Ohio QSO Party

Ohio QSO Party
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
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80: 0 12
40: 0 38
20: 0 14
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
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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!