2008 Sweepstakes

Well, another one in the books. It does look as though I will not be taking home first place in the section this year, unless something changes. One of my fellow PVRCers, Ed, will take the crown this year for Virginia. That makes it a much easier fact to accept knowing that at least PVRC holds the title.

From all indications, it appears that we had a very good showing from PVRC for this contest. I would love to see us taking the gavel back this year!!!

It's all over now but the waiting.......

Go PVRC!!!

I am still alive!!

For those who may be wondering, I have not dropped out of contesting. I am finishing up my degree and I have only 3 semesters left.  I am doing all I can to graduate with honors, and so far it seems to be working OK.  I am rewarding myself for doing all of my homework by contesting on the weekend.  I have missed all of October’s contests with the exception of CQ WW DX (SSB).  I did not do as well in the contest this year as I did last, but it was fairly close.  The conditions were terrible and I was happy to just score as high as I did this time.  It was a real slugfest, but fortunately the last day was much better conditions.  I will send more about this later.  This is just a reminder to everyone that I have not become a Silent Key…..

 

IARU HF last weekend

I didn't do as well as last year, but I got close.....As usual, my goal is just to beat last year's score. Toward the end of the contest, it looked like I had a pretty good chance to meet my goal, but it was just not to be. I was less than 20 Qs short, but the multipliers are what killed me, along with a string of 1 pointers instead of the big money Qs.

I didn't think I would ever hear anything more than zones 7 and 8 for the first half of the contest. I was working anyone I could, but the one pointers kept my score from going anywhere fast. I was wondering if I had fallen into a black hole and my signal could not get out. Conditions finally began to change and started racking up a few new multipliers and some more QSO points. Europe was late coming in and didn’t last long on 20. There for a while, I thought I might make more contacts on 40 than 20, but 20 remained the band for Qs, just not points.

The odds were against me from the start. Just a week before the contest, the G5RV came down in a storm. With no antenna, I was not going to make many contacts. Fortunately, I was able to get it back up somewhat close to what I had before on Friday morning, so at least someone would hear me. It is not up to where I want it, but at least I was going to get out.

I knew I was in trouble when I had to work overtime the night before the start of the contest. I got home only two hours before the start of the contest. Work this week was a bear and I had worked lots of overtime, so I had no time for testing prior to the start of the contest. I only got the contest set up on my laptop during a break at work on Friday night. The N3FJP IARU logging program installed easily on the laptop. The N3FJP programs are great to use, but unfortunately they don’t support all of the contests that I participate in, so I am going to have to add another arrow to the quiver. I was considering going with N1MM to get used to it, but it would not work right with Vista. (I don’t like Vista very much and this just gave me another reason to like it less) I chose to go with N1MM as an alternate logging program so that I will be more used to it when I finally get a change to play in the big show at W4MYA’s. So, unfortunately, software testing would have to occur another time. I did run across a couple of instances where some RF got into the external keyboard for the laptop when I was operating on 10. But other than that, everything seemed to work fine.....except propagation.

Due to the lack of sleep and bad band conditions, I never could get any good runs going. I did have a couple of periods where I was able to get a good rate (for me) going, but they didn't last long. S&P did not do any better for me. The Europeans just weren't making it to me on 20 the way I would have liked. I did find myself drifting off a couple of times before recovering and hitting another dose of caffeine. I was disappointed by the lack of Europeans on 20 and above. Of course, it was not their fault!!! I kept looking up on 20 throughout the night hoping for an opening to somewhere besides South America (I had worked all the South Americans I could hear) and snagged a couple of Australians. I had to get up and take a shower about 4am (0800 Z) to get me back into the game, but from what I heard, I didn’t miss anything.

I have had a good run for a couple of years being first place in the class in the section (thanks to N2QT doing so well last year!). It looks as though Mark did it again this year in a big way! All in all, it was fun. I had not had a chance to do any contesting for a while (since April) so it was good to stretch my legs. Unfortunately, I would have liked for it to be a better effort. But with all of the factors working against me, I am pleased with the result. Mark (N2QT) sent me a nice note the other day complimenting me on the job that I did with just a G5RV. I had never really thought that much about it. I guess I am like the little ankle biting dogs. I don’t have as much bite as I think I do, but I do want to run with the big dogs!!!

With next semester coming up, I have scheduled my classes around contest season……Am I a fanatic or what??? I have a very hard class coming up the first part of the semester. I will finish up 2 weeks before CQ WW DX. Then, the next class may or may not be too bad from what I am seeing. I am taking a gamble, but I am going to reward myself with a contest or two by getting all homework done before Friday night!!!

Getting caught up.....QSLs

Since I started classes in January, I have received 3 envelopes from the incoming bureaus. Needless to say, between those and the envelopes I have gotten since the Virginia QSO Party, I had quite a stack to deal with. Add to that, my computer has been dragging.

This week, in my first week of no classes in some time, I decided to catch up on some radio things, such as QSLing. I split my computerized logs into years so that they would process faster. It is definitely not a problem with the N3FJP logging program, but my computer. Once I got the log split, then it was on to handling cards. I got all of the incoming cards done and am now looking at printing up cards to reply to those.

I have a bunch of DX cards that I need to print up and send to the bureau, but I will get to those after the IARU World Championship this coming weekend as I plan to add a few more DX contacts!!!

What happened to me????

Well, the answer is......life. I went back to school to finish my degree that had been put on hold since my divorce. My wife, Allyson, is very supportive of this endeavor and I am very blessed to have her!!! She has been running interference for me and doing a very good job of compensating for my shortcomings around the house.

So, let's get caught up.......

First....The tower is still in my back yard, on the ground. I have a few weeks before the next semester, so I am putting forth a concerted effort to get the base poured during this time. It is my goal to get it finished prior to CQ WW DX, if at all possible.

Contesting, has been occurring, but not as often due to my class demands. I did get first place in Virginia for single operator, phone only, low power in the Virginia QSO Party. I did get into the Florida QSO Party and I think that I broke the phone only record for Virginia. I also participated in the Helvetia Contest and the Nebraska QSO party (my first time).

I am still working on improving my operating position and hopefully will be in great shape next year in this area. I want to build a good size desk to hold the equipment and to organize things better.

We are organizing a local chapter of the PVRC in the Williamsburg area and will hopefully have our first meeting soon. I am looking forward to getting more people involved in this part of the hobby.

I was re-elected as president of the Williamsburg Area Amateur Radio Club and have a number of goals for the club this year, including gaining members and regaining those who have fallen away.

Field Day for the Williamsburg club this year was a lot of fun. I did not operate as much as last year. I had a lot of offers, but chose to "share" the fun. I did not want to appear to be a radio hog. Of course, it was tempting to get on there and run for 24 hours, but that would not be fair to everyone else. But, the hours I did operate were fun and I am looking forward to kicking the CW station's butt next year. We had more Q's but they beat us on score....Next year, we will take away their bragging rights once and for all (especially, if we can train up some good phone operators in the next year).

Next semester, I must admit, I do have one tough class that will take a lot of time, but being the hard core contester that I am, I have scheduled that class to finish up prior to the start of the "major" contests in October. I am hoping that after that class, things should be easier (contest wise!!).

Those are the major high points over the last few months.....More to come later.

Getting caught up

Well, I just realized I have fallen behind again.  Work keeps getting in the way of my blogging!!!! 

 

OK, here is the deal.  The 10 meter contest stunk!!!!   I scored less than last year (mostly due to my being out of the chair so much).  But, the band was also terrible.   There were good points, though.  Larry and I got to spend some good father/son time together.  I did get to see my daughter in her Christmas presentation.  I did get to see my favorite cousin……

 

So, hopefully the bands will be better next year!!!!

 

I still have not submitted my logs to either the ARRL or PVRC.  I need to get off the stick and do that soon.

 

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!!

The conspiracy continues.....

Yesterday things were going fairly well at Larry's during the 10 meter contest when my wife called me to say that an FBI agent would be at my house around noon and I needed to be there. Well, I left Larry's and went home that morning about 11:30. Actually, 2 FBI agents arrived and after we went out to a late lunch/early dinner, they went back to Washington DC. I was not taken into custody, and matter of fact, enjoyed my time with the agents immensely!!! In all seriousness, one agent was my favorite cousin and so it was worth every minute being away from the radio. My score suffered greatly for being away for 6 hours from the radio during the most active time on the band, but there is life beyond contesting!!!! Not much, but there is some.......

So, my only hope is that I will be able to make up lost ground on Sunday!

Where is everyone???

I am at Larry's and 10 meters has been really dead. I keep coming in every few hours and listening, but had not heard anything until about 30 minutes ago when I worked Bob (W4MYA) and Duke (W1ZA). This one sure is looking rough. I am hoping that with the coming of daylight, things will get better. When I came over at midnight, I heard a couple of stations right at the noise level. The Jupiter could not pull them out. But, I am keeping my fingers crossed!

There's a big hole in my back yard!!

 

While I was out with Larry (W3MGL) today, I ran across a friend of mine (Robert) from church that has a construction business.  I told Robert that I needed to get with him about a price to finish the tower foundation hole.  He said he was working up in my neighborhood and would come over to check it out later during the day.  I went home and got a phone call from Robert saying that the crew was going to stop work at about 4:30 and he would be over after that with a mini excavator.  Well, 4:30 came and so did Robert.  He did not bring the mini, but the next size up.  He was finished in 20 minutes.  Of course, I have a little bit more hole than I need, but I will do some backfilling and may need to build a form.  But I will wait to see and go from there.  Robert said that he would not charge me anything for digging the hole.  That is a good friend!!!  My ex-wife used to call my business friends from church the “Baptist mafia” because we would often do things for each other and accept no payment or very little payment.  I am grateful that we have a number of people in church who have the same philosophy.  When Allyson was sick, they were coming over taking care of meals and the house for us until we got her home from the hospital.  Those 8 weeks she was in the hospital were tough, but it made things much easier because of my church family.  So, now it is time to look about some concrete!!!!  Who knows, I could even be finished before the beginning of the year.  I doubt it, and going back to school in January will put a damper on some radio activities, but I am going to do all I can.

It's a conspiracy.....

 

This weekend is the ARRL 10 meter contest.  It has been a favorite for me since 1994 when I was a Technician class with only 10 meter phone privileges.  I am planning to work the contest from Larry’s (W3MGL) station and take advantage of his quad.  I need to get him back into the shack, so I was hoping to at least have him come in and take a peek at me from time to time.  I can’t remember the last time he had his Jupiter on the air.  

 

So far, my Sunday School class party has taken a few hours from me during the start of the contest.  That will keep me off the air until at least 10 or 11 local time.  Now, I have found out that Emma (my fantastic 4 year old) is scheduled to be singing on Sunday night at our church service, so that will take the end of the contest out.  So, I must concentrate on the middle!!!  My only goal is to score more than last year.  This should not be a problem, as Larry even beat me last year!!

 

So, I am hoping that this year’s contest will give me a better score, get Larry back on the air and be fun for all.

 

See you in the contest!!!!

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!!!

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!