Fri Dec 31 7:35PM - This is the last diary entry. I've decided to close it out with a picture, a description of the picture, and some remembrances of the diary history.
I don't think I ever talked about this before in the diary, and this final diary entry will be a good place to do it. I don't know the precise origin of the custom of putting coins out on a window sill overnight between December 31 and January 1. I think it was my late cousin Virginia who told me about it if memory serves. Anyway, I always do it every year. Supposedly it ensures that prosperity will be with you during the coming year. I'm maybe one of the most non-superstitious persons in the world, but hey, it has worked for me every year so who am I to dispute it? The picture shows the three quarters that I use each year on the window sill which needs some sanding and painting. The wire is the lead in from the ten meters dipole on the porch roof. Of course the shingles are on the porch roof. If the coins are still there and the spirit of anti-prosperity hasn't taken them, I'll bring them inside in the morning if I remember.
Sort of like the streak, when I started the diary I had no idea it would last this long. Let's see, my first diary entry which was actually not an organized diary entry, but just some comments on something or other which I will check in a moment. It wasn't an every day feature by any means and didn't become one for some time after the first comments.
The first comments were about updates to the web site and were posted on April 23, 2006 so the diary lasted about 15 years and 8 months until today. The next comments were on May 11, 2006 again about site updates. On May 15, 2006 the actual diary was born with this posting:
"Monday, May 15, 2006 - On other sites you'll hear them called blogs. Well I don't like that term. It sounds something like a contraction or nickname for the Balrog in "The Lord of the Rings." Those of you who have read this wonderful trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien know that the Balrog is the embodiment of pure evil. Since LOTR is perhaps my favorite book of all time, I'll avoid any reference (even though it is imagined) to Balrogs or blogs and call my blog simply my Diary. Incidentally I will probably never watch the LOTR movies as I see no way they could ever come up to the high standards of the book.
Since this is the first entry in my diary, I'd like to tell you what I have in mind for it. First of all it is a place to talk about current news of my site and the NAQCC. Therefore I'm leaving the news items below on this page for a while. Speaking of retaining items, I plan to keep only the latest 30 days or so of items on this page. So if you should somehow find this interesting, keep that in mind when you check in here. If you don't check in regularly you'll miss some classic items. Whoa, back to reality, John. Probably nothing ever posted here will come close to being 'classic' in any respect, but a few hams here and there may find something of interest in my comments.
Here you'll also find random thoughts mostly about CW and QRP, but I may also stray afield and even comment on some non-ham radio matters.
This is an experiment for now, and I'd like to know how it is received by you, my visitors. When I first started this web site many moons ago, I had some daily propagation comments as I'm sure those of you who have been regular visitors (thanks) for a long time now will remember. When I dropped those, I received a lot of email saying how they were missed. So perhaps you (for some reason) enjoy my comments on things. Email me and let me know how you feel about this Diary idea.
Here's an example of the kind of things you'll be reading here. Tonight my QSO to continue my streak turned into an enjoyable rag chew with a 91 year old ham. Along with much other interesting info we exchanged, he mentioned how glad he was to have ham radio and especially CW. He told me he is losing his hearing and has trouble copying SSB transmissions, but he can still copy CW perfectly. That immediately struck me and made me wonder how those hams today who for whatever reason dislike CW will do if their hearing goes as they get older. Something to think about. I'm even more glad now that I'm a KNOW CODE ham. -30-"
Oh, I have watched the LOTR movies and they do come up to the standards of the book, in my opinion.
Other changes in the above story are that of course, I have archived past diary entries every once in a while to keep this page small but still retain the old info. I would say I have strayed quite far afield in diary content. Note that the -30- to close entries started with the very first diary entry. The origin is a little vague, but in the newspaper business, -30- means end of copy. It's also related to the American Morse signal 30 which was sent as ...-. - or in the International Code SK. That's a bit hard to explain without hearing the actual code, but I think you should get the picture.
I'm getting very long winded in this final diary entry so I'll close with thanks to all of you for being steady or part time readers over the years and all your interaction with the diary content over the years.
Oh maybe you got the wrong impression from "last diary entry". I meant for 2021 because like the streak, I intend to continue the diary until something way out of the ordinary causes me to end it. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022 - MAY IT BE YOUR BEST AND HAPPIEST YEAR EVER. I am thinking of texting that to Jasmine right at midnight if it all works out. -30-
Thu Dec 30 8:36PM - I guess Thursdays are my good days. Last Thursday was great, and several good things happened today. I'm not going to go into them in detail. Let's just say that days when you get to spend a little time with friends are good ones. The more time, the better.
I also did some catching up on my web site updates getting ready for the new year. I eliminated some things I thought weren't really useful any longer. I also updated my guestbook archives. I still have a lot of things to check to see if they need any updating. If you ever see anything that looks hopelessly out of date, don't be afraid to let me know. It won't hurt my feelings any. I know I'm getting old plus I have a lot of other things that use up my grey matter these days and hamper my multi-tasking abilities.
I got a quick streak QSO tonight which I appreciated since I wanted to go to Sprankle's to see a couple of my young friends there. It was W3ZT in NY on 80M whom I worked a little earlier this month also.
I'm getting ready for a couple of busy days. Not only do I have all the usual EOM/FOM chores, but a collection of EOY/FOY ones also. Whew! -30-
Wed Dec 29 7:10PM - Although I was a couple minutes late getting to the shack, I got a very quick QSO. As soon as I turned on the rig, it was set right where W2T was calling CQ. I called but lost out to W1PID, then I was the next station he worked. Let's see what the special event was for. The Battle of Trenton.
Otherwise again not much news today. I guess everyone is just waiting for 2021 to run its course and hoping for a better year in 2022. Wouldn't that be great? Well, there is one thing, the weather was nice again and I got to sit in the park for a thinking session. It was around 50 and cloudy with no rain.
I heard from NAQCC and Skyview who are going to publish my streak news release. Still waiting from a couple others and a few I have yet to send the report to. -30-
Tue Dec 28 7:36PM - Ditto yesterday for the most part. I did get in an outside walk though. I went to Sprankle's to pick up a couple items and see if any of my young friends were there. They weren't. Really nothing much to talk about so I think I'll post a news release I wrote about the 10,000 days of the streak. I'm going to send it to organizations like FISTS, NAQCC, Our WPA SCM, and a few others like that to see if they will publish it and get a little more publicity for CW and QRP.
Here it is:
"August 5, 1994 through December 20, 2021 is a span of 10,000 days. On each and every one of those 10,000 days, John K3WWP made at least one QSO using CW, QRP power of 5 watts or less, and simple wire antennas including an end-fed random wire, most of which is in the attic and used on 160 through 30 meters, a 20 meters flat top inverted vee in the attic, a 15 meters vertical dipole on the side of the house also used for 17 and 12 meters, a 10 meters slanted dipole on the front porch roof, and a 6 meters rotatable dipole in the attic.
The rigs included a homebrew transmitter, a Kenwood TS-570, a Kenwood TS-480, an Elecraft K2, KX1, and KX3. All set at a power level of 5 watts or less output and only used on CW.
Here are some stats about the streak, all of which involved only the equipment listed above. John made a total of 72,190 QSOs during the 10,000 days. Involved were 20,098 different stations. Whether you worked John on one day or 100 days, you made it possible to have such a 10,000 day streak and John thanks you.
At least 2,099 QSOs were 1,000 or more miles per watt. 24,098 QSOs were DX (non W/VE) from 224 countries. All 50 states were each worked many times over, from 3,819 in Pennsylvania to 63 in Wyoming. Most worked DX country was Germany with 1,934 QSOs. Contacts by continent ranged from 52,639 in North America to 325 in Oceania plus 18 in Antarctica. 36 of the 40 CQ Zones were worked with 4 in Southeast Asia (22, 24, 26, 28) not worked. QSOs by band ranged from 19,279 on 40 and 15,459 on 20 down to just 28 on 60 and 39 on 6.
On 7,256 of the 10,000 days, the first QSO of the day came in the 0000Z hour. The latest time to log the daily first QSO was 2311Z on February 14, 1995 when John worked EA8/DJ1OT on 30 meters. 13 other days it took until the 2200Z hour to get the QSO. Most all of those late QSOs came in the early days of the streak when it was not all that well established.
John also had a DX streak within the 10,000 days. On 1,980 days from March 1, 2013 through August 1, 2018, John worked at least one DX station. Of course with the same equipment listed above. The DX station was also the QSO for the main streak that day or in addition to another main streak QSO.
The greatest satisfaction John got from the streak was the input from other hams who said the streak got them interested in operating CW and/or QRP and finding it gave them a lot of pleasure also, as it did to John. In that way it helped to preserve the wonderful mode of CW or Morse Code. Oh and John says it is not over by any means and it will continue on to 11,000, 12,000..... or when something beyond his control ends it. You can see much more info about the streak and other aspects of CW and QRP on John's web site at k3wwp.com."
Tom WY3H taught me that such articles should be written in third person. Being as he was a newspaper reporter, I believed him and did it that way.
The streak QSO tonight for day 10,009 was with KG5GID on 30 meters. Yes, 30 meters. I'd have to look back a long way in my log to see when the last streak QSO took place on 30. -30-
Mon Dec 27 7:48PM - Yet another quiet day, but a very rainy one this time. I couldn't even go out for a walk. Had to do all the walking inside, but I reached all my Apple Watch fitness goals anyway including 8.7 miles, 20,781 steps, 771 cal, 143 exersize mins, 10 hours with at least 1 min standing each hour. That's something like 219 straight days (yet another streak) of reaching the fitness goals.
A couple of QSOs tonight. First AA0YY in MO answered my CQ. He was running 400W on 80M. Then I got a tail end call from Chris N3MLB and he was running all of one watt. I'm surprised I heard him at all with my noise, but I managed to copy about half of what he was sending. -30-
Sun Dec 26 7:20PM - A quiet Boxing Day today. I watched "Miracle on 34th Street" this afternoon. I sat in the park for about a half hour thinking and playing word games on my iPhone. I went to Walmart with Bruce's brother Jeff to get some dog food for Roscoe. I did a bit of shopping later at Sprankle's. I guess it was not all that quiet after reading that list. HI.
Now I'm doing my laundry, so forget the opening sentence of this entry. Oh, there's more also. Mike gave me a set of wireless headphones for Christmas, and I was trying them out today connected wirelessly to the music on my iPhone. Then this evening I got my streak QSO from old friend John K4BAI in the SST Sprint. -30-
Sat Dec 25 9:16PM - Hope you all had a great Christmas. Mine was quiet. Mike and I did our usual Christmas lights tour this evening. It seems decorations were down this year from the past 3 or 4 years.
It took a little while to get my QSO after we got home, but I finally worked WB2FQL on 80M. -30-
Fri Dec 24 9:14AM - Now as I do each year:
MERRY CHRISTMAS
For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
-30-
Thu Dec 23 8:23PM - Hello gang. Where does the time go, and why does it accelerate when a person gets older? I'm sure that it does. It was just yesterday it seems that it was Thanksgiving, then December started, day 10,000 came along, and now it's almost Christmas. Whew! Actually I sort of celebrated Christmas today with my friend Jasmine. Kind of nice to do it without all the crowds of people. Just like a one on one CW QSO. HI
Anyway a Merry Christmas to all of my friends out there in Internet and ham radio land. I'll say that now because tomorrow's entry will be my standard Christmas Eve diary entry if I remember. HI
I've received a couple QSL cards from hams I worked on day 10,000, K3JZD K3SWZ and NA0F, and responded with kind of a cobbled together somewhat special QSL card. If you worked me that day and would like a card, just let me know by sending me your card, and I'll get one back to you. It's not fancy but it does point out the significance of the day. Thanks.
The video seems to work OK now for several different folks and several tries. See the link in the entry below. -30-
Wed Dec 22 9:05AM - I've been having problems with the video of my first QSO on day 10,000 of the streak. It works a while, then quits. I am trying one last thing here, then probably will give up for today. Try this link which should take you to a page of video thumbnails. Click on the one labelled Video3.mov and you should see the video playing. Email me and let me know. Thanks to KW6G, KC2EGL and N1EAV for earlier help. More info added to the diary later today.
Just got a text message from Mike who said, "I took the photo of you at your desk just after you sat down and just before I took the video." So that clears up exactly when the photo below was taken. It also makes it clear that the QSO with VE3FP came exactly at 0000Z As I sat down right at 0000Z.
I have now updated the streak story in the QRP section of the web site to 10,000 days. Just one addition I want to make and that is a list of the 24 hours of a day and the number of first daily QSOs of the 10,000 days that came in that hour. That is now done. -30-
Tue Dec 21 1:34PM - Today a picture and video. See the above entry for a link to the video on my OneDrive site. It was made by Mike KC2EGL and shows me making my first QSO on day # 10,000 with VE3FP on 40 meters in the SST Sprint.
For those who prefer still photos, here's one. I'm not sure just when Mike took this picture. I'm guessing it was taken as I'm looking for that first QSO.
Now to close this entry a list of all (I hope) those who sent along guestbook or email comments on day 10,000. I got a lot of emails on other topics also and may have accidentally deleted a pertinent email or two. Here's the list. Thanks to all of you. I tried to answer all personally, but I may have missed someone.
KW6G N5XE AJ5P VA7UNX W5GQ K5MO N4VBV WB4JJJ ON6KE K3JZD NX8Y WA2JSG N0MRK. Plus many of those I worked on the 20th added their congratualtions. Thanks. -30-
Mon Dec 20 8:03PM - I wrote part of this earlier in the day. Here's that part: I only got 2 QSOs in an hour on 20 meters, and then a DX pileup started near 14026 so I gave up on 20 meters after one hour. Sorry. Next up is 40 meters at 2100-2300Z on 7026.6. Hope to work you there. More in this entry later today so check every once in a while. Perhaps I'll try another 20 meters effort later today.
OK now I pick up from there. I didn't get around to another 20 meters session, but I did put in virtually a full 2 hour effort from 2100-2300Z on 40 meters. It wasn't as fruitful as the 80 meters session last night, but did provide 10 more QSOs to make the three band total 28 QSOs from 27 different hams. The only ham I worked on two bands was Jock N1JI on 80 and 40. Let me add to and include the list I posted last night. PA NH IL NJ WI MN CT VA NY NC OK LA OH MI ON VT IN FL. 16 states and 1 VE province. Not bad for 5 hours using a little setup like mine. Just another indication that QRP CW and simple wire antennas work, and work well.
Now I've got a lot more work planned in conjunction with the 10,000 days. I want to completely finish updating my stats in the QRP Main Streak story page in the QRP section of the web site. Basically I just have to incorporate the QSOs for December 20 into the stats already there up through December 19. That shouldn't take too long, but it will take a little effort. I also want to have you tell me what you would like to commemorate your 10,000 day QSO with me, if anything at all. Either a special QSL card or maybe a small certificate. It's up to you to let me know if you want something or not, and I'll take care of it.
Thanks go out to all of you, whether you're someone who worked me on any day from day 1 through day 10,000. Without you we wouldn't be talking about 10,000 days at all. Special thanks to those 27 of you who worked me on December 20. Not to forget VE3FP who was actually the first QSO on day 10,000 when I worked him in the SST Sprint. I'm sure he wasn't even aware of the streak. HI Thanks to all those who emailed me with their congratulations. I replied to all of them and will list them here in the diary in a day or few.
A couple of interesting events of day 10,000. I worked W2XS John whom I had worked a few days earlier when we talked about 10,000. He said he definitely wanted to work me to make it 10,000. Well, he wasn't the first, but we did work. He was number 13 and immediately asked if he made it. I said to him he was one of 13 hams I worked so far today.
And then there was another QSO that was not quite long enough for a 1000 MPW QSO, but had some human interest anyway. Mike and I were talking and somehow the conversation went to CO8LY whom we both have worked many times and who was my QSO of the day many times in the streak when the bands were kind of iffy, but he'd always be there on the N-S path between us. We said it would be a great honor to have him in the log for 10,000. We agreed the odds of that happening were slim and none and slim left town as a friend of mine from WPIT used to say all the time. I then said I think it would be nice to have one other ham in the log, KC2EGL. That we could do. I said my old KX-1 was right there over on a cabinet and the dummy load was in a shoebox right above it. Mike hooked it up as I kept working stations, and when he was ready, he answered my CQ and he was in the log. Less than 1 Foot per Watt, I'd estimate.
All in all, it was a fun day and mixed in with an after school visit with Jasmine made it even better.
I think I'll cut it off for this entry, but more to come in the next few entries, I hope.
Oh, almost forgot. Day # 10,001 got the next 10,000 started tonight with a nice chat with WA7WKY, Barry in Ohio on 80 meters. -30-
Sun Dec 19 9:16PM - Well, there weren't any last minute details so I didn't need or do an afternoon update today. Things went just as planned tonight. Mike arrived around 5PM and we had a pizza, then passed time till 7PM or 0000Z came along. I got my streak QSO for day # 10,000 a few seconds after 0000Z in the SST Sprint. Then I went to my plan of CQing as outlined in recent diary entries. I made 16 more QSOs on 80 meters from PA NH IL NJ WI MN CT VA NY NC. Conditions were pretty good and even the weaker signals were readable with a little effort. We'll do it all over again tomorrow. Over the next few days I will be posting more info about the 10,000 days. I've already updated the main streak report in the QRP section, QRP Streaks page except for adding the QSOs of 12/20/2021 to the stats. More coming tomorrow and the next few days. Now QRT for tonight's entry. -30-
Sat Dec 18 5:54PM - The two contests, Croatian and SP 160 should make quick work of day 9,999 of the streak and set things up for day 10,000 on Sunday evening at 0000Z in the SST Sprint. Then on to the following schedule to which I've now added specific frequencies:
12/20 80M - 3526.6 or 3525.6 depending on QRM after the SST QSO shortly after 0000Z until 0200Z
12/20 20M - 14026.6 or 14025.6 depending on QRM 1500-1700Z
12/20 40M - 7026.6 or 7025.6 depending on QRM 2100-2300Z
Remember I have strong local QRN here, and you may have to use QRO power for me to hear you.
I'll call simple short CQs like CQ CQ DE K3WWP K3WWP K. If it is busy, please keep the QSOs short.
Questions? Just ask via email and I'll answer in the diary tomorrow afternoon along with any other needed last minute details. -30-
Fri Dec 17 4:17PM - Now that it is pretty sure the streak will make it to 10,000 days, barring some major unforseen disaster, I can think about finalizing my plans for that day.
First of all, my plans for calling CQ after I get the QSO in the SST Sprint:
12/20 80M - after the SST QSO shortly after 0000Z until 0200Z
12/20 20M - 1500-1700Z
12/20 40M - 2100-2300Z
Frequencies to be announced here in the diary later.
Mike has said he will also announce info in the CW Clubs to which he belongs.
More info in the next diary entries on Sat and early Sun.
Questions? Just ask. -30-
Thu Dec 16 5:39PM - Not much going on today and I'm a bit bored right now, so I thought I'd pass a little time and write the diary now.
I was doing some thinking today about the streak among other things including my girl....friends. It was so nice today with a high in the low 60s, I even went for a walk in my shirtsleeves (Def:The state of wearing no coat, jacket, or other outer garment over one's shirt). Always wondered if that term was correct in going without a jacket, etc., so I looked it up and it is just what I always thought. It seems like it should mean wearing just the sleeves of a shirt without the rest of the shirt, but..... I digress, sorry. I also sat in my shirtsleeves on a park bench and did a lot of thinking there. I didn't really arrive at any decisions about anything except the streak.
I think if I get my QSO tonight, the rest of the way to 10,000 will be the proverbial piece of cake. Have to look up that expression. From the Idiom Dictionary: "Something easily accomplished, as in I had no trouble finding your house-a piece of cake. This expression originated in the Royal Air Force in the late 1930s for an easy mission, and the precise reference is as mysterious as that of the simile easy as pie. Possibly it evokes the easy accomplishment of swallowing a slice of sweet dessert." Got that? There will be a pop quiz in a few days. Now where did "pop quiz" originate? No John, enough of that!
Why will the rest of the streak be easy? Because there are contests spanning the 18th, 19th, and 20th. The RAC Winter, Croatian CW, Stew Perry 160, and the SST Sprint in that order. If I can't get QSOs in at least 3 of those 4 contests, I don't deserve to reach 10,000. Now if I can just get past the 17th in about an hour or so. Check the streak table on my web site home page later to see if I made it, if you're curious. -30-
Wed Dec 15 7:32PM - It didn't take too long to get a QSO tonight even though conditions are still not all that good. I found W3ZT calling CQ and worked him through the QSB and QRN on 80 meters, leaving just three days before the big day #10,000 in the streak. I've pretty much decided on getting my day 10,000 QSO in the SST Sprint, and then calling CQ on a yet to be decided frequency, probably on 80 meters as long as I can or as long as there are stations calling. Mike thinks there should be a lot of callers, but I'm not as sure. I do know that my local QRN is going to prohibit me from hearing weak stations calling, so if you're not a dedicated QRP operator like me, feel free to run up your power when calling.
Then during the day on Monday the 20th, I hope to operate on 40 and 20 meters depending on conditions. All the times and frequencies will be decided upon and posted here in the diary probably in the entry for the 18th.
Today was a damp dreary day typical of our December weather unlike the past few great weather days. I did get in one walk with a stop at Family Dollar for some "junk" snacks, but that was about it for being outside except for the normal short Roscoe walks.
Inside, I did some computer cleaning and upgrading to pass the time. -30-
Tue Dec 14 7:34PM - Kind of a busy day although I didn't really do much, if that makes sense. I guess a lot of little somewhat time consuming things might be a better description. HI
Just got off the air after a QSO with my friend Lane N8AFT on 80. I've talked about him in the diary several times so long time readers should know of him.
Just before that, I got back from a walk around town taking pictures of Christmas lights. There don't seem to be as many this year as in the previous 3 or 4 years. Not surprising, really. Still some pretty nice ones.
It was a nice weather day again and I went for a couple other walks in additions to the "lights" one. Our Sprankle's store has one of about 50 small Christmas trees in our park that are set up to promote business in town or to honor some individuals. Anyway, the Sprankle's signs around the tree have blown down a couple times, so I took some wire with me today and fastened them more securely. Maybe I'll post a picture of that and one of Roscoe at the end of this entry. I told Laura in the office about the tree, and she thanked me, and I said you all are always nice to me, and I was glad to do this in return. The other day I gave her a card for all the workers, and signed it something like "Been a customer of this store for many many years going back to when it was A&P (Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company), then Kroger, IGA before it became Sprankle's. She said that was a long time ago, and I said well, I come from a long time ago. She laughed at that. It was true. I would guess that goes back to the 1950s at least. There may have been a couple other owners in there also. I can't remember. It's located in the same building and is only about 3-4 blocks from my home here, about a 5 minute walk. Since I don't drive, I go there a lot to pick up just a few items at a time. That makes it nice since I get to see my young girl...friends more often. HI
OK, let me prepare the pictures now. Be back, but of course you won't even know I'm gone. Gee, I'm wound up and wordy tonight.
The tree picture is washed out because the sun was right behind it. Roscoe was sitting on the chair right next to me. That's my blue coat at the right edge.
Our NAQCC Sprint is coming up shortly, so I'll close here. -30-
Mon Dec 13 7:41PM - The count of days is getting pretty small now to reach 10,000 days in the QRP/CW streak. For a change tonight, conditions were good and the QSO came easily. Outside of contests, it was about the earliest QSO this month. Thanks to John W2XS on 80 meters out on Long Island. We chatted pretty solidly for 25 minutes. Hope conditions continue good for the next week now, at least.
Today was a pretty nice day with sunshine and temperatures in the low 50s. Good enough to spend some time sitting on a bench in the park for a half hour or so. I love to sit there and watch the water in the river flowing by. It's very relaxing and allows me to do some serious thinking about my life and the events in it and the friends I have.
No more news or info about the big day coming up. I am going to announce some times and frequencies for when I get on the air to try to get a lot of QSOs on the big day. I won't do that till the day gets closer though. So if you're interested, keep checking here in the diary. -30-
Sun Dec 12 6:47PM - I just put my laundry in the dryer after the wash cycle in the washer ended. In a few minutes I'll head to the shack to get my QSO. In theory it should be quick since the SST Sprint will be going on. But you never can tell, especially with the horrid conditions of late. After that, there will be only 7 more days to 10,000. However, they may be among the most difficult days of the streak if the past few days are any indication. We'll have to wait and see.
Otherwise it was a very nice sunny day although only in the 40s which in reality is not that bad for mid-December. I took a couple of walks and stopped in Sprankle's along the way to visit my young friends and to deliver A Christmas card to one whom I didn't see yesterday. I consider myself very lucky to have young friends like that. It keeps me thinking and feeling young. Most of the time I feel like I'm only in the 50s or even 40s rather than an old man in his 70s. Of course the old man aches and pains show up now and then, but fortunately not often. OK, off to the shack now. -30-
Sat Dec 11 8:22PM - The usual tonight. Poor conditions and lots of usual noise made for getting a QSO difficult, but I made it for the 9,992nd day in a row. Only 8 more days till 10,000. I have decided to wait to decide about making a special award or QSL card for those who work me that day. I'll see if anyone actually wants one or how many want one before I do anything.
I took care of some of my Christmas gifts and cards today. Only a couple more to go now. Compared to usual, that's a pretty fast pace for me. I tend to procrastinate when it comes to Christmas for whatever reason. Probably because I'm picky about gifts and cards, especially for close friends.
I can't think of anything more to write, except there was a beautiful sunset tonight. I took a lot of pictures and sent some to Jasmine. Here are a couple low res samples:
Nice? Huh? Jasmine liked them.
I guess tomorrow evening will be an easy QSO in the SST Sprint as it will be on day 10,000 also. Barring disaster between now and then, that is. -30-
Fri Dec 10 7:47PM - Tonite was an encore presentation of, let's see when that was, oh on Wednesday evening, with strong signals when I turned on the rig that quickly disappeared, then came back around 0030 or so. I tail ended WA0USA and we had a pretty solid 13 minute QSO with his KW and my 5 watts. I guess the path between here and Florida was good at the time. Anyway I'm relieved again that I made another day in the streak, putting it down into single digits now to reach 10,000 days.
As far as the rest of the day, the weather was nice and I got a chance to sit in the park one more day for my thinking session and some games on my iPhone. When I got home or maybe it was before I left, I gave my sink and refrigerator a good very needed cleaning. I also raked up the last (?) leaves from my back yard. I also did some other little chores as my ambition level was up for some reason today. HI
I'm thinking about making QSOs on day 10,000. I think it may have to be during the afternoon of the 20th, possibly on 20 meters, especially for those who want a two way QRP QSO. I just can't hear weak signals in the evenings. Even KW signals like that of WA0USA tonight were barely above my local noise level. We'll see when the day draws nearer. -30-
Thu Dec 9 7:55PM - I did some checking this afternoon to see what conditions are like in the daytime in case they get so bad in the evening that I can't get a QSO then. That is becoming a real worry with only 10 days left to go until day 10,000. I think it will be possible to use 20 meters in the afternoon if it becomes necessary. There were quite a few good signals there when I checked. I didn't try to work anyone, but I figure most of them would have been workable.
I did some Christmas shopping on-line today. Do you know about the Shannon Christmas Law? Probably not, since I only formulated it recently. It goes like this: The more you like someone and the more you care about them, the harder it is to think of a present for them. I do have presents ordered or at least decided upon for most on my list, but at least one will require more planning. That plus thinking about the 10,000 day mark is occupying a lot of my time and I'll kind of be glad when 10,000 and Christmas are both past.
The streak QSO was tough again tonight. It took about 20 minutes to find a (barely) workable CQ in the form of John AA5KV in LA on 80 meters for a 5 minute QSO fighting QSB and QRN, but yet another day is complete with 10 to go now. -30-
Wed Dec 8 8:18PM - Strange conditions tonight. So what else is new? HI When I turned on the rig, I saw quite a few decent signals on the panadapter screen, and thought it might be an easy QSO night. Wrong. After a few minutes the signals retreated back into the noise, and it was the same old story of being hard to find a QSO. However, the signals picked up again just before 0030Z and I heard WS1L calling CQ, answered him, and had a great 23 minute almost solid QSO with him.
These conditions are making me wonder about my plans for day 10,000. Since it's a Sunday evening Local Time, I should be able to get an SST Sprint QSO easily. However, then I hope to get as many more QSOs with you folks as possible, but I don't know if conditions and my local noise will cooperate. As I said before, you may have to operate with higher power than QRP for me to be able to hear you. I will do some thinking about just what band(s) and frequencies I'll use to have the best shot at QSOs. I'll announce it here in the diary during the day on Sunday the 19th, and we'll take it from there.
I also need to design some sort of certificate or QSL or both in case anyone who works me would like that.
Mike confirmed that he is coming to visit that day and stay through the evening to help out and to take some pictures to commemorate the event. And we'll have a pizza or subs, of course.
I'll have more info probably in each diary entry through day 10,000 to keep things updated. I'm getting a little more anxious and excited about it. I sure hope nothing happens to keep me from getting to 10,000.
Otherwise today I helped my neighbor with a couple projects and he took me to the food bank to get my monthly box of goodies. I also did some thinking and preparing some Christmas things for my friends at Sprankle's and my neighbors.
That about covers it all for now. -30-
Tue Dec 7 7:40PM - I think the propagation gods are mad at me for something. Once again tonight it was very difficult finding any stations to work. I only heard a few very weak stations and two stronger ones, but those two were involved in very very long QSOs, and never did sign off till after I did get a QSO finally. I did something I don't like to do. I answered a USA station who was calling CQ DX on 40, and he was kind and patient enough to give me an RST, QTH, and Name. W5QG, TX, Gary for a legit QSO and another day in the streak closer to 10,000. I'll see if I can get an email for him and explain and thank him. Whew! It's getting desperate now.
Not much happened today out of the ordinary. The closest was going to Family Dollar for some shopping, I guess.
So how about some pictures of my Christmas decorations.
Of course that's the tree at top. It's been around for a good many years now since I gave up real trees for artificial. I guess that was back in the 1990s somewhere. In the middle the most important symbol of Christmas, a manger scene. At the bottom a choir of angels that were made probably back in the 1950s when I was in cub scouting and my mother was a denmaster. They've dwindled in number over the years as I give one away each Christmas to a friend. This year I hope it will be Haylee from Sprankle's. -30-
Mon Dec 6 8:43PM - Whew! One hour and 15 minutes trying to get my QSO tonight. The bands were horrible with poor propagation and my usual high noise level. I thought for a while of a couple things. First would I be the Sam Rice of ham radio. Second would another December 7 be another day of infamy, at least for me. I'm talking about the streak possibly ending. Of course you know about December 7 and Pearl Harbor and also the date my neighbor and I lost his dog Joe back about 11 years ago if memory serves. But who is Sam Rice, you may wonder unless you're a pretty good baseball fan. Sam Rice is famous or infamous for coming very close to the important baseball milestone of making 3,000 base hits. He came up 13 short, finishing at 2,987. I thought I might come up just short of 10,000 days in the streak. But thanks to VA2XZA on 80 meters, that worry is past for another day. Thanks Jonathan.
Not much else to talk about in the diary. Some things did happen today, like completing my Christmas decorating and a few other things, but after that long ordeal getting the QSO, I just don't feel like talking about them now. -30-
Sun Dec 5 7:11PM - Of course an easy SST Sprint QSO tonight from N3QE on 80 meters.
A lot of you know or know about my friend Tom WY3H. As I mentioned in yesterday's diary entry, he was going to call me. He did and we talked for 20 minutes or so. He is doing well and will be out of the nursing home tomorrow. He was suffering from a fall and high blood sugar. Both problems are under control now. He is going to call later this week when he gets settled back into his home, and we'll talk more.
I did my Christmas decorating today sans my helper Jasmine who was either away for the weekend or busy at home or maybe something else. Anyway I had to go it alone and it took longer and doesn't look quite as good as last year when she helped. Actually I'm not done yet. I still have to put the ormanents on the tree tomorrow. That's not a typo. The term ormanents came from somewhere probably back in the 1950s or maybe 1960s. Do you have any idea where? I know but will let you think about it. You may be able to look up ormanents on the Bing search engine to find out. I don't know and am not going to check. If you do "cheat" that way, let me know. If you outright know the answer, let me know and I will be duly impressed. I'll give the answer in a few days down the diary. That's a trivia question probably no one will answer honestly. I did have the answer in this entry but changed my mind and took it out so you could think about it. Sorry. HI
Some bad/good news this evening. I learned that one of my Sprankle's young friends is "dropping out" of work for a while to concentrate on her school work. She's a very intelligent girl and is taking special "honor" classes that will take some extra study at least for a while. I hope she comes back to work sometime but as I told the girl who told me that tonight, I think it is a good idea for her to do that. She wants to become a vet and I guess that does take a lot of special training and study even starting now as a sophomore in high school. -30-
Sat Dec 4 7:10PM - Got to make this quick although there is a lot that could be written. I'm waiting for a call from Tom WY3H. I haven't heard from him in about a month or so till I got a message from him on my iPhone that he is in a nursing home and would call me between 7:15 and 7:45 which is almost here now.
My QSO was K8AJS in the 160M Contest. -30-
Fri Dec 3 7:11PM - Of course with the 160M Contest, that meant an easy quick QSO, and it panned out. I worked WF2W in WNY with a single call and no repeats needed.
It was a good day all around, but a bit contingent on how things go tomorrow. Jasmine and I are going to take another shot at doing my Christmas decorating if nothing comes up.
There were other good things also, but I have some other things yet to do, and instead of writing about what happened earlier, I'm going to get to the other things. HI -30-
Thu Dec 2 8:19PM - Seems we're in some sort of pattern with propagation alternating from good to bad every other day. Tonight it was bad again. If it weren't for Bob NR8M, I might still be searching for my QSO. He was a loud station calling CQ on 80M and an easy QSO. We've worked several times before. Even our signals went up and down with QSB, but the QSO is in the books with 17 more days till 10,000 DAYS.
I thought it would be a bad day when the first thing that happened was the cord on my drapes rod broke or actually stuck when I tried to open the drapes. That wound up throwing off my whole schedule for the day as I had to take the drapes and rod down to try to repair the problem. I didn't have enough good cord around to do the job. So when my neighbor went to work he took me to Ace Hardware where I got a 48 foot package of new cord. When I got back home, it took an hour or so with my old eyes and fingers to get the cord strung through the rod correctly. Then I had to wait another hour to get some help getting the drapes hung again. I mainly wanted to have someone there to spot for me while I was up on the ladder. Many years ago, I used to run up the ladder, but no longer. Now I even feel a bit uncertain when I do get up there.
In the midst of all that, the fellow who cleans my gutters came and took care of that. So it was kind of a hectic day, and I fell behind on my exercise regimen, but I did close all three rings on my Apple watch. I still need some 2,500 steps to reach my unofficial goal of 20,000 steps a day, but I'll make it. I've only missed one day in I don't know how long, and that was the day of the CQWW DX Test when Mike and I were on the air most of the day. I did make the three watch goals, but only made around 13,000 or so steps.
So after all that today, I needed to go to Sprankle's to see if any of my young friends were there. They or Jasmine can always make things better with their youth. I don't understand how it works, but it does. Maybe the youth they have radiates into me somehow??? Anyway Haylee was there with her usual friendly greeting as I entered the store. When I got my groceries, she wasn't at the counter so I made a couple laps through the store, and finally she was there and we got to chat a bit before the next customer showed up. I showed Haylee some of the pictures of Christmas lights and some sunset pictures and she enjoyed looking at them and saying they were very nice. Time was all too short though, and I had to leave and let her do her work. I'll never selfishly disturb her in her work and get her in trouble, no matter how much I'd like to stay. -30-
Wed Dec 1 7:38PM - Well, it's here. The first day of winter. Now we have to struggle through 89 more days till spring arrives. After I reach the 10,000 day mark of my streak, I'll change the counter above to count down to spring. Or I might be able to rig up two counters to run at the same time. I'll play with that although I have a lot of things going at the present time.
I've been thinking about the 10,000 days and mulling over some ideas you've sent for a 'celebration' of sorts. The 20th is a Monday which means the mark will be reached on a Sunday evening. So I'll get the memorable QSO in the SST Sprint. Then I plan to get on a specific frequency announced here in the diary a few days before and call CQ for anyone who wants to share in the event. Better run QRO though as it's tough hearing QRP signals for the most part because of my high local noise level.
Then I'll post some sort of special QSL or certificate for download by anyone who wants one and requests one. Mike has said he would like to be here with me for the event to take pictures, etc. There are some other details and suggestions to be worked on yet, as well.
I think too much is being made of the whole thing, but it is fun, I must say. So now where do I go after 10,000? I won't live long enough to make it to 20,000 or 25,000 for sure. Should I quit at 10,000 or just keep going till something comes along to end it? Some more to think about.
My QSO came a little quicker this evening. I worked N7GBH in NJ at 0006Z on 80 meters. It was a bit rough, but good enough for day # 9,982.
I had a short after school chat with Jasmine today which always brightens up my day here. It was raining this evening though, so I didn't get to go to Sprankle's.
When I put the November weather in the computer today, it was interesting to see how close to normal the temperature was. It was warm the first half of the month, then cold the last half and they balanced out. The average daily high was right on the normal and the low and average were very close to normal. The low was -1.2 degrees below normal, and the average -0.6. It was a dry month with just 1.24 inches of precipitation including not a drop the first 11 days of the month. -30-
Tue Nov 30 8:41PM - Just finished uploading my November QSOs (136) to eQSL and LoTW. A fitting end to the day so far since I spent a good part of the day adding LoTW confirmations to my K3WWP Excel log. Whew, what a job since I hadn't done it since July it looked like. Anyway my total confirmed in my log matches that exactly on the LoTW web site. How that happened with all I did today, I'll never know, but they match exactly. I think the total was 23,907 if I remember correctly. Must be close as after the upload a few minutes ago, the total is 23,955. I still have to work on the eQSLs. I may do that tomorrow. However I have other End of Month - First of Month things to do, so may postpone that a day or two.
The bands were better tonight with a lot of signals popping out of my noise. I first worked C6AGU on 40, then decided to do some CQ calling and worked N3MLB and AA4WW on 80. I think I found a slight intermittent connection in the coax going from the KX3 to my antenna switch. I'm not sure, but I replaced it anyway. I'll check it out more when I have time. It just seems a bit more solid now.
Not a lot of non-ham radio stuff today which is unusual of late. I did replace a bad switch in my upstairs hall light. I did some shopping early today, then went back to Sprankle's tonite to see who was working and to get some bread. It was Teela working tonight. I hadn't seen her for a while.
While I was out walking I took some more Christmas lights pictures. When Teela gave me my change, she said my hands were cold and she was right. I'm going to have to try using my iPhone camera with gloves, I guess. HI Guess that's it for now till tomorrow evening. Only 19 more days to get to 10,000 now. I'm getting excited and a bit nervous. Soon, I'll be announcing here in the diary how I plan to celebrate if I make it. -30-
Mon Nov 29 8:44PM - Another up and down day as quite a few have been lately. And I'll dwell on the ups, and ignore the downs here in the diary.
This evening not long after it got dark, I went down to Sprankle's to see if any of my young friends were working. Haylee greeted me at the door where she was sweeping up the floor. She is a really hard worker and is good at whatever she does. It will be interesting to follow her as she grows up. She wants to become a vet for a career. I hope I can live long enough to see how she turns out.
I then came home with my groceries and put them away before going to the shack for my QSO. It was one of the roughest nights in quite a while. The few stations I heard were way down in my noise or involved in rag chew type QSOs. I thought there might be some leftover DX from the contest, but I only heard one station and he wasn't hearing me. Finally I caught my friend Carl WB0CFF just winding down a QSO, so I tail ended him and we talked about a dozen minutes making my streak secure for another day and closing out November. Now just 20 days to go until 10,000 DAYS in a row.
After that I went out and walked around town and took some pictures of Christmas lights. As soon as I finish my site updating, I'm going to check them out.
Finally I got a lot of text messages today. Probably the most I've gotten in one day since I got my iPhone early in the year. I still have a couple to check out. -30-
Sun Nov 28 8:31PM - I think this is one of the most intense tag team contests Mike and I have ever done. We were on continuously from when Mike arrived at 9:30AM until the contest ended at 7:00PM except for an hour off for dinner from about 5:00PM to 6:00PM. I had just about everything set up when Mike arrived except a couple minor things. In a few minutes we were off and running. Since we started fairly early, we hit 15 meters knowing it would probably be the first band to close in the afternoon. We figured it would be in good shape and we were right. Our first QSO came at 1441Z in the form of IR4X. It was easy and that was a sign on things to come.
Our third QSO was another sign. We both worked somewhat rare TK0C with a single call. There were many QSOs that took but a single call. I kidded Mike that I now had a KW amp hidden in my room and it was hooked up today. Well, it did seem that way with the ease of working stations. For the rest of the contest until the last half hour, we just alternated between 15 and 20. We stuck mostly with DX stations, but did mix in some W/VE stations when the DX slowed a bit. Most of the DX was a mix of EU, Caribbean, and some SA and a couple AF stations. I don't have any totals by continent or country yet. I made just over 100 contacts, and Mike had somewhere in the 90s. As we got near the end of the contest, I stopped working stations and tried to help Mike get to 100, but I think he came up short. However he did reach a milestone when after the contest he worked two stations in the SST Sprint. If I recall, that made his 8,000th overall QSO. If needed, he can correct me when he reads this later.
On other comment on the contest. For the time # I don't know how many, I again worked Scandinavian stations on 20 after the rest of EU pretty much died out. Those stations are weak and fluttery, but I get them on the first call most every time with my 5 watts vs. their several hundred to 1,000 watts. Hard to understand.
That's it for today. Mike left shortly after the contest ended. Right now it's time to work on my laundry. -30-
Sat Nov 27 6:47PM - Another quiet day with a couple highlights. I learned from Mike that he found a dog sitter for tomorrow so he'll be coming down for a tag team contest effort tomorrow in the CQWW DX Contest. I checked the bands around 1930-2000Z today and found them in pretty good shape, especially 20 and 15 which were still open, but mostly NA, Caribbean, and SA. I did work OH8X on 20, but that is not unusual. I often work him and other OH stations after the rest of EU has faded out. I only worked one other station, VP9I, as I was just listening for the most part to size things up for tomorrow.
Other than that, I was mostly on the computer and my iPhone watching some TV on Pluto TV on the phone. I like the old show "Facts of Life" and watched an episode of that. I also listened to some more WABC airchecks.
Late in the afternoon or early evening, I was getting a little lonely and decided to go to Sprankle's and see if any of my young friends were working. Nakoma was there and wasn't too busy and no one was in line behind me so we had a chance to chat a little bit about Thanksgiving and a couple othe things. That brightened up my day. I'm glad I decided to go.
Time now to get my streak QSO. Hopefully a quick one in the CQWW DX Contest. -30-
Fri Nov 26 8:02PM - Today was even quieter than yesterday. I don't think I communicated with anyone today except the usual daily text message exchange with Jasmine and my brief contest QSOs this evening. It was very cold today, not getting out of the low-mid 30s and quite windy so I stayed inside all day except to get the mail. Oh, and to replace the bulb in my porch light which burned out last night.
In case you wonder about no mention of any Roscoe walks, Bruce is now able to walk Roscoe without my help.
Pretty much like yesterday, I was on the computer and iPhone a lot listening to music, airchecks, and playing games. I also decided to edit my diary entries to cut down the size in the Diary Archives by taking out a lot of the personal non-ham stuff. Not all of it because you say you enjoy reading it for whatever reason. Besides all that, I did some house cleaning.
Conditions in the contest were horrible this evening. I wasn't heard at all by any of the Caribbean and Central American stations I usually work easily. However 20 was dead and that pushed a lot of stations onto 40, so the DX stations all had huge pileups, plus unlike the ARRL DX test, the DX can work each other also instead of just W/VE stations in this CQWW test. I did manage a couple QSOs for the streak though, working K5WA and K5TR on 40. I may get on during the day tomorrow and check things out to see what it might be like for Sunday if Mike can come down for a one-day tag team effort.
I guess that sums up the day except to add that there was some (shhhh) s#$w today that stuck just a little in some places. If you're new to the diary, and may not know (although I think it's pretty obvious) what s#$w is, it's a placeholder for an obscene word I don't use in the diary or anywhere else if I can help it. Just replace the symbols with an N and an O and you'll see what I mean if you didn't know already. -30-
Thu Nov 25 7:37PM - Thanksgiving Day in the USA. It was a very quiet day for me. I only had contact with one person and that was via text messaging. It was Jasmine (tnx). We exchanged brief Thanksgiving Day greetings. Well, also an email from Mike N4VBV with some Thanksgiving wishes. Tnx also.
I never left the house at all. I spent most of my time on the computer and my iPhone. I did have turkey. I made myself two turkey sandwiches from the sliced turkey I bought at Sprankle's Tuesday evening when I went to see Haylee. I told her that would probably be my Thanksgiving meal. Also a pretty big bowl of mashed potatoes. I was going to go to Sprankle's again and get some stovetop stuffing, but they were closed and I didn't feel like walking a couple blocks further to Family Dollar.
If that sounds pretty dull, in a way it was. However it gave me a chance to honor the holiday in the way it was meant to be honored. I thought of all the things I have to be thankful for from the past couple years. I think my friendship with Jasmine tops the list. Despite the big age gap, we spent a lot of good times together. Also helped each other out with some things along the way. Also my friendship with Mike ranks right up there too. I really enjoy it when he gets a chance to visit and do ham radio and train stuff along with a lot of other things as well. Also Roscoe and his owner Bruce are someone to be thankful for.
There are some things besides people also. My new iPhone has given me countless hours of use and pleasure from the use. Thanks Jasmine for urging me to get it. Also my Apple watch really keeps me on my toes with my exercise regimen along with other things. I got it because Jasmine has one and I saw how neat it was.
My young friends at Sprankle's are some other folks to be thankful for. It's nice to go in a store and get a warm greeting from the employees. I think they enjoy my greeting to them also from the big smile they give me. Then it's nice to chat with them a bit although we can't do much chatting since they are almost always busy ringing up orders, etc.
I'm also thankful for my health. Most of the time, I don't feel my 76 years, but instead maybe in the 50s or so.
There's more but those are the highlights. I hope you have a lot of things to be thankful for also, and were able to take a little time (or a lot of time like me) to dwell on them today. You'll feel better for it. Now I've got to put a proper closing here so the day's entries don't run together like they did yesterday. Thanks to Mike for pointing it out. Speaking of Mike, we took a couple of different picture poses at the sub yesterday. Let me fix and post them.
Before all that, let me comment on the streak QSO. It was tough tonight. I thought I'd quickly grab a DX station setting up for the weekend test, but they weren't hearing me till finally PJ2/WI9WI worked his pile down after going to split and I got him easily after just a few tries. That was on 40M.
One more note, then the pictures. My cousin Judy just left a Thanksgiving greeting on my voice mail. So that's one more contact. HI
Now the pictures in this almost endless diary entry.
Of course, Mike on the left and me on the right. I was also wearing a mask, but took it off for vanity's sake. HI. Is that grey hair I see under those caps? And I wonder what I was thinking about in that pose? I'm sure Mike knows.(inside joke)
OK, now the closing tag. -30-
Wed Nov 24 8:07PM - Mike and I as usual had a good time. Today it was on the USS Requin in Pittsburgh. We arrived there about 20 after 10AM (1520Z) and got set up quickly. Activity seemed good, and we started working stations quickly. Activity ebbed and flowed diring the 5 1/2 hours (minus an hour for disinfecting the sub) or so we were there. We made 23 QSOs all in all. I made 9 and Mike made the rest. Along with that we had a large crowd of people taking the sub tours. I didn't count, but must have been at least 100 folks passing through. All of them friendly, and many surprised to see real live people in the radio room. A lot recognized Morse Code and we got a nice variety of questions about this and that. When it got close to time to go, we reluctantly shut down and headed to the Pittsburgh Mills. During the 1 hour time we had to leave the ship, we spent most of the time in the Science Center gift shop. Mike was looking for a Requin patch, but they didn't have them any longer. We were also looking for a Requin tee shirt. They had some, but we thought a bit pricey and weren't sure of the sizes they had. I also looked for a present for Jasmine, but didn't know what would be suitable so I didn't get anything.
After we left the sub, we stopped at Lowe's in the Mills to get a couple things or in my case, finding out they didn't have what I needed. Then off to Chili's for a big meal. Mike had a salmon dish and I had a chicken salad. Then on to home and a bit of fooling with my phone and TV which didn't accomplish anything at the time, but suggested a couple things. Then to the shack for my streak QSO (with C6AGU), after which Mike had to head home to check on his dog Jayden. -30-
Tue Nov 23 8:08PM - The bands were much more active or propagation was better than last night. There were a lot of strong signals on 80 meters especially and a few on 40 including some DX getting ready for the CQWW DX test. I didn't work any DX but did have a 14 minute rag chew with N3JJT on 80 meters.
Not a lot going on today. I did do a couple outside walks and some shopping as the weather wasn't too bad although not very warm either. I went to Sprankle's this evening just to see if any of my young friends were working as I wanted to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving. Haylee was working, but very busy. We did get to exchange greetings and chat a bit though. I confessed to her that I really didn't need anything and just wanted to wish her a happy holiday, but I thought I'd better buy something anyway. I got a smile as she seemed to get a kick out of that. Kind of brightened up my day.
Tomorrow should be a bright day as Mike and I will be going subpeditioning to the Requin as I detailed in last night's entry. I hope conditions are good and we can get there on time this round. HI. I think we've decided to eat at Chili's in the Pittsburgh Mills on the way home. Then we're going to see about hooking my iPhone to my Vizio TV so I can watch my phone screen on a big screen. Should be a fun day.
I also got ambitious today and raked the leaves around my house. I don't have any trees except a little pine tree but the neighbors' trees kindly(?) donate their leaves to my yard. At least it gives me some mulch for my garden area over the winter. -30-
Mon Nov 22 8:05PM - The bands tonight were horrible up to a certain point. I found very few signals on 80 or 40. Just a couple of Net stations on 80 and virtually nothing on 40. I thought for sure I was going to strike out in the 0000Z hour and would have to try again later tonight or during the day tomorrow. However, finally after almost a half hour of trying this certain station every several minutes, I finally connected solidly on 80 meters, and I exclaimed to myself, "How about that? How about that?" You see, the station was LZ3ND, the very first time I've ever worked Bulgaria on 80 meters, and the first new band-country since December 24, 2017. Wow!! Hard to believe, but I copied 3WWP perfectly and was certain of the K because he has worked me several times on other bands and didn't ask for a repeat. Nick is a very good operator and I wasn't totally surprised he did work me although it took a while with the previous tries. I did get several AGN ? the previous times I called him, so propagation must have increased just enough to boost my signal enough for him to finally get it. That's the most exciting ham radio moment I've had in a long time, maybe going back to that December 24, 2017 date when I worked SM4OTI on 80 meters for country # 61 on that band.
That kind of blocked out anything else interesting that may have happened today.
It was confirmed tonight that Mike and I will be going to the Requin in Pittsburgh for our annual day before Thanksgiving subpedition. Barring delays, we should be on the air with QRO power at 10A (1500Z) using the sub call of NY3EC. Bands and frequencies will depend on QRM, QRN, QSB, etc. Probably mostly 40 and 20 with a check of 30 now and then. Frequencies will be 7040, 10117, 14060 +/- 2 or 3 kHz as needed. We'll stick it out as long as activity warrants, but at least until 1:30P (1830Z). Why QRO, you may ask? Because it has now become an activity to use ham radio to promote the submarine for Art and the Science Center instead of promoting QRP. -30-
Sun Nov 21 8:18PM - Another kind of up and down day today like a couple days ago. I'll only dwell on the ups again.
I actually got on the air this afternoon for the first time in a while. I wanted to fool around with the noise limiter on 40, 30, and 20 and it was better to do that during the day. I works pretty much like it did on 80 last night. The noise gets knocked down a couple of S units which helps, but still the S/N ratio doesn't change much. It seems as we thought all along that it can only handle one of my several noise sources since they all have different waveforms. Bottom line is it helps, but not as much as I would like.
I went out this evening looking for some Christmas lights to photograph, but only found a few. It is a bit early. I'll have to go out again after December first. Still it was more practice using the camera in the dark to photograph bright lights. I also played with the camera/phone today learning more about editing photos and videos. I learned quite a bit, and didn't even have my tutor Jasmine around to help. HI I hope to see her tomorrow and show off my efforts to her.
The usual stories on Sunday evening. I'm doing the laundry now. I got my QSO quickly in the SST Sprint, this time from John N0TA out in CO on 40 meters. I also did a bit of shopping this evening at Family Dollar while I was walking around town. Save on shoe leather that way, I guess. Or whatever soles are made from these days. -30-
Sat Nov 20 8:47PM - A very busy day today. Let's see how much I can remember of what I did to make it busy. HI
The busiest thing was helping Ange in his garden burying his fig trees for the winter. I retired from doing the fig tree work a few years ago for the most part, the hardest parts, that is. I still helped him by standing on them to weigh them down while he threw leaves and dirt on them. However today since I was feeling really good after a great week, I did a little more than that. I guess that took about 2 1/2 hours or so.
Next up I did some more work putting my iPhone pictures into albums. After some more various things, I then added more pictures to the iPhone walking around town a bit photographing Christmas decorations.
I came home a little before 7 (0000Z) and went to get my streak QSO. I figured it would be an easy one from the LZ Contest and it was. I worked S52AW on 40 meters. I had to send many repeats, but he stuck with me. That says conditions are still not the best on the bands as I usually work him easily on 40 and higher bands.
After that, I decided to fool around with my noise limiter, and got it working a bit better. Still far from perfect, but it does cut the noise down by about 3-4 S units. Still the noise is around S5-6, but every little bit helps. I still am not sure about how it affects the S/N ratio. I think it does help pop the signals out of the noise, but not all that much. I need some more tinkering with that. I do have it where I can transmit by powering it down to transmit, then switching it back on to receive.
Next to last, there was a fireworks display for something, and I went out and took about 3 dozen pictures of them. Maybe about 2 dozen turned out good. I didn't do any fooling with settings on the iPhone or I may have been able to do better. I'm still learning things about it after some 8 months. HI. Jasmine helps me a lot.
Finally before typing this, I made a couple quarts of milk from powdered milk of which I have a lot from the food bank I go to each month. And that's it for a busy day. -30-
Fri Nov 19 7:49PM - An up and down day today. I won't talk about the downs. Jasmine and I exchanged some pictures of the beautiful sunset last night taken from two different locations. Tonight I was either a bit late checking or there wasn't a nice sunset this evening.
Tonight was our town's light up night. I had forgotten about it until I heard the fire engine sirens. Then I decided to go for a walk and mail my checks I wrote for some utility bills today. The post office is right next to Sprankle's so I thought I'd stop in there and see if any of my young friends were working. Haylee was there and I got a nice greeting from her after we hadn't seen each other for a while. She wasn't busy so we got to chat for a little bit. The parade was just going by there as I arrived. I tried to take some pictures but they didn't turn out good. As I told Haylee, there was too much conrast between the bright fire truck lights and the dark background.
I worked some DX this evening for the streak. It was LZ3ND probably getting set up for the LZ DX Contest tomorrow and Sunday. Maybe I can work him again tomorrow evening for another streak QSO. It was on 40 meters BTW. I only had to wait through a couple other stations before I got him with a couple repeats of my call.
I wonder what tomorrow will bring, good, bad, or in between. -30-
Thu Nov 18 6:48PM - Thought I'd write this early for whatever reason. HI It was another good day like the past several have been now.
Not as warm as yesterday, but still nice with a high in the 50s early in the day, then falling the rest of the day till it's 42 right now. It wasn't all that windy and that helped it feel not that cold. I wasn't outside all that much. I did some in the house cleaning. Something I should do more often as Mike pointed out a few diary entries ago. HI HI
It was nice to visit with Jasmine for a bit after school today. I showed her a time lapse movie of last night's sunset and a couple other pictures including the one of the lights around the door. She was a little chilly so I let her head inside. We usually do our chats out on our front porches.
This evening we had another nice sunset, better than last night. I took some still pictures and another time lapse movie. I was wishing Jasmine had been there. We could have double teamed the sunset with one taking still pictures and the other time lapse. However about a half hour or 45 minutes later I was surprised to get a text message with 4 beautiful sunset pictures from Jasmine taken wherever she was with her aunt. So we did sort of double team the sunset. It made me feel good to know she was thinking of me. I sent her a couple of my stills and said I'd show her the time lapse tomorrow since it was a big file and would take too long to text to her.
Time for my QSO now. Maybe I'll post a couple sunset pictures, but probably not. Stay tuned later to see. HI.
For those who tuned in later, here are two pictures:
On the left is Jasmine's picture taken from one of our local malls it looks like. The other is my picture taken from in front of my house. I love the color in Jasmine's picture. The original shows it as an even more vivid red. -30-
Wed Nov 17 7:42PM - A beautiful day today in many ways. It was partly cloudy and mild weatherwise with a high of almost 70 (69 on my remote unit pending a check of my outside mercury in glass max/min thermometer at 9:00).
It was a nice day Jasminewise also. When she got home from school we spent some time together putting my Christmas lights around my front door. I enjoyed that a lot and she helped make the job easier by holding the lights as I put them up plus just with her company. Here's how the door looks now that it's dark.
Pretty nice, huh? I used to meticulously line up the lights, but quit that a few years ago to give it a more "natural" look. Thanks, Jasmine.
After quite a bit of looking around, I had a fairly easy DX QSO with NP2J on 40 meters. Probably a station getting ready for the CQWW DX Test coming up before too long now. That will be a busy weekend. I might see what I can do in the Test on Saturday, then Mike will come down on Sunday for a tag team effort. After all that on Monday I hope Jasmine will be able to help me finish my Christmas trimming like she did last year. -30-
Tue Nov 16 8:23PM - It was a cold day today, but not as cold as yesterday in any way. The sun came out in the afternoon and the wind died down to make it pretty comfortable. Tomorrow we go back to early fall with a high in the mid 60s or maybe a bit higher. I had a very nice visit with Jasmine today after school. I'm going to put up my outdoor lights tomorrow and take advantage of the nice weather. Jasmine said she would help me after school if nothing comes up.
I had a couple good QSOs this evening. First with Tom W1PKX in MA whom I don't think I've worked before. Next a tail end call from Bob K8FN led to a 32 minute QSO. Bob and I have had many QSOs over the years, but not for a while now and it was good to get caught up on things. This was a good-feeling day for me. I'm going to celebrate with my neighbor with a sub sandwich from Vocelli's Pizza which I'll be ordering in a few minutes after I get my web site updates done. -30-
Mon Nov 15 7:46PM - Remember the old bit on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon that went something like this if memory serves. Anyway it's close, if not exact. Johnny would say something like it was a cold day today in New York. Ed would then sneak in with the question how cold was it? Johnny would reply with something like this - it was so cold that I saw the statue of (somebody) in Central Park shivering. Or some other ridiculous thing like that. I think they also did it in summer with jokes about the heat.
OK, my version now. It was a very cold day today here in Kittanning. How cold was it? It was so cold that I didn't wait for Jasmine coming home from school. Not funny, but true and those who know me know how much I missed that.
Enough of that. Otherwise, the bands were decent this evening although not a lot of activity. I easily worked KP4YO Armando in PR on 40 meters. During the day I worked on organizing and editing some pictures on the computer. I only went outside to get the mail, put the garbage out, and walk Roscoe his usual 4 times (with one more yet to come). It's supposed to be a bit warmer tomorrow, then in the 60s on Wednesday. Hopefully I can see Jasmine and maybe go to Sprankle's to see if any of my young friends are working. We shall see what we shall see, as the old saying goes. -30-
Sun Nov 14 7:28PM - As usual on a Sunday evening, the SST Sprint provides me with an easy quick streak QSO and tonight was no exception, except I don't think I've worked this particular station in the SST previously. It was W8FN Randy in NC on 40M at 0002Z.
It was a quiet cold day today. I never even got out for a walk (except the brief Roscoe walks), probably the first time since back in spring unless it was a day when Mike was visiting and I didn't get out. I spent a lot of time on the computer and/or iPhone. A lot of it listening to WABC airchecks from the 60s and 70s. It's interesting how similar the WABC DJs sound to each other. I don't mean in content since they all have (or had) their own style. I mean in the tone of their voices. Perhaps the mikes were all equalized or it was in the recording of the checks. Nonetheless it has been, is, and will continue to be a great experience going back in time. I think I mentioned it previously that I'm sad that I didn't get to hear the daytime jocks live back then because the NY, Chicago, etc. stations didn't make it here in daylight or I didn't stay up for the all night jocks. I especially would have liked to hear Dan Ingram on WABC, or Chuck Greer also. As I check out different jocks, there are others too. I was able to hear Cousin Brucie WABC, Art Roberts WLS, Dick Biondi a few diff stations, Jack Armstrong mostly WKBW, Chuck Brinkman KQV, and others that don't come to mind right away after almost 60 years. Oh, there were also the KDKA jocks although KDKA wasn't a strict Top 40 style station. I speak of Rege Cordic, Art Pallan, Jack Bogut, Bob Tracey (think that was his last name?). Gee, I guess I could go on and on with a little more digging into my memory, but I won't do that now.
I hate to mention it which is why I didn't do it yesterday, I guess. However we had our first s#$w flurries of the season yesterday and today. No accumulation though, although we might get some the next couple days, before the mild weather returns on Wednesday (and hangs around for a long time, I hope.) -30-
Sat Nov 13 7:36PM - Tonight's streak QSO was DX for the first time in a while. I worked G6XX in some sort of contest on 40 meters. A fairly easy QSO with a couple repeats of my call.
I was busy and a little late with the diary entry last night. I wanted to post a picture of my flag which I was flying for Veterans Day. Here it is tonight one day late, but no less meaningful.
Of course as most of you know, that's the flag that draped my father's coffin back in 1964. I only fly it on special occasions like Veterans Day and the like. That's why it is in such good shape. I keep it folded properly and stored in a drawer when I'm not flying it. I have three very good friends who help do the folding, Bruce, Jasmine, or Mike. You also know those three from frequent mentions in the diary, so I needn't identify them further here.
It's getting closer and closer as you see from the countdown above. I'm talking about DAY # 10,000 in my streak of making a QRP/CW QSO each and every day. I'm getting more and more excited each day. Sure hope nothing unforseen happens to end it prematurely. That would be an ultimate disappointment in my life. At least tied with some other disappointments. -30-
Fri Nov 12 8:21PM - Another good day today. The weather was pretty nice although a bit windy which brought the wind chill down to a level that did seem chilly. In fact in late afternoon, I thought the wind would blow me off my park bench. HI
I had a nice hour long visit with Jasmine today. She's been so busy lately that I think that's the longest visit we've had since before school started in late August. School was closed today for a teacher's conference or something like that. Whatever it was, I took advantage of it. HI
Although I was late getting to the shack due to watching an old "Leave it to Beaver" episode with my neighbor Bruce, I got a quick QSO with K4QS in VA. I actually got a S9+20 report from him. He was +25-30 so I guess conditions were about perfect between us. However after about 12-13 minutes, he faded down into my noise in the matter of a minute or so and never came back up again.
I'm still doing a lot of listening to airchecks from old Top 40 stations and the Top 40 Jocks who worked there. Lately it's been mostly 77 WABC (if Mike were here, we'd both sing out the 77 WABC jingle right now. HI). It's so great to hear those jocks again or to hear some of them for the first time since originally they were on during the day when I couldn't get the NY, Chicago, etc. stations regularly. -30-
Thu Nov 11 7:58PM - It was a beautiful day today, perhaps the next to last one for a while. After an overnight rain, it's supposed to be sunny tomorrow before another mix of bad weather shows up for the weekend as an uninvited and unwelcome guest.
I went for several walks and sits in the park today to enjoy the nice weather. I guess that took up a large portion of my time today with no time for anything else except for my daily chores.
I had another little visit with Jasmine after school today. I always enjoy that and it helps me to keep feeling young hearing about her "exploits" as a teenager.
I had a nice ragchew with W8VLN in OH tonight. He was running 700 watts to a loop antenna and was at S9+20 for the entire QSO which lasted 27 minutes. He also copied me solid at S9 for the whole time. -30-
Wed Nov 10 7:46PM - It was rough again getting that streak QSO, but I persisted and finally found K4BSK on 80 and worked him to add another day to the streak. I got another good suggestion today about what to do when the streak reaches 10,000 days (if it does) on December 20. That's 3 or 4 now and I'm still mulling over which one (or more) to use. Stay tuned to see.
I've noticed an increase in the number of visitors to my web site lately. I don't really know why. Perhaps it has something to do with day 10,000 approaching, although if so, I would think it's a bit early for that. After all, there's no guarantee of the streak continuing that long. I sure hope it does, because I've put a lot of work and time into it and would hate to come up short. It's my only chance at a 10,000 day streak.
In other news, I've been cleaning house and getting rid of some "junk" that I'll never use again. I'm also finding some interesting items I thought were lost. One example is a phone number of an old girlfriend I haven't talked to in many years. The number is still active, but the voicemail I got didn't identify if it was her or not. I guess I'll see.
I was rewarded in a way today. Jasmine has helped me in many ways with my Apple iPhone. Today when I talked with her I was able to tell her about a trick I stumbled across and that she wasn't familiar with. It dealt with a way of activating the Apple watch we both have, without having to type in the passcode when putting it on the wrist. And that's about it for today.
Well, almost. I just want to close with some weather. It was another beautiful day today for sitting in the park in a tee shirt and feeling comfortable. We may have two more of those nice days, but then a preview of winter is scheduled for the weekend. Oh well, it is that time of year.
Oh, remember to honor our wonderful Veterans on their day tomorrow. Not many, if any, events here in this small town, but I plan to fly my flag. Diary readers know I'm speaking of the flag that was draped over my dad's coffin way back in 1964. -30-
Tue Nov 9 7:57PM - Again nothing much to talk about. Interestingly we haven't had a drop of rain in November so far, and the vast majority of the time we've had clear sunny skies or at worst partly cloudy skies. Very rare for what is usually the gloomiest month of the year. It might be interesting to do an analog forecast and check for similar starts to Novembers in the past and see if there is any correlation to how the following winters turned out. Even with computer records though that is a little more time consuming than I would like, but.....
I worked ND for my streak QSO tonight. Maybe my first ND QSO this year? Unless I got one in a contest. Maybe I'll check. It's my second ND this year. I worked AC9EZ/0 on a POTA outing back on June 22. Before that though, I have to go back to August 20, 2014 to find another ND QSO. My Excel log shows a total of 112 ND QSOs from my home QTH here. Maybe there are others in my portable logs, but they are separate and I'm not going to check now.
Back to weather for a moment. It looks like the nice weather will end this weekend with cold and s#$w mentioned on Sat and Sun. Brrrrr. No more sitting in the park for a while. And just when I had a nice talk with a young girl walking her dog today. Probably won't see her again. Oh well, that's life for me. -30-
Mon Nov 8 7:37PM - My noise was really bad tonight plus conditions seemed poor on top of that. I struggled to work VE3WH on 80M, but wasn't 100% positive of his call although the name and QTH matched QRZ as near as I could tell. I wasn't completely satisfied with the QSO though so I found and worked N9MM on 40M for a solid QSO. -30-
Sun Nov 7 6:39PM - Mike was here today, so you know it was a good day. He arrived around 9:45AM. For the first couple hours, we sat around listening to Dan Ingram, Ron Lundy, and Cousin Brucie. Ingram and Lundy were closing out an era of WABC on May 10, 1982 when WABC dropped its Top 40 format and went to Talk Radio. It was sad to hear real radio ending in NYC. As part of that broadcast from 39 years ago, there was a wonderful montage of the sounds of WABC featuring the music and jingles of the era. It was immaculately put together by several engineers and board operators and lasted some 36 minutes. All I could say at the end of it was a big "WOW". Having been in radio, I appreciated the amount of work that had to go into putting that montage together.
Mike adds: I wish I would have still been living in NYC at the time because hearing it live instead of recorded on the Internet would have been much sadder as it marked the end of an era. I grew up listening to them when I was a kid.
After that, we did something I wanted to do for some time, but really needed some help with it. That is cleaning my train layout. If dust is really for the most part human cells, we could easily have made a new person. Removing all the equipment, buildings, railroad signals, etc. took a lot of time, then we used my shop vac to pick up all the dust, etc. before putting all the objects back into place. We took pictures of the layout beforehand so we could know where everything went. It really looks nice and clean now.
Mike adds: John recreated the Dust Bowl from the 1930's in miniature. He needs to fire the maid he has now and hire a whole squad of maids because his dusting skills are horrendous. I had to go and dust myself after all that. I brushed off a miniature Sahara Desert from myself.
Next up we did some research on my noise problem. We took an old transistor radio and checked for noise in my house somewhere, and didn't find any. Then we went out and walked around the neighborhood and found several (16 Mike says) transformers making noise. We're certain that's where most of my noise, if not all, is coming from. We didn't check all 16 poles, but several of them did have broken ground wires which may contribute to the noise problem.
Next one of our favorite activities, eating. We went to Ponderosa in Butler and stuffed ourselves to the limit.
On the way back home we stopped at Walmart and Dollar Tree to pick up some things. Now here at home I'm sitting here typing while Mike takes life easy in a chair across the room and comes up with an occasional comment or funny insult for me to insert here in the diary. Next it's to the shack for a quick streak QSO from the SST sprint. -30-
Sat Nov 6 9:08PM - If your area observes Daylight Savings (Shifting) Time, remember to go back to Standard Time tonight. You know that I consider Daylight Savings Time a misnomer because no daylight time is saved it is only shifted from the morning to the evening. I like the old Indian thought on the subject. They say it is like cutting a foot off the end of a blanket and sewing it on the other end to make the blanket longer. So true. End of soapbox comments on that till next time we change the times in the spring.
My good week continued today as I saw another of my young friends at Sprankle's that I hadn't seen in a couple weeks. It was nice to see her again and she seemed happy to see me also. She has a Native American name that means roughly "Great Warrior" so I have to be good to her or else. HI
Of course the Sweepstakes provided an easy and quick streak QSO from KI9A at 0001Z. After that I changed all my clocks. Of course there will be at least one I'll find in the morning that I forgot. However I think all the ones I didn't change now change themselves automatically. We'll see. HI -30-
Fri Nov 5 9:08PM - I had a fun day today. Every year around this time I get a big dividend check for $1.00. I like to make a joke of it when I cash it at the bank. Some times the teller gets a kick out of it when I tell them I have a huge check to cash and I hope they have enough cash on hand to take care of it. I say that in all seriousness, then hand them the check. I got a good reaction from the pretty young teller today. She was wearing a CoVid mask, but I could read her thoughts in her eyes. I could see her laughing at it. We joked about it a bit more, then she asked if I wanted it in 100 pennies. That was the first time anyone came back to me with that. Too bad she had the mask on. Although what I could see of her face looked like she was a very pretty girl.
After that, Bruce and I went to Walmart to get some food for Roscoe and a couple things for me. I had trouble finding what I was looking for and I noticed a pretty girl doing some stocking work, and I waited for a pause in her work and asked if she could help me, and she said sure, she would see me at the section in just a minute. I went and waited, and she did come and help me out. Unfortunately(?) she was wearing a big diamond wedding ring, but we had a nice chat anyway while she was helping me look for the right size (36x29) jeans. She couldn't find a pair either and I said I'm jinxed with hard to find sizes like my 8 1/2 wide shoes. She said her husband is the same way. Anyway I settled for a 36x30 which should work as I have a pair like that which does work although comes down over my shoes a bit more than I would like. OK enough of that far afield story. HI
I got a quick QSO tonight as 80 meters was pretty good after the geomagnetic storm yesterday. Copy wasn't great but the QSO with WA4NLF in NC lasted 18 minutes. It seemed he copied me easier than I was copying him. -30-
Thu Nov 4 8:47PM - With an A index of 69 today, you would expect conditions to be poor this evening, and they were. However there was one strong signal on 80, and the owner found and answered my CQ, thank goodness. It was my friend whom I've met in person at various hamfests, Tom KA2KGP from Forestville, NY. So thanks Tom for extending the streak another day. Otherwise it would have been a real struggle with bands mostly dead.
It was a beautiful day, if on the cold side. I did get in a couple good walks and took some fall foliage pictures. The leaves weren't all that nice this year mainly because of the warm October. It was nice enough to sit in the park for a while, but not for very long at a time. I also got to see Jasmine again today for a few minutes after school. I showed her the foliage pix, and she gave me a tip on accessing the camera quickly on my iPhone.
All in all, I'd rate it a good day. Tomorrow I hope to do some shopping with my neighbor Bruce for various things for us and for Roscoe. -30-
Wed Nov 3 8:28PM - Conditions weren't all that good this evening, but I managed a nice QSO with Joe K3JN from Cresson, PA. Turns out he goes through Kittanning here on his way to the Butler Hamfest. So Mike and I may have seen him there sometime although I don't recall his call. That doesn't mean anything though the way my memory is at times. He agreed about the new location of the Butler Hamfest not being as good as the old one.
It was a cold day again today. I did go out for a walk, but didn't stop to sit in the park as I usually do.
I saw another of my young friends today whom I hadn't seen in a while. I'm talking about Jasmine who has been very busy of late with her senior year of high school among other things. It's so great to have young friends. It really makes an old timer like me feel young again. A ham friend of mine made a great point some time ago when we were talking about having young friends. He said he totally disagrees with the "Sun City" type of retirement villages where a bunch of old people live together. He said it is more beneficial to old folks to have young friends instead. Right On!! Other folks may disagree with that, but that's their problem. Perhaps they don't have young friends so they don't know how great it is. I'm just very thankful for my situation here no matter what other folks may think of it. So there! HI HI. -30-
Tue Nov 2 7:59PM - Ooops, time to go off to the shack. Back with a report of my streak QSO shortly (I hope).
Back with two QSOs, one on 80 from N9BSO in MO and one on 40 from K5WK in MS.
That's pretty much the story for today. I'm looking forward to Sunday now when Mike will be visiting. We were planning on going to a hamfest, but it has been cancelled. So we're going to have a "goofing off" day instead. The diary that evening may be interesting, so plan on checking it out. -30-
Mon Nov 1 7:41PM - A good day today and an interesting one. I did my October weather report and it turned up some interesting stats. It was the warmest October in my records going back to 1960. The mean temperature was 60.8 or 7.6 degrees above normal.
The average daily low was 51.0 or 8.7 degrees above normal. Only the very unusual October of 1963 kept this years average daily high of 70.6 from being a record. It was 76.5 in 1963. In that year, we had only .29 inches of rain, and with mostly clear weather most of the month, the daily temperature range average was 35.9 degrees from 76.5 to 40.6 degrees. The normal daily range for October is now 22.5 degrees. The monthly low this year was 40 degrees, the first October in my records it never dipped below 40 degrees. The average October low is 28 degrees.
The good part was seeing one of my young friends in Sprankle's for the first time in a while. I decided to head there shortly after 5PM to see if any of them were working. It turned out Haylee was there in her usual check out line, so we got to chat for a bit till someone else got in line behind me. OK, now it's streak QSO time. Hope I can get a quick one. -30-
Sun Oct 31 7:52PM - Of course this being the end of a month, I did my EOM chores today. Wrote some checks, got my gas meter reading, sent my QSO records to LoTW and eQSL, changed my calender pages, etc. Since it's a Sunday, I'm also doing my laundry right now. In a couple minutes I'll go get my streak QSO in the SST sprint. I'm now inside 50 days till the streak reaches 10,000 days. I think a couple folks are confused about the streak. It's NOT 10,000 QSOs. It's 10,000 consecutive days on which I have made at least one QRP/CW QSO. If you total up the QSOs, I have made about 72,000 QSOs in the streak. Got that? OK, off to the shack now. -30-
Sat Oct 30 8:39PM - Again nothing much to write about. I did get my shots today as I mentioned in the previous diary entry. Also I got my streak QSO tonight, but it wasn't easy. After a half hour of trying, I managed to work NE5A in OK on 40 meters. That about sums up the day. -30-
Fri Oct 29 8:41PM - Another of those nothing really out of the ordinary days. The temperature fell all day today from 59 at midnight to 51 right now. It's supposed to stay cold for at least the next 10 days now. Well, I guess I did do one thing out of the ordinary today. I updated the software on my Apple Watch. I had been having trouble doing so until Lacey who works at the bank gave me a couple tips a couple days ago. It went smoothly this morning after a final false start late last night. Now it syncs perfectly with my iPhone again. It hadn't done so since I updated the iPhone about a month ago. So all is well with Apple again for now, anyway.
Tomorrow I get my final CoVid shot, and maybe a Shingles shot as well.
The bands were a bit down again this evening compared to the last few days, but still quite good. I worked WA9VEE in WI on 40 meters for the streak this evening. -30-
Thu Oct 28 7:06PM - I did a little listening this afternoon for the first time since I listened with Mike some time ago. With the SF over 100, I found 17M with several signals and even heard a signal on 12M. Also I found my noise seemingly worse than it is in the evening.
We had an interesting sunset this evening featuring a lot of rays and somewhat nice colors. Here are two pictures.
I also did some more listening to airchecks from Top 40 DJs today. Plus an interesting interview with Wolfman Jack. Later in the day, I did a little mental exercise while I was walking. I went up and down the AM band in my mind and tried to remember at least one station from each clear channel frequency. I also remembered some stations from the other channels. It's amazing what the brain can dig out of memory what for the most part was stored there many years ago, often over 40 years in the case of the stations. -30-
Wed Oct 27 9:19PM - The bands were good again with strong signals and an absence of my worst noise source, at least on 80 meters. Nothing much else to write about tonight, so I'll just close here. -30-
Tue Oct 26 9:12PM - A bit late tonight, but for different reasons from last tonight. I had two rather long QSOs as conditions were good and my one noise was pretty much absent. I worked WB4FDT and K2HYD, both of whom I first worked back in 1968. So they are members of my 50 year club. Unfortunately I haven't kept up my records on that club lately, so there are probably a lot more since I last checked. Maybe I'll get to that.
Then as I took off my headphones, the band snapped and I had to take time to fix that. Then it was time to get the weather data. So it was a busy hour plus here.
Other than that, I listened to some more Top 40 airchecks today by Dick Biondi, Clark Weber, and Larry Lujack. On that same topic, Mike N4VBV reminded me of 1500 WLAC and 1090 WOWO, two other Top 40 stations. I can't think of who the DJs were from those stations, but I did listen to them. The WOWO jocks are right on the tip of my tongue. I'll have to check the Internet. Back in a minute. Well, I'll have to search some more some other time. -30-
Mon Oct 25 9:14PM - Running a little late again tonight. It seems to take an inordinate amount of time getting my streak QSO with poor propagation combined with my high local noise. Not much to talk about anyway although I did get some financial and medical stuff done. But I'm not going to talk about that.
I kind of forgot about Wolfman Jack when I was talking about DJs yesterday. How could I forget about him? I used to listen to him on the big powerhouse Mexican station at 1570 on the dial, XERF which ran 250,000 watts and would ID as XERF in Del Rio, Texas. Several of WJ's radio shows are on the Internet and I plan to listen to some of them. I listened a bit today, but didn't have much time. What a great time it was for AM radio in those days, and brings back so many memories.
I am not sure which call letters the station in Cleveland on 1100 used at the time as they changed a few times, but they had a "Top 40" style countdown Sunday evenings and my mother and I would listen to it every week. I remember "Cherish" by the Association held the number one spot for many weeks in a row. I think maybe it was 13 weeks, but my memory is a bit fuzzy about that along with some other info, but it was a great. I'd write down the countdown songs every week, but I think I eventually threw them out, although they might still be lurking somewhere in all the junk in my house. HI Gotta run now. -30-
Sun Oct 24 8:34PM - OK, I got things done on time tonight. My laundry is done, my streak QSO is in the log thanks to W6SX in the SST sprint, and other chores taken care of. So I'm going to write about some Top 40 radio things.
Last night as I mentioned I listened to Cousin Brucie on my 77 WABC phone app for just about all of his four hour show. This afternoon I listened to the WABC 100th Anniversary Show with Dan Ingram and Ron Lundy with an exerpt of the "Day the Music Died" which was May 10, 1982 when WABC changed from Top 40 to Talk Radio (sniff, sniff) How sad that was. They will have another 100th anniversary each Sunday afternoon at 3:00PM. I don't know for how long, but I plan to listen.
I also listened to some airchecks on MS Bing from my other favorite DJs from the 60s and 70s like Art Roberts, Clark Weber, Larry Lujack, Ron Riley from 890 WLS. Jack Armstrong from 1520 WKBW. Chuck Brinkman from 1420 KQV. And my favorite of all, Dik Biondi who worked for a lot of stations, claiming he had been fired 23 times in his career. I also found a very interesting interview with Dick. That's only the tip of the iceberg since I just started this project today. There are many more great DJs from that era when AM radio was in its heyday before it degenerated to the Talk Radio (ugh!) of today. Of course Terry Lee and Cousin Brucie come to mind. As I said, I did listen to Brucie live yesterday. Oh and Clark Race, Rege Cordic and Bob Tracey from KDKA. Almost forgot them. Oh, Jack Bogut also from KDKA. I guess I could keep going too, but I'll stop here for now.
If you're into Top 40 Radio as I am, just start with a Bing search for "(your favorite DJ) airchecks" and go from there. Watch out for the time travel, it can be tricky and you may have to be dragged back to the present by someone. I almost got stuck in the 60s myself today. I am definitely going back to continue as often as I can. -30-
Sat Oct 23 10:35PM - No, that's not a mistake in the time. It really is that late for a few reasons. It took me almost an hour to get my streak QSO, then after that, I got a tail end call from a friend I hadn't worked in a while. Then I ordered a couple subs for my neighbor and me. Took Roscoe for a walk. Watched a couple TV shows with my neighbor, and finally I'm here writing the diary. Hope tomorrow is a little less crazy. Oh, I never even got into what happened earlier today, and I do want to talk about one thing in particular. That is, I listened to Cousin Brucie on a newly acquired WABC app for my phone. That led my mind to a lot of thoughts about Top 40 radio in the 60s and 70s which I want to talk about more in depth. Hopefully I'll do that in tomorrow's entry. -30-
Fri Oct 22 7:52PM - In case it takes a long time to get my streak QSO lately, I thought I'd at least start the diary entry early. Not really much to talk about anyway. Other than doing some organizing of pictures and other data on my computer and iPhone, anything else was just normal everyday stuff. Let's see what's coming up the next few days. Not much till Wednesday when Mike and I have our scheduled subpedition to the Requin. Then next Saturday I get part two of my Pfizer CoVid vaccination. That's pretty much what's out of the ordinary the next several days barring something unexpected. Time now to head to the shack to try to get my streak QSO. First I'll check to see if there are any helpful contests this weekend. -30-
Thu Oct 21 8:42PM - In contrast to yesterday, I didn't do much of anything today. I took a couple walks and went to the bank and Sprankle's. That was about it. Last night I found out that I have some more problems with the noise canceller. Things get bad when I transmit. My SWR goes through the roof among some other things. So I need to do some more research on the thing. Nothing is ever simple.
The noise actually wasn't too bad tonight. We had a heavy downpour while I was on the air. I'm wondering if there is a bad power line ground somewhere and all the water helped make a better connection. Despite the noise being not so bad, it was rough getting my QSO. There seemed to be little activity on the bands. It took 32 minutes of listening and calling CQ to finally find and work Ed N1TO on 40 meters. -30-
Wed Oct 20 9:42PM - I actually accomplished some things today! I pulled my garden plants. It was a very meager harvest this year. I'd say maybe two dozen tomatoes and a half dozen peppers. Compare that to 700-800 tomatoes several years ago along with a few dozen peppers, some lettuce and peas. My friend Ange had a less than normal harvest also, so it wasn't just my old age laziness, although that did contribute. I also pulled all my daylilly plants to let them winter over until next year. They are annuals, and come back every year like my tulips.
I also worked on my web site a bit, updating some of my QRP stats in the QRP Streaks section. In other ham radio action, I got my noise canceller set up to where it pretty much eliminates my strongest noise source, but still leaves the lesser noise sources. It seems to make a big differene with the one source gone now. I'll find out in a bit when I go for my streak QSO.
I also set up my iPhone for voicemail. Something I'd put off for quite a while now. I also did some house cleaning, so I've been a busy boy today - finally. -30-
Tue Oct 19 10:15PM - A late night tonight, so just a brief entry. Mike and I enjoyed dinner at Applebees, then the SkyView club meeting. I worked PJ4NA from there with 5 watts, but with a 40M 2 el beam so I had to get another simple wire antenna QSO when I got home, and I did. I had a nice rag chew with K6ZB in TX on 40 meters to keep the streak alive under my rules. -30-
Mon Oct 18 8:52PM - Nothing much to write about today. I did go to our local Rite Aid with my neighbor Bruce today. I picked up a few things and got to talk to a girl I know who works there. I also went to Sprankle's in hopes of talking to a friend there, but she was busy and I didn't want to bother her. I took a walk and sat in the park for a while, but it gets dark so early now I won't be doing that much longer, at least in the evenings.
Tomorrow at this time I'll either be at the SkyView clubhouse or riding home with Mike. Looking forward to that along with dinner at Applebees before the club meeting.
I made two QSOs this evening although the second one with W8BJO got wiped out in my local QRN. I did chat with KC1BMD through the noise for a while pretty well. -30-
Sun Oct 17 8:53PM - Although I'm not glad to see it, we finally had a day that seemed like fall. A high barely in the 60s, strong breezes that made it seem colder, and a lot of leaves blowing around. Brrrr. So no walks or trips to Sprankle's for me today. The only times outside were for walking Roscoe.
I forgot about the IL QSO Party. When I was into serious contesting, that was one of my favorites. Tonight it only served to supply me with my streak QSO, thanks to KF9D/P whom I have worked many times before.
Tuesday is a busy day here. Roscoe goes to the groomer at Noon. Mike and I go to Applebees for dinner, then on to the SkyView ARA for their meeting that evening. The first time there in a year and a half or more. -30-
Sat Oct 16 7:51PM - Starting early on the diary tonight. Going to watch a train video a little later. Not much to talk about anyway. It was kind of chilly in the park this evening but we did have somewhat of a sunset and I also saw one of my friends at Sprankle's after that. I hadn't seen her in a while.
Let's see if there is any contest on tonight that might be good for a quick streak QSO. Looks like the WAG Contest and the NY QSO Party should do the trick. If not, I'll come back and say so. Otherwise that's it for this entry. -30-
Fri Oct 15 9:07PM - Another late start to the diary. This time because of a long rag chew with K3MD on 80 meters. My noise was not quite as steady tonight, mostly on and off. Nothing much else going on today to write about, so I'll just close and update my Home and Propagation pages now. -30-
Thu Oct 14 8:34PM - I decided to work on my other log today. Besides my K3WWP log, I keep a second log for QSOs I make using other calls like N3AQC, N3A, NY3EC, WA3IXO, K3MJW, KB3MQT, to name a few. In that log, I have 5,622 QSOs to go with the 92,954 in my K3WWP log for a total of 98,576. Wonder if I'll make it to a total of 100,000 or not?
My QSO tonight came from K8JD on 80 meters in a nice 22 minute rag chew. Signals were strong on 80 tonight peaking above my noise level for a change. Nothing much else out of the usual going on today. -30-
Wed Oct 13 7:55PM - Almost streak time, so I'll start this now and finish after I get the QSO.
My noise has been really bad lately. Mike and I tried out the noise limiter last night and pretty much found out I have 3 or 4 noise sources, and the limiter can only handle one at a time. That is as far as we know now. I'll study it more later.
Meanwhile, here are 3 pictures from the parkpedition. Left is Mike, center my setup, right is me.
It was rough getting my QSO tonight. I finally wound up on 80 after striking out on 40-20. I may have to try some other day parts besides the 0000Z hour to see if the noise situation is better then. Anyway I made it tonite thanks to Brent KB4DZN in KY. -30-
Tue Oct 12 7:33PM - I'm starting this entry early tonight, but may not finish it until later. Mike and I had a good time on the parkpedition today even though there wasn't much activity. I made 12 1/2 QSOs (not sure if the one QSO was properly finished or not, but I put it in the log pending further review) on 40 meters, and Mike made 6 on 20 meters. The weather was close to perfect. Now it's almost time for me to go for my streak QSO, and then for a NAQCC sprint QSO at 0030Z. Maybe I'll be back for a couple pictures from today at the park.
No pictures. Took too long to get my streak QSO, then the NAQCC Sprint QSO. Maybe pix tomorrow. -30-
Mon Oct 11 8:44PM - Another of those quiet days with only one thing really worth writing about. I got another suggestion about what to do for day 10,000 in the streak. Thanks Dennis. It's a little less involved than the two previous ones, but all three will remain under consideration until I make a final decision. I may even use all three, who knows? Maybe some more will come in also. Well, I guess I better add this. Mike and I will be doing a parkpedition in Kittanning Community Park tomorrow for NAQCC anniversary week. We'll be using the call sign N3A/3. Hate having to use the /3 at the end, and I'm going to make a suggestion to the NAQCC officers for next years celebration that won't involve a / in the call. Anyway we'll operate 1500Z to 1900Z near 7041, 10117, 14061. Specific time and frequency depends on conditions. There will be two of the frequencies active simultaneously though barring equipment problems. Probably 7041 and 14061 most of the time with an excursion to 10117 if one of those two bands have a lack of activity. -30-
Sun Oct 10 7:29PM - I got a couple suggestions for a 10,000 day streak celebration. Tnx Geo and Jock. I will be considering them. Both entail quite a bit of work, but should be worthwhile. More about them later.
I'm still surviving my vaccination shot. Just a little sore arm where the needle went it. Otherwise all is OK, and I'm glad I got it after all the closeby CoVid activity and with my friends' activity.
Tonight my streak QSO will be someone in the SST sprint, I'm sure. Right now I'm doing my laundry as I type. Actually the washer is doing it, not me, to be precise. All I did was load the clothes and push the start button. -30-
Sat Oct 9 8:20PM - Some interesting things happened today. First I went against myself and my thinking and got myself a CoVid vaccine shot. Hey, I'm still alive and typing away. I was a bit scared about the vaccine, but got even more scared the past couple days when two good friends of mine came down with the virus, and then my next door neighbor's brother's daughter got it also. That was even more scary since the brother is in daily contact with his daughter and he also visits next door daily. So I chose the lesser of two evils and got the first Pfizer shot with a second one to come in 3 weeks, and a booster later.
I also saw another of my young friends at Sprankle's today, and we had a little chat, as good as we can during breaks in her check-out line. It's nice to go in a store where you get to know and even become friends with those who work there. It's a little hard in my situation with only being able to visit while she is working. I certainly do my best to keep from interrupting her work and getting her in trouble. Anyway I hadn't seen her in maybe a week or more.
No input yet from my request for ideas about celebrating day # 10,000 of my streak come December. See yesterday's diary entry.
The streak QSO tonight was fairly easy in the AZ QSO Party. I worked on 20 meters WB7TJD at 0007Z. Took a couple corrections of my call letters, but it became a solid QSO after that. -30-
Fri Oct 8 8:15PM - I got an interesting email today from my friend Mark WU7F who's been a diary reader almost from day 1 of the diary. He wrote: "I was doing another check-in on your website and diary when I realized how close you are to the 10,000 days mark! I'm curious, do you have any special plans to mark that momentous occasion? I hope so!"
I hadn't really given it any thought. I remember in the early days of the streak, I would announce some times and frequencies I would be operating when I reached another 1,000 day mark (1000, 2000, 3000, etc.), but I quit that some time ago. Maybe I'll revive that for the 10,000 day mark. Email me and let me know what you think, or if you have any other ideas. I'll consider whatever you say if the streak makes it that far and if I'm still around. HI Or maybe that doesn't deserve a HI the way things are going in this country and the world. -30-
Thu Oct 7 8:20PM - I got in touch with another WPIT employee today, Christa. We exchanged brief text messages, then she had a dental appointment. Hopefully tomorrow we can exchange more info. I also sent Tom a bunch of pictures of my ham activity, trains, friends, etc. I hope now that I can expand the number of folks as Tom and Christa may have info on some other employees. I'm really getting into this now. I also saw both of my current young friends today.
I worked Eliza at N4F in FL again tonight for my streak QSO.
Incidentally I couldn't upload my pages last evening in case anyone wondered why there were no updates until sometime today. -30-
Wed Oct 6 7:52PM - A quiet but good day. I saw my young friend at Sprankle's this evening. It's unusual she works two nights in a row. I almost didn't go to the store, but my neighbor Bruce needed a couple things, so I went. I thanked him for needing something when I got home. Otherwise I might not have gone to Sprankle's. OK I said about a month ago I wasn't going to talk about good/bad days and such. However things have been so quiet otherwise there is not much else to talk about most days.
Time now to go get my streak QSO. If it is anything exciting or different, I'll append this entry with the info. -30-
Tue Oct 5 8:54PM - One of those up and down days with some very high ups and some pretty low downs. Sorry to make you curious then not go into detail, but that's how it is.
I will tell you one very high up though. I got in touch with another old WPIT employee. We were great buddies at the station just like it was with Charlie. I'm looking forward to a large exchange of info with him in the near future. I guess I'll tell another up also. I saw my young friend at Sprankle's Supermarket this evening. OK, got to run now to get my weather, then wait for a pizza delivery. -30-
Mon Oct 4 8:13PM - Another pretty much nothing day today. At least nothing out of the ordinary. My QSO tonight to take me another step closer to 10,000 days in the streak was a 1x1 call from FL, N4F manned (womaned??) by an (x)yl Eliza. That's a bit unusual, I guess. -30-
Sun Oct 3 8:10PM - As is the case most every Sunday evening, my streak QSO comes quickly in the SST Sprint. Tonight it was my probably most worked station in the sprint, N7US, Jim out in IL.
I'm getting more into finding some of my old co-workers at WPIT, but not having much luck as it's been 30 years since I've seen most of them. I'm going to keep trying. I know where a couple of them have worked and/or are working and I'm going to explore that this week and see where it gets me.
OK, time to take the clothes out of the dryer and fold them now. -30-
Sat Oct 2 8:44PM - The wild week closed out on a mild note today. Nothing really good or bad happened. It was just the usual lineup of usual things. I got a quick CA QP streak QSO from W6C on 20M. Oh, I did upgrade my iPhone to the latest iOS #15. That went smoothly. I'm glad of that. I always fear major updates or upgrades to electronic gadgets. Although almost all I've ever done did go smoothly. -30-
Fri Oct 1 9:05PM - Wow, what a week, and it's not over yet. That's scary. HI I've had so many ups and downs that it feels like I've been riding a roller coaster or an elevator continuously. At least the downs have been few. I think that line is from the Ray Price song "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me". I'll have to check that later. Back on track now. Of course visiting with Charlie as I described in last night's diary entry was the biggest up of the week.
There are other ups and downs left over to talk about, but I'm going to just stop here as it's almost time to walk Roscoe. -30-
Thu Sep 30 7:21PM - Not much of a day today. It's the last of a month day so I did most all of my EOM tasks. I still have to upload my September log to eQSL and LoTW and a couple other things which I will either do later tonight or tomorrow.
With that said, let me talk about yesterday. It was a great day for the most part. Mike arrived around 8:30AM and we talked a while before leaving for Pittsburgh and the Requin. We got our bit of lost driving out of the way quickly. We were busy talking and wound up on Rte. 422 West instead of 28 South. With that delay until we got back on track, we were 15-20 minutes late getting to the sub. Then we were using the sub's rig instead of our own, and figuring out the hookup and controls, that delayed us a bit more. Finally we got going, and slow going it was even though we were using 100 watts instead of our usual QRP 5 watts. We made only 11 QSOs or maybe it was 12?
When the 'sanitizing' break for the sub came at 1:30PM we packed up and left to go and see my friend from WPIT whom I hadn't seen in some 30 years. Driving in Pittsburgh is always confusing as it is, but neither of us were familiar with the route to Charlie's house. We did get there quickly though, and it was a delight to see Charlie again. Except for aging as with all of us, he looked pretty much the same as he did the last time I saw him. Mike and he quickly became friends.
Then started about 2 hours of going back in time to the 1970s and 1980s. We went through a picture book and list of most of the WPIT employees from that era and talked about all the folks. We had trouble remembering some of the employees as there were about 100 or so on the list. There were a lot of sentimental memories, letters, etc. from the time when our tenure at the station ended when it was sold and all the employees were released. One letter particularly moved me from Beth whose husband had a talk program on the station. She would answer the phone for him, and I would sit there with her while I had tapes running on the AM station. Doug, her husband was on the FM. She and I could and did sit and talk about just any subject you could think of. When I read her farewell letter to me out loud to Mike and Charlie, I broke up and cried. I knew we thought a lot about each other, but when she expressed it in writing and I read it, I couldn't hold back the tears. There were also many other nice parting letters and memories, but that one was special.
I keep virtually everything and I had a lot of items from the station that we looked over from listeners guides to program schedules, bumper stickers, time cards, and on and on. We had a lot of girls acting as secretaries, receptionists, office workers, on air personalities and it was interesting to try to remember them all. Some we just had names for, others maybe an unidentified picture. We did figure out most of them between me and Charlie, but some still elude us. After all it's been 30-40 years or more since we've seen them. One in particular was a Karen E---. I had some letters from her that seemed to indicate that we were pretty close, but I just couldn't picture her until finally just today I found a picture in a listeners guide I thought might be her so I called Charlie and he confirmed that it was her.
Another thing was our lunches. A few of the girls and I would have lunch together many times, and I have some of the menus we ordered and a couple pictures of the group. A couple of the men would join us also now and then. Usually I'd go around and write down what each person wanted after we decided which fast food place got our order for the day. Then either I or one of the girls and I would go out and get the food and bring it back to our lunch room in the station.
Or in the evenings when Charlie and I would be working together, he and I and sometimes another employee or two would order from a Pizza Shop called (I believe) Mama Pina's to have a pizza, onion rings, etc. delivered. The store and delivery person and we became really good friends, so much so that they were sad when we told them one night it would be our last order since the station was sold and we were all being released. It wasn't just because they were losing the business, but as I said because we had become friends.
I just took a break from typing to get my streak QSO from VE3QAM on 40 meters.
I could go on for many more "pages" about yesterday, but let me close with this and then a picture of me and Charlie. When we left Charlie, Mike and I went to Chili's for a meal, then a stop at Pet Smart where Mike picked up a few things for his new dog. Then to a Dollar Tree store in Kittanning for a couple more Dog and other items for Mike. After that Mike dropped me off at home and went home to his dog in Brookville.
Now the picture
Of course that's Charlie on the left and me on the right. -30-
Wed Sep 29 9:09PM - An absolutely great day today that could make this diary entry book-length if I wrote it all down. Instead I'm just going to say tune in tomorrow when I'll have a "Readers Digest" story of the happenings of today. It's late now and I just got home not too long ago. So I'll just close here. -30-
Tue Sep 28 8:50PM - Not much to talk about today, so I'll talk about tomorrow. Mike and I will be heading to Pittsburgh to do a subpedition from the Requin. We hope to start a little after the sub opens at 1400Z and continue until 1730Z when the sub is shut down for an hour to "sterilize" it. This time we won't start back up again at 1830Z though. Instead we are going to leave at 1730Z to go visit a friend of mine from WPIT whom I haven't seen in person in about 30 years now. As for frequencies we'll try our usual 7041, 10117, and 14061 even though we will be using QRO power as I explained a few diary entries ago. We'll be using the sub call letters of NY3EC. Hope that covers it all. Hope to work you tomorrow. -30-
Mon Sep 27 9:10PM - A little late tonite for no particular reason. I was going to include a picture in the diary tonight, but I decided to postpone it until tomorrow night now.
I made a couple QSOs tonight for the streak. Again for no particular reason. I worked K4ABC in NC, then VE3FAC both on 40M. -30-
Sun Sep 26 8:18PM - Nothing much to talk about today, so I'll share a couple sunset pictures from last evening and a little story that goes with them.
As I do a couple times each day, I went to sit in the park. Usually one time, as it was last night, just before sunset, and after 15-20 minutes, a beautiful sunset started to be painted in the sky. It got better and better as time went by. I took a picture every time there was a change in the painting. All in all I wound up with 42 pictures in part one and two together. It did fade out not long after this picture was taken:
I walked down the park trail intending to go to Sprankle's Supermarket to see if a friend of mine was working that evening. Along the way I ran into a group of four teenage girls with a big dog. They were also taking sunset pictures so I stopped to talk with them. They were very friendly and we chatted for a while about the sunset and their dog. One girl said something about the dog's name that I didn't quite catch, so I asked her again. She said his name was Mingo. I asked how that name came about. She said he was a Rescue dog from Mingo County, West Virginia. I thought that was nice and told them so. Then I took one final picture and bid the girls so long. It was rewarding to see and talk to such nice girls in this day and age.
I then crossed the street, but when I looked back, a whole second part of the sunset started up, brighter and redder than before. I took some detours on my was to Sprankle's trying to find places to photograph this second round. It took up quite a bit of the horizon so I had to find some wide open places to get good shots. Here's an example of round two:
After the second round died out, I continued on to Sprankle's only to find my friend wasn't there. She had the day off, apparently.
Of course this being Sunday evening now, I'm doing my laundry right now, and I used the SST Sprint for my streak QSO with WG3J in DE on 40 meters. -30-
Sat Sep 25 8:13PM - Except for a beautiful sunset of which I got at least a couple dozen pictures, it was a day much like yesterday. My streak QSO was DX for the first time in about a week. I worked V31XX in Belize with just a couple calls and got a 579 which is usually an honest report. That was on 20 meters. Still no change in plans for next Wednesday as outlined in the entry for Sep 23. -30-
Fri Sep 24 8:34PM - Another day when nothing special happened. Just the usual everyday things. Please don't take that as a complaint because it isn't. Those everyday things are for the most part all good things, to be sure. Going for walks around town. Sitting in the park and doing some thinking or meditating. Of course getting my daily streak QSO. Walking Roscoe up to five times a day. Visiting with Roscoe's owner, Bruce and chatting for a while. Working in the yard or garden. Those are the everyday things that occupy my time along with fixing and eating meals, of course. Not an everyday thing, but going shopping every couple days or so. -30-
Thu Sep 23 8:24PM - The bands were pretty active tonight with a lot of QSOs in progress. It was hard to find a CQ, but I finally did find and work K4JJW in NC on 40.
I had a busy day today. I helped Bruce with some computer work. Then I spent time with Art from the Requin, Mike, and my WPIT friend Charlie arranging a subpedition and visit with Charlie. All that will take place next Wednesday, the 29th. Mike and I will be operating on the sub with their equipment and call sign of NY3EC from about 10:00AM EDT until 1:30PM (1400-1730Z), then heading to Charlie's house. It should be a fun day, especially the visit with Charlie, whom I haven't seen in person since the early 1990s when WPIT changed ownership and all the employees including us were released. Ever since Charlie and I talked about getting together about 3 weeks ago, I've been going through my old WPIT memorabilia and going on a timetravel of the mind back to 1969-1993. Sure a lot of good memories, and I've found a lot of things I want to share with Charlie on our visit. -30-
Wed Sep 22 8:58PM - I had a nice visit today from newly found ham here in town, Jim N3SE. Jim is just learning CW and hasn't been active on it yet which is why we never met on the air. Tom WB3FAE heard him on the air late one night and told me about him. He seems to be very interested in learning and using CW.
Other than that again nothing out of the ordinary here, except we had a tornado watch for Armstrong County this evening. No tornado, but torrential rain. Think I'll go get my weather readings now and come back and let you know just how much rain we did get. Well over an inch, I'm sure. 1.70" in my rain gauge and still raining. -30-
Tue Sep 21 8:25PM - The last day of Astronomical Summer. Sad. Sigh. Can the horrible demonic Winter and its s#$w be far behind? Well, at least October and most of November are pretty good around here most years. Sometimes even December is passable, at least.
Today was the day to take Roscoe to the Vet for his annual check-up, shots, etc. He passed everything just fine. That was good to hear.
My QSO tonight took a little bit of time to make, but I finally got an answer to my CQ from Jake N9FGC in IN on 40 meters.
I'm playing phone/text tag with Art from the Requin and Mike to decide our next subpedition. Art said the sub will be open on Monday the 27th, but Mike can't make it Monday for whatever reason and wants to make it Wednesday the 29th. That's where we stand right now. I'll let you know when a date is decided on. We've changed our policy on our subpeditions. Since we activate the submarine for its benefit to keep the radio room alive, and not so much QRP and the NAQCC, we are going to use the ship's radio equipment at higher power than our QRP rigs. We think it is somewhere in the 75-100 watt range. We did that before on the Museum Ships on the Air weekends and it worked out well with the sub's not overly efficient whip antenna, and we hope we'll do well with that setup from now on for our subpeditions. We'll also only use the ship's call of NY3EC. In case you don't know, that call came from the ship's call when it was in active service in the Navy which was NYEC. Then the 3 was added to make it a legal ham style call. -30-
Mon Sep 20 2021 8:45AM - That's not a typo, it's 8:45AM. I received an interesting email about the early days of the County Hunters Net and want to share it here. I think it will be of interest to county hunters, present and especially past. I know a lot of hunters from the early days of the net in the mid-late 1960s are now gone, but hopefully some are still around and will enjoy this info although it is sad.
The son of one of the county hunters who was with us from the beginning emailed the following which he gave me permission to post in its entirety:
"Hello.
You mention my mom, k1uzg, Barbara Mikkelsen, as a mobile operator participating in the County Hunters Net.
I am her son. I was licensed in 67 as wa1jms, and now use my Dad"s call, k1uzk.
We had the opportunity to travel in the US for two summers. As my Dad drove, my mom used the TR4 mounted in the car to work the net. I remember us getting off the highway, towing our trailer, and driving down some tough dirt roads to cross into a new county.
I am writing you because Monday, 9/13/2021, my Mom passed away at 90 years old. She kept her license active to the end.
Thanks for giving her such pleasure, and my family good memories.
Carl Mikkelsen (Jr.) k1uzk"
Sun Sep 19 2021 8:11PM - Not much happening again today. My Las Vegas Raiders won their game against the Pittsburgh Squealers, er Steelers today. I enjoyed that.
As usual on a Sunday evening, my streak QSO came from the SST when I worked N5KB in IA on 20 meters. -30-
Sat Sep 18 2021 8:23PM - My late afternoon early evening pipeline to Finland worked this evening on 20M. I worked OH8WW fairly easily in the SAC contest for my streak QSO.
Other than that, it was somewhat of a boring day today. I can't even recall anything I did out of the ordinary, except do some weeding around and pruning of my rosebushes. We had some kind of fireworks display this evening. I wanted to try to get some pictures with my iPhone, but every time I heard them and went outside, they stopped and I figured they were over. That happened 3 or 4 times before they finally were over for real. -30-
Fri Sep 17 2021 8:56PM - I was just updating my Propagation page and the time got away from me so I'll make this short so I can get my weather readings on time or thereabouts. It was a pretty nice day today with mostly sunny skies and a high of 86 on my remote unit.
My streak QSO tonite was WW5W on 20 meters. It didn't last long as the band changed, but long enough to be a QSO to extend the streak another day. -30-
Thu Sep 16 2021 8:29PM - Looks like we may not be going to the sub next Wednesday. Two more folks who work on the sub have come down with CoVid, and the sub is now closed. For how long, we don't know, but it may be a while till the powers that be decide what to do about the situation. That also means a delay in visiting my WPIT friend. I was really looking forward to that. I've really gotten into my WPIT history with him. I've got a lot of papers from my time at the station, as well as tapes/CDs of my on-air work and other things. -30-
Wed Sep 15 2021 8:27PM - Nice day today. Lot of rain predicted, but most all of it passed us by either to the NW or SE. We had a very nice sunset thanks to the nearby storm clouds.
I worked one of the Route 6 stations tonight for the streak. It was W6P in St. Louis, MO. -30-
Tue Sep 14 2021 8:36PM - I had several phone calls with my WPIT friend today. I'm going to visit him in Pittsburgh next Wednesday if everything works out. Other than that not much else to talk about.
My streak QSO tonight was with K4MIA/5 in MS honoring MIA/POWs. Had a tough time getting him, but finally did get him after several tries. -30-
Mon Sep 13 2021 9:38PM - Just a very short entry tonight. I just finished a long phone call from a friend with whom I worked at WPIT. I haven't talked to him in 2 or 3 years now so we had a lot to get caught up on. Now it's late and I need to walk Roscoe, etc., so 73 for now. -30-
Sun Sep 12 2021 8:18PM - A good time was had by all today at the hamfest, Ponderosa, and visiting WB3FAE at home.
Mike got here about 8:15AM and we talked for a while before heading off to Unionville for the hamfest. The highlight of the hamfest was Mike winning a prize drawing, as well as getting BCARA members to sign a get well card we took to WB3FAE later in the day. Here's a picture of Me, Bob WC3O, Mike KC2EGL in the foreground and I'm not sure who that was in the background.
Looks like Mike has a tight grip on that prize he won.
A couple other things I should mention. There was a prize drawing for anyone under 17 who was a ham. Sadly no one qualified. There was one girl there who looked about twelve or so, she was wearing a ham call shirt. I checked with her, but she wasn't a ham. That was about the only person I saw under 17. Also our SCM W3BC came up to us and Mike talked up my streak with him. W3BC said to let him know when the streak reached 10,000 days and he'd write it up in the section newsletter.
Our stop at Ponderosa on the way home was good as always and we both left stuffed as we made our way to see Tom WB3FAE at Chicora.
We had a nice couple hour long visit with Tom. He is recovering nicely from his open heart surgery. After that it was back home for an hour or so before Mike had to leave and go to his home and his new dog. More about the dog later. -30-
Sat Sep 11 2021 8:33PM - I got my streak QSO in one of my least favorite contests, the NA Sprint. I don't like the format of always jumping around in frequency. That pretty much requires using a computer for contesting. I prefer doing it the old fashioned way with key and brain. However I'm not totally anti-computer. It makes a very convenient way to dupe check and to log, especially when your printing and writing become sloppy and hard to read when you get older, which describes me. HI
Otherwise not much to report out of the ordinary today. In fact I can't think of a thing. Tomorrow will be different on the other hand as Mike and I are going to the Unionville hamfest, followed by a visit to Ponderosa, then a visit to Tom WB3FAE who is recovering from surgery. Watch for a report in tomorrow's diary, hopefully written by Mike, but if not, then by me as usual. -30-
Fri Sep 10 2021 8:37PM - The bands were alive tonite with the FOC QSO Party, so I just used it to get my streak QSO from Bert W5ZR in LA. That means there are 100 days left till my streak reaches 10,000 days. Of course, the countdown above on this page will always keep track of the number of days left.
Thanks to Steve K0SAM for emailing the following about "under the weather": "Sailing ship sailors that were ill were sent below the weather deck to recover. Thus the phrase under the weather." I learned something today, so it wasn't a wasted day. Plus it was a great day otherwise, but I won't go into that. -30-
Thu Sep 9 2021 8:12PM - Four days in a row now the SF has been 100 or more, and the bands are starting to sound like it. Better start checking those higher bands for DX. You have been warned now. Don't blame me if you miss out on some choice DX.
I'm looking forward to this Sunday. Mike and I will be going to the Unionville hamfest. It's always a nice compact hamfest where we find some nice bargains and meet some friends from the Butler area. One friend who won't be there this year is Tom WB3FAE who is recovering from surgery. However Mike and I are going to visit him at home on our way back here to Kittanning.
We had planned to do a subpedition on Monday. However it was an on off thing before now. Now it is off because Art who runs the sub and especially the radio room is under the weather and won't be there. So neither will we.
Wonder where that expression "under the weather" for being ill came from. If you know, email me and let me know. -30-
Wed Sep 8 2021 8:31PM - Not much happening again today. I did get my monthly box of food from the food bank. Also Ray WA3PRR mailed back my KX1 that I loaned to him some time ago. I received it today. It rained so I didn't get my full allocation of walks and sits in the park, but I did get a couple. My streak QSO came from a 1X1 SE station K4A in AL on 40M. And that about sums up the day outside of the usual activities that I won't bore you with. -30-
Tue Sep 7 2021 8:17PM - I worked my friend Niko S53A on 20M tonight for the streak QSO.
I had several text exchanges and a phone call from new ham friend N3SE here in Kittanning. I think he is going to be a nice addition to the group of Mike and me. He works a long schedule which will prevent him from joining us in some activities but he'll try to join us when he can.
The weather was nice today, but a bit humid for the first time in a while now. My air conditioner came on for the first time in a few days today. -30-
Mon Sep 6 2021 8:07PM - A quick streak QSO tonite thanks to the MI QRP Sprint from WQ8RP on 40M. Nothing much to report today. The weather was nice for walking and sitting in the park thinking. Other than that, I can't think of anything really worth talking about. I did order a tripod for my iPhone so I might be able to take some time lapse pictures of a sunset sometime. -30-
Sun Sep 5 2021 8:30PM - A nice mostly sunny cool day today. Good for walking and sitting in the park, followed by a detour to Sprankle's on the way home.
Other than that, just nothing much else going on. Just sitting around being lazy. HI Right now as I do each Sunday evening, I'm doing my laundry while typing this. Also as usual each Sunday evening, I got my streak QSO via the SST sprint from WG3J in DE on 40M.
Nothing special planned as of now for Labor Day tomorrow. That never was one of my favorite holidays anyway. -30-
Sat Sep 4 2021 8:25PM - A little different day around here today. I went for my walk this morning and sat in the park for a while. Then I went to Sprankle's to see if my favorite check-out girl was working, and she was, but they were very busy and I didn't get a chance to chat with her more than a few words. Now maybe the story gets interesting. My neighbor Bruce makes chili every now and then. He often says he is going to make it, then changes his mind. That happened today. Now if he were going to make it, I would have to go to Sprankle's with his brother Jeff. Get the picture? Yes, I would see my "girl" again. So I told her I'd let her go for now, but I may be back later to get some things for my neighbor. She seemed to like that, so I was determined to get my neighbor to make the chili today, which I did, so it was back to Sprankle's again and this time I got in a good chat with my friend. Then I and his brother helped Bruce make the chili which was delicious. In fact, I'll be having some more of it when I go over to take Roscoe out for his last walk.
Other than that little sneaky episode, it was pretty much a normal day. Oh, I did watch quite a bit of the Penn State-Wisconsin football game which Penn State won 16-10.
My QSO tonight came from WB8MIW on 40 meters.
OK, off to get my weather now. -30-
Fri Sep 3 2021 8:30PM - The day with Mike turned out very good except for one thing I'll get to in a moment. Mike arrived around 10:15AM or so. I showed off the gifts that Mike N4VBV sent to me. We played for a while with the new engine. We applied some "bullfrog snot" traction solution to the wheels sometime along the way. That helped the engine pull a little heavier load. Then we charged up the battery for the drone. That would take a while so we decided we'd postpone the drone flying until later in the day, and go on our fishing expedition before that.
We started off on the trip, but decided that I better get some more worms as I only had a few left from our previous trip. That started the downfall. We went back on our route to Honey Bear but they were out of worms. So we went to another place called Transue's and I got a container of red worms there. By that time we really confused the GPS lady. HI She sent us all over west PA, it seemed for about an hour before we got back on track and finally to our destination. The water was high and muddy and we thought the fish might not be biting. However they went after my red worms like they were very hungry. They on the other hand, didn't seem to like Mike's lure that he was using. Mike had a couple hits, but the fish spit out the lure before he could land them. I wound up catching 9 fish, a mix of bass and bluegills. I think it was either 3 or 4 bass and the rest the bluegills. Here's a pix of one of the bluegills.
We came home around 4PM with a stop at Wendy's, Dollar Tree, and Walmart for a meal and some shopping. At home we flew the drone for a while. It was my first time at the controls, and I think I learned them pretty well. I did have some trouble with depth perception and had trouble judging just how far away it was in the blue sky. I'll have to work on that and fine tune my use of the controls on the remote unit. It should be fun. One drawback is that the battery only holds a charge for 7 minutes.
We did a little more work on the train, and did some listening on the bands before it was time for Mike to head home. Except for the meandering detour, it was another great day. -30-
Thu Sep 2 2021 8:41PM - Man, it's dark already. I hate to see these earlier sunsets as they are the harbingers of that horrible season of winter. Even though it is 3 months away, it still is frightening.
I received the package from N4VBV I mentioned a few days ago. It indeed was a surprise. I'm not going to reveal the contents now as Mike will probably read this and I want him to share in my surprise when he comes for a visit tomorrow.
It was a bit rough getting my streak QSO again tonight, but I finally made it thanks to NR4A down in Tampa on 40 meters. -30-
Wed Sep 1 2021 8:58PM - A busy day today with leftover EOM chores and then the FOM ones. I got everything done though, I think. I think I get a little slower each month as I get older. HI. Maybe because I have more things on my mind these days and my multi-task capabilities are getting less and less. I don't know. HI.
Took a while to get my QSO this evening plus I was a little late getting home from Sprankle's and getting to the shack. However I did eventually get WB2KUT on 40 on Long Island.
Pizza coming so I better close now. -30-
Tue Aug 31 2021 8:19PM - And another month bites the dust with its usual EOM/FOM chores, most of which I have yet to do. About all I got done was to upload my August logs to eQSL and LoTW. I also got my EOM natural gas meter reading. I didn't do any financial stuff because I knew I was going to make my usual evening trip to Sprankle's to get some groceries and to see my check out girl____friend there. HI. So I'll have to do that tomorrow, I guess. It's kind of late to start that now.
I got a DX station with a neat prefix for my streak tonight. It was TI200I on 20 meters on my second call to him. Let's see if I can find out what the special prefix is for. The bicentennial anniversary of Costa Rican independence. Nice.
Jasmine enjoyed the sunset pictures and showed me some another friend took from out in the country. No sunset tonight as Ida is sending her cloud deck up here with some light rain. -30-
Mon Aug 30 2021 8:23PM - Just after I got to the shack, I happened to pull aside the blind and was greeted by a beautiful sunset where there had been nothing but grey skies not more than a few minutes earlier. So I jumped out of my seat, grabbed my camera and headed outside. Here's a sample of the sunset:
Pretty nice? Huh? It snuck in quickly and left just as fast, but left its mark in these and a few other images.
So that made it a good day. Oops, I said I wasn't going to talk about good and bad days any longer. Sorry.
After I got the pictures, I came back to the shack and saw an S9+ peak on the PX3. It was AF2F/W4 on 30 meters. I don't know where he was located, but I got him on one call. And that wraps up today to this point. Now come a couple busy days with the EOM/FOM chores plus a shopping trip thrown in tomorrow. -30-
Sun Aug 29 2021 8:09PM - As usual, a day with Mike KC2EGL is a great one, and today was no exception. He arrived a few minutes past 8:00AM and we left for Skyview a few minutes after that. The trip there was uneventful, and we didn't get lost. Mike forgot to set his GPS, so I set mine and we used it.
We started to set up as soon as we got there, but the station is so complicated and we hadn't been there in a couple years so we needed help from Bob WC3O and a couple other members who are there much more often than we are.
My setup on 40 went more smoothly than Mike on 20, so I got a head start. I got an answer to my CQs within a couple minutes from KA9FCZ in Olney, IL. From then on, I had pretty much a steady stream of QSOs. I was rag chewing with each person I worked so I only totalled 12 QSOs in all in the few hours we worked. It was enjoyable. With their big antenna farm, I was able to keep a QSO going as long as the person on the other end wanted to talk.
I think Mike wound up with 6 QSOs after his slow start. Of course it was enjoyable having the eyeball QSOs with those who dropped in to see our QRP demo. I especially enjoyed with the gentleman who was instrumental in setting up operations on the USS Requin back in 1990 or so. I wish I could remember his call. He preceded Art in taking care of the Requin.
After we left Skyview, we went to the Mills to get me a pair of shoes. They didn't have a pair in my rare 8 1/2 W size, so we moved on to our next goal, a meal at Chili's. Except for a bit of a wait for a seat and the absence of cute young hostess Kelly, that went smoothly, and the meal was great, as usual. Next it was on to home, with a stop at Walmart where I did get a pair of shoes.
Here at home we watched a few videos of Big Boy 4014, chatted, and checked the bands before Mike headed for home.
To close now pictures of the intrepid operators at Skyview.
That's it for today. -30-
Sat Aug 28 2021 8:19PM - Thanks to Mike N4VBV, a long time friend and diary reader for the email today. He was concerned about my mentioning the bad days lately. I appreciate the concern. It's really not as bad as perhaps I make it sound. The best I can describe it without going into a lot of detail is just that I get MILDLY depressed about some things when they just don't turn out as I would like. There are probably more really great days like today in the mix than there are bad days. Today was a real winner. I hate to be mysterious about it and I probably should just stop mentioning the good and bad days since they are really a personal thing and not public. Enuff sed on the matter. I don't want to make it more mysterious than I have already done.
Mike N4VBV also said he is sending along a package of goodies for me, but he didn't say what they were as he wants it to be a surprise. HI I'll be looking for the package. He sent a tracking number so I can see when it will arrive, but I haven't checked it yet.
Tomorrow Mike (KC2EGL) and I will be giving our annual QRP demo from the SkyView hamfest in New Kensington using our QRP rigs with their big antenna farm. We'll try to stick around the QRP frequencies from around 1300 to 1800Z or so depending on activity, QRM, etc. If activity is down, we may wander around the bands and call other stations. If only Mike and I operate, we'll probably stick to 40 and 20 (maybe 30) meters for our CQs, and wander the higher bands if they are open for DX. I guess mostly just play it by ear. We'll be using the NAQCC club call of N3AQC.
My streak QSO tonight was in the OH QP from N8BJQ on 80 meters, my first 80M streak QSO in some time now. -30-
Fri Aug 27 2021 8:45PM - Today is best left uncommented on. It wasn't that good except for one thing. I received the noise limiter from Lane N8AFT that he sent me to try out on my local noise here. Maybe when Mike comes on Sunday and next Friday we can fool with it and see how it works. -30-
Thu Aug 26 2021 8:18PM - An OK day today. Nothing exciting happened. A nice day for walking and sitting in the park. I met someone who knows one of my 1963 classmates. I guess that's a little exciting. HI. My QSO tonight was a POTA station. I didn't get his POTA #, QTH, or nambe, but we did exchange RSTs, so it was good for my streak QSO. I'm off in a few minutes to watch "The African Queen" with my neighbor so that's it for the diary. -30-
Wed Aug 25 2021 8:28PM - A good day today. Nothing really out of the ordinary, but nothing went wrong anyway. HI. We had some rain this evening and I missed my walk and sit in the park followed by a stop at the grocery store. But we got paid back for the annoyance with a beautiful and somewhat out of the ordinary sunset as shown here:
As I labeled it, simply "Different".
A quick, if a bit late because of taking the sunset pictures, streak QSO tonight from K4JJW on 40 meters.
Looking forward to Sunday with Mike going to the Skyview hamfest, dinner at Chili's, and shopping at the Mills. Then another visit next Friday for a drone flying session, then a fishing trip. -30-
Tue Aug 24 2021 8:58PM - This was a good day. When you expect things to go wrong and it turns out just the opposite, it's a great feeling that makes for a great day. I'm not going into details, but that's what happened to me today. This is a separate incident, but a good one also. I'm still learning the intricacies of my iPhone and one thing hung me up. I just couldn't figure it out. So I asked Jasmine when she got home from school and it took her all of a few seconds to explain it to me. Not only is she young, but very intelligent, both of which help when dealing with modern computer style stuff.
I just had a funny incident also not related. Well, in a way. My neighbor's brother Jeff came over and asked me if I was missing a 5 dollar bill. I checked my receipt from Sprankle's and saw that my friend Haylee had indeed given me a 5 dollar bill in change. Jeff said Bruce or he found a chewed up 5 dollar bill on the couch. Turned out I was sitting there with Roscoe and it must have come out of my pocket when I pulled out my iPhone for something as I have the bad habit of stuffing my change in that pocket. I guess it was a delicacy to Roscoe. So now I have a small paper jigsaw to try to put together. HI HI.
My streak tonight was with Roger WB2ZIY whom I've worked several times in the past couple months. He just wanted to say hello, so I got a quick QSO. -30-
Mon Aug 23 2021 8:49PM - Made it before 9:00 tonight for a change. Still not much to talk about. It was kind of a lonely day with school starting up today. I passed the time working on my sidewalk, pulling the grass out from the cracks in the bricks. Inspired by what Jasmine and I did the other day, I guess. HI. Other than that just an ordinary quiet day. I worked POTA activator N9MM for my streak QSO tonight. I don't know where he was operating from. It doesn't really matter as long as it was a QSO which it was. -30-
Sun Aug 22 2021 11:13PM - Yes, 11:13PM. My diary entries are getting later and later each night, it seems. Let's see, tonight right after I got my streak QSO at 8:05PM, I took 28 pictures of a beautiful sunset. With school starting tomorrow, my sunset picture taking friend Jasmine had to go to bed early, and I didn't want her to miss this sunset which was one of the better ones. So I texted her about 8 of the 28 pictures. I hope she enjoys them. I didn't get a reply from her yet so she must have been asleep already. The other night she sent me pix of a nice sunset that I missed.
When I was young, I hated when summer vacation ended and school started up again. Now that I'm old, I hate it again because I won't see as much of Jasmine nor a couple other young friends. But that's life.
After the pictures, my neighbor Bruce wanted to get us a pizza and watch an old Laurel and Hardy short, "Big Business". It's one of the funniest of all silent shorts. You should watch it if you can. We also watched a couple other L&H shorts as well. All of that pretty much ate up the evening until now if you include the regular activities of getting my weather readings, walking Roscoe and so forth. -30-
Sat Aug 21 2021 10:35PM - Late tonight, as happens quite often of late it seems. Tonight I was watching the movie "Casablanca" with my neighbor. Nothing much happened today to write about anyway. Kind of a quiet day after the great day yesterday. Worked WD4E in NC on 40 for the streak extension of another day. -30-
Fri Aug 20 2021 8:27PM - WOW! OK, that sums up today in a tiny nutshell. I had a great day with a couple of my friends. I don't want to say more about that, but they are girls whom I have come to like very much. Please realize that they are not girlfriends, but best described as friends who happen to be girls. I hope you understand that. With one, I helped clean the grass out of her sidewalk. Another I gave a little gift to that she really liked.
Otherwise I don't remember anything I did out of the ordinary. My streak is down to about four months left to reach the 10,000 day mark. Tonight it was helped along by AG4JT in VA on 40 meters.
I still intend to talk about BCB DXing. Just as a teaser tonight. On the 530-1700 kHz BCB I have logged 49 of the 50 states. Never heard Alaska yet. Somewhere around 60 countries, I believe, and close to 2,000 stations. I'll have to dig out my BCB logs to verify those guesses, but I think they are close. Most of those from the 1960s and 1970s when stations signed off at midnight, not like the 24/7 operations common today with automated programming. I really enjoyed it and probably spent more time at it than ham radio. It will be interesting for me to look back in my logs to see just how I did, and then add some interest in writing about it in the diary. It may be stretched out though as I have a lot of other interests going for me right now also. -30-
Thu Aug 19 2021 9:03PM - A busy day with a lot I could write about, but I'm running late again tonight because I had 3 QSOs in the 0000Z hour including one 22 minute rag chew and 8 and 9 minute QSOs. Just felt like talking tonight.
Early this morning I went shopping, walking, and sitting in the park. When I got home I helped Ange in the garden. After that, Jasmine and I cut our grass. Actually she did most of it as she likes to do things herself. Which is kind of like me. I love helping others, but like to do my own work myself. Then a little later I visited with Jasmine and we played some trivia and talked. That pretty much is a "Readers Digest" version of the day which I'd rate a very good one. I'll try to get to the BCB DX, etc. I mentioned last night down the road a bit. -30-
Wed Aug 18 2021 9:01PM - As you see from the time stamp, I'm running late tonight. Why? Because of a great rag chew with K3PI down in NC on 40 meters. One thing we talked about was MW BCB DXing, something we both have enjoyed. Someday when I have more time, I'm going to devote one or maybe a few diary entries to BCB DXing and maybe throw in some FM and TV DXing also. I sure had a lot of enjoyment from those hobbies mostly back in the 60s and 70s, I guess. Now I've got to cut this short and get in a few things like walking Roscoe. -30-
Tue Aug 17 2021 8:58AM - Yes, AM. I thought I'd upload some more pictures from our weekend together. I see I did the Skeeter Hunt pictures in Sunday's diary entry.
L-R: The Oyster House, The Camera Shop and owner, Keystone Lake, Mike Fishing
L-R: A "big" bluegill I caught, Mike operating at the Requin, Me outside the Requin, A look up the river. -30-
Mon Aug 16 2021 8:40PM - As we did on Saturday and Sunday, Mike and I had a great time again today. We got up around 8:00AM and did some walking and chatting before heading to Pittsburgh and the USS Requin. The trip went smoothly and we met Art at the sub just around 10:00AM. Set up for operating had a minor glitch with one switch not in the right position in the sub wiring. After that was caught and corrected, the rest of the operation went smoothly but slowly. We only made 7 QSOs in almost 4-5 hours of operating with time out for the daily disinfefting of the sub from about 1:30-2:30PM. The most distant contact was Utah. We shut down around 4:00PM and headed to Chili's in the Pittsburgh Mills Mall for a great meal and a beautiful young host. We will be going back there again soon, perhaps after the Skyview Hamfest on the 29th.
We also made a decision about our subpeditions that may be a bit shocking to some, especially QRP purists. We decided that since future subpeditions are to benefit the sub in providing publicity and not so much to show off QRP, we will be using high power, probably between 75 and 100 watts which we feel will allow more hams to work and find out about the USS Requin and help preserve its heritage for future generations.
When we got back here, Mike packed up and headed home after a great weekend. Me? I'm settling back into my normal routine. I'm not sure if that is good or bad. Maybe it's both. HI -30-
Sun Aug 15 2021 8:28PM - Mike and I got up around 8:00AM, and killed time until about 10:20AM. I had taken Roscoe out around 9:45AM. At 10:20 we packed up the car with out ham radio gear and headed out to Butler and the Ponderosa there for brunch. After brunch we headed back to Kittanning and up to the Kittanning Community Park where we set up our gear for the Skeeter Hunt that would start at 1:00PM. It was typical of other setups for operating in the park. Once the operation got underway, it turned out to be the reverse of our FOBB operation where Mike had 20 meters and did very well and I had 40 meters and did very poorly. This time we reversed bands and the results in turn reversed. I did well on 20 and Mike did less well on 40. There was some very fast deep QSB mostly on 40, but quite a bit on 20 at times also. Activity in general on both bands tended to die down about half way through the 4 hour sprint and we made very few QSOs in that last two hour segment. We wound up with 39 QSOs in 23 S/P/Cs.
We headed back home, put my station back together, sent in our Skeeter summary, and then headed off to Sprankle's to get myself a sandwich for our Requin subpedition tomorrow. Next it was up to my shack to work some European DX in the European Contest. Mike worked Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. I was just waiting around for 0000Z to get my streak QSO in the SST sprint which I did at 0002Z when I worked WB9HFK on 40 meters. Now we're just sitting around killing time before going to bed and waiting to wake up and head to Pittsburgh and the sub.
Before that, I just decided to upload some pictures from the Skeeter Hunt.
Me operating
Mike operating
Me having fun in a break in the action
-30-
Sat Aug 14 2021 8:40PM - Mike arrived about a little befor 11AM, and we chatted for a few minutes before heading off to Pittsburgh and the Camera Repair Service in Market Square. That was an event in itself trying to find a parking space there. Some type of festival was going on and parking spaces were at a premium. It took us maybe 20 minutes to find a parking space about three blocks from where we wanted to go.
We walked to the camera shop. At the camera shop Mike purchased a camera bag to use for radio gear and a part for his 35 MM film camera. Then we went back to feed the parking meter which is an event in itself since it doesn't take coins and doesn't take credit cards all that straightforward either. But finally it was fed and we went to feed ourselves at the Oyster House. We both had the "Our Famous Jumbo Fish Sandwich" and Mike added the platter which included fries and cole slaw. We then killed some time taking pictures in Market Square before heading back to the car and heading home for the second part of our adventure.
When we got home we took a very short break before starting our fishing adventure, and adventure it was. First we had to find some bait in the form of worms. The local Honey Bear had taken down their "Live Bait" signs, so I assumed they no longer sold live bait. I was wrong as we'll see in a minute. We went to the another bait store in town and wouldn't you know it, they were closed for a week. So it was back to Honey Bear where we found they still did sell bait, but for whatever reason, they took down the "Live Bait" signs. OK, now it should be simple, right? Seems that way, doesn't it? Wrong!!
OK, we're going to a place on Keystone Lake near a small town called Meredith. All we had to do was look for a green sign pointing to the right with "Meredith" on it. Well, when we got to a junction with a road going to Dayton, I was sure we had gone past the Meredith sign, and was also sure that it was no longer where it should have been. OK, on to the GPS to take us to Keystone Lake which it did, but not to the right spot. Where it took us was to a spot not easily accessible. Next? A GPS search for Meredith. It took us back to the way we had come. Indeed there was a Meredith there but it had grown considerably since the last time I was there. The green sign now pointed to the other side of the road which had a large developed area now. There was a turnoff called "Center Street" which looked at first like the old Meredith road, but wasn't. The old Meredith road was now called White Oak Road and it took us to the correct fishing area finally.
It hadn't really changed much in the several years since I was there. We baited up and threw in. Both of us got a bluegill rather quickly. Mike's was the bigger one, but I wound up getting more, 18 more to be exact. The way they were biting was very similar to how they bit the last time I was out there. The reason I got more than Mike was that I was using red worms and he was using a lure.
Oh, all were sunfish or bluegills, whichever you like to call them. Finally the biting slowed down to a crawl, and we packed up and headed home. We went up to my shack and got my QSO, and now I'm sitting here typing this interjected by Mike's comments as he sits across the room with his iPhone. He just made a very profound statement which you won't believe. He asked me if I knew we had skipped dinner. And oh the horror as we realized it. Now in a few minutes we're going to do something about that. Maybe some pictures in tomorrow's diary entry. -30-
Fri Aug 13 2021 8:39PM - Whoever said Friday the 13th was a bad luck day had no idea what they were talking about. At least for me today. I had a great day thanks to a couple of friends whom I spent some time with. Also the weather was pretty good although we are getting some rain now. But then that's good. I'd say Ange's garden is well taken care of until he gets home Sunday evening or Monday morning.
I got my streak QSO in a contest, perhaps the European DX Contest? Anyway it was LZ5R on 20 meters.
Now the next three days should be great too with Mike here. -30-
Thu Aug 12 2021 8:56PM - Another in the series of the same kind of days of late. At least we've had some good rains which has meant I haven't had to bother watering Ange's garden while he is on vacation. That's been a big relief.
Mike and I are going to add a fishing trip to our Saturday schedule, weather permitting. That will be only the second time I've gone fishing in the past couple years. The other time was also with Mike earlier this year. This time we're going to Keystone Lake to fish for some sunfish/bluegills. -30-
Wed Aug 11 2021 8:52PM - A good/bad day. I guess the "baddest" thing was realizing this evening that I missed our NAQCC sprint last night. I had other things on my mind and I was thinking it was this evening instead of last. I'd be quite upset had this been the first one I missed, but I missed a few in the past as well.
A good thing was working DX for my streak QSO in the form of FM5BH on 40 meters. There were other good/bad things also, but I'll just settle for giving these brief samples. HI -30-
Tue Aug 10 2021 8:58PM - Of late, these days just seem to merge one into the next with really not a lot of new or different things happening. That's both good and bad because I don't really like change all that much, but on the other hand it does get boring or even a little depressing at times. Also it doesn't really make the diary all that easy to write or to read, I am sure. But that's the way life is at times. At least things will get better this weekend when Mike visits for Sat, Sun, and Mon. Saturday we are going to Pittsburgh to visit a camera shop and get a meal at the Oyster House. Sunday it's the Skeeter Hunt, and Monday a subpedition to the Requin in Pittsburgh. -30-
Mon Aug 9 2021 9:06PM - One of those days when nothing seems to go right, so I'm not going to say much more about it. It even took what seemed to be forever to get a good QSO this evening. I worked W0M in MO, but I wasn't sure he got my call right so I went for another one and finally found and worked W1EAT some 20 minutes later on 40 meters. -30-
Sun Aug 8 2021 4:17PM - OK, I promised a report on our tag team effort in yesterday's NAQP Contest, so here goes.
Mike arrived between 11:15AM and 11:30AM. We sat down and talked for a while after we did some walking laps in the house for our exercise since we'd be sitting for a long stretch in the contest. Then we sat down and continued talking about this and that. Among other things, I showed Mike some newer apps I had gotten for my iPhone, and he in turn showed me some tricks for the iPhone. When it got to be around 1:30PM or so, we went up to my shack to set up for the contest. We wanted to start early in case there were some glitches to overcome. Here's what the setup looked like:
I sat at the desk, and Mike at the table. Both our keys and headphones are connected through Y adapters to my KX3. We take turns working stations. I find and work them first, then Mike works them. That works most of the time unless the band changes or the station moves or shuts down. I think that only happened 6 times out of some 120 QSOs that I made. However I did add a few stations to my total while Mike was tearing down his setup.
Conditions were pretty good overall except for a lot of rapid QSB. It was so rapid at times that signals would go up and down while a station was sending his call or name. We spent most of the time on 20 with excursions up to 15, and then closing down on 40 around 10:00PM. We put in 8 hours with time out for a couple of subs around 9:00PM. I made 120 QSOs in 60 band S/P/Cs and Mike made around 10-15 less due to the missed stations and his quitting earlier than I did. We worked quite a bit of DX including several KP4s, a couple KP2s, ZF, PY. We worked probably 35 or so states, including most of the western ones except Utah. I almost got Utah, but he never got past having my call as K3WP so I didn't log him.
I had a great time working a lot of stations that I had worked many times in the past, but hadn't worked recently like N4ZZ, K4RO, WO4O, WJ9B, and many more that don't pop right into my mind. I noticed for some reason my brain was working like it was a lot younger. I could easily dupe check in my head, easier than I had done recently. I guess maybe that's due to having a couple of young teenage friends acting as my Fountain of Youths. HI HI I think regular diary readers know what I'm talking about.
Anyway, back on track. Mike headed home right after shutting down. We'll be getting together a few more times in the next couple weeks. Let's see, the Skeeter Hunt, Skyview S and S, a subpedition, and perhaps an extra trip to Pittsburgh for some non-ham radio things. More about them as the time draws closer. -30-
Sat Aug 7 2021 10:43PM - Busy most of the day on the NAQP with Mike. Report in tomorrow's diary. -30-
Fri Aug 6 2021 8:56PM - Yet another quiet day except for one major thing. I had problems with my laptop computer. I couldn't get my password to work, and then it timed out and I spent several hours trying to find another way to access the computer. It's a long story and I won't drag it out. I'll just say as I said to a friend of mine at the grocery store that I finally won the battle and got it going.
Tomorrow Mike and I will be doing the NAQP Contest as a tag team. That will be fun. -30-
Thu Aug 5 2021 9:16PM - Not much going on today. The Armstrong Folk Festival is taking place in the park so I couldn't even go there for a sitting thinking session. I did do some walking and some banking and shopping along the way. Other than that I can't think of anything out of the ordinary. The bands were a bit off this evening with not much activity and it took a while to add another day to the streak, but I did when I worked Norm KC1BMD in ME on 40. I wonder what tomorrow will bring now. -30-
Wed Aug 4 2021 8:33PM - I neglected to mention it yesterday, but when I worked W4TJE last night, that completed 27 years of my streak QSOs. Tonight when I worked KA2BKG, that got the 28th year underway. Whew, that's a long time. It's roughly 35.5% of my lifetime if I figure right. I really hope I can reach the 10,000 day mark on December 21 this year. If I don't make it, it won't be that QRP and CW doesn't work. That's for sure. It will be some other non-related reason that brings it to an end.
It was a good day today. I got some outside work done like cutting my grass with the help of my friend Jasmine. I also helped her cut some of hers and I was glad to do that. I was hoping for a good sunset tonight after some rain storms passed close by, but it was only poor to fair. -30-
Tue Aug 3 2021 8:48PM - Same old, same old. At least there was a nice sunset to photograph tonight. And a quick streak QSO to give me time to take the pictures. -30-
Mon Aug 2 2021 8:49PM - Late again tonight. Taking sunset pictures. Not much to write about anyway. Maybe tomorrow will bring more action. HI -30-
Sun Aug 1 2021 8:07PM - Once again on a Sun evening, the SST sprint gave me a quick (0002Z) QSO from W0GAS in CO on 20M. Another pretty quiet day today. I did paint my back door steps in trying to keep up with a maintenance chore each day. Not much else though besides a couple walks and thinking sessions in the park. We have the Folk Festival in the park from Wed through Sun now though so I'll have to find some other place to do my thinking. HI -30-
Sat Jul 31 2021 7:30PM - As usual, the last day of a month is a busy one, and today was no exception. I've got most of the EOM chores done. I still have to upload my July logs to LoTW and eQSL and a few other such things. I may do them later tonight or wait till tomorrow depending on my mood. Hopefully I'll get a quick streak QSO tonight and have some time left to decide on what to do. -30-
Fri Jul 30 2021 8:15PM - A very good day today. First of all, this evening my streak QSO was DX with CT9/DL5LYM on 20 meters. He wasn't all that strong, but I worked him easily after waiting through 4 or 5 other stations.
Secondly, I did a lot of yard work which was sadly needed. I just hadn't been in the mood to take care of it lately. The neglect showed.
I went for a couple walks and sat in the park a couple times. The weather was just about right for such activities. Near 80, humidity not too high, and a nice breeze blowing.
Tomorrow is my friend Jasmine's 17th birthday, and I gave her my presents today since she is having a big party tomorrow for (I'm guessing) her young friends and/or family so I won't see much of her then. It was a pleasure seeing her enjoying the gifts. I got a card this morning to go with her gifts. I thought the verse on it was very appropriate for her. You'd agree if you knew her. Here it is:
-30-
Thu Jul 29 2021 1:31PM - Just got my 13 Colonies certificate, so that will serve as my diary entry for today.
-30-
Wed Jul 28 2021 7:38PM - Pretty much another nothing day. I did do some yard work and also did some work on my house plants. Otherwise just the usual walks and sitting in the park doing some thinking. -30-
Tue Jul 27 2021 8:53PM - OK, got to get this done before my weather readings at 9 followed by a pizza delivery, so here goes. Really not much to talk about except to say it was a good day. Also my streak QSO was DX tonight - E78A on 20 meters. It was a hot day. It hit 90 on my remote unit. Felt like it too. I took a couple walks and didn't get overly tired. I think all the walking I've been doing since I got my iPhone and Apple watch have really improved my fitness. Thanks Jasmine, for encouraging me to get them. OK, better run now. -30-
Mon Jul 26 2021 11:23AM - I thought I'd take time here to write about the FOBB yesterday. Mike arrived about 10:15AM or so and we killed time talking, running my trains, etc. until a little after noon when we packed up and headed to the Community Park. Setup went pretty smoothly. Mike had a bit of trouble with the ATU in his KX3 which was cured by a reboot of the KX3. I let him choose which band he wanted and he took 20, which left me with 40.
I started calling CQ when the event started, and quickly sensed something wasn't right. I bypassed the ATU in the KX3 and found a very high SWR which was unusual because the antenna has always had a low SWR. With the ATU, it was 1:1.2 or so, but then the tuner in the KX3 is too good and it will tune a piece of coax to 1:1 with or without an antenna connected. If you have a KX3, you should always bypass the ATU when checking a new or different antenna. It turned out that there was a bad connection in the coax and the ATU indeed was tuning just a section of coax. It took a long time to find and fix it, and I lost 55 minutes of air time in the FOBB.
Once I got started, Mike was already 10 or so QSOs on the way, and I never did catch him. I wound up with 19 QSOs and he got 33 for a total of 52 between us. We worked 22 states plus ON and QC. 21 of the 52 were with other 'Bumblebees' for a preliminary score of 3,276.
While we were operating, we took some pictures (below), dealt with some fellow looking for a Troy Hill Park, and I thought of maybe eating at Ponderosa after the contest. I gave them a call to make sure the buffet was open, and it was until 8PM.
We tore down, headed here to home, and then took off for Ponderosa in Butler. It was good to eat at Ponderosa after a year and a half or so. Back home again to send off our FOBB report, do a couple other things and then Mike headed home after a very good day. Now let's do some pictures. Top row Mike and his antenna. Bottom row John and his antenna.
-30-
Sun Jul 25 2021 9:03PM - A long busy day with Mike and it's too late to write it up now. I'll just say we made 52 QSOs in the FOBB today despite me having antenna problems and losing 55 minutes of air time. More stats and maybe pictures tomorrow in the diary. -30-
Sat Jul 24 2021 8:49PM - Another quiet day today waiting for tomorrow to come and with it, the FOBB sprint. Still a 50% chance of rain, down from an earlier prediction of 70%. We'll have to wait and see. One way or another, inside or outside, we will try to do the full four hours of the sprint, barring any unforseen circumstances. -30-
Fri Jul 23 2021 8:38PM - I'm looking forward to doing the FOBB sprint with Mike on Sunday. We'll be operating from Kittanning Community Park hopefully for the full 4 hours of the sprint. However a 70% chance of rain is predicted so we may have to modify our plans. Maybe operate from home? I'll try to have more info in tomorrow's diary entry. Meanwhile nothing else to talk about from today so 73. -30-
Thu Jul 22 2021 7:07PM - I wanted to do this yesterday, but time didn't permit. Where were you on July 21, 1969 around 0256Z? Earlier that day, I listened to the Apollo 11 moon landing while driving to work at WPIT. The landing took place on the 20th at 2017Z or about 4:17PM EDT. I followed it on the radio at the station. I was disheartened when it was announced that the moonwalk time was moved up in time. The new time was close to the time I would be shutting down WPIT for the night. I had an old reel to reel tape recorder with me that I was going to use to tape the audio portion of the TV coverage when I got back to my apartment. Now it became a race though. It would be touch and go whether I made it home in time or not.
Well, I signed the station off early. I could do that since we didn't have any paid programming at that time of around 11:00PM. I went to my car. Started it like a drag racer and raced home. Lucky I didn't get caught speeding. When I got home I ran to my 3rd floor room, threw the tape recorder on the bed. It bounced on the floor, but fortunately survived. I picked it up and hooked it to the TV. I think I only was able to put a microphone(?) in front of the TV speaker. Although I did miss the first several minutes of the walk, I did wind up with several hours of that memorable telecast. Whew! -30-
Wed Jul 21 2021 8:14PM - A great day today. For the usual reason of late. I've got to get on the air again in a few minutes to get a QSO in our NAQCC sprint. I worked Glenn N4MJ for my streak QSO. He was tuning up for the sprint. So once again I must cut this short. I was going to talk a bit about Apollo 11. Maybe in tomorrow's diary entry Unless it turns out to be another busy evening. It would be nice to have another nice sunset to photograph with Jasmine. We haven't had one for a while now. -30-
Tue Jul 20 2021 8:37PM - This was a good and busy day. I got my whole house air conditioning installed. That took about from 8:20AM to around 4:00PM. Sure makes a difference in this house. I probably should have done it years ago. But frankly the heat never bothered me until maybe a couple years ago. Again frankly it really isn't bothering me again now since I've got my weight down to 155 or so and have been exercising much more lately. I have to attribute a lot of that to my friend Jasmine.
Speaking of Jasmine, we had a good time today cutting grass while all the AC work was going on.
I got some DX for my streak QSO, XE2I on 20 meters. It will soon be one more year added to the streak if I make it to August 4. That will be 27 years. Whew! -30-
Mon Jul 19 2021 9:14PM - Does time really pass faster as we get older? Once again tonight I'm running late. Maybe it's just because there is more to do, or we do it slower? I think it's a combo of the last two things in my case. Anyway, I have to hurry and get this written. I lost my first QSO tonight with K2HYD before it really got started. The band just dropped out on us. Then I worked W3MWR a little later for my real streak QSO. While I was doing that I was also taking a nice sunset picture. I was too busy to text Jasmine about the sunset and it was over quickly so I texted her a picture of it. Then I got into a text exchange with Mike about a couple of things including the FOBB contest this Sunday. Then the web site updates including this diary entry and my 9:00 weather readings. Whew, I guess it is just having more things to do. HI. Tomorrow is busy also as I'm getting full house AC installed. -30-
Sun Jul 18 2021 7:52PM - Just put my laundry in the washer and getting ready to head to the shack for a quick SST streak QSO. Nothing much else to report. I did some yard work, took some walks, and sat in the park and did some thinking. That's about it. -30-
Sat Jul 17 2021 8:38PM - Not much to report today. Kind of a rainy day, but I did get in a couple of walks and park sittings between the showers. I worked Madeira Island for my streak QSO a little bit ago - CT9ABN on 20 meters. Took a few calls to get my call straight, but he stuck with me till he got it. That's usually an area of the World I can work easily, but a bit difficult this evening. -30-
Fri Jul 16 2021 8:29PM - The good days just keep rolling on. I was just sitting here thinking about things and thinking how blessed I have been in my life, especially lately. At 76 years of age, I think I feel better than I did 20-30 years ago. A large part of that is due to a friend I've talked about quite a bit in the diary lately. I'm not going into that in detail, but as I said, if you've been reading the diary lately, you can figure out what I mean.
For the second night in a row, my streak QSO has come from the same city, Ottawa, ON. Tonight VE3TM and last night VE3BXG. Wonder if they know each other. -30-
Thu Jul 15 2021 8:25PM - Another great day like yesterday. I did call WY3H late last night and he is doing pretty well after all his health problems the last year or so. Tonight I worked VE3BXG in Ottawa for my QSO on 40 meters. -30-
Wed Jul 14 2021 8:16PM - A great day today. Regular diary readers can figure out why. HI. I wrote a lot yesterday so I'll keep it short tonight. I think I may call my friend Tom WY3H a little later tonight. Right now I'm watching to see if we are going to get a good sunset. Doesn't look too promising right now. My QSO was with ND2O in NC on 20 meters. -30-
Tue Jul 13 2021 4:35PM - A few times I said I'd do this and haven't done so. I feel really good now, so I'm going to tell a story I promised to tell the day before in the diary, but didn't have time then. Got all that? OK, here we go.
Yesterday Mike arrived about 8:40AM, and we took off for the Requin about 8:50AM. We (I) talked most of the way to Pittsburgh so time went fast. We arrived at the Carnegie Science Center about 9:45AM and walked over to the sub. No one was around so we opened the door and went in and waited. It wasn't long before Art showed up. He told us about some new rules that were put into effect. One was good and the others not so. We no longer had to wear masks. Yay! However the radio room door had to be kept closet so visitors could see the equipment, but not enter the room. We always enjoyed talking with the visitors and that made it next to impossible to do so now. Also all 'frequent flyers' as Art put it, meaning those who visit the sub regularly to operate the radio room or for other reasons would have to get certified for lack of a better description. That means we would have to get a background check. All of this was just recently implemented and even Art didn't know all the reasoning behind it. Mike said it smacks of totalitarianism. I agreed and I thought such a background check was an invasion of privacy and smacked of leftist Nazi Germany. I may just stop operating from the sub. I'd hate to do so, but I believe strongly that this is still a free country. End of rant. Let's move on to more pleasant things.
Art and we went to the radio room and got set up. That went more smoothly than usual and we were on the air around 10:15AM. Mike had it set up so we would operate 30 minutes on each band 20, 30, 40 on approximately 14061, 10117, and 7041. The schedule worked out good. However activity was not good. We made the following number of QSOs: 20-4, 30-3, 40-3 for a total of just 10 in about 5 hours of operating. Where was everybody? To be fair, we did have a lot of QRN on all three bands and could easily have missed some of the weaker stations calling us, but still there should have been more activity.
Let's have some pictures now if I can successfully transfer them from my phone to laptop.
The sign at the opening of the walkway to the sub
Art WA3BKD, the "caretaker" of the sub and radio room in particular
Me at the operating position. I "texted" this picture to my friend Jasmine
Mike at the operating position An idea of the noise we experienced. It was a little higher than this on average
With the exception of the new rules and lack of activity, it was another great, enjoyable subpedition.
There was the usual Covid break from about 1:40 to 2:40PM where the sub is "disinfected" of the virus. That's when Mike and I go out and sit by the Science Center, eat our lunch and watch the girls go by. Yes, we're hams, but also typical males. HI
On the way home, we stopped in the Pittsburgh Mills and ate at Applebee's for the first time in about a year and a half. That was a great experience as that is one of our favorite eating places and we missed it due to Covid. Here at home, we looked for an ad from an old QST magazine for Bob WC3O from Skyview. It was a Begali ad and Bob thought it was in an issue from 2005, but we didn't find any ad. Then we checked the bands and there wasn't much activity from here at home either. I got my streak QSO, then Mike headed home. -30-
Mon Jul 12 2021 9:32PM - Mike and I had a good time today. I don't really have the time to talk fully about it. Maybe tomorrow during the day, I'll write a fuller entry with some pictures. -30-
Sun Jul 10 2021 7:54PM - In a couple minutes I'll get my streak QSO from the SST Sprint. Today was pretty much a nothing day. I did some housecleaning, some walks, and sat in the park and did some thinking. That about covers the day. Tomorrow will be much more active with our subpedition to the Requin. We'll be on near the QRP frequencies on 40, 30, and 20, only one band at a time and the one band will be the one with the most activity, so keep switching bands to find us. We'll start around 1430Z and go unti 1800Z or as long as there is a lot of activity. Last month was very slow. Let's try to make this a busier month. -30-
Sat Jul 9 2021 8:08PM - A quick QSO tonight thanks to the IARU Champs. On 10 meters to boot. I worked K5XU easily. When was the last time my streak QSO came on 10 meters? I have no idea, but it's got to be a long time ago, I'm sure. Otherwise a nice day today. Good weather, moderate temps, no rain, little breeze. Good for several sits in the park and several walks getting there or otherwise. -30-
Fri Jul 9 2021 9:21PM - Late tonight. Didn't get my QSO till 0058Z. Watching/photographing a beautiful sunset with Jasmine. Worked N1IYH on 20 meters. -30-
Thu Jul 8 2021 9:15PM - A good day in general. A bit wet, but not that bad. A quick streak QSO at 0000Z with K1RX on 20 meters. Nothing much else to write about. Remember though, Mike and I have our regular second Monday subpedition on the Requin this coming Monday. Mike will do the publicity for it, but basically we'll be around the QRP frequencies from 1430 to 1830Z or so. -30-
Wed Jul 7 2021 9:18PM - One of those days I could write a lot, but it's late and I have to be brief.
I mailed my application for the 13 Colonies Award today. I got all but GB13COL, and I believe I had a lot of company from comments I've heard. I believe, along with many others that there needs to be a stronger station for GB13COL next year. Some have even suggested a better operator. I never heard them strong enough to comment on the operator.
I also mailed a check to renew my domain name of k3wwp.com for another year.
I closed out the 13 colonies event with K2I on 20m for my streak QSO this evening. That added one to my 20m band total in last night's diary entry.
I also had a great visit with Jasmine for about a half hour talking about various things including the pets we've had in our lifetimes. Also several other things I'm not going into here for lack of time. -30-
Tue Jul 6 2021 5:41PM - Book him Dano! Yes, I got Rhode Island today to complete the 13 colonies. Still could use GB3COL, but I never get them anyway, so I don't expect to get them this year either. That's six years in a row now with all 13 colonies plus WM3PEN. This year I got TM13COL also.
While I'm sitting here being happy, here are some stats to ponder:
Colonies by band:
80 - 8+, 40 - 12+, 30 - 2, 20 - 10+, 17 - 2, 15 - 1, 10 - 1. The plus means WM3PEN also.
Average order of working each colony over the six years with MA being the easiest and MD the hardest:
1-MA, 2-NH, 3-SC, 4-CT, 5-RI, 6- NC, 7-PA, 8-DE, 9-NY, 10-NJ, 11-VA, 12-GA, 13-MD.
I'm not sure what it means, but it satisfies my delight in playing with statistics. HI
Hope you all had a good day also, and a good rest of the evening as well. -30-
Mon Jul 5 2021 6:37PM - A great day on the ham bands today. Probably the best in 2-3 years now. Other than the contest days with Mike, that is. Still looking for RI to finish the colonies, but worked some other good stuff on some bands I haven't done much with lately. IZ8JAI and CT3MD on 15 meters. Also nearby (about 25-30 miles) K3M manned by friend Bob WC3O on 15 meters. LZ1PM and TM13COL on 20 meters. K2L on 17 meters. I now have colony stations worked on 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15 meters, but I sure would like to get RI. Actually I haven't even heard a RI station yet. I may have to cheat and check some Internet spots to see if I can find and work them. As many of you know, I virtually never use spotting to work stations. I just use that tuning knob on the rig along with the blips on the panadapter to find and work stations. I've probably only used spotting maybe once or twice in my ham career.
I'm writing this early hoping for a nice sunset tonight to watch and photograph with Jasmine as we did a couple nights ago. -30-
Sun Jul 4 2021 8:06PM - Got MD, still looking for RI. Haven't even heard it yet. A quick SST streak QSO this evening. Busy right now, so will cut this to a Readers Digest entry. HI -30-
Sat Jul 3 2021 8:13PM - Not much luck today in the 13 Colonies Event. Still stuck at 11 looking for RI and MD. I did get a nice SE Slovenian station while looking for colonies - S5030A on 20M. Also my streak tonight was with N1SNB. Jeff wrote a Teens and CW page for my web site many years ago. See the CW section, Teenagers and CW page to see his story. Not much else to report on today. -30-
Fri Jul 2 2021 8:20PM - Somewhat frustrating on the bands, but a great day otherwise. I still haven't heard RI NJ MD, but I did hear K2G in GA and almost got him. He came back to me as K3WWR, and never corrected it so I didn't log him. I hope that wasn't a mistake and I just didn't hear him correct the call. He was operating split and some lids kept calling him on his frequency and causing havoc.
Don't have much time left here. I've got to order a sub to celebrate a great day. Regular diary readers will probably know why it was a great day. Maybe not specifically, but in general. HI -30-
Thu Jul 1 2021 9:10PM - I'm running late tonight so just a brief summary of today. I worked the 13 Colonies event both this morning and evening plus random checks at other times. So far I've got 9 of the 13 Colonies worked. I heard WM3PEN, but couldn't break the pile. I haven't heard the other 4 colonies yet, but I hope to get all 13. -30-
Wed Jun 30 2021 8:10PM - A really good day today. It wasn't quite as hot, but still humid with some rain. Hmmm, I see we did hit 90. I didn't think it felt that hot. I guess that was before the rain came and cooled it off, but also after I went downtown this morning as it was pretty nice then.
Tomorrow starts the 13 Colonies event. I hope to work all 13 colony stations plus WM3PEN. Maybe I'll luck out and get GB3COL this year. I never have gotten them and only heard them a couple times all told.
Tomorrow (July 1) is also the Canada Day Contest which actually started a few minutes ago. I used it to work VA3DKL for my streak station tonight.
As you see above, I've started a countdown to 10,000 days of the streak. I figure it's close enough now to do so. Although there are enough days left that something could still end it prematurely. That would be a real bummer.
Finally it was a really good day because I had a nice almost half hour conversation with Jasmine. It's always good to visit with her. She is so very intelligent and interesting to talk to. She showed me a picture of her report card with all As, Honor Roll, etc. -30-
Tue Jun 29 2021 8:36PM - Kind of a depressing hot, humid day is the best way to describe it. My La Crosse remote station shows a high of 94. The humidity ranged from 44 to 90 percent.
After Mike got us a Skeeter Hunt number, I got us a FOBB number. It was a better number - 12 which will make for easier sending of our exchanges.
I worked a 1x1 call for my streak QSO - K1P listed as being in Bristol, RI - The Outdoor Enthusiasts ARC. That was on 40 meters. -30-
Mon Jun 28 2021 8:26PM - I had forgotten all about the Skeeter Hunt this year. I've got a lot on my mind which I won't go into here that seems to be making me forgot more and more lately. It's not my old age, I don't think. Anyway Mike reminded me and got us a number for this year's event. We'll be # 129. Be sure to remember that, Mike. I might forget it. HI.
Not a lot else going on today. It was perhaps the hottest day of the year. Thermometers around here showed a high of about 93 to 97 in the shade depending on just where that shade was. It will be interesting to see what my 'official' mercury in glass thermometer in my shelter shows when I check it at 9 PM. -30-
Sun Jun 27 2021 6:50PM - Well, it's not a full FD report, but.... We made 303 QSOs in all. I got 203 on 80, 20, and 15. Mike got 100 on 40 and 10. We figured in our head when driving to get something to eat that we worked 43 states (missed WY, KH6, KL7, DE, OR, ND, NV), VI, BC, AB, SK, ON, QC. QSO count by band was 80-3, 40-95, 20-129, 15-71, 10-5.
On Saturday, 20 was in long skip most all day. I had 20 meters and I think the shortest skip was into MO or maybe GA. 40 was pretty much its usual self on both Saturday and Sunday. It was a different story on Sunday. 20 had both long and short skip. I figured with 20 that way, 15 should be open, and it was for both long and short skip also. That should mean 10 would be open as well, and it was. Mike had that band and he worked mostly SE USA there.
I was very pleased how my 17 foot base loaded vertical worked on 15 meters with the coils in the 40 meters position. A lot of the time it seemed I was running a KW instead of my 5 watts with the ease I was working stations all around the USA. It was great to have 15 in such good conditions. The only disappointment was 80 meters Saturday night. The short vertical had a high SWR, and even tuning it with the KX3 built in tuner didn't help even though the SWR went low with the tuner. I think it probably was just tuning the coax feed line instead of the antenna itself.
The 303 QSOs was our best total since 2018 when we made 482. The last two years we made 228 and 265. So that was pleasing and hopefully a sign of things to come when the sunspots get going good again. -30-
Sat Jun 26 2021 11:25PM - Tune in tomorrow for a full FD report. -30-
Fri Jun 25 2021 8:47PM - Summer weather arrived today. It was hot at 86 degrees and humid with only a light breeze blowing. I didn't do much walking today. Well, outside anyway. I did quite a bit in the cool of the inside of the house. Some 22,870 steps for 9.6 miles.
I got my new Lionel Legacy Controller yesterday and played with it quite a bit since then. It seems to work OK, so that may have been the problem I was experiencing. I don't remember if I mentioned that in the diary or not, but I was having some intermittent problems with my setup.
Mike will be coming early tomorrow to get set up for our FD operation. That should be a fun operation although it will be hot in the low to maybe mid 90s both days.
I saw Jasmine for a while today. I helped her clean her front porch. -30-
Thu Jun 24 2021 8:34PM - Just an OK day today. Nice weather, but a few other things didn't go quite right. I won't discuss them here because I want to try for some sunset pictures and also order a sub for a little later. Even my QSO was ruff tonite. K4OB in FL on 40 heard me, but had trouble copying. Still it was good enough for the streak. -30-
Wed Jun 23 2021 8:15PM - Yet another good day. Beautiful weather like yesterday but a bit warmer in the low 70s. My friend Jasmine and I had a pizza lunch and I helped her do some work.
I'm looking forward to FD this weekend with Mike. We'll be doing a 2B effort with QRP power using our KX3s and some temporary antennas operating from my front porch as we've done the past few years now. We'll use the 1x1 call N3A. So look for us although we'll be doing mostly S&P and not calling many CQs. If we do call CQ, it will be mostly on the band edges away from the big crowds. -30-
Tue Jun 22 2021 8:22PM - Another good day today. Beautiful weather with cumulus clouds and a cool breeze. It was almost what you could call chilly in the low 60s most of the day although it did reach the upper 60s in late afternoon when it was more sunny. I walked 20,000 plus steps today and sat in the park 3 or maybe 4 times.
If I figure right, and you mathematicians can double check me, day # 10,000 in the streak could come on December 20 this year in 181 days. Whew, hard to believe it's been going that long. That's longer than my friend Jasmine has been alive. In fact just about exactly 10 years longer. -30-
Mon Jun 21 2021 8:35PM - A good day today. I had a visit with Jasmine today and that always brightens up any day. She showed me a couple things on my smart phone I was a little confused about. We chatted about other things for a while after that before she had to get cleaned up and get some lunch.
It was also my neighbor Bruce's (Roscoe's owner) birthday so I got him a couple little gifts and we're going to have a couple subs in a little while also.
My streak QSO tonight was a POTA station AC9EZ/0 in ND on 20M. Then I called CQ and got K9CG in IL.
OK, gotta order the subs now. -30-
Sun Jun 20 2021 8:07PM - Ho hum, another quiet day. A hot and humid one, at that. So I stayed inside most of the day in front of my fan. I'm doing my laundry right now, and it's about finished. I worked K1USN in the SST this evening for my streak QSO at 0000Z. That about sums up the day, I guess. -30-
Sat Jun 19 2021 8:36PM - It seems days are either busy or boring here lately with boring dominating. Today was one. I did get in quite a bit of walking which is a good thing. I also sat in the park a couple times and did some thinking. It's a nice place to just sit and think and play some games on my phone.
Tonight I thought I'd get a QSO in the WV QSO Party, but didn't even hear any WV stations. Maybe I looked at the contest calendar wrong. HI I do a lot of things like that lately. Let's just check myself. Well, the WA7BNM calendar says the WV Party runs from 1600Z on the 19th through 0400Z on the 20th. According to my thinking, we should be in that time frame right now unless I've completely lost it. HI Anyway I did work W2CW on 40 for the streak. -30-
Fri Jun 18 2021 8:47PM - A very nice weather day. I went for several walks and sat in the park at least 3-4 times.
My QSO tonight was a mini rag chew with Ron SP8ARY on 20 meters. 20 was very good tonight both short and long skip. K3WW in East PA was well over S9 in the AA contest. I called CQ on 20 after the SP QSO and got an answer from a S9 station. Only thing was that after he sent a strong letter N, he stopped. Maybe he blew a power supply or something? I also heard a strong K2PHD on 17 meters, but he didn't hear me at all. -30-
Thu Jun 17 2021 9:06PM - It's late and not much to report anyway, so I'll just say my streak QSO tonight was with Tony N2ATB on 40. -30-
Wed Jun 16 2021 8:24PM - A nice cool sunny day today. My La Crosse weather remote shows a high of just 74 after a low of 47 early this morning. I went for a few walks and sat in the park a couple times. My friend Jasmine cut the grass in my backyard this morning. My garden friend Ange planted some peppers today. He's gotten a late start this year and is cutting back a lot in the number of plants. -30-
Tue Jun 15 2021 9:11PM - Thanks to my Apple Watch alarm for reminding me of our NAQCC mW sprint. I made 3 contacts as conditions were good enough to bring the mW signals above my noise level.
This was another good day. I had a short visit with Jasmine and that always brightens up an otherwise so-so day. The weather was nice - cool and breezy with low humidity. Great to sit in the park and feel good. -30-
Mon Jun 14 2021 9:02PM - As usual, a good day with Mike. We had fun on the sub although we only made 4 QSOs. It wasn't for lack of trying. We figured we called about 180 CQs per hour and we operated from about 1430 to 1900Z with one hour off while they cleaned the sub for any signs of Covid19. That's around 630 unanswered CQs. Where was everybody?
We took a nice walk during the hour long break over to the Pirates ballpark and also ate the sandwiches we brought. We had to shut down around 1900Z because of severe weather in the area. So we decided to just end our operation then, and head home. We stopped at Walmart and Dollar Tree to get some goods. Then at Wendy's for a meal. Home to eat the meal, watch an episode of Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and then we went to watch the Elks Flag Day Ceremony.
All in all, a busy enjoyable day. -30-
Sun Jun 13 2021 7:37PM - I'm writing this a bit early tonight because I got the info from Mike about our subpedition to the Requin tomorrow. He posted that we'll be operating from 1400-1800Z or later if activity warrants. We'll be on the usual QRP frequencies or close by on 40, 30, and 20, one band at a time as activity warrants. If it's like D-Day that will mean mostly on 20 meters. We'll use the sub call of NY3EC. Hope to work you. Remember don't give up if you don't hear us at first. Try later as conditions can change drastically in an hour or so.
It was a good day otherwise. My neighbors, Jasmine's aunts cooked an 11 pound ham for me as it was too big for my kitchen equipment. I said if they'd do it, I'd give them 2/3 or so of it and I'd take the rest. As a further "reward" for doing it, I'd fix a big bowl of sweet potatoes to go along with their share. I was sitting on the porch when Jasmine came out with the ham and brought it over. The arrangement got a bit confusing as she brought the whole ham over instead of just my 1/3. I said to her let's go over and figure this out. Krystal didn't know about my promising them 2/3 of the ham for cooking it. Jasmine meanwhile went out to help Donna set up a big picnic table. I went out and helped them with that. Then Jasmine and I went over and got the 2/3 ham and sweet potatoes and took them over to her home. When I came back home, I tried the ham and it was cooked to perfection. Much better than I could have done, I'm sure. Plus I got to spend a little time with my friend Jasmine.
Now I'm doing my laundry to get it out of the way so I won't have to do it tomorrow. Then at 0000Z I'll go and hopefully get a quick QSO in the SST sprint. -30-
Sat Jun 12 2021 8:46PM - A quiet pretty much nothing day today. Some walks and a couple sit in the parks. Not much else.
Well, I did get an email from my friend Lane offering me a noise canceller for the postage to send it here. Perhaps that will help with my noise problems here. Thanks Lane.
Also my neighbor and I made some french fries this afternoon. So it wasn't really a nothing day, just close. HI -30-
Fri Jun 11 2021 8:28PM - Nice to work old friend Dan KB6NU on 30 for my streak QSO tonight. We've worked many times, but it's been a while since the last QSO. We talked about getting ready for FD among other things.
Looking forward to Monday when Mike and I make another trip to the Requin. Looks like good weather. I'll see what Mike is going to post about the subpedition and repeat the info here tomorrow or Sunday.
It was a good day all around today. My friend Jasmine had her last half day of school for this year, and we had a mini party and a nice long visit on my front porch. That was nice because she is a very busy girl and we don't get all that much time to talk.
I just looked to see if we're going to have another nice sunset, but there aren't too many clouds so I don't think so. -30-
Thu Jun 10 2021 8:06PM - Another quiet day with nothing much happening. Just some walking, sitting in the park, and playing games on my smart phone sums up the day. I'm hoping for something better tomorrow if it comes to pass. I don't know though. Stay tuned for further developments. HI. -30-
Wed Jun 9 2021 9:16PM - Yes, 9:16PM. I was outside taking pictures of a beautiful sunset. It's too late to edit and post them tonight, but maybe tomorrow night.
This was a great day as many of them have been of late. This one was a little more special since I heard from a couple of my fellow WPIT workers from so long ago. Well about 30+ years to be more precise. Dick and Karen McGraw exchanged emails with me. It was just so great to hear from them and even greater to hear that they are doing well.
I am running late so I'll close here and continue tomorrow night. -30-
Tue Jun 8 2021 8:39PM - I'm just thinking as I'm typing. When I saw Jasmine after school today and asked her about her day, she thought a minute, gave a little laugh, and said she didn't remember. I'm the same way right now. It was a good day, but can't really remember anything specific. HI Two minds thinking (or not) alike.
I worked DX for the third evening in a row. Tonight it was OH0Z on 20M. He had quite a pileup, but I broke through after 4-5 minutes. I have a good path to that area on 20 late in the day. Then I got my one QSO in the NAQCC sprint later in WB9HFK on 40. -30-
Mon Jun 7 2021 8:41PM - I worked my Swiss friend Andy HB9CVQ on 20M for my streak QSO. I hadn't worked him in a while and maybe that's a sign that propagation is picking up again.
Other than that it was a pretty quiet day. One of the couple of highlights was a nice long phone call with Tom WY3H. We must have talked for 45-60 minutes about a wide variety of topics. It was good to talk like that again. Tom is recovering nicely from his latest health problems and may even be going back to work next week.
It was a warm humid day. Not oppressive, but not overly comfortable either. I did a couple good walks and sat in the park for a while. -30-
Sun Jun 6 2021 7:30PM - I hope you all had a good D-Day and celebrated it appropriately. Mike and I operated from the USS Requin in Pittsburgh for about 5 hours helping out Art of the ship with the Museum Ships Weekend Activity. After a very slow start the first hour with only 1 QSO on 40M, we went to 20 meters and activity picked up dramatically. For the last 4 hours with a 1 hour break to clean the sub of any possible Covid residue, those 3 hours provided 42 more QSOs for a total of 43 pretty much evenly divided between Mike and me. A rough count showed me with 21 and Mike with 22. We worked a nice variety of states plus Puerto Rico in our QSOs. Maybe I'll make a more accurate count later.
As always we had some great interaction with visitors to the sub. I remember one interesting coincidence. Mike had just worked a YL (Barb) from TX when a cute young girl came by and I told her in response to her question about what or how we were doing that we just worked a Barb from TX. She said she was from TX also and I asked her name. She was Caitlyn if I remember correctly in the noise from the crowds.
As usual, we had a lot of fun kibitzing with Art who spent a lot of time with us this time. Also with the helper tour hosts. One girl reminded me of someone from Kittanning whom I just couldn't place, and still can't. I told the girl this and she asked if she was a good girl. I said yes, and she said she'd consider it a compliment then.
On the way home for some reason I got hungry for a milkshake so we stopped and each got a large chocolate milkshake, my treat. Boy, was that good! I hadn't had a DQ milkshake in a very long time.
We ran QRO power from the sub since it wasn't a QRP activity and we were just helping Art out for the MSW Event. Next Monday we will be going back to the sub and doing our usual QRP subpedition. Mike is going to try to drum up some business for us by posting info to the NAQCC and maybe other places. Plus I'll have the schedule here in the diary also. Hope we can work you Monday. -30-
Sat Jun 5 2021 8:12PM - Still nothing much new here. That will change tomorrow though as Mike and I are going to operate from the Requin to help Art out in the Museum Ships on the Air Event.
I got all my LoTW matches logged today, so that is caught up now. I worked XE1CT for my streak QSO this evening. BTW if I figured right today, my streak will reach 10,000 days on December 20 this year. -30-
Fri Jun 4 2021 8:10PM - Again not much to write about. I guess I'm kinda in the doldrums here. I did get all my eQSLs logged that I got from my May eQSL logs. Maybe tomorrow I'll do the LoTW ones. I got some DX for my streak QSO tonight - TM6KJS on Iota EU-068 on 20 meters. Just took two calls to get him. Nice to be getting some DX again.
Probably if I would devote more time to chasing DX, I could get much more, but the desire is just not there like it used to be. Too many other interests in life and too much to think about. Getting my streak QSO each day is about the limit of my desire to get on the air. Unless Mike is here and we do a contest together. That fires up my interest for sure. -30-
Thu Jun 3 2021 8:27PM - I finally got my May logs uploaded to LoTW and eQSL today. Now I have the chore of checking and seeing how many matches they made. Probably quite a few from the CQWPX contest, I would imagine.
Today Jun 3 marked day # 9,800 in my streak, and I got my QSO for the 4th (UTC) so that means 199 days to go for 10,000 days. Whew, have I been doing it this long? Where does the time go???
It was a pretty good day today all around. The weather was pretty good although some showers now and then. It was a bit humid, but nice for walking and sitting on the porch. -30-
Wed Jun 2 2021 8:23PM - Kind of a quiet day today after a busy couple days, so not much to write about. Actually I could have uploaded my May logs to LoTW and eQSL, but I didn't even do that on this lazy day. HI. I worked Pierre VE2PID again tonight this time via a remote station down in GA. -30-
Tue Jun 1 2021 8:36PM - A busy day doing the end of month / first of month chores. I think I'm caught up now except for uploading my May QSOs to LoTW and eQSL which I'll do later tonight or tomorrow.
A special event station extended my streak this evening. It was VX31IGY. Look it up on QRZ to find out what the special event was. -30-
Mon May 31 2021 8:21PM - A down and up day this Memorial Day. Down early because my friend wasn't able to make it to see the parade with me. Good later because she came and sat on the porch with me for quite a while this evening. We had a nice long QSO. When she left, I thanked her for the QSO and explained the ham meaning of QSO.
The bands didn't seem all that good this evening, but 20 was open pretty good after 0000Z. I worked W8NIC in MI on rather short skip for 20 so late in the day.
Of course this is the end of the month day and I didn't get any of my EOM chores done at all. So tomorrow will be a doubly busy day with the added first of the month chores as well. -30-
Sun May 30 2021 9:17PM - I had some things (good) happen today that I could write about, but it's late now so I'll have to pass them by, for the most part. I will say that I've got things set up for going to the Memorial Day parade here in town tomorrow morning. I usually watch it alone, but a friend is going with me tomorrow which will make it even better.
As usual I used the SST for my QSO this Sunday evening. Tonight it was VE3NRT Chris.
OK, gotta run now. Maybe I'll have that report on the CQWPX Contest tomorrow. -30-
Sat May 29 2021 10:26PM - As usual a great day with Mike visiting. The main purpose of the visit was to do the CQWPX contest. It was a pleasure to find the bands in great shape. At first we had trouble working DX, but a little later things really opened up to Europe and we worked probably some 30 EU stations each as deep into EU as LY and UR. I was really surprised at working the UR station fairly easily. I have yet to analyze the results. When I do, I'll have a more accurate report here in the diary. We did work stations on all 3 higher bands 20, 15, and even 10 meters.
Otherwise we ran my train for a while, played some games on our smart phones, and of course had a meal from Wendy's. We also did some indoor walking for exercise. -30-
Fri May 28 2021 8:34PM - It was kind of a depressing day today with plenty of rain showers and a gloomy look. It may be that way tomorrow also, but at least Mike will be here and that will make things better. We plan to do a tag team effort in the CQWPX contest and those are always fun. Unless Mike got some QSOs this evening, I'll be one up on him as I worked KY4NA in the contest for my streak QSO. HI -30-
Thu May 27 2021 8:33PM- I talked to my friend Tom Mitchell WY3H today. I was delighted to hear his voice since he underwent a very serious operation a couple weeks ago and I hadn't been able to get any news about him. He is in a rehab center now and recovering well.
Another good day in the streak here. Weather was nice and I took a couple good walks and sat in the park for a while as well. My neighbor Donna (Jasmine's aunt) cut my grass for me today and I was talking with her for a while.
As I've been doing for several days now, I have been dog-sitting Roscoe while the Therapist/Nurse visits Bruce since Roscoe won't be quiet while she is there.
N9FGC was my streak QSO tonight on 40 meters. The bands condinue to be good and the QSO has been coming easily for some time now. -30-
Wed May 26 2021 8:23PM - Another pretty good day today despite some heat/humidity followed by rain. Now nice and cool and will remain so the next few days. Just waiting on delivery of a couple subs, not the marine vessel, but the sandwich. HI So I'll keep this short. Had another 0000Z streak QSO tonight from K2HYD down in VA. -30-
Tue May 25 2021 8:52PM - After yesterday, a following day pales by comparison, but today was still very good. It was quite warm and humid and a bit on the uncomfortable side, but..... It was really a Roscoe day. Bruce and I took him to the groomers early this afternoon then while he was there we drove to the vets to pick up his regular heartworm and flea/tick medicine. Just as we got home or shortly after, Jasmine was getting home from school so I visited with her for a few minutes befor she had to get to her chores.
Tonight I worked Wayne WA9VEE whom I hadn't worked in a few years. I used to work him regularly in our NAQCC sprints when I was more active in them. -30-
Mon May 24 2021 8:47PM - An absolutely great birthday for old John today. It really couldn't have turned out better. I could write a book, but I won't bore you with that. I just want to talk about the highlights and thank those responsible.
Mike arrived sometime around 9:45-10:00AM and we chatted a while waiting for the rain to stop. When it did, we walked down to the river to do some fishing. We didn't catch anything. I had a couple quick hard hits, but the fish were gone before they had a chance to be hooked. Then we came home and went to get something to eat from Wendy's. After that we went to pick up a half dozen cupcakes for a little something I had planned.
My birthminute is at 3:21PM and every year I try to have someone special with me at that time. This year I arranged it so both Mike and Jasmine were with me. We spent a great 15 minutes or so together.It was so nice to have them both there to share it with me this year.
Shortly after that My neighbor Bruce had an ice cream cake for me for a second following party. Before when Jasmine was here I told her to expect some cake later. The cupcakes were just interim goodies. So I took the remainder of the ice cream cake over to her, Donna, and Jasmine. After that hectic activity, Mike and I just sat in my parlor talking and playing with our smart phones till he had to head north to his home.
To close, thanks to Mike, Jasmine, Bruce, Jeff, Roscoe, Donna, and Krystal for making this birthday a very memorable one.
Ham radio? Yes, my streak QSO tonight was a repeat of a QSO from 4 days ago with VE2PID/W8. -30-
Sun May 23 2021 8:11PM - A real nothing day today. I pretty much just sat around and studied and played with my smart phone and smart watch. Well, I guess actually that is something. That watch is a pretty neat little device. Reminds me of the old Dick Tracy wrist radio in the comic strips except this one is thousands of times more advanced. HI. -30-
Sat May 22 2021 8:14PM - This was a great fun day. My smart watch got delivered sometime around noon. Whenever it was, I spent a half hour or so feeling stupid trying to figure it out. Things did become clear after a while though and I got a pretty decent grip on it. It's a really neat device and works well with my smart phone. My friend Jasmine was busy most of the day, but I finally did get to spend a nice session with her this evening comparing our smart watches and phones. We both learned a little from each other, but she is still ahead of me in knowledge. That pretty much occupied my whole day until just a little while ago.
My streak QSO was a rough one. It started out good with N1QWI on 30 meters, but the path quickly collapsed and we had to say a premature 73. But it was a legit QSO to extend the streak another day. -30-
Fri May 21 2021 8:29PM - Another good hot day today. The highlight was ordering an Apple Fitness Watch to go along with my Apple iPhone. It is supposed to be here tomorrow, but we'll see.
A quick streak QSO tonight from K4ABC at 0001Z on 40M. -30-
Thu May 20 2021 8:13PM - Yet another good day in the streak. A hot one though. My one remote shows a high of 91, another 87, and a glance at my main thermometer this afternoon showed 88 at that time. By far the hottest day of the year so far whichever one you believe. And my friend Jasmine doesn't like the heat, and said she was sweating when I saw her coming home from school. I went for a couple walks just to check out how my body is reacting to the heat this year. I've lost about 15 pounds since last October and I think that helped my tolerance to the heat so far this year.
I tried some CQs this evening with no results, so I worked N4E again whom I worked a couple days before also. -30-
Wed May 19 2021 8:53PM - A part busy day and a part lazy day is the best description of the day today. We teased the 90 degree mark at 86 or 88 depending on just where you were. It wasn't humid though so it didn't feel bad. I went for a couple pretty long walks. -30-
Tue May 18 2021 8:48PM - Hey, yet another good day today. I'm on a roll. This was probably our warmest day of the year so far. Let's see what my remote unit says. Well, maybe not. The high was 80 and if memory serves, we've been in the low 80s. My unit on the front porch shows 85, but with the sun setting further north and shining on the porch it does often show higher than the back yard unit. Too bad I don't have a site built to NWS specs for my instruments. But then my house is not ideal for astronomy and ham radio either. HI But I love it and wouldn't change it. Also over the 75 years I've lived here, the neighbors have been good for the most part, especially the present ones.
My streak QSO was with W4AUV Dale, in NC. That call has a nice ring to it. Sound it out in CW and you'll see what I mean. Kind of like my WWP.
OK, got to hurry along now. -30-
Mon May 17 2021 8:08PM - Another good day today. I talked with Jasmine a bit about going back to the museum next weekend to see the staged encampment there. She didn't know yet because it depends on her aunts who are her guardians. I hope we can do it because we both enjoyed yesterday so much, but.... I also got to talk with her a couple other times.
I worked a YL for my streak QSO tonite. Eliza was operating a special event station for national EMS week, N4E down in FL. -30-
Sun May 16 2021 10:43PM - Did you ever have a day you didn't want to end? Today was such a day for me. I had a wonderful day exploring our Armstrong County Historical Museum today with my friend Jasmine. There are so many wonderful exhibits there and both of us enjoyed exploring them equally well despite our age difference. So many in fact we are planning to go back again.
I'm late posting this because I was just watching two episodes of the Addams Family with my other neighbor Bruce.
I used the SST Sprint in the midst of everything else to get my streak QSO tonight. A quick one with Jim N7US whom I've now worked in several of the SSTs on Sunday evenings. -30-
Sat May 15 2021 8:51PM - A great day today. The weather was a contributor to some other good things. It was 73 and even a bit on the humid side like mid summer. It was quite hot in the sun actually.
We have an Armstrong County Historical Museum about a block from here, and I have never visited it for whatever reason, but I've got a date with a friend of mine to visit it tomorrow and I'm looking forward to that if nothing goes wrong.
There was some contest on tonight that gave me my streak QSO. I don't know which one it was. I'm going to look now out of curiousity. Looks like it was the King of Spain contest from the time frame and exchange of RST and serial number. Anyway it was a QSO to extend the streak. -30-
Fri May 14 2021 8:12PM - Today was more typical May than the past few days. A high of 74 under mostly sunny skies. A nice day for walking and sitting in the park.
My streak QSO came right at 0000Z tonite from KC9ERZ who finished his CQ right at 0000Z and answered my first call. -30-
Thu May 13 2021 8:32PM - It's always nice to run into someone you haven't worked in a while. That was the case tonight when I worked Jack WD4E on 40 meters. It must be several years now since we've worked and we worked a lot in NAQCC activities back then.
It was another good day today. Sunny and mild. I took advantage with a couple walks and "sits" in the park. I also got to talk with Jasmine for several minutes today. I was interested to find out that she has been on the USS Requin before among other things. She's a remarkable girl.
After my QSO tonight we had a beautiful sunset and I got maybe a couple dozen good pictures with my fairly new smart phone. -30-
Wed May 12 2021 8:30PM - Today was a great day all around. The weather was great with a high in the mid 60s under mostly sunny skies. The first day in a while it was nice enough to go for a walk and sit in the park. I got a chance to visit with Jasmine for a few minutes of her busy day. That's always nice. My neighbor Bruce got a good report from the doctor. So nothing to complain about today. I hope tomorrow doesn't try to make up for it. HI
Here are a couple more pix from Sunday.
Left is a view looking toward the Point in Pittsburgh and right part of the USS Requin. You can see it was a beautiful day typical of most May days. -30-
Tue May 11 2021 8:24PM - OK let's see how much I can remember from yesterday in this old memory. Mike arrived around 8:40AM or so and we headed to Pittsburgh just before 9AM. We made it all the way without getting lost and without even using the GPS. Actually I did sort of use mine just to get in a little more practice since I only got the smart phone a couple months ago. We arrived a little before 10AM and walked over to the sub. Art was there waiting for us. It was good to see him again and to operate from the sub again. We had to wear masks and instead of a steady stream of visitors, they set up tours of 8 people at a time every 20 minutes. Activity was also slow on the bands as well as the in person visitors. We did have some nice chats with some of the visitors. We only made 8 QSOs from UT CA MB NJ IN MI PA NY. We had to abandon ship for about an hour while a crew disinfected the sub and "sprayed" it with UV light to eliminate any possible germs. We hung around until almost 3 o'clock, then packed up and left.
On the way home we stopped at Wendy's to get our meal. At home, we worked on and played on the computer and checked the bands. 20 was good for DX and Mike worked one DX station. I forget who it was now. Then he headed home after another great day together.
Let's see if I can post a couple pictures.
Of course, that's Mike on the left and me on the right. And that's the end for now. I might add a couple more pictures in tomorrow's diary entry. We'll see. -30-
Mon May 10 2021 10:33PM - It was great getting back to the USS Requin today and also to see Art again. Mike and I had a great time as always when we do some ham radio stuff or railroad, etc. stuff as well. Only sometimes it throws off my normal daily schedule, but I don't mind at all. That's why this will be a short diary entry as I have things to get caught up on. I do want to talk more about the day and post a couple pictures, but that will have to wait till tomorrow's diary entry. -30-
Sun May 9 2021 8:11PM - Tomorrow Mike and I will be going to operate from the USS Requin. We'll use the sub call of NY3EC and operate very roughly from 10:00AM (1400Z) until 2:00PM (1800Z) or as long as activity warrants. We'll be near 7040 and 14060 depending on QRM and QRN. Look for us and give a call.
It's still winter here. When I went over briefly with Jasmine and her aunt Donna, I said I should not have put my winter coat away, and this cold weather can be blamed on me for that reason. HI The high was only 42 which it is right now, and we had well over an inch of rain, I believe. It will be interesting getting my readings at 9:00PM. We have a long way to go to reach the all time May low of 26 though. It was "only" about 36 for our low today.
The SST sprint gave me my streak QSO on 20M when I worked W7GTF in WA. -30-
Sat May 8 2021 8:08PM - Yet another rather nothing day today. I really wish we would get some weather to match up with the calendar. May is usually a beautiful month with nice mild weather and sunny skies, but so far this year it is more like late March or early April. It's getting more depressing every day.
I got my streak QSO in a contest this evening when I worked Phil KP2M in what I think was the CQM contest according to the exchange we used. -30-
Fri May 7 2021 8:35PM - Another average day today. It was chilly, barely getting out of the 40s so I only took one short walk for some groceries and the rest of the day was spent inside except for Roscoe's walks.
I did some more organizing of my my smart phone files plus a little cleaning of the house. I had another long streak QSO this evening, even longer than last night. Let's see, it was 31 minutes tonight with Mike AA4MC down in VA.
My plan to watch Field of Dreams didn't work out last night. It wouldn't play well on my neighbor's old VCR, so we watched some Our Gang videos instead. -30-
Thu May 6 2021 8:41PM - Kind of an average day today. I did plant out 3 tomato and 2 pepper plants today which will be the extent of my garden this year unless I add a couple bean plants. I also cleaned up the yard and sidewalk a bit. I had a nice rag chew contact for my streak QSO tonight with VA3ZB, Bruce, on 40M who answered my CQ.
I came up with another profound quotation (at least profound to me HI). I said in response to a question about another rig, that I hadn't looked at another rig since I started using the KX-3 back in 2012. I said it was like being married to a good woman. No need to look at any other. A couple weeks ago I came up with another one. I don't know if I mentioned it in the diary or not. I said falling in love is like falling into a deep hole - easy to do, but hard to get out of.
And that's it for the diary. I'm going to watch my favorite baseball movie tonight, or at least half of it with the other half tomorrow night. Oh, what is it? Field of Dreams. -30-
Wed May 5 2021 8:30PM - Another quiet day today. About the only out of the ordinary thing was arranging my photos on my smart phone. I've already got 272 of them there and am putting them into albums now to organize them. I had some DX for my streak QSO this evening when I worked KP2M on a single call on 20 meters. -30-
Tue May 4 2021 8:33PM - Yet another good day today despite the rather gloomy weather. I found some info on Jasmine's Hoverboard which is the correct name for it. Hopefully when we have time to work on it again, we can get it up and running or at least make sure what the problem is. We think it is the battery, and I know where to order one if so. But we want to make sure first before she has to spend the money. I watched for her school bus and gave her the info when I saw her.
Other than that I didn't do much of anything out of the ordinary except cut the grass in the back yard, or most of it anyway, with my new weed-eater which worked beautifully. I love the metal cutting blade instead of the usual annoying string cutter.
Oh yesterday Mike and I decided on a subpedition to the Requin next Monday and checked to see if it was OK with Art, and it was. Also today I got an email from Ray WA3PRR and emailed him back to see if he wants to join us, but haven't heard back from him yet.
Tonight's streak QSO was on 30M from WA4VVA down in FL. -30-
Mon May 3 2021 8:41PM - An impromptu visit from Mike was the highlight today. He texted me this morning asking if I wanted to go with him for a ride to Golf Galaxy near Pittsburgh. Of course I said yes, and he arrived and we left around 11AM or so. We had an error-free drive. It was interesting to use both our smart phones' GPS directions simultaneously. Sometimes the voice would coincide exactly, other times they were a second or so off. Mike did his shopping at GG, then we went to Best Buy. I bought an extra charger for my smart phone and looked at some computers for Bruce, then headed home.
On the way home we stopped at Walmart where I got some tomato and pepper plants. Then we stopped at Wendy's for a take home meal. We ate that, then fooled around a while before finding out I also needed an extra charging cable. So we went back to Walmart since he also wanted to get a fishing license. Getting the license was a joy as we got waited on by a very pretty young lady. Just before that I was saying to Mike that the masks made girl watching more interesting and mysterious as you couldn't tell what was under the mask. When the young lady showed up though, I said there was no mystery there. OK, enough of that.
We "recovered" from that and headed home. I checked out my new charger and cable and it worked good. Mike played some Sherlock Holmes, then headed home around 7PM or so. I'm now getting caught up on a few things before getting my weather data and walking Roscoe. My streak QSO came from Pierre VE2PID/W8 on 40 meters. -30-
Sun May 2 2021 8:08PM - Another of those days when I could write a very long entry, but don't really have the time to do it right now. I'm doing my laundry and waiting for a sub to be delivered among other little things.
The day was a very good one in addition to being busy. The highlights were two visits with Jasmine, a short 5-10 minute one then another two hour visit later in the day. She is just such a great friend and I enjoy her company so much. Just for the conclusion jumpers out there, it's just a friendship, nothing romantic involved. The long visit was working on her balance scooter and she was showing me some smart phone tricks. Then just talking about things.
The SST gave me a quick streak as per usual Sunday evenings. Now its time to put the clothes in the dryer, so 73 for now. -30-
Sat May 1 2021 8:15PM - A busy day here for a change. Most of the activity was last of month, first of month stuff as it is every time the month changes. A summary goes as follows: Paying bills, putting April weather in the computer, uploading my ham logs to eQSL and LoTW, doing some shopping, and so forth. I also enjoyed a nice if a bit cool day with some walks. Now I'm in the midst of logging the LoTW matches into my computer log.
I thought I'd use one of the several contests this weekend for my streak QSO, but when I turned the rig on, it was set to 30 and K1GC was calling CQ so I worked him instead. -30-
Fri Apr 30 2021 8:20PM - Looks like winter is taking a brief encore today and tomorrow. Except for a brief period today, it was mostly in the 40s and very windy which made it feel a lot colder. It's supposed to go down into the 30s tonight if the wind dies down and the skies remain clear. Brrrr!!!!
I started off May with some DX tonight, working XE1XR on 20 meters after a few tries. Both 20 and 30 were rather busy this evening. I heard a weak EA2 station on 30 among some other DX. -30-
Thu Apr 29 2021 8:33PM - This is a sad day and a glad day as well. Glad because I had a nice although short visit from my friend Jasmine. She's so busy I don't really get to see her all that often anymore. However it is sad because my dad died on this day back in 1964 which is let's see.... 57 years ago now. He's been gone just over 3 times as many years now as he was with me. Hard to believe. So the roller coaster went all the way from top to bottom for me today.
I've been having luck calling CQ on 40 lately and such was the case tonight again. My CQs netted me my streak QSO after just two minutes when KA2BKG in MD answered me. -30-
Wed Apr 28 2021 8:20PM - I said I'd talk about the QSO I had last evening with K4JDD Neale. As I said he is 22 years old and has been a ham for 7 years. He had been KN4JDD up until yesterday when he got the K4JDD call. The KN4 call had originally belonged to a his Great Grandad who became a SK and he got it as a vanity call when he got his license. I sent him a follow up email as follows to save me reinventing the wheel, I'll copy it here.
"Good to hear from you. I really enjoyed our QSO last night. It's always nice to work young hams on CW. Especially you since it seems we have other things in common besides ham radio.
I guess since you like to take pictures of the moon, you have at least somewhat of an interest in astronomy. That's one of my big interests here although as I get older I tend to get the scope out less often.
Also sunset pictures are one of my favorite subjects for photography.
Then there is railfanning. The Pennsylvania - Penn Central - Conrail main line ran just about 100-150 feet from my house with a siding just outside my back yard that ran up to a brick yard. That all left many years ago though and now the RR is a hiking/biking trail. Sad!!
I see QRZ has your call updated today. I'd like to exchange QSL cards with you. I'll get a card off to you tomorrow, and you can reply when you get a chance. You might not have cards with your new call yet???
Hope we can hook up again. I'm on every evening in the 0000Z hour mostly 40 in warm weather and 80 in cold."
The items I mentioned in the email are some of the subjects we discussed last night in our 32 minute QSO. -30-
Tue Apr 27 2021 8:55PM - A somewhat boring uninteresting day until my streak QSO tonight. Unfortunately I am rushed right now and can't describe it fully, but it was with a very interesting young ham, just 22 years old. I definitely will fill out the story tomorrow when I have more time. You won't want to miss it. I took notes so I should remember it all. -30-
Mon Apr 26 2021 8:32PM - Except that it was a little warmer and sunnier, today was much like the last couple days with nothing much going on. I did get caught up on logging my eQSLs. I was shocked when I saw how far behind I was in that. At least the number of eQSLs there was high, around 160, but looking closer, I saw that 57 or so of them were from Sam VE5SF whom I've worked a lot of times in contests. In fact he was my most worked VE station until VE3EJ took over. You can see my most worked stations in the Contest Honor Roll page in the Contesting section of my web site here via the menu above.
Tonight I had one aborted QSO before my real streak QSO. W4GNT called me, but I never heard him again after I sent my exchange. So I looked elsewhere and found and worked K3FEC up in MA on 40M. -30-
Sun Apr 25 2021 8:10PM - Same old story today. About the only minor excitement again today was Roscoe visiting and checking out my upstairs again.
Of course with the SST Sprint, my streak QSO came at 0001Z tonight thanks to N7US in IL again. -30-
Sat Apr 24 2021 8:08PM - Another quiet day today. As he has for the 4 or so days now, Roscoe has been visiting my house while the therapist or nurse visits Bruce to treat his toe. Today was the first day he has ever visited my upstairs. I don't know what he was looking at, but he was there a few minutes. Maybe he was looking at my shack. HI Maybe he made a couple contacts and didn't tell me about them or put them in the log. He didn't have any trouble with my slippery stairs so I suppose he could stay here a couple days if it was ever necessary.
A quick FLQP QSO took care of the streak tonight. I remember when I finished second overall despite categor but never even got a plaque or certificate for that as #1 overall was also from PA. I think I did get an overall QRP plaque though. -30-
Fri Apr 23 2021 8:15PM - An interesting today. I had a bit of a cold, but didn't let that interfere with too much. I went around my usual routine including a couple pretty long walks. It hit the low 60s today so it was not too bad out except for some breeze that made it seem chillier than it was.
Then this evening I actually worked two DX stations, both on the first call, or almost on the first call. I accidentally doubled on the second station and didn't get him until the clear second call. Both on 20 meters, one was 9Z4Y, the other 6D4A. It's been a long time since I worked 2 non contest DX stations in the same day. -30-
Thu Apr 22 2021 8:31PM - Another quiet day here with not much going on. With was a cold day with a high only in the 40s again and a trace of s#$w this morning.
I got a pretty quick streak QSO this evening for the first time in a couple days now at 0005Z when I got an answer to my CW on 40M from W0SUZ in MO. -30-
Wed Apr 21 2021 8:38PM - Not as good a day as yesterday, but not bad either except for the weather. Let's see if I can put a visual description here.
Those are not dust specks on the lens. At least it didn't stick to the warm ground and just a bit on car windshields.
Took a while to get my QSO again this evening, but K9CG eventually answered my 40M CQ. -30-
Tue Apr 20 2021 8:33PM - There have been a lot of good happenings for me lately. Some of them are private and I don't share them here in the on air diary, and I am sorry about that, but I think it is best in the long run. There were other good things I can talk about here though.
Bruce and I took Roscoe out to get his vitamins today, then stopped for an ice cream cone for Roscoe, and a milkshake for me. Thanks Bruce. I just now thought I should have taken a video of Roscoe eating his ice cream cone. That would be a treasured keepsake and you would have enjoyed seeing it. Hopefully I'll remember the next time he has a cone. It's so easy with my new smart phone too. I just love that thing. I'm sure glad my young friend Jasmine convinced me to get one. And I'm glad Mike took me to the Apple Store in Pittsburgh and helped out with the details of purchasing it.
Now it's time to order a couple subs from Vocelli's for Bruce and me after I get my weather data and finish updating a couple more web site pages. -30-
Mon Apr 19 2021 8:25PM - Thanks to Mike for writing yesterday's diary entry and for suggesting we do a tag team effort in the CQMM contest. I had a really great time. It was enjoyable getting into a bigger contest for a change, especially when the action got fast paced at times. Also it was nice to be able to take my mind off of other things for a while.
I was busy today with getting caught up on some things I put off because of the contest like my laundry. I also enjoyed the nice weather with some walks and a couple times sitting in the park.
Yesterday was the 45th anniversary of talking to one of my girlfriends for the first time. I think Mike was getting a bit tired of me playing one song over and over several times that reminded me of her.
I heard via post card (QSL) today from Art at the sub USS Requin. He says he is now at the sub a couple days a week and asked if we wanted to do some subpeditions. Of course we do. I contacted Mike and we're going to try for May 10 and maybe every 2nd Monday of a month after that. Of course I'll keep you up to date on that here in the diary and also wherever else we can publiccize it. -30-
Sun Apr 18 2021 8:19PM - Now here's Mike for the diary entry. Good evening everyone. It was a very good weekend for radio operations. We logged 132 (John) and 126 (Mike) QSO's during the CQMM DX contest. We worked Europe 9A5W on 80M (on 40 and 20M as well) rather easiliy. And a few on 20 and 40. 15M was virtualy dead. 10M was dead. It was slow going most of today. Things picked up when 40M opened up later this afternoon. I mentioned to John that it was a psuedo practice run for Field Day. No we did not forgo a decent meal. We had pasta dishes from Vocellis. During some down time today we took John's drone up to the Kittanning Park. It flies well. Unfortunately flying time is short due to the small battery. I was very impressed with it. Next on the radio calendar will be Field Day unless we have a impromtu parkpedition.
So until next time, de Mike KC2EGL 73 -30-
Sat Apr 17 2021 8:32PM - Mike and I had a long session in the CQMM contest. Conditions were fair, but not really good DX conditions. We each made about 60 QSOs, all but 3 or 4 were W/VE QSOs. We'll have a complete report on the test in tomorrow's diary entry. -30-
Fri Apr 16 2021 8:21PM - Well, as I said, it seems when I have little to write abbout in the diary, I have a lot of time to not write it. That's true again today. Nothing to write about an a lot of free time to kill.
The bands were busy tonight. Busier than I was today. HI. There must have been about 6-8 stations on 30 meters and more than that on the lower part of 40. I decided to call CQ and after a few minutes I got an answer from VE3HBH for a short QSO to keep the streak alive.
The next couple days should be better with Mike spending the weekend to do the CQMM Contest. That will be a welcome relief from the boredom here of late. -30-
Thu Apr 15 2021 8:43PM - Life is strange and has its little jokes it likes to play on people. For example the last few nights I had little to write about and had plenty of time to not do it. Tonight after a very good day, there is a lot I could write about, but have little time to do it. I just finished a long phone call from a cousin and then got my streak QSO. Now it's almost time for my weather readings, having a sub with my neighbor, walk Roscoe, etc.
Anyway, I got the lawn trimmer I ordered a few days ago, and had a bit of a time putting it together with a very minimal instruction booklet. At least I got it running and I'll try it out tomorrow in my back yard. While I was unpacking it, there was a knock on the door, and it was Jasmine. She forgot her key and needed to borrow mine to get in the house. I hadn't really been able to talk to her in a while, so I kind of stretched it out and I got to tell her some things I had been waiting to say for a while now. So there are two good things right there. There were more little things that also went just right like ordering a printer ink cartridge from Walmart for my neighbor, finding some info for him, and oh, some other little things I can't remember now, but they all went well.
Now I've got to run and order some subs, get my weather, etc. -30-
Wed Apr 14 2021 7:42PM - Didja ever have one of those days where you're not sure if it was a bad day, a good day, or what. I did today and I'm still trying to figure it out. And I don't drink. In fact I've had just one alcoholic beverage in my nearly 76 years of life. That was at a Greek Rood Festival back around 1976 or so. Hopefully I'll figure it all out later, but right now I'm not sure. Hopefully my streak QSO will be easy tonight. Apologies for being so vague and unsure for the past however long it's been now. -30-
Tue Apr 13 2021 8:21PM - Almost time for our NAQCC sprint so another short entry tonight. Not much to talk about anyway except it was a nice day and I spent quite a bit of time walking and sitting in the park. -30-
Mon Apr 12 2021 8:56PM - Just a quick entry tonight. I've got a couple of subs ordered to be delivered in a few minutes for a welcome home to my neighbor who came home from the hospital/rehab today. -30-
Sun Apr 11 2021 8:32PM - I honored Sunday in the traditional way today. I kept it as a day of rest, and didn't do much of anything. About the only real work I'm doing right now. My laundry is in the dryer. Otherwise I did some walking, some work/play on my smart phone, and that was about it. Of course I got my streak QSO this evening in the SST sprint from N7US in IL on 40M. -30-
Sat Apr 10 2021 7:52PM - Looks like with the GA, NE, and NM QSO Parties, it should be a quick streak QSO this evening.
Thanks to Tim Hayes and Dennis Doran (I don't have their calls handy) for pointing out some date errors in my diary which I have now fixed.
I was right about the GA QSO Party. I got a phone call and it's now 8:20PM so after the call I went and worked KM4DAY for the streak QSO. Only took a couple minute to find and work someone when I eventually got to the shack. -30-
Fri Apr 9 2021 8:27PM - Well, the weather was good again today with a high of 77 under mostly sunny skies. That's about all that was good today. Well, I did get a streak QSO on 30 meters again as that band is starting to open up after a long pretty inactive period. Who did I work? Roger KO5Q down in GA. -30-
Thu Apr 8 2021 8:27PM - In contrast to yesterday, most of today was good. The weather topped it off. It was sunny with some increasing clouds late in the day. The high was 82 again. So I spent a lot of time outside walking or sitting on the porch. I didn't really do a whole lot of things besides that.
The streak QSO came quicker this evening when I worked Ray K2HYD at 0006Z on 40M. I hadn't worked Ray in quite some time and it was good to hear him again. -30-
Wed Apr 7 2021 8:37PM - Today started off bad and never really got much better in many ways. First there was a hole in my pants pocket through which I might have lost my keys if I don't keep them attached to my belt. I had to sew that up. Then the battery in my pedometer went dead and I had to replace it. Don't leave, it doesn't get better. When I went next door to take Roscoe out, turned out he took a big dump right inside the door sometime during the night. I had to clean that up. I had to get away so I went and sat in the park for a while.
I did some work in the back yard a little later and got a cut on my finger from a piece of wire fencing. It did calm down a bit after that until I got on the air this evening. I had trouble working anyone for almost a half hour which is the longest it's taken in some time now. I finally did get N4OW in FL on 40 meters. I better be careful from now till midnight so nothing else happens.
I did enjoy sitting on the porch quite a bit in between the minor disasters listening to music on my new smart phone. I'm really becoming a smart phone addict - thanks Jasmine. HI I always wondered why so many folks are glued to their smart phones, and now I know. HI -30-
Tue Apr 6 2021 8:47PM - Here are some stats Tom WB3FAE compiled from our POTA op yesterday:
40 m contacts: 19
30 m contacts: 15
20 m contacts: 23
Total Contacts: 57
19 States: TN, NH, NC, IL, NY, IN, PA, WI, MA, FL, MO, ME, KS, SD, UT, OK, NM,IA,OR
1 US Territory: PR
2 Canadian Provinces: NL, BC
3 Countries: England, France, Azores
Not bad as I said yesterday.
Hey just got an email from Australia:
G'day John,
I'm copying you S1-2 on 10105.0kHz, long path, during your rag chew with AA4MB, who is 449.
Rig here IC-7610, ant 80m open wire fed flat top delta loop, up 20m.
Think you said ur antenna was in the attic? If so it's doing a great job.
Take care, stay well and 73, Phil VK6GX.
Those of you who follow my diary about my activity know I've worked VK6 several times on 30 meters. So I'm not really surprised by this email, but very glad to get it.
That pretty much covers the diary material about today. Except I just want to comment on the Baylor-Gonzaga game last night. I don't think I've ever seen one team dominate another like that in the March Madness final game. Baylor won by 16 points, but the game wasn't really that close. Gonzaga fell behind 9-0 at the start and never got closer than that the whole game if I recall correctly. Amazing especially since Gonzaga was undefeated going into the game. The first team to do that since Indiana State with Larry Bird back in 1989, I believe. ISU also lost the final for their first loss of the season. -30-
Mon Apr 5 2021 7:43PM - Pictures of the three ops at today's parkpedition from Moraine State Park.
Me - Upper Left, Mike - Upper right, Tom - Bottom
The weather was beautiful, conditions were good, and we made 50 some contacts. I'd call that a success.
OK, now off to get my streak QSO. -30-
Sun Apr 4 2021 8:11PM - I watched one of the best basketball games I've ever seen last night. It ranks up there with the Christian Laettner game in 1992. Of course I mean the OT game between Gonzaga and UCLA that Gonzaga won on a last second three point shot 93-90. Wow. And I watched most of it. The first time I've watched virtually a complete basketball game in a long time.
That got me thinking of the greatest football and baseball games I've seen. I'll talk more about that in a couple nights but I'm busy tonight and tomorrow night. Just a teaser though. Football: Oakland-Miami. Baseball: Pittsburgh-New York. Real sports fans will know the games I'm talking about.
I had a truly great Easter today. I haven't seen much of Jasmine lately, but I got to talk to her for several minutes today about smart phones mostly. Then a little later she brought me over two BIG dishes of Easter dinner food and also visited for several minutes more. It's always nice when friends get together after little contact for some time.
Tomorrow I'll be with a couple more friends, Mike KC2EGL and Tom WB3FAE. I saw Mike just a few days ago, but haven't seen Tom for several months, maybe close to a year. We'll be doing a POTA operation from Moraine Park near Butler, PA. -30-
Sat Apr 3 2021 8:07PM - It was kind of a strange and busy day today. I did so many different things, I can't even remember what most of them were. There weren't any out of the ordinary things. I do remember that. It was another chilly day until it did warm to the middle 50s by late afternoon/early evening.
Tonight I got one of those 0000Z streak QSOs thanks to the MS QSO Party when I worked KD5DD a few seconds after 0000Z. That also got my 59th year as a ham radio operator off to a quick start. -30-
Fri Apr 2 2021 8:49PM - Tomorrow April 3 2021 is a noteable day in my ham radio life as you see here:
Yep, it's been 58 years now that I've been a license ham. Whew! Where does the time go, and as I always add, why does it go faster when we get older. I sure would love to knock off a good deal of those years and go back to being young again, but that ain't going to happen.
Tonight I worked another ham who is a retired broadcast worker. Of course you know I am one also. That's another good sized span of time since I retired in the early 1990s, almost 30 years ago. Wow, I'm getting to feel really old as I type this entry. I think I'll just stop now before I feel any older. HI -30-
Thu Apr 1 2021 8:30PM - Happy April Fools Day from a FOOL to you out there. Sometimes I think I really do qualify.
Mike and I had a good day today and it was nice to have some company here for a change. Thanks Mike. I can sum up our day briefly although we did accomplish a lot. It started with me showing him my phone app for running my Lionel trains. Then for most of the rest of the day we exchanged a lot of info about smart phones. I learned a lot from Mike and I think he learned a few things from me. We closed out the day with some ham radio. It seemed most folks were engaged in rag chewing with each other so Mike didn't work anyone and it took me a while to get my streak QSO when I finally worked N2UU. That pretty much covers the day. -30-
Wed Mar 31 2021 8:36PM - A wet chilly rainy day today in contrast to the last few days. I didn't have anywhere to go or anything to do so it really didn't matter, I guess.
Another day of learning/playing with the smart phone. Also I uploaded my March QSOs to eQSL and LoTW as I do the end of each month. I had 34 QSOs in March. 31 streak QSOs and 3 extra ones. I sure have cut down on my number of QSOs the past couple years. I guess I just don't have the desire to get on the air as much. Probably due to old age. HI Anyway that's a good thing on which to blame a lot of things as the years roll by.
My QSO came quickly tonight at 0004Z when I worked W9XW on 40 meters. -30-
Tue Mar 30 2021 8:11PM - Another beautiful day with sunshine and mid-70s temperature. I was busy with other things though and didn't get out as much as I would have liked. I did sit on the porch both with Roscoe and by myself, and went for a walk and shopping downtown. I also did some yard work. So actually I guess I did get out more than it seemed. HI.
I did a lot with my smart phone also. I'm sure enjoying it, and even though I don't see her much lately, I have to thank Jasmine again for encouraging me to get one. Mike's coming down on Thursday and he'll be doing some things to help me with the phone even though without his or Jasmine's help I must say I've learned a lot on my own by just playing around with it.
A quick streak QSO from VE2CSI up in QC on 40 meters at 0001Z took care of that daily chore. -30-
Mon Mar 29 2021 8:18PM - A chilly but sunny day. It gave me a chance to fix a support on my thermometer shelter in the back yard which was broken in the big wind we had several days ago. I took a couple pixtures of the fix on my smart phone. If I can get them over here to my laptop, I'll post one here. OK, here we go.
Right in the center of the picture is a portion of a 2x4 with two nuts and bolts protruding from it. That is part of Mike's train platform support. We had to shorten the legs and wound up with many pieces like that. I said I'd take some since they might come in handy someday. Well today was someday. HI Never throw anything out, you might need it some day. I added bricks surrounding the 2x4 and support to hopefully keep it from swinging around and breaking again.
That's pretty much the only out of the usual activity here today. My streak QSO came quickly tonight on 40 meters from N9FGC in IN.
We're rapidly trimming the March Madness field. After tomorrow it will be down to the Final Four. It looks like Houston will be one of the Four. They are far ahead of Oregon State at the moment 42-27 with 15 minutes left. Not unsurmountable, but unlikely Oregon State can come back. We'll see. -30-
Sun Mar 28 2021 9:17PM - Yes it's late as I get around to writing this entry. I did my laundry and wanted to wait till it finished to do this entry. That and a long phone call are the reasons.
Fortunately(?) there's not much to write about anyway. It was a quiet rainy windy Sunday so I spent most of it on my new smart phone. That thing is a great companion although not as nice as a good lady would be, but....
I broke my string of LMS stations tonight and worked K4JAZ in the SST sprint. That's a great little thing to help me get a very quick streak QSO each Sunday evening when I have other things (usually) to do then. -30-
Sat Mar 27 2021 8:10PM - Another quiet day today. I spent most of it on my smart phone installing a couple new apps and continuing to learn more about it. My smart phone tutor Jasmine turned out to be busy all day with other things and never did get together with me. Sigh!.
The weather was nice again and I went for a fairly long walk. Other than that, I can't really think of anything out of the ordinary. This evening for the fourth night in a row I worked a LMS related station. Tonight it was K6S on 40M. He's listed as being in CA so that was pretty long skip just after sunset here, if so. -30-
Fri Mar 26 2021 1:48PM - AS you may or may not know, my on-line log is hosted on GoDaddy. They have recently made some changes to the php pages they host. As a result I have two choices, to modify the php pages or simply drop the on-line logs altogether. Probably I'll do a combination of the both and change the way my logs can be accessed to see if you ever worked me. I'll have to do some thinking about it before I decide on just what to do. -30-
Thu Mar 25 2021 8:28PM - A day pretty much like the last couple with a couple exceptions which I won't go into. I worked the same station for my streak QSO as last night - KA6LMS - except it was /4 tonight instead of /1 as last night and on 40 instead of 80 last night. It was 75 today so I sat on the porch quite a while with my smart phone, and also went for a fairly long walk. -30-
Wed Mar 24 2021 8:28PM - If the last couple days were good, today was great. Again no real details on the main reason it was great. Sorry! You'll have to take my word for it.
There were other good things to talk more about though. The weather again was outstanding with a high of... 73 on my remote weather station. I took a couple long walks down through the park and did some shopping on the second one.
I'm also continuing my learning on the smart phone. I marvel at how powerful a thing it is in such a small package. In many ways it puts my laptop to shame for the things it can do. I think the only complaint I have is that the print is so small for my old and ageing eyes, but that's no fault of it.
I got an astronomy app today and a game app to add to my collection of apps. I also tried out the GPS feature of the maps app when we went to Walmart to get some food for Roscoe, then again later on one of my walks. It works great. Also I'm more and more pleased with the pedometer app I got a few days ago.
This Saturday I have a tentative "date" with Jasmine for some more tutorials on the smart phone. I still have questions about this and that, and she can probably answer them for me.
I talked to Tom WY3H today for a few minutes, and I'm going to call him again tonight so we can talk longer. It's been a while now since we've had a long talk.
I think that gives a pretty good idea of why it was a good day for old John here.
Oh, in ham radio, I worked KA6LMS/1 who was turning over quick QSOs for whatever reason. Maybe it was a special event station. Let me check QRZ. Something about a Last Man Standing TV Show. I'm not familiar with that since I don't follow TV at all. See QRZ for more info if you're interested. -30-
Tue Mar 23 2021 4:27PM - I'm writing this early today. It's been a good day so far. Nice weather again today and a good dose of ambition to get some things done. I worked a little on my tulip bed today. Here's a picture, and you'll maybe see a hole in the pattern of plants at the third spot in the back row. There was a bulb missing there, and I noticed there was an isolated tulip plant a couple feet away outside the pattern. Perhaps some animal or bird dug it up and moved it. The bulb was right at the surface with about a 3 inch root into the ground. So I transplanted it where it should be. I'll see if it will grow there. I'll have some other pictures when the flower buds and later the flowers appear. The picture was taken with my new smart phone.
-30-
Mon Mar 22 2021 9:03PM - This was a good day pretty much all around today. The weather was great enough for a pretty long walk with sunny skies and a high of 71. It was also nice enough that I pretty much finished cleaning up my back yard except for a few leaves here and there. Also my rose bushes need pruned. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Also my grass is starting to grow pretty good and will need mowing before long.
I had a great QSO this evening with KD8BBK. We went about 25 WPM for 19 minutes. I haven't had a QSO at that speed outside of contests for a long time. I was pleased I only made about 5 sending errors in all that time at 25 WPM.
I also did a little spring house cleaning, but not that much.
It feels good to have the get up and go to do things like the past couple days or so. I hadn't had it for a while now for reasons I won't go into here.
I also of course played with the smart phone. It's nice to sit out on the porch and surf the Internet, etc. I want to thank Jasmine for her help in teaching me some of the ins and outs of a smart phone, and then suggesting which one to get and encouraging me to get one. Without her, I probably wouldn't have one today. I installed a train simulator app today and have been having fun with it.
There were some other things also today, but I can't remember them now. HI -30-
Sun Mar 21 2021 7:18PM - Mike KC2EGL, Tom WB3FAE, and I are planning our first parkpedition of 2021. I'm not sure about Tom and Mike, but I really need to get out somewhere and break this cabin fever. I have been walking more outside the past few weeks, but those walks are only for a short time. Anyway, we are shooting for going to Moraine State Park on April 5. More details as the time draws closer.
Other than that it was a smart phone learning day. I learned how to delete an app for one thing. I also installed a couple new apps, a pedometer and a bar/QR code reader. I checked out the pedometer app against my regular pedometer and they agreed within 4 steps for a walk of 1,500 steps. Not bad. The bar code reader worked fine on bar codes, but I couldn't find a QR code to check. Before I got the phone, it seems I saw QR codes everywhere. That's the way things go. HI
Then of course I have been keeping track of March Madness. An upset game just finished. OK, I got interrupted by a phone call and my laundry finishing in the washer. Now where was I? Oh yes, the upset was #11 Syracuse beating #3 West Virginia. There were 11 upsets so far in the tournament.
It's getting close to streak time. The SST should provide an easy QSO so I can get back to my laundry when it finishes in the dryer. -30-
Sat Mar 20 2021 8:12PM - Another day of March Madness, learning more about the smart phone, and a nice walk in the 60 degree weather for some shopping.
The Russian DX test helped with the streak tonight. It's an everybody works everybody test so I worked K1MM on 40 meters for my QSO. -30-
Fri Mar 19 2021 8:59PM - This was for the most part a very busy and good day. I can't even remember all that I got done, but it mainly dealt with the smart phone and March Madness. Actually they both kind of link together since I was following the tournament on the phone. HI I learned a lot about the phone today and am getting more and more comfortable with it each day now. It's a steep learning curve for an old man like me. However my 40 or so years of working with computers is helping quite a bit.
Let's see how MM is coming. There was one big upset today with Oral Roberts (15) beating Ohio State (2). A 12 Oregon St beat a 5 Tennessee also. I haven't checked the more recent games. Looks like with one exception, the rest of the games are going as seeded. North Texas is ahead of Purdue, but only by one point now. Well, 4 points. Guess NT made a 3 pointer.
OK, I've got too many things going here now. Let's wrap up this entry. I worked W9IK on 40, then decided I was going to check 30 and 20 before I shut down. I called CQ on 30 and after a few CQs, N0FUA in GA answered me and we had a 16 minute solid copy QSO. That was even with me forgetting to change antennas on the last round. I used the 20 meter dipole instead of the attic random wire. I was listening on the dipole because it had a better s/n ratio. -30-
Thu Mar 18 2021 8:32PM - Can it be anything but a good day when March Madness gets started? We're down to 67 teams already as Texas Southern beat Mount St. Mary's in one of the First Four games to become #16 seed in the East to go up against Michigan. Drake is beating Wichita St near the end of the game. Then there will be two more games a little later tonight. Love it! I'm watching on my smart phone as I type here on the computer.
There were other good things today also, mostly dealing with continuing to set up and learn the smart phone. I bought my first app (actually free) from the Apple store, a Lionel Lionchief app with which I can run my trains from the phone.
Oh Oh, 27 seconds to go in the Drake game with Drake up by 2. OK back to concentrating on the game now. -30-
Wed Mar 17 2021 6:46PM - Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. It was an up and down day here which I won't bother describing because I want to get this diary entry done before Mike comes. We have a lot of things to do with the top of the list being hooking up the phone service to my new smart phone. I also have some other things to ask Mike about the phone. Also I have to get my streak QSO and get at least one QSO in our NAQCC sprint. I could combine those things. Of course we'll have to get something to eat. I'm sure there are other things as well, and he won't be here till 8:00 so we'll have to squeeze all that into a rather short time. -30-
Tue Mar 16 2021 9:05PM - This was a good day in several ways, but I don't have much time to write about it, so just some highlights. I received the SIM chip or card for my smart phone today, so when Mike comes tomorrow evening we can get it installed. I probably could do it myself, but he's done it before so might as well rely on his experience. Also I have some other things I need to ask him about the phone.
Then I had a visit from my second cousin whom I don't see all that often. I found some old pictures of her mother and a couple other relatives that I thought she would like to have, and she was glad to get them.
I found her pictures when I was looking for pictures of an old girlfriend whom I was thinking about recently for some reason. I also found them and decided to see if I could trace her via the Internet. I think I did find her and am going to drop her a letter just for the fun of it to see what happens. Stay tuned for further episodes of any soap opera that may develop. HI
I got a fairly quick QSO this evening from W2WJ/8 in not too far away Struthers, OH on 80 meters. -30-
Mon Mar 15 2021 8:17PM - Beware the Ides of March. Well, nothing really bad happened here today. I got my NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets set up in my Excel file and I'm ready for March Madness to start this Thursday. It's a bit different this year as they seem to be playing the games on Fri/Sat and Sun/Mon this year if the info I have is right. Also they are playing all the games in two brackets on Fri and all games in the two other brackets on Sat, and so on and so forth. Anyway it's good to have it back after missing last year due to the virus.
I also did my middle of the month bills today. Then I learned more about my smart phone. I'm really getting used to it now and liking it quite a bit.
A fairly quick streak QSO tonight on 40 meters at 0005Z when I worked K4ABC in NC. -30-
Sun Mar 14 2021 7:47PM - I think all went smoothly converting to DST last night. I usually find one clock somewhere that I forgot to update, but so far I haven't found any yet. It's kind of nice having that extra hour of light in the evening. Of course since the daylight is only shifted and not saved, the folks who need more light in the morning will have to suffer.
I learned quite a bit more about my smart phone today so when Mike comes down on Wednesday to help install the SIM card, we shouldn't have too much to do, which will be good since I believe he is coming down after his bike ride and we won't have too much time.
Right now I'm doing my laundry and waiting for 0000Z to get my streak QSO. That should be easy with the SST Sprint.
Another thing I did today was look through some old pictures mainly looking for a picture of an old girlfriend from 1976. There's an interesting story behind that, but I'm not going to tell it here. I did find 4 or 5 such pictures, and I think when Mike reads this, he'll be interested. Nuff said about that.
Almost time now either for the streak QSO or to put the laundry in the dryer. Oops, one more cycle to go in the washer yet, so it may be about a tie. -30-
Sat Mar 13 2021 7:44PM - A lot of today was spent fooling around learning about my new smart phone. I'm fairly well along, but still a lot to learn yet. Even though I really never used one except for a brief time on Jasmine's, I found things pretty well straightforward. Of course, Mike setting it up for me yesterday took care of a lot of things it would have taken me a couple days to do. Now I just have to wait for my SIM card to come in the mail to finish the setup. That should be Wednesday.
My streak QSO came in the Tesla Contest when I worked Dave K1ZZ on 80 meters.
Now I'm going to watch the movie Casablance with Bruce (and Roscoe). -30-
Fri Mar 12 2021 7:23PM - It was a good Mike day, so here he is to tell you about it. Well folks you know where is about to freeze over. John bit the modern technology bullet today and came into the age of mobile phones. We headed back to Pittsburgh to the Apple Store in Shadyside. One of the very few Pittsburgh neighborhoods that I actualy like. If it were not for the $3,000 a month rent for a one bedroom apartment I could easily live there. John decided on a plan from Straight Talk which I talked him into and the Apple Tech agreed that it was an excellent provider to go with. We did run into one issure when we stopped at Walmart to get a SIM card and a few accesories for his phone. They do not sell SIM cards. We had to order one directly from Straight Talk which went much easier than I had expected. They farm out their tech work to the Sub continent (or at least they used to). The gentleman who took the call spoke perfect english without an accent. And was more than helpful and very professional. I was quite pleased. John's SIM card will be here by Wednesday. Which means I will be back down that night after my first group bike ride of the season.
After our trip up to Walmart we headed over to the Kittanning TWP Volunteer Fire Hall to pick up our fish dinners that John ordered earlier in the week. Unfortunately they are still not allowed to have dine in service. It was still a fantastic meal. A good portion of fish with 3 Peirogies, Mac and Cheese, coleslaw, and a dinner role. All to help support a local Volunteer Fire Hall. John logged his streak QSO this evening as well K8MPH on 80M.
All in all it was another outstanding day hanging out with John. And for a change we did not make any wrong turns. Another reason why you know where is going to freeze over. Until next time de Mike KC2EGL. -30-
Thu Mar 11 2021 7:15PM - Nothing much in the way of news today that I feel worthy talking about in the diary. I do appreciate the feedback I get on the diary, especially from those who like the variety of topics I discuss here. Some things though I do like to keep private. I have another off-line diary for those things.
Tomorrow I hope that Mike will write my diary entry after our day getting me a smart phone followed by having a Lenten fish dinner. That will add a little more variety to the diary, I hope. -30-
Wed Mar 10 2021 7:28PM - Another run of the mill days today. There seem to be a lot of them of late. I sure will be glad when this virus thing is a thing of the past and we can get back to normal activities again. Maybe that will make a change in things.
I did some more back yard cleanup today in the 72 degree weather here. I've got the bulk of the leaf mulch removed from my garden beds now although I'm not sure I'll plant a garden this year. I haven't started tomatoes or peppers from seeds as I usually do in January. I might just buy a couple tomato and pepper plants from our garden center and go with them for this year.
It was yet another easy streak QSO this evening. I hope I don't jinx things by saying this, but it really isn't all that hard to do a streak like mine. Especially if you have the time available each and every day as I do here. Propagation conditions are virtually never the factor, nor is band activity. The 0000Z hour remains the hour for well over 90 percent of my QSOs, much closer to 98 or 99 percent for recent times going back a few years now. -30-
Tue Mar 9 2021 7:37PM - I guess this was a better day today. The temperature got up in the mid 60s, nice enough for a shirtsleeves walk downtown for some shopping. It's been nice to go outside for some good walks most days of late. Helps cure or at least ease the cabin fever which has been so prevalent of late. It was also nice today to start cleaning up my back yard. When I removed the leaf mulch from my tulip bed, I found most all the tulips have started to sprout. There are about 18 groups of them with each group now having split into at least 4-6 plants so I may have near to 100 flowers this spring. I'll post a picture here in the diary when they have all bloomed.
That's pretty much the story of the day today as far as things out of the ordinary go. I got a quick streak QSO this evening from W9IK on 80 meters at 0001Z.
Oh, I also ordered two fish dinners for Friday when Mike comes down to take me to get my smart phone (hopefully for real this time, unlike last Wednesday when the Apple store didn't have what I wanted). This time I decided to change the model to one they do have in stock. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles the other one would have had, but most of those had to do with the picture taking ability of the phone. This one should suit my needs perfectly, and is cheaper to boot. -30-
Mon Mar 8 2021 7:32PM - March 8 seems to stick in my mind for some reason. I believe it was March 8, 1960 when I recorded my first below zero temperature in my many long years of weather records. I can check on that and will do so now. Yep, that was it. It was -2 degrees on that date in the very unusual month of March 1960 when March was colder than January or February.
A quick and not so long streak QSO this evening from WB5RYB on 40 meters. My local QRN brought a premature ending to the QSO.
It took its good old time doing it, but it did get into the 50s today in late afternoon after a low this morning in the teens. -30-
Sun Mar 7 2021 7:33PM - Pretty much a usual day of late. I went for a walk downtown today to do some shopping, mostly for junk food. HI Nothing like junk food to brighten up a day. HI
This evening, once again the SST sprint took care of the streak QSO. That was good, because Bruce had a sub for both of us that I finished in time to do my laundry, which I'm doing right now. That pretty much sums up the day, I guess. -30-
Sat Mar 6 2021 7:20PM - A couple different things made this a better day today. We took Roscoe to the groomer for a hair cut, bath, and nail clipping. Now he looks like a different dog. HI Seems to feel better also.
Late this afternoon, I did something I haven't done for a while. I watched a full movie. Specifically my favorite movie of all time, probably. It is Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman along with several other great actors of that era. I think it is a great mixture of a love story between Bogart and Bergman and a World War II story as a background. They sure don't make movies like that any longer. Bogart is one of, if not my favorite actor(s). I've seen just about every one of his movies over the years except maybe some of his very early short features. Other favorites of his movies are The Maltese Falcon, The African Queen, We're No Angels, Key Largo, The Left Hand of God, Battle Circus, Deadline USA, The Treasure of Sierra Madre, Action in the North Atlantic, Passage To Marseilles, and The Petrified Forest. That last film was his first major movie after Leslie Howard "discovered" Bogart playing the villian Duke Mantee in a play.
My streak QSO this evening was a 2X QRP one with KA2CMA on 80 in NY. He had me run my power down to 100 mW to see if he could copy me at that level since I was so strong at 5 watts. He did copy me well. Must be nice to have a quiet location like he must have. I could never do that here with my high local noise. -30-
Fri Mar 5 2021 7:44PM - This was not a good day in many ways. I'm not going to bore you with any details. I did at least have a nice rag chew QSO this evening with Mike K1OV on 80 meters that lasted 35 minutes. He is in New London, CT which I visited many years ago on a trip through New England. We saw the naval base there and an old restored sailing ship. -30-
Thu Mar 4 2021 1:10PM - Just a picture entry today. I received this in the mail today for last year's Skeeter Hunt in which Mike KC2EGL and I operated from the Kittanning Community Park.
-30-
Wed Mar 3 2021 7:31PM - As usual, a good day when Mike visits. We did have one disappointment, but the rest of the day went great. Mike arrived around 10AM or so when I was out walking Roscoe.
We ran my trains quite a bit and just chatted. Mike played Sherlock Holmes till I got in from walking Roscoe. Then we headed to Pittsburgh to the Apple store to supposedly get my smart phone. That's when the disappointment came in. They were out of the model I wanted, and I had to put that on hold while I studied other models to find a substitute. So it was a trip to Pittsburgh for nothing. Well, as Mike said though, looking on the bright side, we did get to see the two houses where I lived while working at WPIT in Pittsburgh many years ago. The one looked pretty much the same while the other had a pretty much complete makeover.
Back home again after stopping at Wendy's for a take out order. Can't miss our food breaks. At home, some more computer games and running trains. We checked the bands and heard the CWT sprint, but not much more. We then took a pretty good sized walk enjoying the nice weather.
Later it was up to the shack to get my streak QSO, which I got on 80 meters from Dan KB6NU. Now I'm sitting here writing this, and Mike is looking up something on his smart phone. Wish I had mine here, but that will have to wait a while again. As Mike said though, I haven't had one for a long time, so a few more days or weeks won't hurt. -30-
Tue Mar 2 2021 8:08PM - A nice day today. A bit chilly with a high only in the low 30s or so, but the clear skies and bright sun made it not so bad. I took my longest walk in a while today and did some shopping along the way. In fact I'm eating some of the candy I bought right now as I type.
I had two QSOs tonight, both from my CQs and both solid copy for 18 and 23 minutes on 80 meters. -30-
Mon Mar 1 2021 8:05PM - Happy First Day of Spring! It was a good one here except on the windy side with a wind chill very noticeable. None of the white stuff though, although it did rain early in the day.
I had a great rag chew tonight with Greg W1GF who recently joined NAQCC. We chatted about a variety of things for 49 minutes at about 20WPM including keys and FISTS among other things. -30-
Sun Feb 28 2021 7:16PM - Well, winter ends in a little less than 5 hours. I'll have to disable my counter up above here. Of course March will still have some light s@#w and some cold snaps, but they never last at this time of year.
Today was a good day, weatherwise, and I got in another outside walk. I also finished up most of my end of the month work. One other good thing was Jasmine brought me over a big plate of lasagna. However she was too busy to stay and visit. She is about the busiest girl I've ever known.
As it has the past several Sunday evenings now, the SST sprint gave me a quick streak QSO, thanks to K1BG up in MA on 80M. -30-
Sat Feb 27 2021 7:19PM - Hey, tomorrow is the last day of winter. It looks like March will be coming in like a lamb. Today was sure a lamb like day in many ways. My remote unit shows a high of 52 and it felt like it. I took another good outside walk today and it felt great.
The SC QSO Party provided my streak QSOs this evening. I worked two stations because I wasn't positive if the first one had my call as WWP or WWW. I'm pretty sure it was right, but I wanted a 100% positive one just to be sure.
It looks like I'll have a new toy the middle of next week. Wednesday Mike and I go to the Apple store to get my first ever Smart Phone, an iPhone 11 Pro Max. Then to Walmart for a Straight Talk provider. Then Mike and/or Jasmine can tutor me on how to use it. HI -30-
Fri Feb 26 2021 8:18PM - Another nice day today although not as warm as predicted due to a persistent cloud cover. Still nice enough to run around outside with just a light jacket. I walked down to the river and met a fisherman coming back from fishing. I asked if he did any good, and he said it was still too early for the fish, maybe it would be better in a couple weeks. I haven't gone fishing for a couple years now. That encounter with the fisherman made me thinking I might like to get back to it this year. Maybe Mike and I can go sometime. We've been talking about it for a few years now, but never have made it yet. Or maybe Jasmine and I. She said she has done a little fishing before.
There was not a lot of activity on the bands tonight. I had to resort to a few CQs to finally work someone. It was Bob NR8M whom I have worked quite a few times before. We chatted for 37 minutes about this and that. -30-
Thu Feb 25 2021 7:41PM - A kind of a nothing day today. The weather was nice. Not as warm as yesterday but sunny. I only wore a lite jacket when I went outside to walk Roscoe or do a couple other things.
I made two QSOs this evening. I worked KD2UHF in NY and then called CQ and worked WB8BIL in MI, both on 80 meters. -30-
Wed Feb 24 2021 8:01PM - A great day today. We had a high of 64 under mostly sunny skies. That really took care of a lot of the remaining s#$w and ice. I'd guess the coverage would be down to 10% or less. I saw a graphic I think it was on Penn State's Weather World show where coverage in the whole USA is 32% vs. 73% a week ago. Yes, folks, spring is indeed almost here and I and many others are very glad of that.
There were other good things happening today also, but that is right near the top. I also did some rearranging of my train layout putting the American Flyer RR in the center of the Lionel RR. Before they were in separate rooms and I didn't really run the AF all that much. Now I hope to run it more. I also had a nice little chat with busy Jasmine after not seeing much of her the past 4 days or so.
There was a lot of activity on 80 meters, but hard to find a CQ nor to get an answer to mine until I found and worked Walt AC8RG in Dayton, OH on 80. -30-
Tue Feb 23 2021 8:02PM - A good day today. I engaged in one of my favorite activities this time of year. What is that, you might ask? S#$w melting mixed with ice melting as well. It rose into the mid-upper 40s today and probably reduced the s#$w cover to less than 50%, if not more. Tomorrow's predicted high in the low 50s should take care of even more of the cover. Ain't it great!!!!
My streak QSO came via my CQ tonight when Jim K8MPH answered me and we chatted for some 20 minutes with steady signals just about the whole time.
Not much else going on today worth mentioning. -30-
Mon Feb 22 2021 7:26PM - A bit hard getting a QSO this evening, but I made it after 9 minutes of searching. Actually, I guess 9 minutes can't be considered hard. Anyway, I worked an old FISTS member John K8JD. His FISTS number is 3853, and mine is 2002. So we've been FISTS members a long time now. I think I joined around 1995 if memory serves.
Not a lot happening again today. I did run my trains a little longer than usual. It was a nice weather day with a high in the 40s and quite a bit of s#$w melting along the way. -30-
Sun Feb 21 2021 7:11PM - Of course, once again the SST gave me a quick streak QSO from VE2FK on 40 meters. I never did get in the ARRL DX Contest beyond working IR2Q for the streak last evening. -30-
Sat Feb 20 2021 6:46PM - One of those days when little went right. Not only did I pass up a chance to do a tag team event in the ARRL DX Contest, but Jasmine was away with her family all day so I didn't get a chance to spend time with her. Oh well, there are days like that which sneak in from time to time. What's that saying, "The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft a-gley" Or in a little more detail, the full quote is "The best laid schemes of mice and men. Gang aft a-gley". Or to translate, the best laid plans of mice and men can still go wrong. No matter how well you plan, there is no guarantee of success. By the way "Gang aft-a-gley" means "goes wrong".
I wonder how my plans to get a DX QSO for my streak will go tonight. Maybe I'll just wind up with a rag chew like I did last night. I'll know in about 7 minutes.
One good thing today is that it is February 20. What's good about that, you ask. To my way of figuring from years of observations, this is the day or around the day when the altitude of the sun in the sky is high enough to produce enough heating of the ground to melt s#$w more readily, and when that happens, it is a great thing. -30-
Fri Feb 19 2021 7:49PM - I thought I'd get an easy DX streak QSO this evening, but none of the DX I called were hearing me. So, I found another station on 20 calling a regular CQ and called him and had a nice rag chew with Allan in OR on 20 meters. Probably the first rag chew I've had with someone in Oregon in many a moon.
Another good day today. I actually thought kindly of snow today when I was out helping Jasmine shovel it and some ice off her sidewalk.
To close today, here's an excerpt from the email I talked about in yesterday's diary entry:
Hello John:
Writing to compliment you on your website.
I was into CW simply because at the time I did a lot of HF operating I
was licensed as a Technician and that was the only way to go AND I did
not have power/high-long antenna capability.
10 meters was memorable because of the contacts out of Europe using a
1/2 wave horizontal dipole during the sunspot maximum. You could tell
the Eastern Europe operators at times because of the instability of the
signal (warble) when they keyed code. But, it was all about making the
contact that counted.
73,
Steve Lapinskas KA1JJA
Nashua, New Hampshire
And that's it for another diary entry. -30-
Thu Feb 18 2021 7:32PM - A good day, but quiet compared to the busy day yesterday. My streak QSO this evening was from a DX station on 40 meters. I worked ZF9CW fairly easily. He worked a couple other stations before getting me on a single call. I imagine he is setting up for the ARRL DX Contest this weekend. I won't be doing much in the contest here as I have some other things planned which hopefully will work out. I will try to get in some QSOs though just to keep in practice working DX. HI
I got a nice email about the diary and the web site from Steve KA1JJA. I emailed him back to ask if he wouldn't mind if I used the email in the diary, but I haven't heard back from him yet. If he does give permission, I will post it as soon as I hear from him. -30-
Wed Feb 17 2021 6:10PM - Now here's Mike! Good evening everyone. This is a makeup day for John and I. We were scheduled to get together on Monday, but postponed it due to the winter storm that never arrived. Our plan was to visit the Best Buy in Monroeville, Pa. to see if my old Toshiba laptop could be repaired. Unfortunately it can't. I am impressed with the honesty of the Geek Squad mmember that helped me. She could have said yes we can fix it. But instead she gave me the option of installing a new hard drive and maybe having to come back because it may fail due to the age of the rest of the system. So I went to plan B. I only used this laptop for a interactive virtual cycling program called Zwift (check them out on YouTube). Plan B was to purchase a Apple TV Box. There is a app for Zwift on Apples App Store. I have been using my iPad Mini to run the program. The small screen makes for difficult veiwing. The Apple TV box will be conected to the 20" flat screen tv that I had connected to the old laptop via a HDMI cable. This will make my indoor cycle training much more enjoyable. Plus the gentleman who helped me find where the Apple TV box was located was very professional well. He helped John find the Apple iPhone display. Yes John is working on getting a cell phone. Oh the horror. Our QRP guru is coming of age mobile phone wise. Hi-Hi!!! I had asked the young man who helped John and I with our Apple questions if I needed a particular type of cable to connect to my tv. He said nope, any HDMI cable will work. He could have said yes I needed a particular cable. I am very impressed with the professionalism and honesty of the employees at the Monroeville Best Buy.
We also did some maintenance on Johns model railroad, tried our hand at a few computer games, and tried to find some DX just a while ago. And yes, we had a bite to eat. We both had he Pesto Vegetarian Sub from Vocelli's, only because it's Ash Wednesday. Thats all for me. CU next time. 73 de Mike KC2EGL.
Thanks for writing that, Mike. As far as the smart phone goes, I finally relented when Jasmine told me she thought I should get one a few weeks ago. She tutored me on hers and gave me a good idea of what I need to get, and then Mike pretty much fleshed out the items that she wasn't sure about during our visit today. I figure within a couple weeks I'll have one and then have to learn the finer points of using one. At least I'll have a close-by tutor. HI -30-
Tue Feb 16 2021 7:29PM - We really lucked out on the storm last night. The temperature rose to 32, then 33, then 34 just as the rain started to fall so we didn't get much freezing rain. There was some on things like railings and other objects in the air like that which were out in the open. It was only a glaze though. Some places in PA had up to almost an inch of ice, but strangely (fortunately) there wasn't much in the way of power outages like they got and are getting in TX. I heard one news story that said some 4 million homes are without power there.
Now we're getting ready for another round Thursday night. It looks like a snow only event here as of now. I hope so.
It should be a good day tomorrow with some sun and a temp in the mid 20s. Good for some running around with Mike to Best Buy and maybe elsewhere.
The bands were kind of cold tonight in conjunction with the weather, I guess. HI I heard very little activity outside the usual nets, but I did work W8VLN over in OH for the streak after about 10 minutes of looking. -30-
Mon Feb 15 2021 2:43PM - When Jasmine was here yesterday, we paused in our jigsaw work to take a picture of me in the shack to update the one on my home page from 2019 to 2021. Considering the old man she had as a subject, I think it came out very good, and I told her the exact same thing.
That's probably my entry for the day if nothing else exciting happens the rest of the day. We are under a winter storm warning tonight that includes some freezing rain with the prediction varying from 0.1 or less to 0.4 inches. Right now it's for around 0.1 inch. I guess we won't really know until it happens. -30-
Sun Feb 14 2021 7:42PM - I had a great Valentine's Day. I hope you did also. I could write a very long diary entry about today, but I'm not going to do that. Let's just say Jasmine and I had a good time working a jigsaw puzzle for a couple hours.
Of course the SST Sprint gave me a quick streak QSO from NJ8M out in KS on 80M.
It looks like yet another couple days of bad weather are coming. Hopefully after that, things will start to calm down again. -30-
Sat Feb 13 2021 7:48PM - A good day for a change here. The weather wasn't too bad. They were predicting some snow and maybe freezing drizzle which never materialized as far as I know. The temperature stayed in a very narrow range, 24 to 26 degrees. I think that's the narrowest range I've seen in my records. I don't think we ever had a one degree range in the some 22,600 days on which I've kept records. Wow, has it been that long!
I had a 36 minute rag chew with K4EJQ in TN for my streak QSO. I enjoyed that. We chatted about various subjects.
I gave a box of Valentine candy to my friend Jasmine today. I'm glad I have her to keep me young after reading my first paragraph above. HI. I also gave a box to the other ladies in the house. Hopefully tomorrow will be a jigsaw puzzle day with Jasmine. She seemed pretty sure about it today.
Hmmm, have you noticed that my good days are days that have something to do with Jasmine? Could that be more than a coincidence? HI. -30-
Fri Feb 12 2021 7:40PM - Even the weather is getting in a rut and depressing. At least it's not too bad, but the sameness is bad. And according to Penn State and other sources, it's going to continue for at least another week.
I worked my friend Jim K4WOP on 80 for my streak QSO. We discussed school and related matters for about 22 minutes. Copy was about 95 percent or so solid both ways. -30-
Thu Feb 11 2021 7:31PM - I had a nice chat with Michel VE2CW on 80M this evening for the streak QSO. There wasn't a lot heard on 80, but I caught Michel just as he was starting up at 0000Z. It was pretty much solid copy both ways for the whole 20 minute QSO. -30-
Wed Feb 10 2021 7:19PM - Yet another of those dull nothing days. When will they end? I hate having nothing to write about in the diary only slightly less than I hate having nothing actually happen. Sorry for being so depressing.
I got two QSOs this evening, both rather poor due to QSB and QRN, but good enough to keep the streak going anyway. -30-
Tue Feb 9 2021 7:32PM - Again not a lot going on today. I've got a little note here to remind me of our NAQCC sprint coming up in about an hour. I want to get on just long enough to get one QSO unless conditions are good enough to allow a lot of QRP signals to break through my noise. Meanwhile I had no trouble with Bill W9ZN breaking through as he was running a KW to an inverted L for my streak QSO a little while ago. -30-
Mon Feb 8 2021 7:50PM - A good day today. A quick QSO. Good weather. What more can you ask for? I'm feeling really up tonight after some down days.
Strangely I found a station calling CQ SST. He was either a day late, or there is a second SST. Let me see the WA7BNM Contest Calendar. There is a second one each week, but at 2000Z on Fridays if I read the listing correctly. So I guess the fellow I worked was confused. Anyway it was a QSO for the streak.
It was cold today, but still a nice day. A low of 10 and high of 28. Maybe it just felt good because we're getting nearer and nearer to that magic end of winter day on March 1. Also because it is now fairly bright as late as 6:00PM and beyond. Yes!
Also because I'll be seeing Mike next Monday for a trip to Best Buy. More about that later.
Last but not least, after a couple days of not seeing much of Jasmine because she was not feeling well, then being busy with chores, we had a brief time together today, and set up a tentative jigsaw working get together for Sunday the 14th. -30-
Sun Feb 7 2021 7:38PM - Another day with little happening. With the SST sprint or contest this evening it was a quick QSO even though I was watching the Super Bowl at the neighbors and didn't get to the shack till about quarter past seven. I called one station who didn't hear me, then called and worked K1BG in MA on 40. I still think I will get in the SST for the full hour some time and see what I can do. It reminds me of the old CD parties and the current NA QSO Parties which I liked very much. I just don't have the concentration or attention span to stick with contests now that I'm older. Well, except for the ARRL and CQ DX tests, that is. Mike and I plan to do a tag team effort in the ARRL DX later this month.
It was another fairly nice weather day today as have the majority of days this winter. It's going to be cold tonight though, dropping into the upper single digits above zero.
I'm just waiting for my laundry to finish as I'm typing. I kind of like getting it done on Sunday evening instead of Monday morning.
I forgot (I do that a lot now) to mention that Sirius is now rising right around 6:00PM which is another sign that winter is drawing to a close, thank goodness. -30-
Sat Feb 6 2021 7:24PM - I used the FOC QSO Party for my QSO this evening working N3RS on 80 meters.
Well, tomorrow marks the end of the first week of February which means only 3 weeks left in winter. Of course some years that has been when we had a very bad spell of winter weather. I don't have the figures at hand, but a few years ago in that period we had temperatures around -17 F on a couple occasions. And this coming weekend of the 13th we are supposed to have our first spell of below zero readings this winter. -30-
Fri Feb 5 2021 7:32PM - It took just a couple minutes to get my streak QSO tonight from AA9IK Joe in WI on 80 meters. Then we chatted 26 minutes with pretty much solid copy both ways.
It was cold up in WI at 8 degrees and going below zero overnight. Not so bad here as it's 29 now and maybe going down around 20. Best of all, no s#$w to speak of. However it looks like that Canadian freezer door is going to be opened next weekend and left open for a few days according to Penn State weather. It doesn't look like any accompanying s#$w to speak of though, and that's good. That should take us to and past mid-February which is good also. -30-
Thu Feb 4 2021 7:28PM - Another mid-winter doldrums days today. At least there was some Sun to keep it from being totally gloomy. I worked on indexing my digital photographs more today, and played some computer games. That really about sums it up, unfortunately.
It took about 10 minutes for my streak QSO this evening although the bands were pretty good. I worked N5JED in OH on 80 meters. -30-
Wed Feb 3 2021 8:11PM - I had a nice chat with W8VLN tonight for my streak QSO. Otherwise not a lot to talk about today. It was a nice day weatherwise with bright sunny skies to match my disposition today. Actually I did do something I've been putting off for a while. I shredded a lot of old bills that are no longer needed. Anybody need three bags of confetti? HI I also did some other cleaning up here and there. -30-
Tue Feb 2 2021 7:56PM - Punxsutawney Phil was not kind today, predicting 6 more weeks of winter, but I don't really care all that much. There's nothing I can personally do about it. I said that February would probably be cold since all that Arctic air up in Canada has just been sitting there getting colder and colder, and sometime Canada is going to release it and let it flow down here. The first flow is due this weekend with a low near zero Sunday night.
I was a little late getting to the shack, but still got a quick QSO from Steve W9IK on 80 meters.
Not a great overall day, but a good ending. Jasmine was busy with on-line school today and then some other chores until about 6:00 when we did get together for about 20 minutes and made some plans for some future projects like working a double-sided jigsaw puzzle, and taking a picture for my web site here to replace the one from 2019. -30-
Mon Feb 1 2021 7:27PM - Congratulations to W4DUK who is the winner of the ARRL Gift Certificate "raffle" drawing. The certificate will be in the mail as soon as weather permits getting to the PO.
This was pretty much a nothing day today. I did some sidewalk cleaning this morning with Jasmine. There wasn't school today after a s#$wfall during the night. But she was busy most of the day and that was the only time we got to spend together.
We might get another snowfall during the night and we'll see what that brings for tomorrow. We'll also have to see what the groundhog brings for tomorrow, if anything at all. Hopefully an early end to winter.
I had a nice chat tonight with W3ZT up in NY who was using an old vintage homebrew rig. I think he said it used a 47 osc and a 210 final if I remember the numbers correctly. It sounded good with just a tad of unstability. The osc ran all the time and only the final was keyed so that helped keep it stable. -30-
Sun Jan 31 2021 7:14PM - A quick QSO from the SST contest tonight. For I think the 3rd out of the last 4 Sunday evenings, I worked N2GG in NM on 40M.
A strange s@#w storm so far. According to earlier forecasts, we should have about a foot of s#$w on the ground, but instead we have only a trace. I don't know how other areas in the northeast are faring, but we are very grateful for what is happening here. There are still a couple days to go before the storm exits, but the forecasts have maybe realized what is happening and backed off to maybe 2 or 3 inches total. That could change though.
Otherwise I did some of my end of the month work today. Last night I did upload my January log to eQSL and LoTW. Today I wrote my checks for the first half of February bills and walked them to the post office.
Later tonight, I'll do the drawing for the ARRL Gift Certificate. Barring last minute entries, there are four calls to choose from: W4DUK, K0SAM, N8UCN, KA3FUR. I'll post the winner in tomorrow's diary entry and get the certificate in the mail as soon as possible depending on the weather. -30-
Sat Jan 30 2021 7:07PM - Of course a very quick 160M streak QSO again tonight, thanks to W9RE in IN. He's a great contester and I've had many easy QSOs with him in various contests. I wonder how many QSOs he and other big contesters have made. I know Bud AA3B has something like 1,300,000 if I remember right.
It was a good day otherwise also. I played quite a bit of the Bricks game. And the WX forecast as of now is for a s@#w only event with about 6-7 inches of the stuff, but, again as of now, no freezing rain remains in the forecasts. That's alway good because as bad as s@#w is, freezing rain is worse. I think maybe now I'll start some of my end of the month chores, perhaps upload my January log to LoTW and eQSL after I double check all the entries. -30-
Fri Jan 29 2021 7:08PM - I forgot about the 160M contest until I checked the WA7BNM Contest Calendar. So, a quick streak QSO tonight and another one tomorrow night. However, I had to call 3 or 4 stations tonight before getting one to hear and work me. Tnx to VE3AT.
Did you know that today is National Puzzle Day? I didn't either, but when I found out, I made a NPD card for my puzzle partner. She and I will hopefully be able to work on our puzzle tomorrow and maybe finish it.
Still not much else going on today. I have a weather page with a ton of weather links on my computer, and I did quite a bit of needed updating on it today. When Intellicast merged with Weather Underground a few months ago, that changed a lot of links. And that covers this last Friday in January. Except that I just got a little while ago, another entry in the ARRL Gift Certificate "raffle" which makes four entries with just two days left to enter. See the January 19 diary entry for info. -30-
Thu Jan 28 2021 7:23PM - Again not much going on here. Sure will be nice when winter is over, then maybe things will pick up again. Next up is a winter storm late this coming weekend. There are conflicting reports over just what it will deliver. Let's hope for just s#$w. As bad as it is, it is still better than freezing rain.
It took a little time to get my QSO tonight. There wasn't a lot of activity on the bands outside of the 80 meter nets. I persevered though and finally found WZ4L calling CQ and worked him on 80.
Just a couple days now to enter the ARRL Gift Certificate drawing. See the January 19 diary entry for details.
I had a whole bunch of visitors to my web site yesterday. That usually means it has been posted somewhere. If you know where, please email and let me know. Thanks. -30-
Wed Jan 27 2021 6:49PM - Last night I worked the 15 year old ham Jack in MD again, KC3PZY. In a little while now, I'll see what tonight brings in about 10 minutes or so.
Really nothing much else to talk about today. It was a quiet chilly day with only a very few fine flurries. It never did get much above freezing although the high was 35 probably at midnight last night. I didn't see anything above 31 on the thermometer during the daylight hours. -30-
Tue Jan 26 2021 6:48PM - Might as well write this now as probably nothing will change as the rest of the evening draws to a close. We fared well with the storm last night. Only a very thin coating of freezing rain, no s@#w or sleet that I know of. We did have mostly regular rain, maybe a tenth of an inch or a little more. I'll have to get a remote reading precipitation gauge to go along with the temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure readouts. There were some slick spots on the roads but since I don't drive, that doesn't matter to me. There wasn't any school today because of the roads.
I did some computer updating along with repairing some floor tiles to pass the time.
I started reading the Big Boy book (say that fast 5 times) last night, and it is going to be very interesting reading.
Time to get ready to head to the shack. I'm hoping for a quick streak QSO again although I really don't have any reason to hurry. I probably should hang around the shack longer if I do get the streak QSO quickly. -30-
Mon Jan 25 2021 7:17PM - A lot of time spent today wondering about the weather and what is going to happen overnight. It's still predicted to be a mixed bag of rain, sleet, s#$w, and freezing rain, but the amounts predicted keep getting lower, so that's good.
I got a big book in the mail about the history of the UP Big Boy locomotives from their inception through the restoration of #4014. I'm looking forward to reading that, which I'll be doing in bed. I always read something for 20-30 minutes before going to sleep.
My streak QSO was a quicky tonight with KC1KUG who was turning out quick QSOs from the K1TTT contest station. Took a while for him to get my call right and at one point I think he thought I was K3WW as he called me Chas. But it wound up a good QSO. -30-
Sun Jan 24 2021 6:35PM - I thought I'd write the diary entry a bit early tonight. Then after I get a quick streak QSO in the SST contest this evening, I can do my laundry.
Now I need to find something to do for 20 minutes till 0000Z comes along.
Oh, I got a third entry in the ARRL Gift Certificate "raffle" today. See the diary entry for January 19 for details. -30-
Sat Jan 23 2021 7:23PM - Thanks to another contest, a quick streak QSO this evening from KM4SII in NC on 80 meters. This was something like a UK/EI contest where everyone works everyone else. It was fairly active on 80 at least. I didn't listen elsewhere.
It looks like we have some nasty weather on the way to peak on Monday night with a mix of all kinds of precipitation. The exact recipe hasn't been decided on yet with different weather services offering different choices. I'm rooting for those that exclude freezing rain.
Still only two entries in the ARRL Gift Certificate "raffle". See the entry for January 19 for details. -30-
Fri Jan 22 2021 7:34PM - What's going on in ham radio? I worked another teenage CW ham this evening. 15 year old Jack KC3PZY on 80 meters who answered my first CQ. Just a couple weeks ago, I worked another teenager. Let me see now. That was Jon KC3PQC who was 13 and a ham for about 6 months. Jack was a ham for 4 months. The thought occured they may be related but Jack is in Maryland and Jon is in Pennsylvania. Let me check QRZ. Well they have different last names. So I guess just a coincidence or there is some kind of recruiting going on for teenage CW hams. I have no idea when I last worked any teenagers on CW, but it's been a long time before these two.
It was a pretty good day today. Bruce took me shopping at Sprankle's so I could use up a gift certificate there I got for Christmas. Still have quite a bit left on it though, so I may have to make up another big list for next week before it expires on January 31.
I've got another little project in the works I hope to get started on this weekend. I'm not going to say anything about it here yet. Just a little teaser. HI
No more responses to the ARRL Gift Certificate offer today. Still just two folks who are interested. -30-
Thu Jan 21 2021 7:18PM - Hey I got the year right tonight! I've had a couple responses to my ARRL Gift Certificate "raffle" so far. At least I will have a winner whether it's one of those two or someone yet to send in their email as described in the diary entry for January 19.
Again not much to write about today. I did some maintenance on my model railroad, lubricating one engine and doing some track cleaning. I also played quite a bit of Bricks on the computer lowering a lot of my scores on various rounds.
A quick QSO tonight from K4IBZ on 40 meters. Heard him calling CQ just about as soon as I turned the rig on at 0001Z. -30-
Wed Jan 20 2021 7:28PM - Gee, I'm back to 2020 again the past couple diary entries. I think everywhere else I use 2021 correctly. I don't know what it is about the diary entries. HI
I did some house cleaning and cleaned out some junk drawers. Plus other things like that to pass the time such as playing computer games.
I had a 2xQRP QSO for the streak tonight with NI8N in OH on 80M. Then if I remember, I'll try to get one or two QSOs in our NAQCC sprint later tonight.
Did you read last night's entry about the ARRL gift certificate? So far no responses. -30-
Tue Jan 19 2021 7:45PM - Looks like I was trying to rush the end of winter. I just noticed I had the date on yesterday's diary entry as January 28 instead of January 18. HI
I had two QSOs this evening. I worked Bob N2UU, and after we finished, Steve W3OKC called me. That was on 80 meters. Despite that, the bands didn't seem all that active tonight.
The good day yesterday got me all energized and I got a lot of work done today like watering my house plants, scrubbing some of my floors, and other things I won't bother listing.
A few months ago, I won an ARRL $25.00 gift certificate that expires 07/01/2021. Neither Mike nor I plan to be ordering anything from them anytime soon. So, hating to see it go to waste, I've decided to, with Mike in agreement, give it away to one of my diary readers. All you need do is email me with your call, name, and mailing address and I'll mail it to you. If I get more than one reply, I'll let my computer do a random drawing to determine the winner. See the "Email Me" link in the upper right corner of the home page here on my web site, or email j s k 3 w w p (at) w i n d s t r e a m . n e t without the spaces. Hopefully that will discourage the spambots. The deadline to receive your email is the end of January so act quickly if you are interested. -30-
Mon Jan 18 2021 7:51PM - It was a very good day today. I'm going to let Mike give his thoughts on the day, then I may add some more, or maybe not. Now, here's Mike.
Good evening everyone. Our day started around 9:45AM when I arrived at John's QTH. I would have arrived earlier but due to a accident on RTE 28 where I turn off to get to Kittanning I decided to run 2 errands in the shopping center in West Kittanning since I had to detour in that direction. We sat and chatted a bit before John pulled out a Chirstmas gift he got from his neighbor Bruce. A drone. We went over the instrutions as I attached the blade protectors. Found out how to charge the battery and put batteries in the controler. While the main battery was charging we tried a few block puzzles on the computer followed by a few train runs. After the battery charged we installed it in the drone. You get approximately 7 minutes of flight time with a charge that takes an hour and a half. We tested it out in his living room to make sure it powered up properly. It needs a bit of fine tuning, as do most small drones due to the very small gyroscope in them. The gyroscope of a CH 47 is bigger than a basketball in order to keep a helicopter that large controlable. It doesn't need the extra fine tuning that a drone needs. I learned about this from a gentleman who used to fly life flight from the Brookville Hospital. We will wait for much warmer weather before we head outdoors and run it through its paces. After the drone and a Roscoe walk we had a late lunch/early dinner. Later in the afternoon we tried our hand at a Sherlock Holmes game followed by John's daily QSO.
Thats all I have for now. de Mike KC2EGL 73. -30-
Sun Jan 17 2021 7:15PM - It was a good day today despite the light coating of s@#w overnight. The temperature in the upper 30s quickly took care of the ugly white stuff. Now we're back to bare ground again.
I just started my laundry. It's nice to have the SST sprint Sunday evening so I can get a quick streak QSO and then do my laundry and keep Monday mornings free for something else. I worked the same station tonight I worked last Sunday evening, N2GG Gil in NM on 40 meters.
Really looking forward to tomorrow. I told you a couple evenings ago, I was working on a couple projects to do with Mike when he visits tomorrow. My neighbor gave me a drone for Christmas, and if the weather is nice, we might put it together and try it out. Of course, we'll be playing ham radio and trains throughout the day.
My memory is just not what it used to be. I forgot to include one other really good thing that happened today. I got a call from Tom Mitchell WY3H. That's the first time we talked in several months. He is doing well despite his health problems and a bout with Covid19 in December. He said to say hello to everyone. I know some of you diary readers know Tom so you are included in the everyone. -30-
Sat Jan 16 2021 7:13PM - Again nothing much going on today. I took care of my second half of the month bills with a trip to the PO. Kind of chilly today but good walking weather.
The HA DX contest provided a pretty quick QSO. It's an everybody works everybody contest so I worked N3DXX on 40. -30-
Fri Jan 15 2021 7:39PM - Another quiet day today with spring like rainy cool temperatures. I can't even remember anything out of the ordinary I did today except got caught up on logging my LoTW matches.
Looking forward to a visit from Mike on Monday. Still working on a couple plans for projects that day. I hope to have more to say about them in tomorrow's or Sunday's diary entries.
It took a little while to get my QSO tonight, but not all that long as I worked KI4XH on 40 meters at 0011Z. -30-
Thu Jan 14 2021 7:23PM - A quiet day today. Just did some house cleaning and some computer gaming. Running trains took up some time also.
A quick streak QSO tonight at 0005Z, only 2 minutes after I turned the rig on. I worked AA4WW in KY on 80 meters in a short QSO. That actually pretty much summed up my day. Ho Hum.
Oh, today marks the mid point of winter. Just about 45 days to go now. Let's hope for a second half as nice as the first. -30-
Wed Jan 13 2021 7:47PM - This was a good day in many ways. Still no s@#w on the ground which is always good.
Also working an old friend for my streak QSO is always good. Tonight it was Vic K9UIY. We first worked on September 20, 1964 in a contest on 40 meters. So he's definitely a member of my 50 Years Club for folks with whom I've had QSOs more than 50 years apart. I'll have to update the club numbers sometime.
Late in the afternoon, I went to pick up my monthly Senior Box Food Bank box of food, and then did some shopping at our Sprankle's grocery store. -30-
Tue Jan 12 2021 7:33PM - A busy day today with a lot of little things, but no big projects. I did some house cleaning, especially cleaning some tile floors. It's amazing how dirt builds up so gradually, you don't even notice it. Then when you clean it, the difference is quick and astounding. I also did some more work on my digital photo collection. Years ago around 1999, I was hooked on a game called "Bricks", a computer game written by Andreas Rottler in Germany. I did quite well at it and for a time I held some world records on it till the smarter folks came along and wiped them out. My name is still listed as one time record holder though. Also since I was there in the early days of the game and communicated with Andreas about the game several times, he has my name listed on the main program screen for whatever reason. It's a derivative of the Polish game Klotski that used wooden blocks, and Microsoft made a digital version of Klotski also. Anyway I'm getting back into them as of today. If it sounds like something you'd be interested in, here's a link to Bricks and to Klotski.
There were also a few other things I did today, but I won't mention all of them except for one. In addition to this web site diary, I also keep another diary with more personal stuff in it. I worked on that quite a bit today getting caught up on things in hopes of making it more of a true diary with daily entries. I won't be saying anything more about that. I just want to let you know I also have other things going for me besides what I report here in this on-line diary.
It was a bit tough on the bands tonight. Conditions weren't that bad, but just about everyone I heard was engaged in a QSO or in a net or looking for members of a club of which I am not a member. I finally did hear and work W9IK in IL on 40 though to keep the streak going. Incidentally I've been meaning to mention this for a while, but I am now within a year of reaching the 10,000 day mark in the streak if I make it that far. Let's see, it's now 341 more days to go if my math is right. -30-
Mon Jan 11 2021 7:57PM - Today was a good day with nice weather. You know, it's been so long since we've had s#$w on the ground, I almost can't remember what it looks like. I don't keep track of s@#wfall here, but if memory serves, we haven't had any on the ground at all this year. Well, except for a brief trace that fell this morning and was gone before you could say, "begone, evil white stuff!" That is extremely rare as s#$w usually starts in earnest here right after the first of the year.
I worked an old friend with a similar call tonight for my streak QSO. Jim K4WOP answered my 80 meters CQ and we chatted for 33 minutes. I like those kind of long QSOs. I used my bug for the whole QSO. I had been away from it for several days for some reason. -30-
Sun Jan 10 2021 7:10PM - I think the number of stupid things we do increases exponentially with age. I just noticed the previous 5 or so diary entries had the year as 2020 instead of 2021. I'm amazed and a little disappointed that no one noticed that and pointed it out to me, especially Mike KC2EGL. But then, he's getting old too. HI
Anyway that's fixed now, and I can go looking to see what else stupid I've done lately. I know some, but I'm not going into them.
It was a pretty nice day today, even a little better than yesterday. The weather was nice enough that I went for my first walking shopping trip of the year this afternoon in the sunny low 40 degree weather.
Of course every Monday (UTC) as of now starts with the SST sprint providing an easy streak QSO. Tonight it was N2GG in NM on 40 meters.
That sums up today to this point as I'm updating my web site and doing my laundry. -30-
Sat Jan 9 2021 7:04PM - I won't go into details, but it was not the best of days here. At least the NAQP provided me with a quick QSO at 0001Z when I worked N4CW in NC on 40 meters.
Well, I guess the weather was pretty good also. A lot of sun with temperatures in the low 40s and no precip of any kind. -30-
Fri Jan 8 2021 7:23PM - I made it a busy day for myself. I did a lot of work on my weather records and now am pretty much up to date on all of them. I computed the new normal records which will used from now through 2030 if I'm around that long. HI They are based on all the readings from 1991 through 2020. It was interesting to see that this set of normals vs. the last set from 1981 through 2010 were all pretty much in the range of 1 to 1.5 or 2 degrees higher. Global warming, but probable not long-time, more like that back in the 1930s. Precipitation normals are about the same for both periods, maybe a tad higher for this new set. I'll have to examine all the records a little more closely. I just computed them today.
I'm also in the middle of getting caught up on my logging of LoTW and eQSL matches. I kind of let it slip a bit since I had such a good and busy December and first few days of January.
The bands were tricky tonight and I thought maybe I'd have to wait for the NAQP tomorrow afternoon for my streak QSO. However I finally found W0DY in OK calling CQ on 40 and worked him. It was a QRP-QRO QSO. I was of course at my usual 5 watts, and he was running 500 watts.
Think I'll go back to logging LoTW matches now. -30-
Thu Jan 7 2021 6:54PM - A brighter day today with some nice sunshine and some continuing clear skies tonight. I just went for a short walk outside and Orion was well up in the sky over in the east. It really lifts the spirit especially when you can also spend a little time with a friend as well.
Just getting ready to head to the shack for the streak QSO and thought I'd post a short diary entry while I am waiting. I hope the bands are good tonight and I can get a quick QSO. I'll know in about three minutes from now. -30-
Wed Jan 6 2021 7:29PM - A bit rough on the bands tonight, but I made it through. Thanks to Barry WA7WKY in Cincinnati, OH on 80 meters. Barry and I have worked a few times before.
Sometimes boring is good. The Penn State WX crew says we're in a stretch of 'boring' weather. That means little variation in temperature and no precipitation. That doesn't bore me at all. I love it. So far it has been within 30-40 degrees all month so far and virtually all of December's s#$w has now melted. -30-
Tue Jan 5 2021 7:48PM - I just emailed Mike about my streak QSO, and to avoid reinventing the wheel, here is pretty much a copy/paste of what I sent.
Just had an interesting streak QSO. I worked KC3PQC who is 13 years old and been licensed for 6 months. I haven't worked anyone that young that I know of for many many years now. Might have been someone in a contest QSO, but not a regular type QSO. He had good CW and good procedure. Sending around 15 WPM or maybe a tad slower. I'm wondering if he has a relative who is a ham. Let's see if I can get a clue from his QRZ listing. Nope, no info there except his last name is Patton and I've worked hams with that last name. There are other hams in his town with the name of Patton. All three live at the same address, one with a call close to his (a brother?), and one with a W3 call (father?). So after a quiet day here, that added a little interest to things.
And that is it for the entry. Not much else to write about. -30-
Mon Jan 4 2021 7:28PM - A quiet day again today. Still working on my old digital photos. That's turning into quite a long task, but at least I'm back to 2006 now which is the year I got my first digital camera. Unfortunately I took a LOT of pictures that first year getting used to digital photography.
40 meters was quite busy this evening, but I had trouble getting a QSO as my timing was lousy. I don't know how many times I heard someone just starting a QSO meaning I just missed their CQs. Finally I did work KB0HXL at 0012Z for another day of the streak.
Thanks to Don VA3BOW for sending some info on the puzzle I pictured on the diary yesterday. I'll look at it later when I get the chance. -30-
Sun Jan 3 2021 6:25PM - The pattern continues. Today was an UP day after yesterday. It was sad in a way to see Christmas end here. By that I mean it was DD-Day as we used to refer to it at WPIT. De-Decorating Day, that is.
Getting close to streak time now. It should be easy with the SST contest on. Maybe after that though, I'll stick around for a rag chew. I'm not sure right now. -30-
Sat Jan 2 2021 7:19PM - Another ho-hum day. It seems the good days and the ho-hum ones alternate here these days.
I got a quick short streak QSO tonight at 0006Z from KC8CJG who didn't have much to say beyond RST, QTH, and NAME. Almost seemed like a contest QSO, but it wasn't. Anyway it was a good enough QSO to continue the streak another day.
And that's really about all to talk about. I'm still working on completing my 2020 weather stats. When I'm done, I'll try to dig out some interesting stats. -30-
Fri Jan 1 2021 6:01PM - I wanted to just share a picture with you to start off the new year. No relation to the new year. I just felt like doing it. As regular readers know, my neighbors next door have a cat named Kobe. Many years ago, I had a cat named Tanny. I told them I had a picture of Tanny I wanted to show them, but I didn't know where it was among all the pictures my mother and aunt amassed over the years. Too bad there weren't digital cameras back then. Anyway all these pictures were in film format and occupied about 20 photo albums and several boxes as well. Well, yesterday I was determined I was going to find it. Fortune smiled on me and it was about 1/2 or 2/3 way through the album I started with. I took it out and laid it aside. Here's the picture with a little description following.
The quality is not all that good. It was taken either in the late 1950s (more likely) or the early 1960s since Tanny died in the early 1960s. The picture was blown up and I believe colorized since I think the original was b&w. It was not a posed picture. Tanny just liked to sit under an umbrella that was set up like that as it was drying.
I spent a good part of the rest of the day with end/beginning of month/year work and am pretty much complete except I have to recalculate the 'normals' for my weather records to reflect the new time frame of 1991-2020. That will take some time so I left it for last. I don't really need it done until the end of January when I compile the January records.
I also want to continue working on my photos.
OK, that gets the diary underway for 2021. Let's hope propagation gets better and there will be a lot more dealing with ham radio to talk about. You wouldn't know it sometimes from my diary writings, but this is a ham radio site. Although I did warn when I started the diary a long time ago, I would include info on my other activities and hobbies. -30-
-30-
