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 […]
The Activity Group of Belarus (AGB) offers a large number of Amateur Radio operating awards. One of these is the Zone 15 award, obtained by working stations in CQ Zone 15. This zone covers much of Eastern and Southern Europe. In fact, the AGB Zone 15 award certificate even shows a cutout of the map […]
Like many awards of the FT8 Digital Mode Club (FT8DMC), applying for their Europe Stations Award is easy. The harder part is trying to get to the “end” of the program, particularly if you live far away from Europe. To achieve the lowest level of the award an Amateur need make FT8 contacts with 100 […]
May was another good month for me, QSL wise. Working Pacific islands is much easier from California than it was from Texas. This card confirms contacts with E51BQ on Rarotonga (South Cook Islands) using FT8 on 30M and 17M. Indonesia isn’t that rare, but for whatever reason I had never acquired many YB QSL cards. […]