Thursday, April 26, 2007

another one confirmed!!!

My 5A7A card came in the mail today.  I waited a while to send it out because of everything else that I had going on.  It took less than a month to get back to me.  I was sorry to hear that they had to endure someone referring to members of the team as Nazis.  This was my first Libyan contact and I was able to work them three times on 80 meters.  The last contact was by accident.  I worked them once split and then once simplex.  The last time I heard a weak station and calling CQ and called.  They then called me back and gave their call and signal report.  So, I was already committed, so I got them again.  They only confirmed the first contact, but, I would rather have one than none!!!!!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

End of an era.....

I was shocked to see that Scott (W4PA) was announcing that K4JNY was leaving Tennessee and heading for California.  I have worked Jeff a number of times and found that his signals were always booming here into the Tidewater area.  I know that Scott said he will find somewhere else to operate from, but I am sure that he will do well wherever he winds up.  But, it is unfortunate that I will now have to work a little harder to get Jeff in the log!!!! 

2006 Sweepstakes (Phone) results are in!!!

Well, I just looked up the Sweepstakes results and the individual results have finally been posted.  I knew that it would not be long as they had posted the top scores and club results.

 

I wound up first in the Virginia section in my class out of 31 entries.  That was rather surprising since I got a late start and did not operate the full time.  Out of all the Virginia entries of all classes (86 total), I placed 20th.

 

I was seventh in the Roanoke Division out of 59 in my class and 37th overall in all classes out of 149.

 

There were 724 total entries in my class and I was 78th.  There were 1,542 total entries in all classes and I was 419th

 

So, I am glad to see that not only did the PVRC win the gavel, we also took Virginia!!!

 

 

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

It has been a very good weekend, radio wise.  I was able to work the French DXpedition to JW land.  I was hoping to also work some Israeli stations in the Holyland DX contest because my only Israeli contact died before I was able to get his card back.  I thought it was going to be rough, but conditions were such that I got more than I had thought possible.  I wound up with 6 new 4X contacts!!!!!

 

From there, everything else was gravy….  I wound up working a number of European stations and a few South American stations.  I was able to work in a Michigan station who was working the Michigan QSO Party and a few Canadians in the Ontario QSO Party.  I was not interested in working a contest this weekend, just in giving out a few points since I could not put in a good effort.  I was able to work a Turkish station along with a station in Cyprus, so I was glad we had a wonderful band opening on 20m to the Middle East.  I had not heard anything from there for quite a while!!!

 

We found out this weekend that PVRC did, in fact, reclaim the November Sweepstakes gavel from the Northern California Contest Club.  It was a slim margin to say the least, but it was friendly competition that was enjoyable to everyone.  It was neck and neck and there were even rumors of recounts and lawyers and the Supreme Court having to make the decision (just kidding)……But the challenge will be can we hold onto it in 2007.  NCCC will be coming after PVRC with new members, bigger stations and we will have to rise to the challenge.  I am confident that 2006 was the start of an east coast run for the possession of the gavel.

 

Things are moving smoothly on the May special event station.  We are hoping to have everything set up for operations from May 4th until the 25th.  The card has been designed and is now been given a test printing.  Everything is falling into place and we are getting excited about the prospects of a wonderful special event.  We will be operating in teams of at least two to ensure that the newer operators follow all FCC rules and avoid any “liddish” behavior.

 

The Kenwood TS-570D is working perfectly and was able to pull out very weak signals this weekend so that I could work them. 

 

I am hoping that this is the week that I will be able to start work on digging the tower foundation.  I have a few things to get caught up on and then I should have no other big projects for a while.  That will allow me to get this project done and the tri-bander up in the air.  Of course, I have been saying this for some time as something always seems to come up, but I keep thinking positive!!!

 

Larry (W3MGL) has seemed to go into a funk since his wife’s stroke, so I am trying to get him back in the shack.  He has not operated for some time now and I need to put him back on the air.  His wire antenna came down in the recent nor’easter, but he still has the quad on the tower, so lack of an antenna is not an excuse.

 

The weekend ended on a high note with a QSO from a fellow contester who was flying high, literally!!!!   NQ4I was cruising along at 41,000 feet over Texas when I talked with him at 14.200.  I have worked Rick a number of times during contests, but never when he was flying, so it was an added treat!!!!

 

 

So, things are going well in the colonial capitol!!!

 

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Lots of activity

The club is anxiously getting ready for our special event station in May.  We are working at getting our operators lined up and everything ready to go.   My personal goal is for us to have 1000 contacts in the log by the end of the period we have the special event call (W4J).  I don’t know if we will meet that goal or not, but it sure would be nice!!!  Queen Elizabeth II is coming the week before our Jamestown special event so we want to have a nice warm ham welcome for her also using the special event call.  I will be working the entire weekend of the Jamestown celebration, so I won’t be able to have much time to operate.  I am hoping to at least work our special event station.

 

Millie (KI4MNE) has put up a ham blog and she is very excited about getting involved.  She wants to learn more about contesting and DXing, so I want to do my part to get her going in those areas.

 

Hopefully, the weather will break and I can start digging the tower foundation.  I really want to get that up in the air soon!!

 

Friday, April 06, 2007

Swains Island??

Well, the end of my work week will be this morning at 6am.  I am hoping that sometime during this weekend, I will be able to add Swains Island to my log.  Unfortunately, it might be a little difficult because my schedule is going to be tight.  Friday morning, I have to attend a recertification class at the police academy.  Friday afternoon, I would like to get some sleep, but also spend some time with my family.  Saturday afternoon, I will be one of the VE’s at our local club’s exam session.  Then, of course, Sunday is Easter and I will be tied up with church and a family dinner before heading back to work on Sunday night.  Since I work a weird schedule, it does give me a little opportunity during the day when others are working and some unique opportunities during the early morning hours, but often they are looking towards Europe or Asia during these times…..But, I am going to give it a shot……

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Our local club

I am excited about the next couple of months for our local club.  We are again hosting our annual Jamestown weekend special event.  This year, there is lots of attention on Jamestown and there are at least 3 other special event stations from Virginia that weekend.  Of course, we can always claim our role as being the first special event station to be operated from Jamestown to celebrate the landing there.   This year, we are talking about extending out our presence to the whole two week period that we have the special 1 X 1 callsign.  We are proud to have operated from the original location of Jamestown since our first special event in 1995.  That event was rather special as we had a large number of hams show up.  I remember being there with Larry (W3MGL), Mike (W4NYY), Nick (N1HKK) (SK), J.D. (WA4RBC) (SK), Tom (KD4UZH), Ray (AC4PV) and a few others that I am sure that we missed.  That first one was a long day, because we had to be set up by 9am and our truck off the island.  We then could not bring the truck back on the island until at least 4:30pm.  But, it was a lot of fun, and I would not have traded that experience for anything.  Unfortunately, I will have to work anniversary weekend (they already told us all leave is cancelled), so I cannot go down and operate, but maybe I can operate from my home or another shack to keep the W4J call on the air.

 

Next, we are talking about getting some upgrade classes going and to also encourage elmering.  That will go a long way and I am looking forward to seeing our people advance in the hobby.

 

We are also looking about getting our club breakfasts started again.  In the past, these were always a lot of fun and they went a long way in building friendships.

 

So, it is going to be an exciting few months.

A new rig!!!

Well, I decided that it was probably not worth getting the Kenwood TS-440S repaired as the cost of repairs would most likely be more than the value of the radio.  So, I decided instead to see about getting another rig.  In speaking with one of our local club members, he said he had just put up on our e-mail list two rigs he was offering for sale.  I talked with him about them and decided to go take a look. I was in no hurry for a rig because I still had Larry’s IC-718 at the house to use until I got another rig, so there was no pressure.  The choice was between an IC-718 and a Kenwood TS-570D.  I already knew about the 718, so I gave the 570 a try.  Of course, being familiar with Kenwood products, it was an easy learning curve.  Well, needless to say, I went home with the 570D.  I plugged it in and got started.  Band conditions were terrible but I was able to work a new one (Greenland) and work New Zealand on 20 meters fairly late in the evening.  Since then, I have not had much time to work on the radio, but hopefully I will get some time to enjoy a little radio this coming weekend.  I think Larry is just as excited as I am about the new radio and he keeps asking me if I have been playing with it a lot, but I have just not been able to carve out enough time or band conditions to make any serious attempts at working DX with it, yet……

 

So, let’s hope for more sunspots, better band conditions and some free time!!!!