The conditions for the January VHF Contest were not particularly good. Six meters never really opened up anywhere. So a major component of my previous scores went missing. I only ended up making 28 QSOs and 9 grids on 50MHz, 144 MHz and 440 MHz. Despite this, I did work a brand new grid on […]
One of my “resolutions” for 2022 was to get back into CW operating. Though I had never forgotten Morse Code it had been decades since I’d last made any CW contacts of note. When I was first getting started in Ham Radio there was still a Morse Code requirement to get licensed. I incorrectly predicted […]
We’ll see what 2022 has in store for us. However, the year got off to a good start in the QSL department for me with a nice haul of cards. Here are just a few, many of them are All Time New Ones (ATNO). Let’s hope the trend continues through the rest of the year. […]
Are you still looking for a New Year’s resolution for 2022? Learning something new is always a popular choice. The recently launched ARRL Learning Center provides an easy way to search for new topics to learn about and to keep track of what you’ve mastered as you go along. Yes, YouTube has an enormous number […]
Wrapping up 2021 with a number of QSL cards that have been received in the last few weeks. There are a couple of all time new ones (ATNO) to show for my efforts. I had worked Colombia many times in the past but I did not have much in the way of physical QSL cards […]
I’ve been making a ton of QSOs with my Yaesu FT-991A from my home station, mostly on FT8. I have an end fed half wave antenna and use an antenna tuner to get as good a match as possible. I’ve had an LDG AT-200Pro external automatic antenna tuner (LDG now sells the AT-200ProII) for years. […]
The last few months had been rather quiet, QSL Card-wise. Things started to pick up as of late. I worked HP1AVS in Panama on 17M using FT8. A flag and a map on a QSL card is always a plus with me. Two of my favorite things. The Mexican Club Radioaficionados Hidrocalidos (XE2CRH) celebrated their […]
The Pacific Ocean is really large. In an effort to promote Amateur Radio activity in “Oceania” the New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters (NZART) created the Worked All Pacific Award (WAP). One can find information for this award, and other NZART awards, on a PDF form available online. In a nutshell, refer to the ARRL […]
The Hawaiian Islands, like Alaska, remains a part of, but apart from, the majority of the United States. In Sweepstakes Hawaii is considered a domestic entity. In the ARRL DX Contest it’s considered a DX entity. The islands certainly maintain an allure that draws many tourists to their shores to this day. The Worked Hawaiian […]
I love maps. The FT8 Digital Modes Club‘s NZTD Award is issued for Amateur Radio operators who make contact with 6 or more New Zealand territories and dependencies. The award includes a nice map showing New Zealand and the surrounding dependencies whose contacts can be used for award credits. So that earns some extra points […]