Good reading..........

I was earlier doing a little reading of one of my fellow Potomac Valley Radio Club member’s blog.  K3OQ has an excellent blog and it is quite an enjoyable read.  If you have time to sit and savor some reading, please take a look.  It can be found at http://K3OQ.net  

 

My hat is off to Jeff, for a simple, yet fun to read blog.

 

 

Doldrums....

Well, here it is the weekend after Sweepstakes and while everyone else is banging out CQ WW DX, I was trying to get things caught up around the house.  I am bummed out that I don’t have enough time to do all that I would like to do.  One of the first orders of business is to get the tower up.  The goal is to get the foundation for the tower poured by the end of the year, if at all possible.  Since my time is somewhat limited, I am going to ask a friend of mine how much it will cost for him to finish digging the hole.  He has a mini-excavator and could probably finish it in an hour.  The two yards of concrete are going to cost about 300 dollars. 

 

I have a Ham III rotor and control box here that I bought years ago.  I am praying that it will work.  I need to do some testing on it to make sure that all goes well there.  The antenna spare parts are here in a box and once I get the tower base poured, that moves to the forefront.  The antenna should be as good as new with a new boom section, all new plastic and rubber boots for the traps.

 

I am still trying to get space set aside to make a good operating position.  I have some ideas on how to do it, I just need to draw them out and do some measurements.

 

Another thing on the agenda is my desire to get a PVRC chapter locally.  We have a number of members here and have the start of a good group.  Jim, WX3B, has been working with me on this and it is my hope that 2008 will bring this goal to a successful conclusion.

 

I would have loved to be in the CQ WW DX (CW) portion this weekend, but my CW skills have been lost over time.  I passed my code test back in 1993 and barely used them at all.  It was my goal to update to General, but then life got in the way…..John came along and then the divorce…then no place for radio for a while.  Then I had space for a radio, but no time…..Then finally in 2005, I made time.  That was a decision I am glad that I made.  Radio has given me an outlet to relax.  I know, it sounds silly thinking that hustling for QSOs and staying up lots of hours is relaxing, but it is.  Of course, I will probably never be on the scale of the big guys like K1AR, K1DG, W6OAT, W4MYA etc, but it is my goal to work all that I can and have fun while doing it.  So far, it is just that, and I intend to keep it that way.  One day I will get back with CW and get the speed up to play with everyone on CW weekends, but for right now, I will just have to accept that I can only enjoy half of the contesting experience.

 

 

OK, enough of my rambling on at 4am.  From 3830, I see that I am still hanging on to being in the top 20 for SS as SOLP.  We will see how long that survives.  I have not seen anyone from VA yet that has announced a score better than mine, but they don’t have to announce on 3830.  So, it is just a wait and see until the results are announced.

 

 

 

10 meter contest next

Well, now that Sweepstakes is over, it is on to the next one!  That next one is the ARRL 10 meter contest in December.  I am going to do something a little different.  The plan is to operate from Larry’s (W3MGL) shack in this one.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  The first is to blow some of the cobwebs out of his Jupiter.  The second is to see if I can get him motivated to get in the shack some and operate.  He has slowed down a bit and that is not good for a contester!!!  

 

Of course, Larry has been doing this for as long as I have been alive.  But, it still is tough for me to stand by and watch him not contest since he has such a good contest station.  So, I am hoping to beat last year’s score in this one and at the same time light a fire under my elmer to get him in the shack once again.

Now the waiting begins......

After last year's forfeit of the gavel, we in the PVRC were determined to avenge the loss. If everyone was fortunate enough to increase their scores by the same amount that I did, we might handily win the gavel this year. Of course, NCCC is not going to give up without a fight.

The wonderful thing about contesting is that we compete with each other like crazy during the weekend and are absolutely behind each other the rest of the week. One of the amazing things about radiosports compared to other competive ventures is that we help each other. For example, we work together to make sure that are exchanges are correct. We need each other to be successful. Every contester I have ever met has been absolutely wonderful. They truly are the best of the best as far as I am concerned.

With that said, the wait begins to see if the PVRC has won the gavel or if we will have to work harder next year.

GO PVRC!!!!

November Sweeps!!

Well, Sweepstakes is now over. I have become strictly a SSB contester. Not because I want to, but because of the limitations I have with time to work on getting my code knowledge back and then up to speed to work a contest. But even though I am missing out on half of the fun of contesting, I am still having a blast!

My goal this year was simple. It was just to beat last year's score. I had almost done that by the time I left for church on Sunday morning. I was just a few QSOs shy of reaching my goal. I was able to get a good run going in the lower end of 80 meters and wound up with a nice total which is my personal best in Sweepstakes:

Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 466
40: 73
20: 73
15: 3
10: 0
------------
Total: 615 Sections = 74 Total Score = 91,020

As you can see, the number of QSOs are rather lopsided. 80 was definitely the band this year. 20 meters was great for DX, but not much stateside. 40 was full of foreign broadcasts and QRM. I was able to find a couple of holes in 80, plant myself and start running. I only had a short run of about 70 qso/hr. For the most part, it was more like 30/hr. It was tough finding somewhere to be. On Sunday, I went down to 80 early looking for a spot above 3800 to get all of the general class operators. I was at 3839 for a while and started to get a good run going when all of the sudden I started getting QRM from both sides. People were sliding up and down the band to find places where they could avoid QRM and I was getting pinched between them. My little 100W was no match for them. Pretty soon, I got crowded out.

I moved down to the lower end of the band and found another nice hole. All of the sudden, a well known ham started calling CQ right on top of me without even asking if the frequency was in use. It got so bad that I could no longer pull anyone out. I told one caller that I was going to QSY up to get away from it and he told me to do so and he would find me. I moved up 3 kHz and planted myself to the end of the contest. I did not have any more problems after that.

WX3B spotted me and got me a few more QSOs in the log. I did not know that I had been spotted until after the contest when I fired up the packet cluster to see if the PVRC was having an on-air meeting somewhere.

This score was my personal best and it was a lot of fun.

There were some moments during the contest that made it memorable. One was working KT0R. Dave died back in September and a number of his friends were operating in his honor using his call. I always worked Dave and his call is one of the most frequent domestic calls in my log. Another moment was working Paul, N4PN. Paul has a distinctive voice and I know who it is from just hearing his voice. He always sounds glad to hear me and greets me by name. He always encourages me. He is a wonderful contester and was running them hard on 40 meters when I heard him. Another old friend is Bob, W4MYA. Bob is a local (VA) contester that I had the pleasure of spending time with in the spring. He stopped running for a few minutes to ask how I was doing and how Larry (W3MGL) was doing. Bob is another one that always greets me by name and encourages me. Lastly, the contest moment: I had never run stations during SS before. I was always S&P. On early Sunday morning, I am running stations when I hear K1AR calling me!!! Now, normally it is me calling John. So, it made me feel kinda good that one of the world's best contesters was calling me and my little 100W and wire antenna.

Another great moment was hearing a true local contester (as in the same little town and not more than 5 miles away) working stations. Dave, K4DGW, has gotten the bug! Dave is mainly a CW guy, but he was working them hard during this one. I recruited Dave for the PVRC and it was so cool hearing him scoring points. I never got a chance to work him, but I did send him a text message during the contest letting him know how many Qs and Mults I had, but that doesn't count!!!

All I can say is that I exceeded my goal of beating last year's score handily. It was good to take a mental break and have fun. I needed it!!!

30 Great Contesting Tips

I got an e-mail from Scot, K9JY, with a list of 30 contest tips that he has written. Needless to say, they are excellent and everyone needs to read them.

Here is where you can find them:

http://k9jy.com/blog/2007/10/10/30-days-30-ham-radio-contesting-tips/

Great job, Scot!!!

CQ WW DX contest

Well, another new high this year for me. I won't be breaking into the top 10 by any stretch of imagination, but who am I to complain about reaching a new level???

Here is how the score looked:

Band QSOs Zones Countries
-----------------------------------------
160: 0 0 0
80: 67 14 37
40: 111 17 54
20: 236 20 77
15: 136 17 59
10: 37 8 18
----------------------------------------
Total: 587 76 245 Total Score = 506,217


Not too shabby for me. Of course, if I had the tower up, it is very possible that the 10-15-20 totals would have been much higher. I don't mind working 40 meters split, and often I find it is easier because the pileups are not always as great.

I did get a couple of new countries out of this one, so I have to get cracking on getting the cards out. 1A3A was a very pleasant surprise along with C50C. 1A3A was a new country and C50C added The Gambia on some new bands.

Catching up......

Well, I have been out of commission for a while. Let's get caught up....

I did participate in the IARU HF World Championship in July. After that, I have done very little operating until the CQ WW DX contest in October. I am ashamed of that, as I always enjoy the California & Pennsylvania QSO Parties and I missed both of them this year.

I have not completed the tower project as of yet due to having to make a tough decision. The decision was, the tower or a new heat pump. Since Allyson would not be happy with a beautiful tower in the backyard, but no heat or AC, the choice was rather obvious.

Work is seriously getting the way of my radio hobby also, but I can't retire yet!!!