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.