VU7MY

Today brought a few QSL cards today.  I was quite happy to see that my VU7MY card made it in the mail today.  I have a number of cards that I need to get out myself and this was a good kick in the pants to get me going.  I hope that I will be able to get at least the cards that I need to answer done this week.  I also got a card from Slovakia that only took a week to get to me.  I already had Slovakia confirmed and this one was a direct confirmation of a bureau card that I had sent!!!!  I am really far behind on doing a number of ham activities and it has been a month since I have had the time to go in and turn on the radio.  

W4J on the air!!!!

Well, I took the special event call, W4J out for a short spin this evening……

 

I had reserved the use of the call for 1900-2200 local time.....I worked over 100 contacts before I had to stop shortly after 2100 to pick up my son from Hanover County. It was unfortunate because I was in the middle of a pileup on 40 meters that sounded wonderful!!!   I came back and operated again from 2300 until midnight before going to work and added more contacts for a total of 161 contacts for today's operation. From the pileups that the packet cluster generated, I have every confidence that we will be able to reach the goal of 1000 contacts easily for this special event. I was able to work Larry (W3MGL) because I called him and told him where I was going to start operating and because his signal was booming into my house. Robert (N4RTQ) and I tried to link up but we were not able to do so. Once the pileups started, I was too busy to get on two meters to let everyone know where I was operating at the time and not everyone was looking at the cluster.  I spotted myself and was able to let everyone know exactly where I was.

Twenty meters was the money band tonight. Europeans, especially those from the UK, are quite anxious to work the special event. I made easily 60-70% of the contacts on that band. I made a number of contacts on 40 meters until the broadcast stations started severely encroaching on 7.190. I was doing well on 80 meters but had to go
QRT so that I could work 2a - 6a, but the pileups were more manageable there. The pileups on 20 meters seemed to never end and it was a blast!!!!

Thanks to Russell, KU4FP, for putting another spot on the cluster for me while I was operating on 20 meters which sent another wave of eager people my way! Pileups are our friends (especially when we are the one being called!!!).......we must keep remembering that!

Once I get home from work, I am planning to stop in and say hello to everyone over at Larry's (KG4RGN) house for a few minutes after a nap. If all goes well and there is space available, I might even try to work a few more tomorrow night!!!

Take care and good luck in the pileups!!!  I hope to work everyone who wants a W4J contact!

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!!!!!

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 20^th.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

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 4^th until the 25^th.  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!!!

 

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!!

 

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……

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!!!!

CQ WPX

Talk about sweating this one.......My goals were the same as every contest, to beat the previous score and to have fun.

I should have known that this year's contest was going to be be bad when I broke my toe the morning before the contest. It was painful to say the least and I had to take Allyson to go grocery shopping to boot....

I was able to get home and get a nap in the afternoon so I would not have to operate in the contest with just 2 hours sleep. Unfortunately, I had a banquet I had to attend, so I knew that I was going to get a late start to the contest. I was able to get home and get on the air about 2 hours into the contest. I knew I was in trouble when the usual stack of Europeans were not on 40 meters. I went to 20 and worked a number of South American stations and some Americans. 40 meters began to heat up a little and I worked all that could hear my little 100 watts. I picked up a number of stations on 80 meters, so it was not a total waste and even picked up a single station on 160. I decided to try to get some more sleep and see what I could find to work on Saturday morning early.

Saturday morning brought a few good periods, but the Europeans just could not hear me. I would call them and they just kept calling CQ. I did pick up some contacts on 15 and 10 meters from the US, Caribbean, and South America. Things never did improve for Europe. It was like banging my head up against the wall. I was getting rather frustrated because I working everyone I could but they were all the one pointers and I needed lots of 3 pointers and beyond if I was going to get close to last year's score.

Saturday night, I was working some Europeans on 40 and 80 but it seemed like we were going to have another rough time. I put up with it for as long as I could and decided to get up early on Sunday morning as I always do and pray that the band conditions would be favorable to Europe. Well, I misjudged. I probably would have been better off staying up another 2 hours and sleeping in two hours later. Those two hours in the morning were pathetic, to say the least. I had one hour with 2 new contacts and another hour with 6 new ones. Not a very appealing rate. But, I hung in there and worked all I could.

When I got home from church, I turned on the radio and gave the first European on 20 meters I heard a shout. He came right back to me!!! 20 meters was alive!!! Now, I had to make up for some lost time. I put everything I could into working every station I heard on 15 and 20 meters. 10 was not producing anything I had not already worked. 40, 80, and 160 meters had nothing for me. I knew that I had to stop at about 4:45 to get back to church on time for a program there. So, I had a slip of paper with last year's results on it that I put on top of the antenna tuner and focused on making those numbers my goal.

There were tons of US stations on 20 meters doing their part to catch up also and I worked all of them that I could also. I knew that it was going to take everything I could work for me to pass last year's score. I kept praying that the big pointers were going to start falling into my lap. After about 1pm local time, things changed for the better. I wound up working a number of stations and the totals started adding up. When I came home from church, I was at 393 QSOs, 242 multipliers and 227,722 points. I needed to beat 444 QSOs, 291 multipliers and 339,306 points. The race was definitely on!!!! By 3pm I had passed the number of QSOs from last year, but I was lacking in multipliers and QSO points as many that I had worked were 1 or 2 pointers. I was doing some serious clock watching after 3pm. Would I make it or would my score fall short this year???? I was getting the QSOs but the multipliers were just not coming in the way I needed, so my score was not building rapidly. Then my son came out and said that I needed to type his school project before we left for church.......Now I am really sweating bullets because I know it will take at least 20 minutes to type this report.........

I am inching closer to where I want to be at 3:30pm. but it is not looking good and I am already preparing my excuses.......When, all of the sudden, propagation changes and everything I hear I am now working!!! At about 4pm, I finally reached the multipliers I needed to beat last year's score, but the score is still less than last year. Then about 4:10 I reached the goal of beating last years score. Now the only question was how much more could I pad it before I had to leave to type the report. I still had some good propagation and a few minutes, so I went all out in those last moments. At 4:15, I said I would pull the plug.....Then I realized I was still not at the top of the 20 meter band, so I tuned on to hear anyone else that I might have missed. I found only one Canadian hanging up there near the top of the band, so I worked him and called it a wrap......474 QSOs, 298 multipliers for a score of 345,382. I did it!!!! I had succeeded in my goal of beating last year's score. As for the fun part, it was fun, but it was also a little stressful as I am sitting there frustrated that no one was able to hear me outside of the Americas. But, talk about stress relief, when that total inched up over last year's I was tempted to let out a yell that the neighbors could have heard. It was a great source of personal joy to meet that goal. Those who are not contesters probably would not understand what it is like for you to not only have to compete with yourself, but also propagation. Of course, DXers would understand the frustration of trying to work that last one you need but not being able to get it.

So....that is where I am today. I am personally satisfied with being able to achieve this goal and I am thankful that my wife tolerates my little bit of contesting so that I can achieve a little bit of mental cleansing from this rat race that I often find myself in.

Virginia QSO Party

I had only two goals for this year's QSO Party. First, my goal was to beat my own score from last year. My second goal was to have lots of fun!!! I was able to accomplish both goals with no problem.

This year I had 503 QSOs and 123 multipliers for a total score of 68,019. That beat last years score nicely. I was somewhat disappointed that I did not hear tons of Virginia stations on. But, I was pleased to hear a number of mobile stations working hard and I was able to snag a few new counties because of them. I did add a few new counties to my totals for Virginia, but I noticed that a few counties I worked last year were absent. So, I guess it was a trade-off. I always enjoy this contest because I love a good pileup and I was able to generate a couple of them during this one even though the band conditions were not the greatest. Larry (W3MGL) was not able to be in this one because of his wife's health, so it was not the same with him not being there. I have grown used to working him at least once during this contest and so I was a little sad that we broke with tradition, but I am well aware that wives are priorities!! I was not able to work all that I wanted to, but I did get a fair amount of time in (at least enough to top last year's score).

I was encouraged to hear a number of our local club members in the contest and to work them. I even worked one of our local guys (AI4QQ) on 20 meters!!! So, I know of at least 3 of the local club members who did a little in the contest because I worked them. I hope that a few more were sleeper entries.

I was able to have a fairly good run to the west coast on 20 meters and I wound up working a total of 43 states. I even had a guy from Alaska join in the pile-up! I found that 80 meters was the key to Virginia. There was some guys on 40 meters, but the bulk of my Virginia contacts were on 80. Unfortunately, since the band conditons were not the greatest, I was able to work Virginia, but some other contacts got lost in the QRN of the approaching storm and the QRM from a few guys who don't believe in giving anything more that 1.5 kHz spacing between us. It was not very helpful to have to ask people to repeat their exchange until the offending station took a breath long enough for them to come into the clear. I know that is the nature of contesting, but there were a few that were not listening or asking if the frequency was in use prior to calling CQ.

All in all, it was a lot of fun being the hunted and to be able to give out James City County. Larry and I were first and second place in the county last year. Since Larry was not in the contest, it will be interesting to see who gets the certificates.

This contest is always a good warmup for WPX.

ARRL DX results

ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Class: SOAB LP
Summary:
Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
 160:    0     0
  80:   56    40
  40:   73    43
  20:  226    70
  15:   44    27
  10:    0     0
-------------------
Total:  399   180  Total Score = 215,460

In the middle of a contest

Well, it is just after midnight and I have pulled the plug on the VA QSO Party for the night. I had a few nice runs on 20 and 80 meters tonight after getting a late start because I had to watch Emma since Allyson was at a bridal shower. The contest got off to a slow start for me, but then it heated up nicely. I am right now about 30 QSO's short of last year and have more multipliers than last year. I should be able to beat last year's results with no problem. I am going over to Larry's in the morning to help him get a couple of things done before he goes to the hospital to bring Toisie home. I am so thankful that he loaned me his IC-718. It is a good radio and appears to be more sensitive than the TS-440S. I am hearing lots of stations that I probably would not have heard using the Kenwood. But, it was not bad for a 20 year old radio. I still have not made up my mind on if I will repair it or replace it. I am just waiting for the right deal to surface.

I was getting tired at the end of my last 80 meter run and was making some errors. Not in the log, but on the air. So, I decided that it was time to turn in. I still have all afternoon and tomorrow evening after I get home from church. So, I should have a better result to send in.

I will post the results tomorrow after the contest ends..........

Catching up again.....

It has been quite a while since I posted anything here, not because I have not been doing anything, but because I have been quite busy.

Let's see, Allyson had surgery on February 22 and I took a week off to be here for her. I was supposed to be at W4MYA's house the weekend of the 3rd for ARRL International DX contest. I was really pumped. But, Allyson was not doing as well as we thought she would so, I decided to stay close to home. I did not put forth an all out effort, but I did work maybe half the contest. On Sunday, I noticed I started having a sore throat and coughing. Tuesday, I went to the doctor and he decided to keep me out of work until Wednesday (March 7) and treat all of my symptoms. I kept getting worse, but went to work on Wednesday night. I had a mandatory supervisor meeting Thursday morning, but the Fire Chief, and my bosses all made me leave after an hour. I was just not able to shake this stuff. I went back on Sunday to the doctor and he made changes to the medications that I was taking, and I am showing some improvement, but I am still not back to even close to normal. I even had to have the Vice President of the radio club stand in for me tonight at the meeting just because I am still so weak and unable to function as well as I would like.

As if getting some terrible upper respiratory infection was not enough, the old Kenwood TS-440s appeared to give up the ghost during my last few contacts on Sunday. My signals were all over the board, people were saying that I was distorted and I was noticing that it was doing wierd things while I was operating. So, I am pretty bummed by that as I don't have enough money right now to go out and buy a new radio. I am going to borrow Larry's Icom for a couple of contests until I can get Kenwood to give me an estimate on repairing the 440S. Of course, because of my health, nothing got done radiowise around here.

I was able to get about two pounds of cards to the bureau, so the only outstanding DX for the bureau is the contest I just finished. I do have some that I want to send direct and hope to feel well enough in a few days to complete that task.

The tower is still not up as the weather or my health have not been cooperating. But, the weather appears to be breaking and as soon as I get a day off, I want to break ground for the tower. With the tower project complete, then things will hopefully go smoother.

I am keeping all my fingers crossed!!!

Some random thoughts - pre-Valentines Day

Having Friday and Saturday nights off will allow me to spend more time with Allyson and the kids. So, it will be a balancing act. As always, I want to continue to give Allyson her "special time" either before or after the various contests that I do now so that she will not feel like I have abandoned her. And my daughter still has to have her "daddy moment" where we sing songs and pray before she goes to bed. She enjoys singing and so do I, so I want to encourage her continuing in this effort. Of course, I am trying to get her to stop wanting to sing Christmas songs now that it is February, but it is not going well with that effort. So, we have been singing rousing renditions of Jingle Bells for months along with other songs!!! And who says you can't have Christmas all year long???

I am very blessed to have a wife that tolerates the contest weekends, so I don't want to do something stupid to cause Allyson to become resentful or upset by my contesting. To give you an example of how much she spoils me in this respect, I was operating in one of the contests (I think it was Sweepstakes) and she knew that I was giving it a maximum effort, so she even brought a plate of finger food out to the shack. She is truly a blessing to me and I am so appreciative of her. She even offered to go pick up the building permit this week while I was sleeping so I would not have to do it, but I told her that Larry wanted to accompany me on that adventure on Thursday, so she said OK. I have to admit that I don't tell her nearly enough how much I appreciate her and everything that she does for me and our family. I try to tell her every day, but I truly feel that that is not enough. For a disabled person, she does very well. I truly married up. I got the better deal by far. There is not too much of a market for overweight, balding geeks, but there sure is one for beautiful, kind hearted and loving women such as Allyson.

I just hope that she continues to be as tolerant when all of the aluminum starts going up in the sky!!!!! I know that she will be, but she has never really seen an amateur tower and all of the trappings up close and personal. She is learning this stuff as we go along and she actually is picking up things well. She has no desire to become a ham, but she does enjoy hearing about the new countries and contests that I work. There is a good side to that. Since she has no desire to be a ham, I don't have to worry about sharing my station. That would really be a pain. I wouldn't mind her having a technician license so we could work 2 meters with each other but I don't know if she would go with it.

So, my life is very good on the home front. Of course, I wish that my oldest son, Justin, would get his license so that he could pursue possible ham scholarships, but I don't see that coming. John shows an interest, but I just can't talk him into committing to studying for the exam. And, of course, Emma is too young, but she is interested when she can talk with Santa!!!

The BUMS DXpedition

I am kinda "bummed" out that I did not get a chance to work this one. I just completed changing over to a new work schedule that caused me to work 10 days straight and included a change in my sleeping pattern. Now that I am working the new schedule of 10pm until 6am Sunday through Thursday, I hope to be in a better position for working some new countries and getting my DX totals up, along with being able to work in some contests that I have never had the opportunity to participate in.

I was hoping to not only make contact with them, but to even attempt to use my Buddipole to do so, but it was just not to be. Plus, I was not really looking forward to freezing my butt off playing radio. It has been really cold her for about the past week and so that has also tended to limit my initiative to work on the radio. Maybe one day I will have the shack better heated, but for now, it can get very frigid out there!!!

So, I have missed one DXpedition that I really wanted to make contact with. Fortunately, I have Montserrat in the log for DXCC, but it is still a loss for me.

Interesting item

I was reading Jeff's (KE9V) blog, Long Delayed Echos and he just put up a post about the HPS-1a Gamma HybridCommunications Power Supply. It sounds pretty intriguing and might make a great addition to my hopefully portable operations in the future. I will have to save up my money and see if I can afford one in the future. Of course, I have to weigh it against my needs. I have not done that much portable operation from the road. When I am travelling, it is usually with the family or for a work activity that does not often lend itself talking on the radio much. Allyson and the family did tolerate me doing some operation from Tennessee last year when we were visiting with my mother. I used Larry's portable setup for that and it worked great. Now that I have the Buddipole system, that eliminates the needs for wire antennas with the exception of the 80 meter band and I can even get a set of coils for that now. So, I might eliminate the wire antenna altogether. It is interesting item and something that I really need to consider in the future. Jeff appears to like it and I have found him to be a reliable source of information, even though he is more of a CW person than I am. I do hope that one day, he and I will get a chance to have a QSO, especially since I am working on getting my CW skills back up to a usable level again after the long period of their lack of use.

Larry a blogger???

Larry (W3MGL) has set up a new blog called Geezer Notes. He has entered the cyber world and I am looking forward to seeing his thoughts over the coming months. He and I agree on a lot of things, except politics, religion and some parts of our worldview, but for the most part, you could not tell that he is not my father. He gets me in trouble from time to time and I keep him in hot water with his wife just as much!! But, it will be good to learn from his 60+ years as a ham and his over 80+ years of life.

So, good luck on your blog, Larry. I will be sure to keep up with your postings.

Things are moving along

Well, things are falling into place. Thursday, Larry and I went and picked up the tower building permit. I was quite pleased that the permit only cost $50 since I am not a wealthy man. Of course, my priorities are my family and a minimal cost always helps when making changes or repairs to the station. Now, it is just a matter of getting a hole dug and filled with concrete. As we are expecting some frigid temperatures for about a week, I am going to see how things shake out.

Today, while I was taking a nap (because I had not slept since before I went to work last night) the replacement boom piece came from Cushcraft. I also ordered the parts to replace the boots on the traps and the end caps for the elements and booms. So, when the weather breaks, there is another project. The nice thing is that when the tower and tri-bander go up, the antenna will be just like new.

So, this means that things are moving in the direction we want them to take. Of course, this is not a month where there are the major contests that I participate in, so this will give me an opportunity to do some work on the station. I will be off for a few days later this month, so it could be that I might be able to get the majority of this work done then. We will just have to see how things go. It would be wonderful to start the month of March with a drastically new station!