway through the exchange. Eighty meters had some CW action going on, but I didn’t hear much on digital. My noise level on 80 is pretty high … I really need to see where that’s coming from. Twenty meters was dead, except for a few weak CW stations.

This weekend is the ARRL Sweepstakes, but I don’t think I will have the time to invest. I have quite a few other irons in the fire that I can’t put off, so I think I’ll sit this one out. PLUS, I’m on call for work. NEXT weekend, though, I’ll be there for the CQ WW CW test.

73 de Dick N4BC

Some CW Action this evening

I’ve had some luck this evening working CW. There were some pretty strong signals coming out of the Caribbean and Central America … ZF2, HR9, PJ4 … etc. They were working pileups (mostly into Europe with some North Americans – me being one of those). All good operators, and just knocking them off, one after another. Not the most leisurely QSOs … more “Slam, Bam, Thank you Ma’am”. BUT … a contact in the log on an otherwise poor evening is a contact in the log!

Had a little lightning and thunder in the area this evening, too. I would think that as cool as it was today, that’s unusual.

Our repeater trustee wants me to give him some help setting up and interfacing our new Yaesu Fusion repeater with our RLC-2 Controller this weekend, so I guess I will give him a hand with that. We’re finally getting it installed SOON, I hope. Seems like it’s been forever since we lost our old tower site.

73 de Dick N4BC

Weekend Project

So … I’m almost ashamed to admit that I have had a BTech UV-5001 2m/70cm mobile rig sitting on the floor in my shack for a looooong time, instead of mounted in my truck where it could be put to use. Hey, I’m talking MONTHS here, folks.

MY WEEKEND PROJECT is to get it mounted and wired this weekend, so it’s not just used as a paperweight. I don’t know why there hasn’t been more of a priority for getting it done, except the fact that the repeater scene is pretty un-busy around here. It’s nice to have when you want or need it, though, so I’ll bite the bullet and “git-er-done”.

On another note, I was on 80 meters last night and made a few JT-65 and CW QSOs. They are out there, folks … you just have to chase them down and lasso them.

73 de Dick N4BC

Looking Up …

Things were good … things were poor. I tuned the bands tonight and didn’t find much action on CW or Digital. Twenty was pretty much dead, but Forty and Eighty showed a little life. I had several contacts into Canada on 80M and a couple of statesiders on 40M. Both bands had quite a bit of QRN – not sure if it’s man-made or natural, but it was prettty high on the S-meter. JT mode is about the only mode where I call CQ. I figure if he can hear me well, we’ve got a better chance of a QSO.

In any case, I did make some contacts and I guess I should be happy about that. The Solar forecast is only FAIR for those bands, and with my antennas … . Any time you can put something into the log is a winner, right?

73 de Dick N4BC