Ringing out 2006

Well, it has been a whirlwind last couple of weeks. I have had a little time to play on the radio. I was able to make contact with Jim (WX3B) while he was operating the special event stations K3C and K3N.

I was never able to work (or even hear) the VU7LD operation. I was rather upset about that. I sure would have loved having a new country.

I made my first PSK31 QSO by accident!!!!! I was fiddling with the setup trying to get it to key up the radio, when I hit the CQ button. Next thing I know, I have a Cuban station coming back to me!!!! But I still have some issues as the rig is still keying up after it finishes transmitting. So, there is still work that needs to be done there. But, it was interesting!!!!

I have been working DX stations, but no new ones. So, I can't wait for the next DX contest so I can see if I can add a new one or two.

The holidays have put a damper on the tower project, but I am hoping to get the permit process started over the next week or so.

I did get a chance to work both W1AW and W1F for the end of the Hello Program that was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first radio broadcast in 1906.

I accidentally entered the RAC Winter Contest. This was not planned, but I heard someone calling "CQ contest" on 80 meters and I just had to check it out. I wound up making 20-something contacts while I was looking for DX and special event stations last night (Friday) and today (Saturday).

So, there it is......It is now officially getting close to the end of the year and I am hoping to work a few more before the year ends. I might enter the CQ DX marathon, but I will have to see. It just depends on how much time I can set aside to do it.

A QSO with Santa

Yesterday (Monday) Emma and I had a wonderful QSO with Santa (W6S). I must say that I enjoyed it as much as she did. I was surprised how she talked to Santa. I expected her to be shy, but she was not. She even got to see him on the webcam. She was very excited and it was an unexpected treat. Santa said that he had been doing this for 34 years and I must say that I was impressed on how well he handled the kids. I have got to send a card to his QSL manager and frame it for her when it arrives!

VE certificate

Yesterday my ARRL VE credentials came in the mail. I am glad for this as I want to do everything I can to see the hobby grow and to encourage new people to join our ranks. So, with my new paper in hand, I am going to see if I can't get into my first testing session in April with our local club. I am also a W5YI VE, but I must be honest and say that I have not done a session with MPARC since I got my credentials. So, I need to get involved with one of their sessions also.

The FCC's latest R&O

I have been reading a bunch of handwringing from people crying that the removal of the Morse requirement for licensing will bring about the end of ham radio. I have mixed feelings about the issue.

It is true that the removal of Morse will bring more people into the hobby. Some of those will be of a less than stellar quality, just like a cross-section of our society. But, I do not see us moving along the path towards CB radio. We are a self-policing group and the FCC still has an enforcement bureau. I do not forsee the FCC throwing up its hands and walking away from amateur radio like it has done with CB radio. Anyone who tries to hold out that we who are currently in the hobby are role models for what the amateur radio service should be have not listened to some of the rubbish down on 80 meters at night. I am embarrassed by what I have have heard there. But, thankfully, I have seen the FCC enforcement actions against some of these characters.

We must admit that our hobby is growing grayer. I am middle aged and am often one of the youngest hams at our local radio club meeting. We seriously need an infusion of new (and younger blood) into the hobby. It is up to those of us who have been licensed for a while to become elmers to our newer licensees and in this way we can prevent some of those bad habits that have been so feared in the past. Each of us (other than the embarrassing people mentioned earlier) have a part to play in the future of our hobby. Each of us has a particular portion of this hobby that we have become specialized in. Some of us focus on emergency communications while others focus on DXing and contesting. Others love the digital modes, while others love CW and have forgotten where their microphone is. Some have forgotten the code and focused on SSB. Our hobby is limitless and as Dave Bushong says it is truly 99 hobbies rolled up into one.

I unfortunately have forgotten the code by not using it and that is my fault. I was out of the hobby for a number of years (7, in fact) and never even turned on a radio during that time. But, now I am back and I am working on my code skills. Code may not be required for licensing, but I know there are many DXpeditions that spend more time on CW than on SSB. Since I want to enjoy the fullness of my specialities (DXing and contesting), I need to keep the code in my skills. So, over the next few months I will be working at improving my code skills and even taking the plunge and doing some CW contests.

So, in my humble opinion, they may take away the requirement for code for licensing, but the code will not be going away anytime soon!!!

The tower has arrived!!!

Well, this gem arrived about 11am this morning and I was very happy to see it. Now the paperwork begins. I am hoping that we will get a couple of good warm days this winter and the tower can be up before the weather breaks. I have to see what the county requires for paperwork and then start jumping through the hoops. But, it is sure a welcome sight. I was amazed at just how light the tower truly is. With a rotor and antenna on it, it should weigh less than 150 pounds total. It is much more expensive than the Rohn 25G, but as it will not require maintenance, it should make up for the difference.

Speaking of DXpeditions......

I talked to N2WB (Wild Bill) Sunday night and told him that I hope I have better luck hearing him on his DXpedition next month to Burkina-Faso than I am having with the current VU7 operation. He said that we should be able to hear them better. I truly hope so as I need that one for a new country!!!! I also enjoyed talking with Bill about the Peter I Island video that I got a couple of weeks ago. It is fantastic!!! You can order the video here.

I first heard Peter 1 back during the 1994 DXpedition, but was not able to work them. I was quite pleased to get them in February.

Upcoming DXpedition

NE1RD and a group of other Buddipole operators including Budd himself will soon be heading for Montserrat. Check out the details of this DXpedition at: http://dxpedition-vp2m.com/ and give them a call!!! This might be the kind of thing that I could get Larry (W3MGL) to come with me on........Of course, he probably won't want to leave Virginia, but there is still a lot of places to go in-state!

ARRL 10 Meter Contest Results

It's not enough for a big finish, but considering all I had going on that weekend, it was still fun. I just need more sunspots!!!!

ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: W4TMN
Operator(s): W4TMN
Station: W4TMN
Class: SO SSB LP
QTH: VA
Operating Time (hrs): 2
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW: 0 0
SSB: 58 20
-------------------
Total: 58 20 Total Score = 2,320

A Wonderful QSO

Today while on my way to a seminar in Richmond, I ran into Curt, K9CH, who moved from Newport News to Hopewell this past summer. It was a wonderful QSO and I enjoyed catching up on everything with him. He is a professor who teaches communications and is just a fantastic guy. He gave a presentation on photography at the Williamsburg Area Amateur Radio Club meeting a number of months ago that everyone enjoyed thoroughly. He is a very talented person and a whiz with CW. He was John's (my youngest son's) first ever HF QSO and went the extra mile to make up a certificate for him and personally hand delivered it to him. There are a number of wonderful hams out there and I am priviledged to know and associate with many of them. I miss having Curt in the area for our almost daily QSO's.

On the way home, I was able to talk to Curt more until his wife, Edie came home and I let him get off the radio and spend time with his lovely wife.

So, it was great to hear Curt and to have his company as I motored in the Richmond area today. I am hoping that we can have more of these in the future.

Sad News from KE9V

Jeff, KE9V, has said that he is going to shut down his blog......I was sorry to hear that as I enjoy reading his thoughts. But, fortunately, he is going to be continuing his podcasts!!! Even Allyson, who has absolutely no interest in becoming a ham, enjoys his podcasts. So, I am looking forward to continuing to listen to his well-done and thought out work on the podcast side of things.

But, even with the podcasts continuing, there is still a part of me that will miss reading about his interests and thoughts about many different topics.....

73 to ya, Jeff.............and thanks for not going totally QRT, just QRP!!!!

The Tower is Coming!!!!

The folks at Universal Towers sent me an e-mail today saying that the tower went out the door today. They sent me the shipping company's tracking number and they are anticipating it arriving at my house on Monday. So, it is definitely time to get that permit to put it up in the air!!!

I am hoping that all goes well and the process will go smoothly. If so, we should be able to have the tower ready by the end of January if there are no hitches.

So, now it is about to get serious.............

10 Meter contest

Well, I didn't get much time last weekend to operate in the 10 Meter contest and my score definitely showed it. I worked less than 3 hours and only made 58 contacts. This was not my best showing. There were a number of things working against me: a very busy schedule with church activities, an appointment with Santa on Saturday morning, sleep, family and propagation. The solar weather was terrible and the band seemed to be constantly shifting. On Sunday afternoon, I did get some trans-equatorial contacts, but they were few. I heard a Hawaiian station, but they could not hear my puny 100 watts. I then lost the Hawaiian in the static and started hearing West Coast stations. I worked a few and then the band shortened and I was able to add Minnesota and other 0 stations. Then the band shortened again and I had a pipeline to Minnesota!!! A couple more stations and then Michigan and Ohio were on the menu. The band got quiet, so I tried running stations and did get my QSO rate up to a respectable 40 QSOs/hour for a few minutes until the band stopped cooperating. After that, all I could hear is the despised bacon frying sound of static. So, it was very depressing. I still have to add the contacts to my logging program and send my entry to the ARRL. Hopefully, I will get this done over the next few days, along with posting my scores here on the blog.

Busy times!

I ordered a 40 foot self-supporting tower on December 4th. I called Universal Tower yesterday and they said that it is expected to ship the end of this week or the first part of next week. It will be greatly welcomed here!!!

I have watched the 3Y0X DVD that I ordered here a few weeks ago. I would love to be able to go on a DXpedition sometime!!! Larry and I are planning our mini-DXpedition and all is going well on that front. We are going to do a test run at Larry's with the Buddipole set up in his driveway. If that turns out well, we are then going to go out to a location and see how many contacts we can rack up.

Tonight, I bought an automatic antenna tuner from one of our club members. I am looking forward to seeing how it helps my contesting. I have installed it and it seems to work just fine. I will give it a shot over the next few weeks and hopefully it will cut down on tuning time.

We had our club meeting tonight and we are definitely going to be setting up a special event station for the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown next May. My work schedule does not lend itself to operating a lot from the special event stations, but I am hoping that I will get some time to go down and get on the air.

So, lots of things coming up.........These are going to be exciting times!!!!

WAS

Well, I bit the bullet and applied for WAS today. I had to, because now I had no excuse. I have had the application paperwork for some time and have been eligible since the time I worked Alaska in the winter. I had just been dragging my feet. It was on my to do list, but I just had not done so. Today, I was downloading my LoTW returns and I found that a fellow PVRC member AJ1M had confirmed me so I did not have to send in that single WV card. I immediately went online and sent the application in to ARRL. So, I anticipate seeing that certificate roll in here in a few weeks. Now, if I could just get so lucky for my DXCC award!!!! But, I have the cards separated out and I just need to spend some time working on that one.

So, I now have one major award down and the other in progress......

November Sweepstakes

This is the year that the PVRC is going to take back the gavel for Sweepstakes from the Northern California Contest Club. Larry and I planned to give our all for the PVRC. Unfortunately, Larry cannot do a full 24 hours. I had planned on a full 24 hours, but then I had to go to Pennsylvania because Allyson's aunt Shirley has terminal cancer and is only expected to live a couple more weeks. Allyson was going to go with her sister Christie, but then she would not make it home in time for John's baptism on Sunday. So, I went and had a good time. Of course, I did have my 2m with me and made a few contacts while on the drive. I was hoping to catch Jim (WX3B) on the Thurmont, MD repeater and say hello to him as I was driving through. Jim is the president of the PVRC and was very helpful in getting me voted in as a member earlier this year. I have found everyone in the PVRC very helpful and more than willing to help us small guns make an even louder noise during contests!

I was able to leave Lancaster, PA about 4:30pm on my way home. I was thinking that I would only miss about 4 1/2 to 5 hours of the contest that way. But, travelling with my 3 year old and my wife, it was not as easy as getting in the car and driving straight through. I will say that Allyson did not ask to stop often and for a while Emma was asleep, so I was able to get some drive time in. After a stop in Thurmont for a quick dinner, we were back on the road again.

I wound up getting home at about 10pm. I was hoping to be on the air by 10:30pm but I found that when I turned on the radio, the audio did not sound right. I checked everything in the shack and then headed outside where I found the feedline had broken over the past day in the storm that we had been having. So, solder gun in hand, I did a repair of the antenna and got on the air about 11pm. Fortunately, not everyone had gone to bed, so I worked as many by S&P as I could on 40 and 80. After about 2am, things started slowing down a bit and my rate was suffering. But, I hung on through the night until things got so slow that I decided to take a quick shower. Refreshed and ready to do battle again 20 minutes later, I got back into the fray. I walked away from the radio later in the morning long enough to wake up Allyson and go back to the hunt. When it got close to time for us to leave for church, I stopped and got dressed. John was going to be baptized and there was no way that I was going to miss this.

Right after church, I came straight home. Allyson had driven separately so I could get home quickly. Things went well up until the time I had to go back to church again on Sunday night. Again, right after church, we hurried home and I was able to get back into the hunt. I was very happy at the end of the contest when I realized that this was my personal best for Sweepstakes, even though I had operated much less than the alloted 24 hours.

ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: W4TMN
Cass: Single Op LP
Summary: Band QSOs
160: 0
80: 241
40: 83
20: 58
15: 10
10: 0
Total: 392 Sections = 73 Total Score = 57,232

So, my first contest as an Extra Class was better than my previous best, even though I did not work as long as I have in the past.

It was great to work a lot of the "big guns" during this one such as N4PN (always a wonderful QSO and a great contester), K0GAS, W6YI, KZ1O, KC1F and others!

I could not believe that I did not work a SC, SB, ND or AK this time. I can understand not working some of the Canadian provinces (I missed 4), but I normally get SB & ND. I heard only one SB and one SC and they were S&P like me. I heard an Alaskan, but they had a pileup that a stick of dynamite would have a hard time breaking. I heard not a peep of any ND station.

But, I must say it was fun, even though I was wiped out all day Monday!!

Equipment upgrades

I have added a couple of Kenwood TM-271A radios to my equipment list. They are for the vehicles. I have started programming them for the various areas that I travel in.

I have added a Buddipole for Larry (W3MGL) and I to do some portable operations in the future.

I will be purchasing an aluminum tower soon from Universal Towers to put the tri-bander on so I won't have to deal with any more failures.

So, the contest/DX station is coming together nicely. I hope that this trend continues.

Extra Class exam

On November 4th, I passed the Extra Class Exam. It was a real squeaker as I had not had the opportunity to study much over the past couple of weeks due to work, contests and family committments. I was ready to take the exam 3 times, if necessary. I told the lead examiner, W4NYY (Mike Conte) to just keep bringing me the tests as long as the money held out. I was not very confident of my ability. The more I studied, the more it seemed that I did not know. After I finished my exam, I just just sat there and closed my eyes (actually hoping I could sleep since I had to go to work that night!!!). They finally called me up and congratulated me. Needless to say, I was shocked. Joe (K4JJS) asked me if I knew how hard it was for the VE's to keep a straight face. Well, I was so excited that I nearly left the EOC without my jacket. I called Larry (W3MGL) to let him know and he was almost as excited as I was.

Now, I have all of the ammo that I need to pursue the DX and contest contacts that I need, frequency wise.

CQ WW DX - Phone

What a weekend!!!! Allyson was very helpful in keeping distractions down to a minimum for me. I was able to spend lots of time working on the radio, but conditions were lousy. Saturday was pretty good, but Sunday was hard work.

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Class: SOAB LP

Summary: Band QSOs Zones Countries
160: 0 0 0
80: 1 1 1
40: 76 42 14
20: 219 71 20
15: 100 54 17
10: 1 1 1

Total: 397 169 53 Total Score = 236,652

It was my personal best for CQ WW DX, but it could have been better if I had the tri-bander up, my Extra Class ticket and more sunspots! Next year will be better. I did get a couple of new countries out of it: China, New Zealand and Dodecanese so it was not all bad!!

Pennsylvania QSO Party

Pennsylvania QSO Party
Call: W4TMN
Operator(s): W4TMN
Station: W4TMN
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: VA

Summary:
Band Ph Qs
160: 0
80: 132
40: 143
20: 0
15: 0
10: 0

Total: 275 Mults = 63 Total Score = 19,725



It was a lot of fun, as always. The special call stations (N3SH) were everywhere. I racked up a lot of bonus points because of them.

Catching up

I have not been able to do some catching up on the blog, so I am going to give the short and sweet version and then give more details later........

I have done the PA QSO Party, CQ WW DX phone, and November Sweepstakes contests.

I have purchased a couple of Kenwood 2m radios for the vehicles.

I am buying a Universal Aluminum tower for the back yard to put the tri-bander on.

I am still married, in spite of all of the above!!!

California QSO Party time!!!!

Well, I did not have the use of the tri-bander for this contest. My only goal was to beat the 58 QSO's that I had in last year's contest. I was all set and ready to go on Saturday morning. I had the software loaded and working properly. The contest started and I was loving the fact that I was hearing a bunch of stations on 15 meters. Then it went all downhill from there. My computer started doing wierd things. My keyboard seemed to lock up. It was not wanting to work properly. The tab key would work, but everytime I hit the "6" key, the program would minimize and would not let me type anything more. I swapped out keyboards and that did not work either. I fiddled with it for a while and lost a number of potential QSO's because of the problem. Then, after it seemed to clear up, Allyson told me that the phone was for me. The contest was only an hour old and my boss was calling telling me that I needed to come into work because of the severe weather we were having. People were being evacuated from their homes and the phones were ringing off the hook in dispatch. So, I went into work. Almost 6 hours later, I returned to the contest. Conditions had changed and 20 was the band for action. I worked 20 as long as I could. When I switched to 40, there was no one there. So, I was prepared to call it quits about 9pm. I spent some time with Allyson and then went to look at my logs from last year. I noticed that 40 did not heat up until later, so I went back to check. There was some action there and was able to work a number of stations before the foreign broadcasters took over the band. I did not hear anything on 80, so I called it a night. After church on Sunday, things were hopping on 20 and 15 again, so I worked all I could until I finally had to take a nap. I was pleased that I almost doubled my score and number of QSO's this year. I worked all but 12 of the 58 counties this year, so I can say that I was pleased with the result, even though I had lost the use of the tribander. This is what the final stats looked like:

Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
160: 0 0
80: 0 0
40: 0 11
20: 0 75
15: 0 29
10: 0 0
6: 0 0
2: 0 00
--------------------
Total: 0 115 Mults = 45 Total Score = 10,350

I am happy with this, even though it won't be enough to win one of the bottles of wine in the contest!!! But, it does give me a goal to strive to beat next year.

WAE DX contest

Well, I was finally able to get out my Worked All Europe DX contest logs. I had problems with the logging software I used and decided to re-input the few contacts I made into another program that would number everything correctly. I learned my lesson there.

Here is what the final results looked like for me......

Summary:
Band QSOs QTCs Mults
-------------------------
80: 0 0 0
40: 3 0 3
20: 24 0 14
15: 0 0 0
10: 0 0 0
-------------------------
Total: 27 0 17 Total Score = 875

Tragedy

Well, it wasn't a hurricane or a even a tropical storm. But we had a nor'easter come through here this weekend. Winds were gusting up to 60 mph. When I came home on Friday the 6th, I found this waiting for me. Allyson said that she saw it coming over and it was a slow fall, fortunately. I did go out in the rain on Saturday and remove the tribander and rotor from the mast. There is some damage on the reflector end because it crimped a little bit of the mast when the weight of the antenna was pressed against the side of the mast. It does look to be repairable. Unfortunately, I was looking forward to using the tribander in the California QSO Party, but it was not meant to be. But, I am going to do my best to have it up in some form for the CQ WW DX contest at the end of the month. This antenna project has definitely been a big one, but I am hoping that I will be able to afford a tower soon so that we will not have to worry about these types of problems anymore.

Another dry spell

Well, last weekend I did not get to play in the TX QSO Party after all. Between work, church activities and spending time with the family, I had no time for radio. I did get in there for a few minutes on Sunday afternoon and turned the radio on long enough to hear the last few minutes of the QSO Party. I was in the process of downloading the program from the N3FJP website when I realized that time was running out. Right now, I am sitting in a class in High Point, NC. I have been here since Tuesday and I am going through "HF withdrawals". I will get home tonight, but I am not going to turn on the radio. I have got to spend time with my wife and kids. My daughter, Emma, told Allyson yesterday that she wanted her daddy to "come home right now". So, that is what I plan to do as quickly as possible!!!

A long, dry spell

I have been off the radio for a while, unfortunately. I had to go to Tennessee for my uncle James's funeral and I really did not feel like operating when I got back. That meant that I missed the Salmon Run that I was going to work with Larry. I was really looking forward to that. But, I will try to get with him and schedule another contest weekend with him soon. I did get on the radio yesterday for a few hours and had a good time. I found that I was last on the radio on the 11th. That was a whole 11 days off the radio!!! NOT GOOD for me! And then I have a trip to High Point, NC soon so I won't be on the radio then, but I will be able to have the weekend off to do a little radio. So, it was good to get back on the air. I did work a new one for me yesterday, Turkey. I worked my friend, Henry (TA9F). I have worked him before when he was in Miami using the call KA4UFT and had a long and fun QSO with him. I first thought he was at home and then I realized that he was in Turkey, so it was great to talk to an old friend and get a new one at the same time!!!

I also added France, Great Britain, Sweden, Iceland and Italy in the log. It was a nice afternoon radio-wise! I called one guy in Iceland and then he passed me over to his friend, so I got a two for one deal there.

I am hoping to work a little in the TX QSO Party this weekend, but I have our church's 50th anniversary dinner tonight and to work until 4pm, so I won't be able to work much, but I will work a few. I have never been in a TX QSO Party, so it will be interesting, I am sure.

Pictures of the tribander in place

Pictures of the proud dad, mentor, elmer, senior member of the build team, and friend. (W3MGL). As you can see, he looks excited to be there!!!! Just ask him! He has been there through building the antenna to its going up.

Well, here it is!!! The first pictures of the tribander in place. As you can see, it is not as beautiful as a tower, but it is doing the trick. I went ahead and soldered a connector on the coax and put the antenna to the test on 20 meters for the Worked All Europe contest for a few minutes. Of course, the rotor is not connected, so I was shooting over the Pole and got some good contacts. I did my test and put it to bed until today. After getting home from church, I was able to work another 20 to give me grand total of 26 contacts. I was switching back and forth between the beam and the G5RV just to see how it was working. I actually got a better signal on the beam pointed north for Iceland than I did from the G5RV pointing generally east and west.

Today, after church, my sons and I moved the south end of the G5RV over a few feet to move it farther away from the tribander in case of wind blowing the two of them towards each other. John was the spotter and Justin was the safety guy. I had to shoot the antenna twice because the first shot actually flew over the tribander......NOT GOOD. But, the second shot was perfect and actually the whole antenna now is a couple of feet higher than it was previously.

Tomorrow, I will be rotating the tribander for the first time. It will be interesting to see what happens when it moves for the first time. Let's just hope that aluminum stays in the air!!!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Well, the tribander went into the air today!!!!! Joe (WC4R) and Larry (W3MGL) came over to the house along with a couple of my friends from church Christian and Ron. Ron brought his wife, Lori, with him. Allyson and Lori really helped out a lot during the critical stage of raising the mast to the full height. Allyson steadied the ladder I was on and Lori kept the mast from moving while Ron and I put it up to full height. Joe and Christian manned the guy lines and the whole operation took less than an hour. Joe and I shot the antenna launcher and got the end of the G5RV back into the air. So, now I am up with 2 antennas. I had to give the tribander a try even though I did not have the rotor connected yet. I was shooting north over the Pole and wound up working Germany, Iceland, and Wales, so I was quite pleased. You can definitely hear a difference with the tribander, even though it was not pointed towards Europe, but over the pole. Tomorrow, I have to do the final work on the mast and get the rotor cables hooked up. Larry wants to be here the first time I rotate the mast, so I might just hold off on that until Monday. It was so good to be back on the air again!!!!! Look for pictures of the new installation soon.

Next contest for me.....

Well, I am not anticipating being able to do much contesting this weekend due to antenna work and the like. But, I am going to be working the Washington State Salmon Run on the 16th and 17th. Larry (W3MGL) and I are going to do a multi-op from his house using his call. We are going for the smoked salmon prize!!!! In the meantime, I am still trying to study for my Extra class ticket. This is definitely not a walk in the park for me, as I am trying to juggle work, playing daddy and husband, and studying. The anticipated date for taking the exam will be the first Saturday in October when the local club has a testing session. So, hopefully, I can squeeze it all in!!!

Picture of the tribander in its current state

Well, I hope that this is the last week that the antenna will look like this. I am hoping that by this time on Saturday evening, I will be hooking it up to do a little radio!!!!

Goals to beat this year

As the serious contest season is about to begin, as usual, I am looking at my scores to see how I can improve on them. Of couse, last year was my first year as a general class, so I had more frequencies to play with. Fortunately, the ARRL's website has great statistical data for their contests. So, it gives me a lot to look at and make my goals.


2005 CQ WW DX (SSB) as KE4GWV
Score 108,800
Placed 18th out of 67 entries for 4th call area SOAB LP

2005 November Sweepstakes (SSB) as KE4GWV
Score 40,176
Placed 5th out of 38 entries in class for Virginia
Placed 134th out of 709 entries in class overall
Placed 506th out of 1,441 entries for entire contest

2005 ARRL 10 Meter Contest as KE4GWV
Score 9,844
Placed 3rd out of 9 entries in class for Virginia
Placed 6th out of 22 entries in class for Roanoke Division
Placed 73rd out of 113 entries for all of Roanoke Division
Placed 55th out of 228 entries in class for US/VE
Placed 730 out of 1,225 entries in US/VE overall
Placed 87th out of 364 entries in class world
Placed 986 out of 1,912 entries world

2006 ARRL International DX Contest as KE4GWV
Score 114,756
Placed 4th out of 30 in class for Virginia
Placed 20th out of 64 in Virginia overall
Placed 5th out of 53 in class for Roanoke Division
Placed 38th out of 124 in Roanoke Division overall
Placed 60th out of 520 in class US/VE
Placed 400th out of 1,279 in US/VE overall
Placed 98th out of 970 in class World
Placed 613th out of 2,219 World overall

So, I have some room to improve. I did get a couple of first place finishes over the past year. I got first in James City County for the Virginia QSO Party and I took first place in the GA QSO Party for Virginia. Of course, it's not hard to be first in Virginia if you are the only entry!!!! But, these stats give me a goal to beat. At the bottom of the sunspot cycle, it will be a challenge, but I am looking forward to trying to do better this season!!!

Another picture of the tribander under construction

This will be the last picture of the tribander under construction. The next pictures will be the ones I take tomorrow of it pointing straight up in the air awaiting the gang to come and put it up this weekend. I will be making some calls tomorrow to line up the antenna party. Of course, this is not the making of a major contest station like at K1TTT, W4MYA, or K3LPL, but it is definitely an attempt to make a competitive low-budget contest/DX station.

Keeping my fingers crossed

I am hoping that we will be able to get enough help to get the tribander up this coming weekend so I can work a little of the WAE SSB contest. I am going to try to get with Dave tomorrow and see if I can borrow his antenna launcher on Tuesday so that I can least get on HF again. I hate being without HF and I at least want to be able to work the contest with just the dipole if I have to.

Here is a picture of the tribander being assembled

Here is Larry supervising the operation and reading out the measurements. The picture quality leaves something to be desired since I took the photo with my cell phone. My wife had our regular digital camera, so I had to make do with what I had.

Ernesto pays a visit

Tropical Storm Ernesto came for a visit yesterday. I was too busy at work to call home and see how things were fairing. On the way home, I called home and my wife said that everyone was OK. I asked how the tribander was and she had my son Justin take a look. He said it was all bent up and had fallen off the stepladder supporting the mast. Well, I checked on the antenna the second I got home. The stepladder had leaned over but had not fallen. The reflector was bent over a bit, but when I put the mast back on the ladder, it went right back into place. Unfortunately, my G5RV came down in the storm. It looks as though the wire from the northern end of the antenna was stripped off the insulator. So, I don't think I will have to add any wire to the antenna, but I will have to pull the rope down from the tree on the northern end and re-shoot it over the pine tree. I will have to see if I can borrow our club president's (KE4ZPZ) spud gun to shoot it. If he will let me borrow it, I will just re-shoot the whole antenna on both ends as the southern end is also much lower than it started out this spring. I would not have thought that the G5RV would have come down because there was a lot of slack in the antenna before the storm, but I guess the wind was really whipping around out there. I am hoping to get both antennas up in the next week or so. Unfortunately, I do not see myself getting them up this weekend, but hopefully next weekend. That will be in time for the WAE contest which I would like to try out the new tribander to see how it works. So, here I am, a ham with no HF antennas up at the moment. Of course, I could throw one end of the G5RV over a low limb and operate if I needed to for an emergency, but it is frustrating to not be able to operate. I have had this G5RV come down twice already since I purchased it this year. It does not seem as sturdy as the one I bought from Radio Works over 10 years ago. I still have that antenna, but I was keeping it as a reserve. I did take it to Tennessee in July and used it to operate from there, but I would like to have a sturdier G5RV, so I guess I will have to homebrew one the way I want it.

Ohio QSO Party

Ohio QSO Party
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 0 12
40: 0 38
20: 0 14
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
--------------------
Total QSO's: 64 Ph Mults = 39 Total Score = 2,496
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club


It's not enough to win, but it was a lot of fun. I heard my friend Paul N4PN in there working them hard and, so far, it looks like he is the top scorer in the out of state category.

Glad the weekend is over

Well, I definitely had an interesting weekend. Saturday, my family returned home and we had the tribander lying in the back yard ready to put on the 30 foot mast. I did operate a little bit in the Ohio QSO Party also. Monday, Larry (W3MGL) and I got things ready for Dave (W9NNK) and John (K6OWD) to help us put it in the air on Tuesday. On Tuesday, things started out pretty good. We got things together and then we found we needed better anchors for the guys. From there, things went downhill. John was not feeling well and had to leave us. Larry is a lot of moral support and a great source of knowledge, but at 80 years old, he is not much for helping with the physical labor! Dave suggested that we try another approach for lifting the mast with the antenna on it. So, I am going to make a saddle for a rope to ride over my roof and we are going to effectively use my house as a gin pole to raise the mast. Right now, with the holiday coming up, it looks like the earliest we could do it will be on the Saturday after Labor Day. So, still in good shape for contests!!! I am hoping to make the saddle this weekend, especially since it looks like it is going to be very rainy with the remnants of Ernesto travelling overhead. Then I am going to put out a general call out to the club for bodies. Hopefully, that evening we will have the tribander in the air!!!!

Upcoming projects

I have a number of projects that I need to get done:

1. build a cabinet to keep the ham gear in & organize it better
2. put up the tri-bander in time for contest season

The tri-bander project is set to be finished in a couple of weeks, hopefully!!

What a weekend!!

Because of my job, my weekend is actually Sunday - Tuesday. I had to adjust my schedule last week so I had off Saturday also. I was supposed to pick up my son John from his mother and meet her about 2 hours from my house. I had asked my elmer, W3MGL (Larry), if he wanted to join the rest of the family in the little adventure. He said yes, so we were off!! The only problem is that my ex decided to call and have John ask me if he could stay an extra day. So, I agreed. We then decided to have our own little adventure, which wound up having lots of ham ties. We visited my barber Sully, AD4RG, who cut my oldest son's hair and then did mine. Sully had not seen Larry for years, so it was a great reunion all around. Sully is now the EC for Middlesex County and has been a friend for many years. People wonder why I drive almost an hour for a haircut, but I am a loyal client. Sully did John's first haircut 10 years ago and John has only had his hair cut a couple of times by anyone else. We left from Sully's and had a wonderful seafood buffet at Carolina Barbecue at Gloucester Point. When we finished, we decided to drive along the beach at Yorktown where we found N1LO (Mark). Mark often operates from the park there and he had just finished operating and was going to play the banjo for a little while before he left. He showed us his rigs and told us how he operates and how a number of "homebrewers" meet there at the park to work, swap stories and have some great fun together. Mark is always coming up with ideas on operating and it was interesting to see some of his ideas in person. So, it was an unexpectedly fun day. Sunday, I finally worked YU6AO. I have been trying for a while, but just have not been able to get him. Actually, I worked him twice on 20m!! I did make a number of contacts, but in a casual manner as I was not feeling well. Now, most of the family has some type of summer bug that my wife brought home from our vacation. Yesterday, I had the interview for the Deputy Director of Emergency Communications position where I work. I realistically do not think that I have a chance for the position as I am not a political person and there is a lot of politics involved with the position, but I am going through the process anyway just to let my bosses know that I am interested in moving up.

Up, Up & Away

Well, we are off and running with the blog.....We will have to see how it goes. This is a place for my musings about ham radio and contesting.....So, this is the first entry!