I have two HF radios. One is an older Kenwood TS-680S and the other a newer Yaesu FT-991A. I could easily just stick with the FT-991A full time if it weren’t for one pesky issue. Working 60M FT8 is a royal pain. When giving Hams access to the 60M band the FCC chose to channelize […]
I rely on WSJT-X’s color coding to tell me whether a station calling CQ on FT8 is one I’ve worked or not. Recently, I’d focused a bit more on 60M prefixes for a WPX award endorsement. I was a bit surprised how few of the calling stations appeared to be new to me on this […]
April was very good to me. I got my first QSL Bureau shipment in a very long time. I expect more frequent deliveries in the future as I continue to operate more and catch up on my QSLing. The world of QSLs have changed a lot in the last decade or so. I was beginning […]
March 2021 has been good to me, QSL-wise. I’ve had some trouble getting a Belarus QSL card for a while. So, I was happy when Sergey (EU1A) came through with this 40M SSB confirmation. The V31MA card here confirmed three FT8 contacts on three different bands. The more interesting for me is the 60M contact. […]
I recall a fellow Ham at the University of Texas Amateur Radio Club (N5XU, then W5EHM) back in the 1980’s who declined to make a contact at the club station using his own callsign with some semi-rare DX station. His stated reason was that he wanted to make that contact with his home station instead […]
The American Radio Relay League‘s DX Century Club Award (DXCC) remains one of the most prestigious certificates in Amateur Radio. Many Hams who do not consider themselves award chasers nevertheless chase that particular piece of paper. Obtaining DXCC can be a bit pricy though. Are there more economical choices? The FT8 Digital Mode Club (FT8DMC) […]
When a station is calling “CQ DX” on the air, what do they mean? The obvious and easy answer is that they are looking for stations far away (at a “distance”) and outside of their country. So, if I hear K5PI in Texas calling CQ, which I am literally doing right now as I type […]
Not too long ago I wrote about the International Amateur Radio Union‘s IARU Region 3 Award. The object of the award is to work as many nations as possible in IARU Region 3. This region roughly encompasses Asia and Oceania. Note the emphasis on nations and not “countries”, a loose term often attributed to DXCC […]
The last few weeks have been very good to me from a QSL standpoint. After holding off on QSLing earlier in the year due to COVID-19 related interruptions to international mail I dipped my toes back in the water and sent out a bunch of requests. Here are a few of the recent successes. The […]
One of my earliest awards was the All Japan Districts award, sponsored by the Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL). Only requiring 10 contacts, it was relatively easy to achieve. It didn’t hurt that it seemed there were even more Japanese stations on HF in the 1990’s when I earned it. Compared to some stateside awards […]