Sat Dec 31 5:36PM - Not only is this a time for my End of Month / First of Month tasks, but for my End of Year / First of Year tasks as well. I took care of most of the ham radio tasks today like uploading my eQSL and LoTW data for December, updating other web site data, and other such things. The other big task is updating my weather data for December and for the full year of 2023. Also smaller ones like changing my calendars from 2022 to 2023. I already did most of that and all I need to do is take down the 2022 ones and expose the 2023 ones I have hanging up behind them. Then there is the financial stuff to be done at the end of every month. Not much financial stuff involving the full year. I guess that about sums it all up. I'll leave the Christmas decorations up till sometime later in the week. I still have a couple people who want to drop by and see them. I don't know if they will or not, but it doesn't hurt to leave them up another week. I remember when I was a little kid, we would leave them up well into January. In fact I think one year we made it to early February or maybe just came close. HI.
Hey, it's warmer now than it's been all day at 52 degrees. This great weather is supposed to hold till at least next Thursday. I love it. The only thing is that Canada is not releasing any cold blasts, and the pool of cold air up there without any sunshine is just going to get colder and colder. When they do send it down here we could get a really cold blast in February like happened way back in 1899 with the coldest temperatures ever recorded in many locations in the USA. If you're interested in weather, look that up on the Internet. It makes for interesting reading. I see there are still 4 states at a glance in which the coldest ever temperature took place on or around February 10, 1899. That's an amazing long lasting record of some 124 years. Several of the states had that record broken in some recent cold waves, but I think it is still remarkable. That is the only time it was below zero in Florida to show how deep into the south the cold advanced. As an aside, glancing through the state records for cold, it looks like the longest lasting record is -47 in New Hampshire in 1885. Very interesting, especially with my lifelong interest in meteorology.
Happy New Year everyone. Don't forget to make and keep those resolutions, especially if they are health related. You won't regret it.
Oh, finally a last note. As I've done for the past MANY years I'll do my NY superstition again and put some coins out on my windowsill overnight. That was started and told to me by my late cousin if I recall correctly. Supposedly if the coins are still there in the morning the year ahead will be good financially. I'm not superstitious at all, but hey, it's not hurting anything and is a bit of fun to help in the new year. And it's worked every year, too. 73 in '23. -30-
Fri Dec 30 8:15PM - One full day and it will be a new year depending on the time zone. 365 more days of adventure, joy, sorrow, and a group of other emotions as we wander down the trail of time, along the way hoping and praying that it will be a good year for us, our relatives, friends and really for everyone.
That's looking forward. The end of the year is also a time to look back on the old year. I would say it averaged out to be a normal year with the usual number of ups and downs, a lot of which don't belong mentioned here in my diary. One off-topic thing is our economy. The inflation is eating everyone alive. I did some rough figuring on the grocery items I buy regularly like bread, milk, meat, cereal, and so forth. I found a good many of the items have increased on average around 50% in price during the past 12-15 months or so which is the time period for which I figured. That's the end of any kind of political talk as I make it a point not to delve into politics in the diary and not all that much in my personal life either. This was a topic that needed mention though.
As far as ham radio in 2022, I believe I made more QSOs this year than the past couple. I can document that quickly from my Excel log to see if I'm right or wrong. Just a minute. 2018-917, 2019-422, 2020-989, 2021-940, 2022-2,105. Wow, I didn't realize it was that many more. That's the most since 2014 when I made 2,837. I'm impressed. HI. A lot of the increase is due to my entering many of the SST Sprints in the first half of 2022.
I believe one thing that decreased last year was the number of portable ops in the parks, on the Requin, at Skyview, etc. There were several reasons for that I'm not going into, but lets dig out some stats from my Other Calls log. Well, I'm way off-base on that. We actually made made more ops the past two years than the years before that. Here are the years and numbers: 2022-13, 2021-13, 2020-6, 2019-12, 2018-8, 2017-11, 2016-10, 2015-9, 2014-7, 2013-9, 2012-9, 2011-5. That really surprised me. My gut feeling that we hadn't gone out as many times this year was totally wrong. Not by a lot, but wrong nonetheless.
Of course the daily QRP/CW QSO streak remained strong for all of the 365 days, not missing a beat. I think I'll end my 2022 review here. I'll be updating my Yearly Stats page in the QRP section of the web site in a few days to find out some other interesting things about my hamming in 2022.
Also in a few days, I'm going to add to my thoughts about remote station operating. I think (hope?) you'll find them interesting and maybe unexpected. -30-
Thu Dec 29 7:52PM - I'm curious about something, and I'd like your take on it. Tonight for my streak QSO I worked AE3T who gave his QTH as Allentown, PA. Then he explained that he was in his home near Washington, DC operating a remote station in Allentown. Now as if callsign prefixes no longer really serve as station locators as they used to do, using remote stations makes it even more confusing as to what what state, county, or town you are working. I believe that QTH should be where the antenna is located from which you are receiving the RF signal. How the signal reaches the remote station from your home should having nothing to do with the equation. Or maybe if you are linking your home to the antenna site via RF, it should enter in? Are you maybe working the station on two bands at the same time, one (40?) from his home to the remote and one (30?) from the remote to your station. I'M SOOOO CONFUSED. And suppose someone gives me his home QTH as Mississippi, but never mentions he is operating a remote station in Georgia. I'll wind up with putting an erroneous entry in my log as QTH: Mississippi. What is the official take on what the QTH should be in this case. I would think Georgia, but I have no way of knowing if he doesn't tell me. The more I talk about this, the more confused I get, so I am going to stop here, and maybe carry on when I can think more clearly.
We had a great day today with a high closing in on, but not quite making it to 60. My remote unit shows 58. The official reading in my shelter at 9:00 may have hit 60, but usually it is always within a degree of the remote reading. Here we go talking about remote units again, geeez! Time to close this entry. -30-
Wed Dec 28 5:29PM - Two varied topics in this diary entry. First, I like to read about a dozen favorite comic strips each day. Not the modern contemporary ones, but classic ones like Peanuts, Popeye, Barney Google, and the like. I have found that the ArcaMax site I use to read them has just been getting slower and slower with an increasing number of ads, popup videos, and all sort of junk. If you perhaps use that site for comic strips, I found a better alternative, at least for a few days now it has been much faster to load. There are a couple of strips they don't have that ArcaMax does, but they also have Tiger that ArcaMax doesn't. That's the Seattle Times newspaper web site. If you are interested, just do a Bing search for Seattle Times comics and take it from there. If you do go there, look at the Wizard of Id strip. It has a reference to Morse Code!
Second a couple weather related pictures I took today. Two subjects I always love for pictures - S#$w melt and sunsets. It got up almost to 50 today and got a large portion of my backyard down to bare grass again. Also the sky broke up between clear and overcast just enough to provide a nice canvas for the setting sun. That's the first nice sunset in quite some time here. In fact the last sunset picture on my phone is dated November 10.
It won't be long before all the backyard is bare grass and it should stay that way well into January ultil Canada decided to dispose some of their cold white crap again. At least it's an unusually nice start to a month of January here if the predictions are correct. Usually we get a solid hit during the first couple days of January in a normal year. -30-
Tue Dec 27 8:14PM - Just finished a great 46 minute QSO with VE3WH for my streak QSO. Actually it was my second QSO. I also worked KQ4CCE before that. The long QSO dealt mainly with antenna talk plus a few other things.
It's gradually getting less cold here after the below zero encounter a few days ago. We touched 30 degrees today and had a little snow melt along with it. We should gradually make it to near 60 by next week at this time.
Not a lot happening here today to write about. Just one of those days with the ordinary little chores that need doing regularly but are not very exciting. So I guess I'll just close here. -30-
Mon Dec 26 8:11PM - I'm trying to type this while talking on the phone, and it's not easy. HI.
I had a good QSO tonight. Not that all QSOs aren't good. Maybe I should say different instead of good. Anyway, getting to it, I had someone answer my CQ with a pse QRS, which I gladly did, and we had a nice 13 or so WPM QSO. The slowest one I've had in a while. It was a little hard sending that slow, but I did it. I set the keyer speed to about 16 WPM and used Farnsworth spacing. I probably should have just used my straight key as I did with a QSO a few nights ago, but I didn't. It felt good to help someone out by slowing down. I usually do QRS if someone answers me slower than my speed, but this was the first time I got a request to do so in a CQ answer.
It's still cold but a little less cold. We got into the low 20s today and the wind was almost calm. We did have a bit of lite s#$w, but not enough to ruin the day. I even got to sweep some of the s#$w from my porch which blew there in the high winds of the past few days.
I said I'd post some pictures from our lights tour last night, so let's see if I can do that while I'm listening to my cousin on the phone. At least it's most listening on my part with an occasional "yes", "OK", "UhHuh", etc. Let's see what I can come up with.
pix1 pix2 pix3 pix4 pix5
Well, that didn't come out too bad, did it? I could have cropped a bit better, etc., but you get the idea.
Now I got to get off this phone call, get my temperature, walk Roscoe, etc. -30-
Sun Dec 25 8:30PM - Actually I'm writing this yesterday (Dec 24). I was going to post it yesterday, but I wanted my Christmas message to stand alone for my diary entry. I hope you all had a great Christmas and spent at least part of it honoring the true wonderful meaning of the day and the event that it commemorates.
Now I want to talk about a couple other things. Of course, being Christmas, that means Mike KC2EGL visited this evening for our annual Christmas Night Lights Tour of the area around Kittanning looking at the Christmas displays and picking some of our favorites. Hopefully I'll have some pictures for the Dec 26 diary entry.
Of course writing this for the future, some things may change, but I'm trying to write as I think they should happen. I'll have spent some of the day visiting with Bruce and Roscoe, exchanging gifts and watching some TV Shows.
I got some Christmas greetings via email. Thanks to Mike N4VBV, a good friend who never forgets such things. Also to Tom W3TLN whom we see at hamfests around the area now and then. He emailed greetings and a couple of pictures of his trains setup and an old QSL card. He asked why I haven't said much about my trains lately. Well, honestly, I've had some problems with a couple of the engines and haven't had the time or the ambition to work on them and that kind of killed my desire to do much at all with my setup for several months now. Perhaps if it's a bad winter (hope not) I'll get back to working with them again. I hope that answers your questions, Tom and others who may have been wondering the same thing.
As we did with the ice storm a couple weeks ago, we made out well with this current wind storm. The worst of both storms pretty much passed us right by, and we're grateful for that. We got the bitter cold from this last storm, but it dropped to only(?) -4 on Friday evening, then reversed itself and rose from then on to +7 degrees Saturday afternoon. Only about an inch, maybe 2 of s#$w fell, but did blow around quite a bit in the wind to more than that in spots.
Now fall weather is going to come back for a week, getting less cold each day through New Year's Day when it may be in the mid to upper 50s. We could sure use that.
OK, enough of the confusing time travel in this entry. Back to normal on Monday the 26th, I hope.
P.S. I did watch Miracle on 34th Street with Bruce (& Roscoe) and had a sauerkraut and corned beef meal with them. -30-
Sat Dec 24 3:10PM - 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.
Need there be anything more said about Christmas? I, for one, don't think so. -30-
Fri Dec 23 5:00PM - After a high temperature of 37 degrees sometime early this morning around 6:00 AM, it is now -4 degrees at 5:00PM. Not a record swing of temperature in one day, but nonetheless an impressive one of 41 degrees in 11 hours. It was a fairly uniform steady drop all that time. We got about an inch of s@#w although it's hard to be sure of an exact estimate because of the way it was blowing around in the wind. Yes, wind. Perhaps it wasn't as impressive as predicted, and I'm thankful for that, but we did have some strong gusts at times. I hope it doesn't try to prove that statement wrong and really blast us during the night. We don't need that at all. Too bad I don't have an anemometer to measure the wind so I could come up with an accurate figure. If I remember right, Mike has one on his weather unit up in Brookville. I'll have to find out what he recorded up there. The various weather services are still predicting gusts in the 40-50 MPH range through tomorrow. Let's hope they are wrong and the gusts are much lower than that as they seemed to be today.
Otherwise it was a pretty good Christmas Eve Eve. That's not a typo. It is the day before the day before Christmas, hence Chirstmas Eve Eve. I wished that to a couple friends today, Jasmine and Mike.
Bruce and I only took Roscoe out one time today. Bruce figured it was just too dangerous and Roscoe could go in the house when he needed to. If he would do his business quickly, it wouldn't be so bad, but he seems to like to just stand around oblivious to the cold until he starts lifting up his paws as he finally feels the cold. At almost 11 years old, he's too old to be doing that in below zero weather.
I only went out one time myself, and that was to kind of back up Bruce as he let Roscoe out on a rope. Well, I also went out to bring in my porch furniture and hanging baskets to save them from the wind. That was early today when it was less cold though.
I was looking through some old weather records today and also through my old diary entries. Bruce and I were curious about the coldest Christmas day here. It was -12 in 1983, and the high was all of -1 making it 36 degrees below normal for December 25th. As for my diary, I was just browsing it enjoying the memories from years ago. I started it in 2006. Strangely I found some of the pictures from the first couple years or so are not showing up. I have no idea why and will have to research that. Anyway, I'm thinking of reposting or linking to some of the older entries I found especially interesting. One in particular was how my interest in radio developed. OK I got in my entry today early. Now an all night vigil tossing and turning worrying about the stormy weather.
I just asked Mike about the wind speed up there, and he said "It's flat out nasty". His temp is -5 but he didn't give a MPH figure for the wind. -30-
Thu Dec 22 7:51PM - I'm sitting here wondering, along with a lot of other people around the area, what the storm is going to bring the next couple days. At the top of the worry list is not precipitation as much as the high winds which may bring down power lines and deprive a lot of people of vital electricity for the bitter cold that will follow after the storm for a couple days. Some forecasts are predicting wind in the 30s MPH range with gusts up to 55 MPH. Fortunately if true, no freezing rain is predicted, just a mix of rain and s@#w and not too much of that. I'm charging up my battery for the KX3 so hopefully I can keep the streak going thru the storm. If we lose power, I won't be able to update my web site. So be aware of that if you don't see any updates here on the site.
I'll keep all of you in my prayers that you make out OK with the storm.
Still on 40 for my streak QSOs. Tonite I worked WB8APR in CO on 40. Conditions were very poor here with QSB and QRN. I copied very little. Then another CQ landed WB4IEA in KY on 40 for a solid copy 2X QSO. Location is everything as the saying goes. -30-
Wed Dec 21 7:43PM - We actually saw the sun today and it actually looked pretty nice for a while today. It even got up to around 40 for a while. I think it is just softening us up a little for the blow going for the knockout this weekend. Lows around zero, highs in the low teens, windy, but not a lot of precipitation except rain before the big cold blow comes and some s#$w flurries after that. Still, I'm wary and realize that could change for the worse.
I got my Christmas preparation finished today, what little bit there was of it. I only got presents for a couple people and I plan on sending a card via text on my iPhone to someone. Mike will be coming down for our annual Christmas Lights Tour on Christmas night. I'll probably have a meal with Roscoe and Bruce next door before that. Anything else will come as a surprise to me. I hope you all are ready and prepared for Christmas and only have the things that necessarily come at the last minute to worry about now. Oh, I also got my calendars ready for 2023. I usually hang the new calendars up behind the present ones and have kind of an unveiling on January 1st. I either throw out the old ones or save them if they have special pictures in them. Kind of out with the old and in with the new ceremony, I guess.
Once again my streak QSO came on 40 meters. Actually because my rig was set for there from last night. I worked old friend Paul KB4GYT. I did go to 80 after that and found it better than last night, so I called CQ for a while and got an answer from KB4WJA, but lost him after a couple minutes due to a band change or some problem at his end. I hope it was a band change.
I thought I had another topic for the diary tonight, but I guess not. HI -30-
Tue Dec 20 7:44PM - We seem to be getting deeper and deeper into the doldrums of winter and it's getting more and more depressing. I can't wait till March and Spring if we make it through the misery of winter.
I did some more work on analyzing my portable operations over the years. Today I did the plain parkpeditions where we just went out to the park to have fun. No connection to events like contests, POTA, etc. I found 22 of them starting on September 2, 2009 and the latest one on September 14, 2020. We have gone out the past two years, but only for things like I just mentioned: contests, POTA, etc.
There have been these hams who participated along with me: K3RLL (14) KC2EGL (10) WB3FAE (3) K3JZD (2). If I count the ones that are involved with contests, etc., KC2EGL would be way out in front. Locations include primarily the Kittanning Community Park (19), with 2 at Moraine State Park and one at the QTH of WB3FAE. I made a total of 281 QSOs for an average of 12.8 per parkpedition. 135 on 40, 37 on 30, and 109 on 20. My highest total was 60 on 10/6/2013 using N3A as part of NAQCC anniversary week activities apart from annual Columbus Day NAQCC event by KC2EGL and me. The Columbus Day event is in a separate page of the spreadsheet.
For the first time in a while, I had to go to 40 meters for the streak QSO. There was very little activity on 80 meters except for net stations. There were a lot of them, but of course I didn't get into them. I caught Norm KC1BMD on 40 in Maine for our 9th or 10th QSO. -30-
Mon Dec 19 8:33PM - Well, this is one of a very few days in quite a while I didn't get my streak QSO in the 0000Z hour. It was only because just before 0000Z I got a phone call from a cousin with whom I haven't talked for a long time and we gabbed right up to the 0100Z hour. Then I found the bands pretty dead and spent 20 minutes in a fruitless search for a QSO until John W2XS who is familiar with my streak gave me a call to help me continue the streak, answered my CQ. Every once in a while I'll have someone call me and talk about the streak. So it all worked out one more day.
Otherwise it was a busy day with a shopping trip to stock up on groceries for over the holidays in case any bad weather feels like paying a visit.
I also did some work on the website, organizing the Guestbook a bit and editing some other pages that needed a bit of updating. -30-
Sun Dec 18 7:59PM - I've just had a busy crazy hour and a half or so. I went over to walk Roscoe and that went smoothly as usual. Then I got him his supper. That was normal. Then Bruce and I started watching the remains of the Raiders-Patriots game. As you may know from past diary entries, the Raiders are my favorite NFL team. Somehow they get involved in some very strange games. This was another fantastic finish game. If you're a football fan, be sure to watch it on TV, Internet, phone, etc., especially the ending. It would take too long for me to describe it here. I've seen a lot of interesting football games, both college and pro, and this one has to rank high up on my list. I think my favorite is another Raider game, the "Sea of Hands" game where Ken Stabler, while falling down in a tackle, throws a pass to Clarence Davis who catches the ball in the endzone among a sea of hands going for the interception. Another is the Flutie-Phelan 60 yard plus pass to the end zone game. The Frank Reich Bills comeback win. The Stanford-California "Band Finish Game. Several more I need to refresh my memory on, and when I do, maybe I'll do an entry just on them.
Meanwhile while the game is winding down, I get a text message from Ange (my garden friend) who needs some help with his cell phone, Internet, etc. That took a little while to get straightened out. At the same time, I'm thinking about heading to the shack to use the SST for a quick streak QSO so I can get to doing a couple other things that need doing. Whew!!
I did get N4BA in the SST, and am now getting this diary written along with updating a couple other web pages. Then I've got to get back to watching the 1951 version of Scrooge where I left off about 50 minutes into the movie. Oh, did I mention following the World Cup Final earlier in the day won by Argentina over France on penalty kicks 3(4) to 3(2)? -30-
Sat Dec 17 7:20PM - What happened to 80 meters this evening. Just one net station and 1 other station heard with any strength at all plus a couple too weak to even think about trying to work. But then I remembered the SP 160M contest and went there and got an easy contact from John VE3EJ to add another streak day to my total. Just a couple days now and it will be one year since the streak hit 10,000 straight days. Time sure flies.
Let's go into the time machine now and head back to December 19, 2021 at 9:16PM.
Here's my diary entry from that time about the 10,000th day of the streak. If you want to read more and see a picture go to the Diary Archives for that date. "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."
It's nice to think back to that time of day #10,000. I really appreciated Mike coming down to be with me at that moment in my ham radio history. It would have been nice to have Eric KB3BFQ who suggested the streak in the first place those many years ago, to have been here also, but I wasn't really expecting even Mike to be here at the time until not long before the event. I thought I'd mention day 10,000 tonight since there is really not much else to write about today. -30-
Fri Dec 16 7:21PM - Today was the calm after the storm for many people in many areas. I feel sorry for them, and am very grateful that we missed out on the bad aspects of the storm. We wound up with 0.85" of rain, and that was it.
This is the weekend of the RAC Canada Contest. I was going to work someone in the contest for the streak, but then I ran into another old friend, Bobby AK4JA and wanted to say hello to him. Conditions weren't good enough for a long rag chew but at least we got together again for a few minutes.
Nothing much else going on today. I did get one of my presents I ordered just a couple days ago via the Internet. I hope the person I got it for likes it. I worked a bit more on my portable operations spreadsheet. I added my POTA opps to the file. I found 8 POTA opps, 6 of which were from Moraine State Park, 1 each from North Country Trail, and McConnells Mill, all in the vicinity of Butler, PA. I made 229 QSOs in total, and counting KC2EGL and WB3FAE, the three of us totalled 463 QSOs. Not all got logged on the POTA site as we had a little trouble at first figuring out how to upload our info. Now however, the site has been revamped and is much easier to use than when we first started our POTA opps. I see only a total of 410 QSOs listed. So that looks like only our very first POTA opp didn't get on the site according to our vs. their QSO totals.
I hope things next year allow us to do more POTA opps maybe from some different parks. -30-
Thu Dec 15 8:11PM - The big news today is the winter storm. However those of us here in Kittanning have a curious look on our faces as we ask, "What winter storm?" Yes, it ignored us and turned out to be an all-rain event just like a rainy day in May except for the temperature which stayed in the mid to upper 30s all night and through the day. Kudos to the NOAA/NWS folks who ignored all the dire predictions of other weather services who had us getting every kind of winter precipitation possible. NOAA/NWS predicted an all-rain event in their point forecast for Kittanning. I am very thankful for how it turned out. I had an inkling it was going to turn out that way when I got my midnight temperature reading showing 36/37 degrees and having risen from the 9 PM reading. I hope all winter storms turn out to be non-storms like this one. However there weren't many lucky folks like us. Adjacent counties of Indiana and Westmoreland did get slammed as well as many other close-by areas. I haven't had a chance to get a full report yet, but I may do that later tonight.
I took some time today to put together some statistics from portable operations I've done with Mike and other ham friends since around 2005. It's very interesting to my stats loving brain. It also brings back a lot of good memories from those operations like the one NAQCC Anniversary Event in the park when it was so cold we couldn't get our fingers to operate our keys/paddles correctly. I think I'll stop at that or I could go on for a long time talking about the memories. Maybe some other time in another diary entry.
I had three streak QSOs this evening. One was with my radio and trains friend Lane N8AFT. We exchange emails now and then, but this is our first QSO in a while and gave us a chance to exchange seasons greetings. -30-
Wed Dec 14 7:24PM - The eve of the first nasty sounding winter storm of the season. Sitting here studying several different forecasts trying to figure out what recipe is being cooked up for us with the ingredients of rain, s#$w, freezing rain, and sleet. Right now it looks like the storm might not have all that great an amount of moisture to work with. That could change before late tonight / tomorrow morning though. Right now it looks like mainly rain once we get through a mix of rain and freezing rain from maybe 4-9 AM bringing a coating of 0.2 inches of ice. I think that can be lived with. But if you don't see a diary entry tomorrow evening, you'll know something happened.
The bands were about average this evening, not as busy or good as about a week ago, nor as empty and poor as last night. I worked K4KDX in a somewhat QRN filled QSO on 80 meters. He is from NC. -30-
Tue Dec 13 7:26PM - Another day in the winter doldrums today. Very quiet times. Even the weather is not doing much, but please please don't change that. I don't mind it at all. Actually we have our very first winter storm supposedly coming to visit Wednesday night into Thursday bringing some or all of the following, listing in order of worst to least worst: freezing rain, sleet, s#@w, rain. Come on rain!!! The worst thing is it is starting so early this year. Generally we can count on December being decent with winter really setting in on the first couple or so days of January. Oh well, we can't do anything but accept it. Even moving to another part of the world doesn't really help as virtually every place has it's own bad weather be it cold, heat, flooding, drought, wind storms, and anything else you can imagine. I don't think there is a perfect weather spot anywhere although some are better than others.
I want to talk about a phenomenon I note in ham radio. I guess it's more of a quirk than a phenomenon. Many times I will get on the bands, it doesn't matter which ones, and call CQ. Maybe I'll call 15 times for example, and say to myself that I'll try one last CQ, and if no answer, I'll move on. Well, for some reason, many times that last CQ will get an answer from someone. Some wise guy pointed out that if I do get an answer, of course it will be on my last CQ because I don't need to call any more then. That's not what I mean at all. I mean that after so many unanswered CQs, this next one will be my last attempt. In other words I have already decided before I get an answer that I'm quitting after this next CQ, answer or not. Got it? Of course most of the time I quit without an answer, but it happens just often enough to be noticeable that I do get an answer on that predetrmined last CQ. One thing is that it is something out of the ordinary when it happens, and something like that is always memorable. Kind of like saying the next car to come down the street will be a Subaru. If it should happen it was a Subaru, the occasion will be more remembered than if it was another make of car. There's no rhyme or reason to it, but it stands out as noteworthy and interesting to me. I'm always interested in strange things like that in all fields of life.
Tonight I had another reunion with a ham I haven't worked in a while, Jim K4WOP in PA. Conditions weren't that good and it wasn't a long ragchew like with other "reunions" of late, but always good to hear from someone you haven't touched base with in some time. -30-
Mon Dec 12 7:56PM - Another quiet day here with not much to talk about. I broke a good size pileup chasing a POTA station this evening. I always enjoy doing that. Actually I worked him even before I knew who it was I worked. He never did ID or if he did, he was covered by the mob chasing him. I checked the POTA web site to find out it was AA9OM in K-7713. After that I worked VE3PID/remote in W8 land, followed by N2OT in NJ, all of that on 80 meters which looks like it is going to be my band of choice until we get out of the doldrums of winter.
While working the POTA station, I got to thinking about the geographical progression of areas to work in ham radio. I figure it this way.
Once ham radio got out of the early experimental days of the 1910s and 1920s, folks delved into seeing how many foreign countries they could work which developed into DX chasing which continues today as a very avid interest in our hobby.
Others for whatever reason concentrated on contacting as many USA States as possible. Working all 48/49/50 became another very popular interest for hams.
Now that we have satisfied our urge to work all the states, where do we go from here? I guess the next logical progression is to USA Counties. I don't think that ever developed into as widespread an activity as did DXCC and WAS, but there were many hams who really became avid county hunters striving to work all 3077 or so counties or to see in how many states they could work all counties. Once you got all 3077 or so, you tried to work each one a second time around.
OK, next up we branched back to DXing. Now it's another interest among a smaller group of hams who are just as dedicated as the county hunters, but smaller than the DXers and WAS chasers. I'm speaking of IOTA or Islands On The Air. Anything that was completely surrounded by water and passed a couple other qualifications was categorized as an IOTA.
Next up it was basically back on land with various small land areas, National Parks. Parks On The Air or POTA was born, and has become tremendously popular as folks love to be operating their stations from the outdoors in some beautiful park. And just as many enjoy contacting as many POTA stations as they can. Some pileups are really quite large especially if a new park is activated or one shows up that hasn't be activated more than a few times.
Now what's the next step in this award evolution? Summits On The Air or SOTA. Summits are basically just what it says. The highest point in an area subject to certain qualifications. Again it's a dedicated group of hams who pursue/activate the summits. Maybe somewhat similar in size to POTA although it's really hard to quantify the groups who pursue the interests I've listed here.
I made no effort to adequately describe the above awards. I just sat here and ad-libbed the above. It would be interesting to delve into the subject more, and come up with time frames when the awards first became available, rough estimates of just how popular they are, some of the interesting rules applying to each, and so on. I'm not going to be the one to do that though.
Several years ago, Mike and I got to talking about all the *OTA groups on one of our trips somewhere and we tried to come up with an *OTA for each letter of the alphabet. It wasn't easy, but we made it with a little stretching of definitions here and there. I think I made a list, but don't know where it might be now. I might have posted it here in the diary at one point. Anyway, let's see if I can recall a few of them. Airports OTA, Bedrooms OTA, Cabins OTA, Doghouses OTA, Eyries OTA, Farms OTA, Garages OTA, Hills OTA..... Well, you get the idea what we were up to, I think. Some of those I just made up now. I don't know if they were on the original list or not. -30-
Sun Dec 11 7:40PM - Well, I missed the 10M contest again today. Just got involved in too many other things. I did get an email from my friend Mike N4VBV describing his minimal effort in it today. It's a long email so I won't quote it all here. I'll just paraphrase it. He made 15 contacts, all QRP/CW. Most contacts were out west from these states: NM AZ MT SD ND HI CO UT and PEI in Canada. No DX stations in the 1300-1600 EST period. I guess the DX openings had died down by that time as they usually do as I recall. I like this sentence: "I did try some QRP SSB in the middle of my run, but no takers, so back to CW for more QSOs. It was more relaxing to go back to CW with no yelling, throwing carriers and QRM." So true, so true. He again added later that CW was so relaxing, he's going to have to do it again even though he's not a contester.
So at least I got a vicarious taste of the contest. Thanks Mike. He also appreciated my manger scene and agreed with what I said about it.
I did something today I'd been putting off way too long. I added one of my windstream email accounts to my iPhone so I can now get messages from it when I'm not at my laptop. If that works, I may add another account. The only down thing is the emails won't go through my Mailwasher program before they get to the iPhone. I'll have to look into that and see if I can get around it. You may know that Mailwasher displays emails right on the server before they ever get to my laptop, and I can delete them right from the server if I wish. Another layer of security in this dangerous Cyber World.
A quick and short streak QSO tonight from KB4WJA, Mike in NC on 80 meters. -30-
Sat Dec 10 7:37PM - I was going to check 10 meters in the contest today, but I never thought of it. By the time I got to the shack this evening, it had gone to bed already, at least for my setup here. Probably the KW Big Beam stations were still scratching out QSOs. I'll try to remember to check tomorrow. Probably should set a reminder on my iPhone or Apple Watch.
There wasn't a lot on the bands tonight, but I did get my streak QSO in short order from Bob K8FN and we chatted for about 25 minutes.
I mentioned some time in the past few days about my unofficial "50 years club" of hams with whom I've had QSOs 50 or more years apart. I added a few today from just glancing through my logs and my memory. Here's who I have so far. There are many more I know, but it's like looking for the proverbial needle in that haystack until I can come up with some programming to analyze my Excel log.
FIRST = First QSO
LATEST = Latest QSO
DAYS = Days between QSOs
YEARS = Days converted to years and fractions.
I put up my manger scene under the tree today to make it an official Christmas now honoring the true meaning of Christmas which has come to be forgotten by entirely too many people these days. I'll never forget. -30-
Fri Dec 9 8:02PM - What was one project today?
Yep, I got the collection of ornaments on the tree, many of them at least 70 years old. The tree is only about 25-30 years old. We got it when I decided it was too much trouble cleaning up after a live tree sometimes into summer when some long lasting needles were found here and there. I still think live ones are best, but we concede a lot of things as we get older. I still have to put the manger scene under the tree. I'll do that tomorrow. As I was decorating today, I was thinking how much more fun it was years ago when my mother, father, and two aunts lived here and we all did the decorating together. Then when my mother was the last of the four until 2001, she passed away in May that year, and it wasn't the same, but I kept the tradition going in pretty much the same fashion as always, and will keep it going as long as I can. I did cut back on a couple little things this year, but it's still pretty much as it was when I was a kid with a few exceptions. Then two years ago, my then neighbor and friend Jasmine helped with the decorating and I really enjoyed that. She's moved away now though, so it's just me again.
I had another good QSO tonight with Jack, W4TJE in Fancy Gap, VA along with two other good ones as well. I mention Jack in particular though as we got to talking about the name Fancy Gap, VA. He didn't know the derivation of it, but said he would try to find out and email me with the info. He really dis so, and I got the email as I was typing here with a link to some info. I'll read it later and maybe report in tomorrow night's diary page. So many times folks say they are going to email me and never do. I was glad when I got Jack's message.
I guess that's it for this entry. Have a good weekend. -30-
Thu Dec 8 6:05PM - An early entry tonight. I finished up my prefix data work and incorporated it into my Awards section - WPX page here on the web site. I found it interesting and not totally unexpected how it turned out taking such things into consideration as ham population per country and hence directly how many prefixes were needed to cover the population, the ease with which I work a country and hence the prefixes there, and the amount of special prefix activity there is in a country which determines also how many prefixes are available per number and letter.
There is also a table showing the number of prefixes worked per band. There is a pretty nice distribution per band with 60 and 6 being low because I don't operate those bands much.
I believe if you study the data a bit, you'll agree it makes sense.
Otherwise today I started decorating the tree, but didn't get very far, only the lights are on it now. Maybe tomorrow I'll do some more.
About 45 minutes to go now till I head to the shack for streak-time. Wonder what will come of it tonight. It would be nice to get some DX and maybe a new prefix after all that prefix work of late. -30-
Wed Dec 7 8:24PM - Well, I got my Christmas Tree down from the attic today. I said hello to my attic antennas while I was up there. HI. I hadn't been up there for quite a while, and glad to see all till looks OK. Now tomorrow I hope to bring the decorations down and start trimming the tree.
That was about the only project today besides drawing nearer to finishing my prefixes analysis. I have only to go through the Y and Z prefixes. I would have been finished, but the Ws really took a lot of work. They came in second behind the Ks in number worked. 1,097 to 820. Whew. The Ys have 118 to check and to add on to, the Zs 53, so I should be able to finish up tomorrow, I hope. I have 8,260 band-prefixes worked now, pending a final total from the Ys and Zs.
Another interesting QSO tonite, actually they are all interesting in one way or another. Tonight both of us were almost certain we worked before, but as you may know, my computer log is in a different room from my rig, and I log on paper in the shack and transfer to computer later. Dave K4FOY also does somewhat the same so we couldn't check in real time. I did check my computer log later though, and we first worked back in 1965 and a couple other times since then as well. So he's a member of my 50+ years club for folks I've worked 50 or more years apart. Someday that's another project to update that list which will be a real task complicated by the hams who have changed calls over the 50 years. Not only a real task, but just about an impossible one because of the call change. I have found about a dozen just casually without any kind of systematic search yet.
It was fairly nice today and I sat on the porch a little while before I got chilly and came in. Still it was nice to get the fresh air. -30-
Tue Dec 6 8:44PM - A busy evening on the bands, 80 meters in particular. I had 4 rag chews for a total of 1 hour and 16 minutes. One was a first time worked station, ND4K, and the other 3 I've worked before, 2 quite a while ago, and one a couple days ago. The recent one was Ken N3CU, and conditions were better for our QSO tonight.
I did more ham related stuff working with the prefixes again. I'm up through the VA7 prefix now, so the end is in sight, but still at a distance. I have 7,528 band prefixes in my prefix file now. It's interesting to see the distrubition among the starting letters and numbers. Also the band distribution. 20 is way out in front and will stay that way with 1,810 now and counting. 40, 15, and 10 are also above 1,000 prefixes. Low on the totem pole is 60 with 10, then 6 with 18. All other bands have at least 225.
I hope I can get back to my Christmas decorating tomorrow and get that finished. -30-
Mon Dec 5 8:16PM - Again, not a lot going on here in the winter doldrums. That's a good word to describe winter. It's such a dull season. Even Christmas can only brighten it up a little bit especially when you're old and pretty much alone.
At least we're very near the point of the earliest sunset and the evenings will gain a little bit of light, albeit very little at first then it will start picking up a little more as we move toward spring. Unfortunately up North it will still be dark most of the time and the pool of Arctic air will continue to get bigger and colder with occasional excursions down here into the states delivering that cold air and the resulting even worse than usual weather. Brrr!!!
I worked some more on my Christmas decorating today. Not much, but at least I moved along a little bit. Besides that, it was work on the prefix project. I now have the spreadsheet set up to automatically total the number of prefixes by letter and number, A-Z,0-9. Then combine them for an overall total. Also it sums up the number of prefixes by band. I'm working on the letter R prefixes now. There are a lot of varieties from Russia. I would imagine R will be a fairly high total even though I only have a few hundred Russian QSOs and they are split between R and U.
The bands were busy tonight, especially 80 and very few CQs as everyone was in QSO, it seemed. So I went searching on 40 and 30. I found K7DCG calling CQ on 30 and worked him for a nice, but a little rough QSO. He is in AR now, but before that, he lived a lot of time in his RV. This is the third QTH in the three times I've worked him. This is a permanent home now. -30-
Sun Dec 4 9:15PM - As you see from the time stamp, I'm running late tonight, so let me get in a short diary entry. Actually it's a good night for being late as nothing much happened today.
As for the streak, it was another similar situation to the past couple evenings. A quick contest QSO. This time in the SST. Then CQs and rag chewing on 80 meters. First it was N5MPM whom I met 10 days ago on 80. We had a nice followup chat tonight. Next a couple old friends with whom I've had eyeball QSOs in the past, Tom KA2KGP whom I've met at several hamfests in the past although not lately. We've also had 133 QSOs, a lot in our NAQCC sprints. Also Ken N3CU who lived here in WPA for a while before going back to East PA. He visited here at my QTH and he also did a subpedition on the Requin with us at one time. So it was an enjoyable hour on the bands again this evening.
Now it's almost time to walk Roscoe and watch some TV with Bruce. -30-
Sat Dec 3 7:35PM - I used the same tactics tonight for my streak QSOs. A quick 160M contest QSO with WF2W in WNY, then on to 80 for some CQs. The band wasn't as good as last night or maybe just not as occupied. I only got one QSO with Nate N8HWV in Green Bay. Nate was one of the hams I worked on streak day #10,000 back on Dec 20, 2021. Gee has it been almost a year now since I hit day # 10,000 in the CW/QRP streak. Another case of time flying and accelerating as I get older. HI.
Otherwise, it was a nice day except for a few rain showers, which beat s@#w any time. It hit 54 degrees earlier in the day but now is down to 39 similar to what it did here just a few days ago. It was nice enough for the shopping trip with Bruce I mentioned in yesterday's entry. I set a personal record on that trip with the biggest grocery order I've ever made. Or at least the most expensive. Maybe not the most groceries, but the current runaway inflation in the current administration ran up my bill to $81.58. Whew. I don't remember ever coming close to that figure, certainly since I've been shopping for just myself after my mother and aunts passed away. So it has to be inflation and not the amount of groceries.
Some more work on the prefixes got me through the Ks with a total of 1097 for that letter. Then I did the Ls for 325 more prefixes. I really didn't realize there was so much work involved. Previously I wasn't as thorough in counting band-prefixes, but only counted a prefix a few times no matter how many bands I worked it on. I'm not sure just what my standards were for that. Maybe I only counted verified prefixes? Anyway it is going to be complete now as I count each band-prefix for my records.
I took a day off from Christmas decorating. I hope to get back to it tomorrow although I do have a couple other things planned. -30-
Fri Dec 2 8:34PM - More decorating, more prefix work, quick shopping trip, usual Roscoe walks and usual other chores made up the day today to this point.
Let's start with a usual "chore", getting my streak QSO. Of course I went right to the 160 meters contest to grab a quicky there which I did with K8MFO. Felt like doing more than that, so I went to 80 and got three straight rag chews via CQ there from W4IDW, VA3AJB, both newcomers to my log, I believe, and someone I've worked many times, NR8M. That kept me occupied over an hour. I got a 599+15 report from W4IDW. I don't get many like that so 80 was apparently in very good condition although not overloaded with activity. I also got 599s from the other two rag chews.
As far as prefix work, going through the Ks is taking a long time, of course. I finished through KU4 today and hope to get all the Ks done by tomorrow.
Decorating involved doing the stencils on my window and hanging the wreath on the front door. I said I'm doing it slowly this year. I ran into a snag with the window. I ran out of spray snow, and had to go to Family Dollar to get a couple new cans. Fortunately my neighbor Bruce took me there and back on the way to his bus driving job. I picked up a couple other things since I had the ride. The new snow (artificial so I don't need to disguise the word) worked very good so I finished the stencils, even redoing the couple I had done before the other cans ran out. They were pretty messy since the snow was at the bottom of the cans. Then a little later I hung the wreath on the front door. It has somewhat of a story behind it also. I got it at the Ol' Station Marketplace which used to be a railroad station about a block from here. I've mentioned it in the diary a few times. It used to open every Thursday in the spring through the fall. I went there just about every time it was open. I bought the wreath there a few years ago. The marketplace was like an indoor flea market for lack of a better description. I became good friends with the ladies who ran it, a grandmother Gloria, daughter Chris, and granddaughter Jamie, and got some really good bargains. I tried to help them out by buying at least something every time I visited. There were a lot of things I got that came to be very useful. Anyway, to shorten the story, the grandmother passed away recently and the others didn't want to continue the store so they shut it down. The wreath and the other objects remind me of many good times I had shopping and visiting there.
Now a couple pictures of my progress.
Tomorrow more decorating and a longer shopping/stock up trip with Bruce. -30-
Thu Dec 1 7:59PM - I've been wrestling with a decision for a while now. That is, what am I going to do for Christmas decorating this year? I thought about conceding to my age and cutting back. I went all the way from not doing anything at all, but that was really not a truly active choice, to just cutting back on a few things. The latter is pretty much what I've decided, and today I got off to a little start. I usually put up lights around my front door, but that's one of the things I'm eliminating. I don't like working in the cold on a stepladder so that was a good choice for elimination. So I started today cleaning out the corner for my tree. There is usually a table there which I take upstairs for the holidays. I didn't feel like carrying it up the stairs so I unscrewed the legs and stood it up in a corner. I put my wreath up on the front door. Also I got my angel choir set up. Let me show you that, and then give a little history of it.
Those angels were made in cub scouting when I was "but a pup" as the saying goes. My mother was a denmother and she came up with the idea. We made a bunch for each of the scouts in her den. I guess I originally had a dozen or so, but they dwindled over the years down to eight now. Why? Because I have given one away now and then to special friends like Jasmine and one girl at Sprankle's among a couple others. In the past few years, I made the cardboard and wood stand they now stand on. The tree in the background is new this year. My neighbor Nancy who has since passed away, gave it to me several years ago, and I when I got it out to set up this year, it just kind of dawned on me that it would make a nice background for the angels as they sing. I think it works out nicely. I wish I'd thought of it a long time ago. That scarf underneath the stand is special also with a history. It is probably about 65-70 years old. It was knitted or crocheted for me as a gift from an elderly lady who used to live next door. She was in her 80s or so then and I was in the single digits in age, and we used to sit out on the porch for long spells when the weather was good. We'd talk about many things, but the most popular topic was the radio show, Party Line which I have talked about in the diary before and won't go into it now. You can't tell from the picture angle, but the black stripe on the scarf is a row of little dog caricatures. The things in that picture bring back a lot of memories, some very old and some new. Of course a lot are from when Jasmine helped with the decorating two years ago, but she has moved away now. Tomorrow I'll put the lights up around my window. They go on the inside so no cold or ladder involved. Then or actually before that I'll put the stencils of the manger scene on the window. That will be it, and then the tree and a few other things will come a little each day.
The bands were kind of poor tonite, or maybe just a lack of activity because the two stations I did work were both over S9, one in SD on 20, and one in Eastern PA on 80.
I was going to go downtown today, but didn't like the cold, and it is supposed to be some 15 degrees warmer tomorrow, so if all goes well, I'll head down there tomorrow for a shopping / stocking up trip. Maybe see a friend or two along the way. -30-
Wed Nov 30 7:43PM - Well, I got kind of ambitious today and got just about all of my EOM chores done. I still have to put the November weather in my Excel weather data spreadsheet. Can't do that till after midnight tonight. I also have to mail three bills tomorrow. Otherwise I have all my Nov QSOs uploaded to LoTW and eQSL, plus all the calendars changed over to December. Oh and a lot of other little things I won't list here.
I got the letter "I" finished in my prefixes today. Italy controls that letter and has quite a few prefixes of which I have worked 248. I should have quite a few letter J prefixes with 240 or so Japanese QSOs plus a mix of Caribbean prefixes and others from here and there. It's a lot of work, but I'm having fun going through all the prefixes I've worked over the years with CW/QRP. A lot of memories.
It started out warm today peaking at 54 degrees around 10AM when a cold front blew through from Canada. And I mean BLEW through. I don't have an anemometer but I would guess we had gusts in the 30-40 MPH range, maybe even over 40 MPH. It blew my neighbor's porch flag down, breaking the aluminum pole in two. It blew my other neighbor's garbage cans around after they were emptied, and I rounded them up. It also got one of the strings around my hanging flower pots all twisted up somehow. It almost blew me over when I took my garbage can in. I imagine there was a lot of damage around town, but I wasn't going to go out and walk around looking at it. The wind didn't last more than a few minutes at its peak, which was good. It's still a little breezy now and the temperature has dropped to 32, a drop of 22 degrees in about 10 hours. Thanks Canada. HI
My QSO tonight was another long one with a friend I haven't worked in a while now, Bob K8FN. I called CQ for a while, then Bob answered me and there was another station calling me at the same time. I don't know who because when I heard Bob, I wanted to work him. -30-
Tue Nov 29 8:06PM - One more day left before we move into the dreadful season of .... hate to say it .... winter. Then 90 days to wait till beautiful spring arrives. Hope we all endure it to see spring again.
It wasn't bad today. I did some hopefully final lawn cleaning today, and even sat on the porch awhile, in addition to going to Sprankle's to stock up on some food.
I also got through two more letters, G and H in my prefix checking. G had 189 since it is pretty much exclusive to the United Kingdom countries. H is mainly for Hungary, but also secondary allocations for some smaller countries, and places like Panama, Vatican City, and so forth. That added up to 348 prefixes worked for H. That's second place for all the letters I've checked so far.
Two streak QSOs this evening, both on 80 from VA. W4GRC and K4LXY. The K4LXY QSO lasted 23 minutes.
Tomorrow is the day for End of Month (EOM) chores while watching it rain outside. Maybe I'll get a head start and upload my November QSOs to LoTW and eQSL tonight since I won't be getting any more QSOs today. I'll see. -30-
Mon Nov 28 8:07PM - About the most out of the ordinary thing today was simply doing some redding out in my basement and putting away one of the containers I use for lawn waste during the growing season which has now virtually ended. I also worked on my continuing project of updating my prefix data. I finished the letter F today. Let me count the number of F prefixes and see how they stack up. Of course F covers France and a lot of former French possessions, and not much else. So I don't think there will be as many as some of those I listed in the diary last night. I was right, only 113 for the letter F.
I had another of those long rag chew type streak QSOs tonight. W2XS and I pounded brass for a full 45 minutes on 80 meters. Pretty much 2X solid copy all the way also. -30-
Sun Nov 27 7:25PM - Well, I never did get back into the CQWW DX test again. I just don't have the desire to put in big efforts like I used to at one time. Just getting old, I guess. Or another reason is I miss doing the tag team efforts with Mike like we used to do. I really enjoyed watching him working stations more than I enjoyed working them myself. Another reason is that having worked some 225 DX entities, there just aren't that many left to work easily. It's even hard to find something new to work amongst all the entities I've already worked. I suppose maybe I could use spotting, but that has never been my way of doing things. I prefer it to be DX hunting or searching and not having it handed it to me on a silver plate. Using spotting to me, is like fishing in a very small well stocked pond. There's not a lot of a challenge involved nor not much skill needed to succeed. Well, that's my soapbox message for tonight I guess.
It was a mild day today, but a wet one, so once again I didn't get out for walking other than the short ones with Roscoe. Without that, there wasn't much else to do either except the usual of late, work on my ham prefixes. With my love of math and statistics, I thought I'd expand on what I said last night and see how many band prefixes I have worked per number letter grouping. That is count the band prefixes that start with 0-9, A, B, C.......... It's easy with Excel as my log. Here goes through the letter E which is how far I've gotten with my checking so far.
0 - 0
1 - 0
2 - 6
3 - 39
4 - 81
5 - 37
6 - 80
7 - 17
8 - 43
9 - 107
A - 461
B - 0
C - 301
D - 321
E - 347
Of course, the absence of any B prefixes is easily explained. I've never worked China. In fact I have only heard it once or twice.
I guess that's it for tonight. It's just before 8PM and it has been dark for 3 hours already. That is disgusting. However on December 7, the sun starts setting a tiny bit later each evening. It doesn't advance much at first and it will continue to get colder for another couple months, but it's a tiny glimpse at the light at the end of the winter tunnel. -30-
Sat Nov 26 8:04PM - This is the 100th anniversary of the birthday of Charles Schultz. Know who he was? I would guess most people do. I'll let you know after the rest of this diary entry.
Perhaps I should have done more in the CQWW DX test last night. Conditions didn't seem quite as good this evening. Anyway I was just fooling around both evenings so it doesn't really matter one way or another. Again I got 4 QSOs like last evening. The pileups were diminished a bit, but still pretty fierce. Propagation didn't seem quite as good as last night. 3 of my 4 QSOs tonight were from zones 6 and 8. Only one EU (zone 15). Last night the reverse with 3 EU and one zone 8. I printed up 4 log pages as I was just about to run out. So if I do decide to hit the bands later tonight or tomorrow, I'll be OK with that as I am logging on paper since it is just a minimal effort.
Not much going on today except some more work on my prefix logging. Out of curiousity, I counted all the band prefixes I've worked from Germany. That is for example, these all count separately: DL6 on 80, DL8 on 80, DL6 on 40, DL8 on 15 and so on. I also added all my QSOs on the K3WWP log and all the ones on my Other Calls log to get a total of 101,312 plus the 4 tonight makes 101,316.
You probably already know this, but Charles Schultz was the cartoonist who created the Peanuts comic strip, one of my all time favorites. I have the vast majority of the strips in books of collections. I also check Peanuts and 14 other strips on the Internet each morning. Of course I like the older strips, Beetle Bailey, Popeye, Blondie, Garfield and that genre. It was nice to see this morning that all but a couple of the 14 strips made some mention of Schultz and Peanuts. He was highly respected among his contemporaries. -30-
Fri Nov 25 8:28PM - It was a pretty good Black Friday. I didn't get involved in any of the madness, and that is good in itself. My neighbor pointed out to me that Black Friday is probably not the madhouse it once was because of Internet Shopping nowadays. I have to say he is probably right about that. Why risk life and limb and whatever else when you can just shop from the comfort of your own home.
Actually there wasn't much out of the ordinary today. I did help my neighbor work on his van a little bit, and then we went to the bank as we both had a bit of banking to do. Home again and we finished up the leftovers from yesterday's big meal. I gained 3 pounds yesterday. I hate to see what that figure is for today when I weigh in for my daily weighing about an hour and a half before going to bed.
Conditions seemed good for the CQWW DX test this evening. Maybe too good as the pileups were tremendous. I fooled around for an hour and made just 4 QSOs all on 40 meters. Just couldn't break the pileups except for those 4 stations, and I got IQ8SN on just a single call, no repeats, just bang bang, TU. I may check tomorrow to see how conditions are holding up, but I don't intend to put in a full effort by any means. It was interesting to see 80M in real good shape with a lot of EU signals in the 0000Z hour. I might just check it again before going to bed. Maybe the initial pileups will be somewhat diminished by then and I can catch a couple EU stations. -30-
Thu Nov 24 8:14PM - Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day with plenty of things to be thankful for. As with all my holidays here as I get older, this one was a quiet one also. Really nothing special except a good meal with neighbor Bruce and of course Roscoe. That dog really loves his food and it's a wonder he doesn't weigh more than his 39 pounds which is above normal but not really that bad for his size and age of 11 years or so.
It was a nice day touching 60 degrees, but I didn't get much of a chance to enjoy it as I was waiting around for Bruce's brother to bring the Thanksgiving meal for us. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, but then a few nice days after that. I hope I can enjoy them.
I did get a couple things done today. I renewed my smart phone service for another month. I think of all the months I've been doing that now, today was the smoothest and fastest it has ever gone. No glitches and everything just snapped right into place. I also ordered something from Ebay and that was fast and smooth as well.
My streak QSO was another long one running for 42 minutes with Tom N5MPM from a town about 70-80 miles from here on 80 meters. Conditions were just like last night, strong steady signals with just a touch of QSB at one point, but solid copy all the way. -30-
Wed Nov 23 6:04PM - A great day, as expected when Mike and I get together. Our session at the Requin went just great despite our late arrival due to traffic and our usual wrong turn along the way wherever we go. HI You'd think Mike's Subaru would know by itself the routes to our usual 3 or 4 places we go to. But I guess not.
I got to the radio room a bit ahead of Mike and figured out quickly how to get it set up. Mike usually does the setup. I started out on 30 meters as soon as I got set up and made three QSOs quickly. 30 acted that way for our whole session. A lot of activity and we didn't have to call many CQs before we'd get a QSO. 20 and 40 weren't so kind. We stuck right to the schedule I posted in the diary after missing the first 40 meters session. There was a lot of QRM and we had to QSY a few times to avoid it. We decided we are going to try a different set of frequencies in future portable operations and see if that helps the QRM situation. I made 9 QSOs in all to Mike's 12 for a total of 21, one of our better non-Museum Weekend sessions.Thanks a lot to 30, there weren't a lot of long QSO-less time spans. We kept pretty busy until shutting down at 2:30PM (1930Z). Of course there were the usual long streams of visitors passing thru with whom we got a chance to chat. It seemed like there were more young children than usual. It's always interesting to see their reaction to seeing real live operators on the sub. Of course many adults are surprised also.
We didn't take many pictures today because we always seem to end up with the same poses. However here is one that is a little different of me operating right beside the rig that we use now. It's the Requin's IC738 which is a nice rig except the passband is as wide as a barn door and is not great for CW use. It needs a narrow passband filter for sure. You can fool with the PBT and Notch controls to help a little bit, but not much. Then I've mentioned before and now maybe for the last time that since these Requin operations are for the benefit of the Requin and not QRP operation, we operate with the full 100 watts output of the rig. That counts for the log of NY3EC, not for K3WWP's strictly QRP operations.
Now off the soapbox and on with the picture. HI
Another QSO with one of my long time ham friends this evening on 80 meters, Bob NR8M. 22 minutes of S9+ sigs both ways. Bob peaked at 25 over S9 and he said I was over S9 on peaks also.
I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow and have a lot of things to be thankful for. I sure do. If I listed them all, I'd still be writing this same entry all night and all day tomorrow, at least. -30-
Tue Nov 22 8:32PM - A loooong streak QSO this evening with Howard K4LXY. It lasted for let's see, 52 minutes which has to be the longest QSO I've had in a good long while now. It was nice to sit there "pounding brass" for such a long period of time.
It was another nice day with sunshine and temperatures in the low 50s. I thought about sitting out on the porch, but time got away from me before I had the chance.
Other than that, as usual most days lately, not much going on worth the effort to write about. Tomorrow if all goes well, I will have the Requin subpedition to write about. Hopefully we'll have a lot of QSOs or at least a few very interesting ones. -30-
Mon Nov 21 7:34PM - A little nicer weather today. It started off at 14 and a few clouds and wound up hitting 45 in the afternoon with mostly sunny skies. I was tempted to go for a walk, but I didn't. Roscoe had to go to the vet this morning, so that took up a couple hours of time. It was a checkup visit and all turned out well for him, so that was good.
Otherwise still working on the ham prefixes which took up more time. Then of course the usual everyday things, and before long here I am writing my diary entry.
The bands weren't all that good tonight, but I did manage a couple QSOs. One was cut short by QSB, the other by QRM that was zero beat with the station I was working. Plus about equal strength signals. That makes it pretty hard to copy, especially the exact zero beat. Just a little note about an operating practice I use. I try to never call CQ on an even kHz frequency because some folks only seem to operate on even frequencies. Why, I don't know. I always call CQ on something like let's say, 3529.3 or 3529.7, never right on 3529.0 or 3530.0. I seem to have much less of a problem with QRM that way. However tonight I when I called on 3529.7, the station who answered me called exactly on 3530.0. Sure enough another station came right exactly on 3530.0 also and that was pretty much all she wrote, as the saying goes.
Finally barring something happening between now and then, Mike and I will be going to the Requin as we do every year on the day before Thanksgiving. We'll try to start shortly after 10AM (1500Z) and continue until 2PM (1900Z). We'll be using the Requin equipment meaning 100 watts and their vertical antenna. We'll alternate half hour shifts on 40, 30, 20, 40, 30....... as close as we can to 7041, 10117, and 14061 using the Requin call of NY3EC. I think that covers the info you need to look for us and hopefully work us. QSL to the NY3EC entry in QRZ, not to Mike nor me. -30-
Sun Nov 20 7:20PM - OK, Let's see what I did today. Not much. Still too cold this early in the season to do much outside beyond walking Roscoe. I did help Ange do a little work on his model railroad. That didn't take long. It's Sunday so I did my laundry. I continued to work on my ham radio prefixes file. I'm up through checking 6Y9 in Jamaica, then on to the prefixes starting with 7 in Japan, Algeria, and maybe a couple more? Tonight I used the SST to work KG4CRJ for my streak QSO. The bands sounded good with SST sigs on 80, 40, and 20. I almost, but not quite, decided to do a more serious effort in the sprint. Maybe next Sunday? That sums up my day. Think I might check some more prefixes now. Or maybe not. -30-
Sat Nov 19 7:29PM - Another of those not much going on days today. Sure hope we get some more good weather before winter sets in for good. I think it's six days in a row now of sub-40 temperatures. SIGH!!
So I did some more work on my web site and log updatings. Mainly right now I'm adding new prefixes I've worked over the past couple years since I've updated my WPX totals. I'm actually finding quite a few somewhat surprisingly. I also finished updating the "Honor Roll" page in the QRP section of my site.
Tonight I used the LZ DX Test for my streak QSO. It wasn't easy though. Most stations weren't hearing me at all. I had a KP4 station on 80 immediately get WWP, but after that initial quick copy, he never got anything at all beyond that. Strange. Oh well, I finally did work K4OAQ on 80 meters to extend the streak. -30-
Fri Nov 18 7:48PM - Ditto yesterday on the weather plus some s#$w showed up today to give a thin cover to the ground. Nevertheless I did get in some shopping with my neighbor Bruce. We went to Sprankle's where I got a couple things for him, and quite a few things for me. It was nice to have my friend Britain waiting on me. I went through her line the first time with Bruce's order, explained what I was doing and said I'd be back in a couple minutes after I check with him to be sure I got the right things. She said OK and she'd still be there. I did get the right things for Bruce and went back in and gave her the thumbs up sign which she acknowledged with a thumbs up and a smile. Then I saw Teela and greeted her. Then it was off to do my shopping. I filled up my cart with a lot of needed things and went back to check out. Britain was still there, and we chatted a bit while she was ringing up my order. I told her I had enough food now to hibernate and it was good weather for it. After our little chat and I was checked out, we each said see you later and Bruce took me home then left for his school bus run. That was the highlight for the day and nothing much else was worth writing about till this evening.
I went to the shack at the usual time and the bands weren't all that hot. It took a while to work someone, but AC1AE was calling CQ and I worked him for a short QSO with QSB and QRN. Then I worked Phil KP2M on 40 also. That got me thinking and wondering if he is my most often worked DX station. In turn that made me realize that I haven't updated my "Honor Roll" page here on the site in a long time. That's the page where I "honor" those who have made the effort to copy my QRP signals most often. I am going to work on that tonight or tomorrow and update the totals. I see when I entered the KP2M QSO that it was the 75th time I've worked Phil which should be among the top numbers for DX stations. It shouldn't take long to do the updating with my Excel log. I'll just set a filter for those on the honor roll now and update their number if necessary. Then set the QSO number of all stations to the minimum number to make the honor roll, and see who needs to be added to the list. Of course I have one more filter to set, that is my power level to 5 watts or less since the honor roll is only for QSOs I made with 5 watts or less. Should be a fun way to pass some time on these cold days. -30-
Thu Nov 17 8:11PM - Another cold day today. I think it's four straight days since we've seen the good side of 40 degrees now. At least I'm getting some inside chores done, but I'd sooner be outside walking, sitting on the porch, sitting in the park, and the like. I think those activities will be few and far between for the next few months now. SIGH!!!
I got some more work done on my county hunting records now. I had a note here on how my totals increased, but I seem to have thrown it away with some other papers. I see in my diary entry a couple days ago my QRP total worked counties was 1909 and my overall total was 2,256 including those worked with more than 5 watts back in the 1960s and 1970s. Now the totals on the web page are 1946 and 2276 so 37 more QRP and 20 more Overall were found going through my K3WWP log. I forget now which were the top states in increased totals, but I recall TX and SC were two of the top states. I only so far have done the worked totals. I have yet to do the verified totals. My old totals only included regular QSL cards. Now I want to add LoTW and maybe eQSL veries to the totals. I need to check and see which veries the county awards will accept now even though I am not really interested in applying for any more county awards. Just as long as I know where I stand, I don't need to have some organization tell me where I stand. -30-
Wed Nov 16 5:27PM - Well, it was cold enough to be January today, but at least we didn't have any more s#$w to deal with. Virtually all that fell yesterday is now gone except where some kids were building a s#$wman in that big empty lot in yesterday's picture. The high was only 38 today.
I spent a lot of today working on fixing the county totals in my K3WWP and USACA spreadsheets. I've checked all states through RI now. I found 24 more QRP counties I worked but didn't put in the USACA spreadsheet till today. Overall I added 10. I also found a couple errors like having an Orange County in Oregon and the like.
I also did some various chores around the house. Then of course my daily exercise regimen, walking, climbing stairs, walking at a faster rate than normal, and just in general moving around subject to the nagging of my Apple watch. HI. Hard to describe just how it works, but basically it's a minimum of 450 calories on the Move ring, 70 minutes of exercise on the Exercise ring, and getting up and standing once every hour and moving around a bit for each of 10 hours minimum, but I always wind up with 15 hours. Also on the watch pedometer connected to the fitness app which measures the above, I try to do a minimum total of 15,000 steps now. It's all very interesting and beneficial, I believe. If you look in the diary archives for February 14 and 15, 2022, you can see pictures of the Apple watch apps and a little more thorough description. That is, if you are interested. Some of the goals mentioned have been changed since then. -30-
Tue Jan (I mean Nov) 15 7:45PM - You'll see why I started to say January instead of November as you read on.
I'm getting close to finishing up my work on my "Other Calls" Excel Spreadsheet Log, so I picked up another project I was working on with my K3WWP Excel Spreadsheet Log today. I have another Excel Spreadsheet to keep track of the USA Counties. I'm going through the K3WWP log to see if I've worked any counties recently that I haven't yet logged in the USA Counties one. I've found a few so far, but not all that many. It seems like I've already logged most of the more highly populated counties or some smaller counties that have some very active hams on CW. Of course I only count CW counties. I haven't looked at my USACA page here on the site in ages. Let me do that now, and I'll be back. I see a note on the page that it hasn't been updated since Feb 3, 2018. Wow. At that time I had 1909 worked on QRP and 2,256 worked overall. Confirmed totals were 1422 and 2053 respectively. I have the following states completed QRP Worked - CA CT DE FL MA ME NH NJ PA RI VT WI. That means I have all the W1 New England states complete that way. I also have NY and MI overall. Those were fun days in my ham career when I chased counties as my main interest in ham radio. I mainly did it because I found it easier than chasing DX. That changed as time went by and DX moved ahead of counties. Then came other things like the NAQCC. I eventually got into a lot of ham radio activities as you can tell by perusing my web site. One thing remained constant though. Everything was done using CW and most all with QRP as it was defined at the time. I'm rambling again and since most of what I am saying can be found elsewhere on the site, I'll stop here and move on to another topic.
Let's explain the first sentence of this entry a bit. If obscene pictures offend you though, please don't read on.
Now you see why I thought it was January at first
Yes, that is the ugly white stuff that showed up way too early this year. We call it s#$w since it an obscene word.
The top picture is looking out my back window. You can see my weather station and sundial and the huge empty lot beyond them.
At bottom the view off my front porch. The black bags (32 of them) are full of leaves from my next door neighbor's yard.
I texted Jasmine a picture of them since before she moved, she had to rake them up. I asked if she was glad to not be involved any more. She said she was so glad.
Sorry if those pictures were hard on your eyes. They hurt mine also. It would be nice if they were the only time this winter I could see such sights, but..... -30-
Mon Nov 14 8:03PM - Sometimes I like to get a quick POTA, DX, or contest QSO for my streak. Other times I enjoy a long rag chew. Tonight it was the latter. Old friend Bob NR8M found my 80M CQ and answered me. We then chatted for 44 minutes around 20 WPM with solid 599 signals both ends. That was enjoyable. The first time I've been on 80 meters for a while now. Probably since spring except maybe an isolated QSO now and then. I'll be doing more 80 meters work over the upcoming seasons though.
Another cold day today. Never made it above 39 degrees. At least no s#$w save for a few tiny flakes. I did go out to go to the Post Office though to mail some checks. That was a cold walk, but at least it wasn't windy. Then later my neighbor took me up to Walmart to get some breakfasts for Roscoe and some things for myself. I don't go to Walmart much because it's too far to walk, so I don't get there often and I've still never really learned where everything is located in the store and I do a lot of searching to find what I need. I am getting a little better at it though, and only had to ask where one thing was on this trip. -30-
Sun Nov 13 7:31PM - A really quiet day today. Too cold to do anything outside. Not much to do inside except my weekly laundry. I only went out to walk Roscoe at his appointed times. Otherwise I worked on my "Other Calls" ham spreadsheet. It's interesting to see how hams seem to move a lot. I'm back in the mid 2000s now using the 2022 QRZ app on my iPhone to check QTH, Grid Square, and County. I was not thorough in inputting such data then, but of the ones I did log data, quite a few of them have moved or gotten vanity calls, are SKs, etc. I begin to wander if it is worth the effort since it will never be all that accurate like my main K3WWP ham log. But it's enjoyable doing it so I probably will finish as far as I can go.
I was helping my neighbor fix a bit of his woodwork and then watching my LV Raiders get beat again so I was late getting to the shack. The Raiders certainly have slipped from the powerhouse they were a few decades ago. I forget the year range now, but they had the best overall record in the NFL for a long time, something like 15-20 years when they had Stabler, Biletnikoff, Davis, Allen, and a lot more. I could go on for a while about that, but I won't, at least now.
Back to my streak now. When I did get to the shack, I found a POTA station on 30M who was having trouble with his key and it was hard to copy him. I worked him, logged what I could, then checked the POTA site to be sure I had the info right. Before I checked though, just to be sure I had a good QSO, I worked KY4ID in the SST. I think I might get back into the SSTs again this winter. They are at 7PM local time now with the switch back to Standard time which is more convenient for my evening schedule here. OK, that was kind of a rambling entry, but a lot of mine are. HI HI. And one final ramble. The total rain for the Nicole visit and some leftover showers was 2.03". -30-
Sat Nov 12 8:08PM - Well, we fared well with Nicole here. Last night at 9:00 my rain gauge showed 1.75" of rain, quite a bit less than other areas around here. There was more after that, but I don't think we made it to 2" last night. However we did have periods of rain today not directly related to Nicole which may make the two day total over 2" when I get the reading at 9PM tonight. The bottom line is we didn't have any damage at all from Nicole. I did get a little water in my basement, but that was it.
The bands were interesting tonight. Little activity aside from the OK/OM Contest, so I worked OK7K, OK1Z, OM0R, and OM2VL. They were rough QSOs, but I think they were all good ones. It was rough copy on both ends, but only my regular noise was present and not the very strong noise, so that helped. Oh, all were on 40 meters. I am 100% sure of one of the four and 95 to 99% sure of the other three. Oddly enough, OM2VL was the roughest one and he usually copies me easily any time we work. He got my call, but had difficulty copying my QSO number in the exchange.
I got an interesting email today from my friend Bernie, KQ3Z. I'll paraphrase what he said, and then copy my answer to him. Bernie said he's been having trouble making QSOs lately because of the pandemic, then losing an antenna which he recently replaced, but when he gets on the bands now, he finds very little activity when he is able to get on 40 and 80 around the 0500Z hour. Also in the morning nothing on 40 and 80, but some activity on the higher bands. He asked for my uptake on the situation so I answered this way:
Hi Bernie,
Interesting email. Good to hear from you.
Well, I don't have any trouble maintaining my QRP/CW streak. I can always get on at 0000Z and find and work someone before too long. Very rarely do I have to go beyond 0020Z or so, and that is mainly when I am a little late getting to the shack for some reason. The streak is now at 10,327 days in a row = 28 years +. So the bands [CW] are not dead yet. At least not in mid-evening at the 0000Z hour. I hardly ever get on at other times of the day at home. However when my friends and I go portable during the day, we make plenty of QSOs on 40 through 20 mainly. Also just listen during big contests like FD, SS, ARRL DX, CQ DX, etc. and hams come out from wherever they stay the rest of the time and absolutely fill up the CW bands. Keep in mind that the ham population is ageing in general and those using CW are ageing even more and just don't get on as often, especially in the 0500Z hour you mention. Most are in bed at that hour now. Take a look at my web site diary on my web site at k3wwp.com for a diary entry I did a couple days ago about the ages of hams I've worked this year. It's an interesting study and explains to some extent the declining population on the CW bands. Briefly the average age of hams whom I've worked and who gave me their age is just under 70 years. The youngest was 39 and the oldest 84. The diary article goes into a little more detail if you're curious. Oh, and I have been listening a bit, but not much, during the daytime and the activity is back on 20 through 10 meters since the sunspots returned. Still don't get on as much then as I used to. Seems like something else always comes up. I think I need to get a job again so I have more free time. HI
Don't give up hope. Try different times of the day, different bands, etc. Just don't desert good old CW for some other mode.
And that is how I feel about the situation. I don't think we have to worry about the CW bands dying completely in our lifetime. There will always be some small (but growing?) proportion of ham radio operators interested in CW and preserving it. Kind of like folks who preserve antique cars or enjoy preserving and riding steam powered trains to mention just a couple examples. -30-
Fri Nov 11 7:55PM - Hope you all had a proper Veteran's Day and honored those, living and dead, who gave so much to preserve our great nation. Unfortunately with Nicole visiting today I wasn't able to fly my flag as usual. That flag means too much to me to risk damaging it in the storm, but the thought was there nevertheless. I've talked about the flag around past holidays when I was able to fly it, but if you don't know, it's the flag that draped my dad's coffin when he passed away in 1964.
As I said Nicole is paying a visit today with some fairly heavy rain and some somewhat strong breezes at times. Of course no where near as bad as those poor folks in the SE quadrant of the US, but only an annoyance and a little worry around here. She looks like she's getting ready to depart in a couple of hours after leaving behind some more rain, hopefully not too much.
Once again I got multiple streak QSOs from KR4AE and W4FOA. Both are members of QRP clubs, but not as active in the clubs as they used to be. Kind of like me, still active with QRP/CW, but not all that active in clubs as I used to be. I guess the NAQCC is one I still am somewhat active in. (or in which I am still active - if any English teachers are reading this.)-30-
Thu Nov 10 7:55PM - A nice weather day today before our visit from TD Nicole tomorrow and tomorrow night. The high was 71 and it felt like it today unlike yesterday. BTW the actual high was 66 yesterday, but as I said it didn't feel like that then. I went for a good walk and sat in the park for about a half hour or so today. Also Roscoe and I took a little longer walks on our usual daily outings.
I was looking at my log while making my streak QSOs tonight with KM4CU and KA4RUR. I was thinking about figuring the ages of the hams I have worked this year. When someone gives me an age, I note it with his QSO in the log. I see this year that the youngest ham was 39 and the oldest 84. The average of the hams for whom I got an age was 69 years. Hams in the 30s were 1, 40s were 4, 50s were 9, 60s were 30, 70s were 35, and 80s were 14. Yes, indeed CW is an old person's sub hobby in ham radio these days. Of course, those stats are based only on hams that I work on my favorite and only mode of operation, CW. It would be interesting to analyze further, but I don't have the stats to do so. I'd like to know how the ages of ham CW contesters stack up, for one example. I'm guessing it might be younger, but I'm not sure. How about DX vs. W/VE hams? And so forth.
OK, time to move on now. -30-
Wed Nov 9 7:35PM - Not really a lot to write about in this entry. It was a chilly day with a high.... well of 66. I didn't think it even got into the 60's today. Maybe my remote unit is lying. HI. I'll find out when I get my readings from the thermometer in my shelter tonight at 9PM. I have gotten at least one erroneous reading from it before. I was just thinking that I got on 17 meters today for a QSO. Maybe that frequency range gets into the remote unit and messes it up. Oh well, no big deal but it is interesting and I'm looking forward to the 9PM outdoor readings now.
As I mentioned, I did get on the bands in midday today and worked a POTA station in MO on 17 meters. That was at 1755Z. I was looking for DX, but didn't hear a single DX station, not even a weak one.
This evening I worked a station with one of the longer suffixes I have worked, VE2PEACE on 40 meters. Before that I worked Norm KC1BMD whom I have worked a few times before. That's a very short streak of 3 days I have made more than one QSO. HI. Maybe I'll try to keep it going for a while, but probably not.
Let's see, did anything else happen today? Well, I got my monthly Food Bank box of goodies. Some time ago my neighbor (Jasmine's Aunt) got some extra boxes and shared with me. I still recall Jasmine carrying over two of the boxes at once like they weighed nothing while I can barely lift one at a time. HI. Well, not that bad but she could handle two as easy as I handled one. Anyway I checked into the qualifications and I just barely qualify so I get them. I worked long and hard enough in my life to not feel bad about accepting them. I'm going to stop here before I get into politics.
Looks like Hurricane Nichole is going to pay us a visit here on Friday. Or actually it will be downgraded to a tropical depression or lower when it arrives here, but we should get a soaking rain of maybe 2-3 inches. -30-
Tue Nov 8 7:42PM - Almost completely used to Standard Time again. Still don't like it, but at least it's seeming normal again getting my streak QSO at 7PM instead of 8PM, and the amount and time of daylight shifting to its changed format, etc.
After talking about and showing my QSO card file here in the diary, I thought I'd dig out my first paper log book from 1963 and present it here. Well, not the whole log book, but the cover and the first couple pages. So here goes with notes below each page.
Of course I was KN3WWP at the time of my first several log pages. I don't know what the current price of an ARRL Log Book is nowadays, but I'm sure it's a bit more than the 50 cents I paid for the one shown here. My signature removed to prevent any identity theft in these trying times. Over protection maybe, but....
The rules back then said you had to log everything you transmitted, be it a CQ, calling another station even if he didn't answer you, and of course the beginning and ending times of the contacts you did make. As you see from this and the following pages, I was not very successful in making QSOs at the start of my ham "career".
It got a little better on the second page, but still just two QSOs on the page, both with the ham here in town who got his license with me.
After a couple weeks and a third log page, I started to develop my skills a little bit and worked some folks who were outside of Kittanning and outside of PA. It felt good. K3HGD though, was in Kittanning. Art helped me during my early days of hamming. Perhaps interesting my 5th QSO was with a YL.
It was a joy looking back at these old log pages and remembering those early days. I hope you got a kick out of it also.
I made a couple streak QSOs this evening, and they came a whole lot easier than those shown in the log pages above. HI Thanks to VE2CSI and K2TL on 40 meters. -30-
Mon Nov 7 8:26PM - I spent about 4 hours on a trip to the vet with Roscoe for a checkup and to correct a couple little problems with him. The work itself wasn't all that hard or long, but the office was short staffed for a couple of reasons.
The weather was nice today and I went for a nice walk stopping at the bank and at Sprankle's. It didn't quite hit 70 degrees, but came close at 69 which is still great for November 7.
I worked a POTA operation in VA for my streak QSO, then added another short regular QSO with N2EGA in NJ. Both on 40 meters. I was going to check for DX early this afternoon on the higher bands, but didn't quite get to it. Maybe tomorrow. -30-
Sun Nov 6 7:27PM - This is one day of the year I do not like. Why? It's the day we go back to Standard time and it starts getting dark much too early. Those who rise early like it, but I'm not one of them and I miss my daylight in the evening. Also it's a pain to set the clocks back an hour. It's much easier in the spring to move them ahead one hour for Daylight Shifting Time. This year I tackled it a bit differently. I set my two main clocks back one hour so I would know the correct time where I needed to know that. I left the rest of my many timepieces go until morning. That way those that set themselves did so at 2 AM or whenever they do it. The others I then set by hand. I just noticed one that I missed. My AcuRite or LaCrosse weather station. It is set for DST, but it didn't change as it should have. It might be so old that it is going by the old DST rules. No, that can't be it or it would have changed back in October. Must be a bug in the program, I guess. Anyway I think I have them all set now except one in a spare bedroom, and one wristwatch I don't really use since I got my Apple Watch last year.
With the SS still going, I used it again for my streak QSO tonight. This time N7EPD on 20 in WWA. Now to figure out how to kill the extra hour until my 9PM weather readings.
I'll kill a bit here by informing those who don't know that this thing of the Sun setting earlier each night only goes until December 7 when because Of certain factors in the Earth's orbit, it will start setting a bit later each night. A lot of folks think that doesn't really happen until December 21, but they are wrong. Well at least here at around 40 degrees N latitude. Then the latest sunrise doesn't come until around January 3. Those two peculiarities then average out to make Dec 21 or so the day with the least amount of daylight. That brings up a misnomer used by many folks who say Dec 21 is the shortest day of the year. NOT, all days are 24 hours or more precisely about 23 hours and 56 minutes. The whole matter is very interesting and very complicated. If it piques your curiousity it would make interesting reading on the Internet or a good weather/astronomy book (you do remember books, don't you? HI) on a winter day when the cold and s@#w keeps you indoors looking for something to do. -30-
Sat Nov 5 9:30AM - Here is an early entry with the picture of the card file as I promised. It's pretty much as I described last night. Apparently the card shown is the only one I kept after I transferred all my QSOs to computer making such a card file obsolete. You see the "AQ" card which was stored in front of the main A divider card just as shown. Then K3APW would go on a card with a P in the upper right corner and that card would be stored right in front of the "AQ" card. K3BPW would go on a card with a P in the upper right corner and would be stored in front of the main B divider card and so on. A rather primitive system in a way, but it worked. If I worked W2KFA all I had to do was look in between the J and K divider cards for the card with an F in the upper right corner and there would be W2KFA if I worked him before and I could do it quickly enough to call him by name when I answered his call. It was Gene if memory serves.
Maybe if you are anti-computer, something like that would work for you, even here in 2022.
-30-
Fri Nov 4 8:49PM - OK, I just found what was left of my card file. It looks like I threw away a lot of the flesh and just kept the skeleton (very unlike me, but...). I was close in what I remembered about it. There were separator cards with tabs sticking above the 3x5 inch regular cards. One for each letter of the alphabet. So let's say W8AQ for example would go on a card with a Q on it, then that card would go in the A section with the card with an A tab on it. The line on the card would read W8AQ - EV - MEDINA, OH then at the end 6-7-64 which is the date I first worked EV. The next line would be for VE3AQN. I'll take some pictures to post in tomorrow's diary entry to make it more clear. I'm running a bit late tonight.
A quick streak QSO tonight. I worked K9UCX at 0000Z and we chatted for 17 minutes on 30 meters. I heard 5V7RU (I think that was the call) on 30 after that. I thought of trying to break the pileup, but just then he took a break and I didn't feel like waiting and went on the search that turned up the card file. I don't need 5V anyway. -30-
Thu Nov 3 8:26PM - I forgot to look for my card file log today. Let me describe it briefly. It consisted of 3x5 index cards in a metal box designed for them. The kind of cards that were ruled. I haven't looked at them for a long while now so I don't remember the exact format of the cards, but I think they went something like this. There was a card for each number-first suffix letter combination. For example K3WWP would go on the 3W card and so on. Perhaps I subdivided the cards a little further if one particular card got too full of calls. Each line on a card had something like Call, QTH, Name, First QSO. It basically was just a listing of each different station I worked, and not a listing of each QSO. The QSO list was in my regular paper log which I show here.
As you see there are 10 columns with room for 12 pieces of info. The columns are pretty much self-explanatory except perhaps for C where an entry of C means I called CQ. RSS is RST sent. RSR RST received. OFF time QSO ended. PW my output power. NOTES just about anything I want to note about the QSO. The log is based on the ARRL logs, but I print the sheets myself. The number in the upper right corner is log page number, in this case 770. Whew.
Tomorrow will be a little busy, but perhaps I will have time to look for and hopefully find the card file and picture it here. Seems to me I may have done this once before in the diary several years ago, but I'm not sure.
For the third time in the past week or so, my streak came from ND and the same station AI0Y whom I worked on 40, 20, and now 30.
OK, that's it for tonight. Almost time for the weather records, walking Roscoe, etc. -30-
Wed Nov 2 8:44PM - Not a lot going on today although I did get on the bands for a little while this afternoon, something I don't do often. I only worked one POTA station in CO on 15 meters, but the bands were open nicely all the way through 10 meters. I tried to work a PJ2 station on 10, but he worked 2 stations and vanished so I didn't get a real chance at him. Nothing rare, but it would have been nice to work some DX on 10 for a change. I'll have to get on the air more often during the day.
In contrast, this evening there wasn't much on the bands except for the DX chasers probably after that Djibouti station. It took a while to get my QSO, but it was a good one with my friend Dan KB6NU on 40 meters. We got to talking about logging. We mentioned paper and computer logging, but also card file logs which brought back my early ham days when that was how I logged, or at least indexed my paper logs. I'm going to see if I can find those old cards and write about them here in the diary. I don't really remember just where they might be among all the "junk" I have here in the house from my habit of never throwing things out - I might need them some day, I keep thinking. HI I think it may make for an interesting story, and maybe someone will even think of trying a card file log. It's faster than a plain paper log, but not as fast as a computer. -30-
Tue Nov 1 8:42PM - An interesting and busy start to the month of November. The weather was decent with a "stealth" shower this afternoon. I checked the radar on my iPhone and all looked clear, so I went downtown to the bank for a little financial work. I got waited on by my friend Sydney for some of the work, but she wasn't yet qualified to do what I needed, so I had to go over to Carrie. Well, I thought it would take forever as I guess what I was doing is a very complicated procedure even though it seems simple to me. Anyway by the time she finished, and I left, it was raining, but still in "stealth" mode with nary a trace of it on either of the two radars I checked. It was a light to moderate rain that should have showed up. Anyway I turned up my walking speed and didn't get all that wet getting home.
I also put my October weather in my weather Excel spreadsheet. It turned out the month was about a degree and a half below normal, and about an inch below normal in precipitation. Only a couple trivial daily records were set. One for the least daily range and oddly enough one for the greatest daily temperature range just a couple days later. No monthly records other than number of days with a high below 32 (none) and below 0 (none). We've never had any of those occurences in October around here.
Some other minor chores filled out the day until time to get my streak QSO, which I got from Bert W5ZR in LA on 30 meters. The bands, especially 30 and 20 were busy this evening. Bert said they were chasing Djibouti, but I never heard the DX, just those chasing him. I'm pretty much down to the point where it is going to be hard to go beyond my 225 DX entities now with my QRP although maybe as the sunspots peak, I may have a chance to work a few if I decide to devote the time needed to do so. -30-
Mon Oct 31 8:08PM - As I said to myself when I got up from my ham shack chair, "Well, that was quick and to the point." My streak QSO came almost as soon as I sat down, and was an appropriate special event QSO honoring the day from W0O in Frankenstein, MO. How about that?
It was a good day today. I did a lot of work on my "Other Calls" Excel spreadsheet and dug up some statistics that I'll get to in a minute. I also got most all of my End of Month chores done. I think just about all except putting the October weather in my Excel weather spreadsheet. Of course I can't do that yet since the month is not over. It was raining a bit, but I still got to the PO to mail some checks. I also talked a bit with a new neighbor who moved in over the weekend in the house two doors up the street. Turns out it is someone I know from Sprankle's and her family.
OK, let's look at some stats. They are not quite accurate, but quite close. They are taken from the "Other Calls" spreadsheet which is appropriately named as it lists all my QSOs I've made using other calls like N3AQC, N3A, NY3EC, and a few others I won't list here now. I picked out most of the ones that were made away from my home shack on portable operations. There were a couple that didn't quite follow that rule that I did operate from the home shack when a planned portable operation was rained out, for example. There are other things that didn't follow the rules 100%, but virtually all the stats here do follow my rules. Whew, I better shut up now and get to the stats or I'll run out of time.
There are 117 such operations listed.
Exactly 100 are with Mike KC2EGL, some with additional ops also. Hey Mike, when I gave you partial stats earlier today, you said we'd be at 100 soon. You hit that right on the head.
Tom WB3FAE was with me (us) on 27 operations.
Other ops were WY3H, K3RLL, N3CU, AB3RU, K3JZD, K3FFZ.
Most often used spot was Kittanning Community Park with 47 operations.
The USS Requin hosted 29 operations.
Other spots included: Skyview club in New Kensington, Butler, PA hamfests, WY3H QTH, My front porch, WB3FAE QTH in Chicora, PA, Moraine State Park near Butler, McConnells Mill park near Butler.
A lot were done as contests, special events, etc. such as Field Day, Skeeter Hunt, FOBB, NAQCC Anniversary, Museum Ships Weekend, POTA, Skyview Swap & Shop.
Many others were done just for the fun of it. Thanks Mike, Tom, and all the other ops for making them fun.
Finally the file contains 6,088 QSOs that I made using other calls, either at home or portable. It was a lot of fun going back through those QSOs digging up the stats and a lot of great memories along the way. I hope there are many more in my future before I get to old to be doing such things. -30-
Sun Oct 30 8:47PM - A little late again. Spent a lot more time working on my "Other Calls" spreadsheet today. I'm now also in the process of analyzing all my portable operations from the spreadsheet. I think it will be interesting when I get it done. I don't know if it will be helpful in working future portable operating, but as I said, it will be interesting and it satisfies my interest in working with stats. HI.
A quick QSO in the SST satisfied my streak at 0000Z. Thanks Fred N4BA.
Nice day for a walk and a little shopping, so I did both this afternoon. -30-
Sat Oct 29 8:52PM - Running a bit late tonight. It was a bit rough getting a QSO tonight. I had to wait a while, but you know the old saying that anything worth having is worth waiting for. That was true for my streak QSO this evening. I called a couple stations with no success. Then called CQ myself after I couldn't find any other CQs. It didn't take long to get an answer from a not too strong station and I was wondering if we were going to make it for very long. Well, it lasted 35 minutes at around my usual 18 WPM. I worked VE3WH up in Ingersoll. Sam was using a bug and had a great bug fist which helped greatly to get virtually solid copy. That also led to a very interesting discussion about different types of keying devices we both had. One of the most interesting key QSOs I've had in a long time. The only bad thing was that after 35 minutes went by, the band changed suddenly and ended the QSO prematurely. Otherwise we may still be talking. I love each and every QSO I make whether a long rag chew like tonight or a quick TU 599 73 type, but something like tonight adds a special touch to ham radio. Thanks Sam.
That was the highlight of the day. A lot of the rest of the time I spent working on my "Other Calls" spreadsheet I've been talking about the past several entries. Now I've gotta run and get my weather readings, walk Roscoe, etc. before my bed calls come midnight later. -30-
Fri Oct 28 8:39PM - A chilly day today with a high in the mid 50s which still is not all that bad for this time of year. It's supposed to improve the next week or so with highs in the mid to upper 60s, maybe hitting 70 later in the week. It was chilly enough to keep me inside most of the day except for about a 15 minute walk just around sundown.
I had a couple streak QSOs this evening, one with W4QDV in some kind of sprint on 40 meters, and another with WB9YLZ in MN for a 17 minute solid QSO on 20 meters.
I had been having some trouble with my Apple Watch the past couple days and I think I got it fixed now after a solid reboot and and update of the OS. At least it ran good all day so far. Nice to have it back in action tracking my exercising, fitness, and health figures.
That's it for another entry. -30-
Thu Oct 27 3:51PM - It took a while this year for a few different reasons, but I got my 13 Colonies Award in the mail today. As usual it is a beautiful well-designed certificate. As you see I got a clean sweep of all 13 Colonies plus TM13COL in France. And once again I missed GB13COL. I never even heard them this year. Once again I repeat: I wish they would get a more active, more powerful presence from GB13COL. Maybe next year? Sigh. OK, here's the certificate picture as taken with my iPhone camera:
That'll do it for today's diary entry unless I get some rare QSO for the streak tonight.
Well, it's not all that rare, at least for me since I seem to have a pipeline to that area of the world - NW Africa and the islands near there. Tonight it was CT3MD in the Madeira Islands with a single call on 40M. -30-
Wed Oct 26 7:45PM - Yet another day with not much going on. I sure hate it getting darker earlier and earlier. That takes away a lot of evening outdoor activity from us evening people. There's no hope of converting myself to a morning person either. HI
I did some more updating on my "Other Calls" Excel spreadsheet log. Just a comment on Field Day. With its emphasis on portable operation, it's very hard to be sure of what town, county and grid square you are working. I only put that info in my log for class D, E, and F stations since according to the rules they are supposed to be operating from their home QTH as I see it. Even then, a lot ot times the state given in the exchange does not match the state in their QRZ listing, so I don't log information for them either. Nothing is ever simple (my favorite saying for a lot of things in life).
Getting close to time to head to the shack now. Wonder what that trip to the shack will bring tonight. Hopefully no noise along with open higher bands and good propagation. What are the odds of that? -30-
Tue Oct 25 8:40PM - I don't know what happened to my diary entry last night. I remember I was busy helping my neighbor about the time I usually write the diary entry. So maybe I just forgot to write it. So to fill in the space, I'll just write an entry for last night tonight. Got that? This entry is for the 25th, but I'm writing it on the 26th.
Fortunately not much happened on the 25th, so nothing is really missing. I'm doing some more thinking about this. In retrospect, I'm sure I did write an entry last evening. I remember talking about my 2xQRP QSO with N9ZXL. I wonder if it accidentally got deleted before I uploaded the page? Oh well, it's past now, let's move on and forget about it. -30-
Mon Oct 24 8:10PM - Remember what I said last night about my streak QSO being somewhat rare in that it was with ND. OK, tonight my QSO was with....... yes, you're right.....ND. 40 meters was pretty much dead except for VA2AN calling CQ DX, but I kept tuning around and saw one other strong peak on the panadapter. Who? Why, AI0Y of course. Sound familiar? Yep the same station I worked in the SST Sprint last night, but on 40 tonight instead of 20. It was a quick QSO as he seemed to just be giving ND to anyone who needed it.
Other than that not much to write about. I did go on two walks / shopping trips. One to Sprankle's and one to Family Dollar. So I'm stocked up on groceries for a while now. It was a nice day again and I sat on the porch quite a while. I didn't sit in the park though. That's about it except I cleaned up in the back yard a bit pulling out some dead or dying plants. -30-
Sun Oct 23 8:27PM - A somewhat unusual QSO for the streak tonight. AI0Y in North Dakota. I don't think it would take too many fingers to count the number of times the streak QSO came from ND. Or at least when the streak QSO is my first QSO of the day, and not in a contest. No, I'm not curious enough to check it out, at least not now. It wouldn't be all that hard with the way I have my log set up in Excel. Hmmmm.
Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, and that's pretty much what I did today. I did a couple walks and sat in the park and on my front porch for quite a bit of time as I did yesterday also. The weather was even a little nicer today. The high was 75 which is getting close to record warmth for late October, although I think the daily records here are still a few degrees higher than that. Something else to look up? Hmmmm.
I did do one thing that I wanted to do for a few days now which wasn't much more work than resting. I updated the operating system in my iPhone to version 16. It took about 45 minutes or so while I did some other things like play games on my laptop and ate breakfast. It's not a lot different than v.15, at least visually. There are some under the hood updates for security, etc. and some features that I probably will never use. -30-
Sat Oct 22 8:15PM - I just this moment got a text from Tom WB3FAE with the final totals for our POTA operation. He says, "My count from the logs is 113 QSOs with 34 states worked and two Canadian Provinces QB and ON. 5 total countries: Canada, Cuba, Croatia, Italy, and France." Tom is taking care of posting our combined logs to POTA. This AM I sent my portion of the logs to the NAQCC and via the NAQCC to LoTW. I'd say for QRP, it was a very successful operation. I see QRO listings on POTA that didn't do that well. Of course, there are QRO stations with much higher numbers also.
Other than that news and the weather, today wasn't all that great. I won't go into that. The weather was so nice that I took a couple good walks today and sat in the park and on my porch for quite a bit of time. It should be nice like that just about all of next week also.
Tonight I used the SP 160M Contest for a quick streak QSO from WF2W in grid square FN12. -30-
Fri Oct 21 7:22PM - Thanks Mike KC2EGL and Tom WB3FAE for a great day doing a POTA operation. It was a new park for us, and the first time I have ever been there. It's McConnells Mill park west of Butler, PA. A beautiful park and we really only saw part of it where we set up our operation. I took some pictures of the park. Let me find some to post here:
That just gives you some idea of the foliage. There is also a covered bridge and a restored mill which we didn't have time to see on this time around. Maybe in future.
Mike and I left here about 9:20AM and met Tom at Moraine State Park. Then Tom led us over to our POTA site since neither Mike nor I had been there before. We set up fairly smoothly and started our operating a few minutes past our scheduled time of 1500Z. We stuck out the full 4 hours until 1900Z. The weather was beautiful. Sunny and mild with some strong breezes now and then. I think the temperature was right around 60.
The operation went well. I made 52 (+1 dupe) QSOs in 21 SPCs on 30 meters. Tom made 46 in ? SPCs on 20 meters. Mike made 16 in ? SPCs on 40 meters for a total of 114 QSOs in ? SPCs on 40, 30, and 20. Our best POTA operation to date. Conditions were really good on 30 and 20. 40 was slow and didn't pick up until long after the operation started.
After we tore down, we stopped at Ponderosa for a buffet meal. All in all a great day.
Now our operating pictures. Mike, Tom, and the old man, me.
Just took a break to get my streak QSO which turned out to be Ed N9EP on 40 meters for a 15 minute chat. -30-
Thu Oct 20 8:41PM - Just finished getting my portable kit together for our POTA operation tomorrow. All ready except for waiting for the battery to finish charging which shouldn't take long as it never drains that much. Also a couple more last minute items to add in the morning like glasses, phone, water and maybe a snack. Should be fun, and Tom has already posted us on the POTA web site on 7030, 10116, and 14060 from 1500 to 1900Z. I'll do the 30 meters stint and I'm not sure how Tom and Mike split up 40 and 20.
I had a busy day today getting my door and windows sealed up for the upcoming lousy winter season. Actually I never unsealed the windows from last winter since I got my all house AC last year. So it wasn't at all that much work. I also did some much needed dusting when I had some furniture moved around to get at the windows. Then I worked on my "Other Calls" log again. Also Mike had left a whip antenna here a couple years ago for FD, but now we have our regular verticals for that, so I got it boxed up for him to take home tomorrow. Oh, I did some other things also that I'm not going to list here.
Tonight I got two QSOs again. Except for last night when I only got TO2DL, I've made more than one streak QSO for about a week now. I worked WB0GKH in WI for a solid 15 minute QSO. Then called CQ and got a 2XQRP QSO with K4WY in VA who was running 3 watts for solid 2X copy till the very end when some QSB set in after we were pretty much done with the QSO anyway.
Now about ready to get the weather readings, and walk Roscoe a bit later. The weather was better today with no precipitation and a high of 53. Tomorrow should be in the low 60s. Pretty nice to be out of doors at McConnells Mill Park. -30-
Wed Oct 19 7:23PM - Not a lot to write about today. It was a cold day with a high of just 45 on my remote reading thermometer. So except for a couple chores I had to do, I pretty much stayed inside. My neighbor a couple doors away moved to VA, and I've been taking care of his mail till the forwarding gets straightened out. It's too complicated to try to explain, but I had to go to the PO twice to get things fixed (hopefully). I also bought some stamps for another neighbor while I was there.
My main project today was updating my "Other Calls" Excel log. That's the log where I keep all QSOs I've made using other than KN3WWP / K3WWP like N3AQC, NY3EC, N3A, etc. I only have been keeping a bare minimum of data on those QSOs, and today I started to update things like town, grid square, and county for each QSO. A lot of work, but a good way to pass time on these lousy weather days that will be increasing as time goes by.
At least it looks like the weather will be decent for our POTA operation on Friday. A dry cold morning but warming up to the low 60s fairly quickly in the Sun. If you're really into working POTA stations, keep checking the POTA web site for times and frequencies of our operations. We will be using N3AQC so the data will be under that call.
I was kind of keeping an eye out for my new friend Shannon, but someone else delivered our mail today. We're on an auxiliary mail route without a regular carrier, so it's going to be rough to see her regularly, but it will be nice to chat a bit with her now and then.
OK, now about 25 minutes to go till streak time, so I'll find something to do till then. -30-
Tue Oct 18 9:09PM - I'm running late tonight so kind of a Readers Digest version of my diary entry. Two QSOs this evening, one with KB8TL in MI with sigs up and down like an elevator, and one with W2YH in NJ with sigs that were rock solid steady for a great 35 minute rag chew.
Good day today. Got some chores done inside since it never got above 45 outside. I did get outside for one nice outing though. Just went out when my new friend Shannon was delivering her mail and I walked along and talked with her for part of her route. Otherwise only outside for walking Roscoe, and have one more of those coming up shortly to close out the day. -30-
Mon Oct 17 8:43PM - Let's see, what happened today. While up in my room (shack) around 1800Z, I checked the bands and again they were good all the way up through 10. I only landed 1 QSO out of some 4-5 stations called, and it was an easy solid QSO with 9A3OS on 15 meters.
Otherwise, we changed our POTA plans. All are the same except it will be Friday the 21st instead of Wednesday the 19th because of the predicted weather. It was only supposed to be in the low 40s Wednesday with rain and s#$w. Friday not a lot better, but dry and a high of 58 is better. But it will be around 30 early Friday so hopefully we can get started a little later in the day than originally planned. Otherwise all is the same as mentioned in the past few diary entries.
The bands were a bit rough this evening and I had two somewhat rough QSOs through QSB and QRN. Both on 40M, AA9MU in IN and N4LSJ in OH.
I met a new postal carrier lady today. Her first name is the same as my last name, Shannon. That evokes some interesting thoughts. HI
I also went for about a mile long walk this evening. It felt good in the fresh air even though it was a bit chilly in the upper 40s. -30-
Sun Oct 16 8:44PM - I thought I'd use the SST tonight for my streak, but 30M seemed pretty good and there was a strong CQ from N0NWO, so I called and worked him. QSB ended the QSO early, so I then went and called CQ on 40 around 7020 away from the SST activity and got an answer almost right away from WA4NLF in NC. We chatted about 15 minutes, then I called some more CQs, but without any responses that time. Oh, I also heard some DX station on 30 with a huge pileup. The DX was strong but I didn't feel like waiting around for him to ID. Of course I could check the spots, but as you know if you've followed me long enough, I never use spotting. Well, I sort of do use it when I do a POTA with Mike and Tom. They spot my operating frequency for me. That's it.
Other than that, not much to report. I did my laundry today as I do every Sunday of late. I also went for a walk in late afternoon and sat in the park for a while enjoying the nice WX while it lasts. It's only supposed to be in the 40s the next few days now. -30-
Sat Oct 15 7:45PM - A bizarre day in sports, but I'm not going into that since I have some other ham related material to cover. This morning, I put together my N3A/3 activity during NAQCC Anniversary Week into a log and summary and got it off to KC3MIO successfully. I didn't have a lot of activity, but at least I helped out a little bit. Rich said activity in general was down somewhat this year. Maybe folks are too busy to communicate on CW because they do too much communicating via social media, text, email, etc. Not me, I don't use social media at all and keep texting and emailing to a minimum. I still could get on the air more often though. There are just a lot of other activities in life at times.
I also organized my ham radio portable kit a little bit, and will give it a try this coming Wednesday for our POTA activity. That is if we don't get frozen out. Some s#$w, rain, and cold are predicted the next several days. We'll see what happens.
I also took care of some mid-month bills, along with mailing in my ballot for the November election. And I bought a book of tickets for our church raffle in December.
Oh and my neighbor gave me some venison a few days ago and I had two huge venison burgers today. Total weight of the meat was 3/4 of a pound. Whew. I love ground venison burgers although I don't hunt. I'm always glad when someone gives me some.
OK, streak time now. Later. -30-
Fri Oct 14 7:48PM - Nothing much to write about today, so I might as well get the diary entry taken care of early. Then in about 10 minutes I'll head to the shack for my streak QSO. If conditions are good and my noise is absent, I might hang around and try to get 3 or 4 QSOs. -30-
Thu Oct 13 7:42PM - I think it was when we were eating at Chili's after the subpedition that Mike said it was very appropriate that we operated on a US Naval Vessel today since this was the day on which the US Navy was established in 1775.
I thought that was a nice little tidbit to start this diary entry. The day went just great on the way to, during, and way home from the USS Requin operation today. It poured rain on the way down to Pittsburgh, but that didn't really matter even with the accompanying high winds. When we got to the Carnegie Science Center, it had diminished to just a slight drizzle for our walk from the parking lot to the sub. Just as we got there, a tour was starting. Since we have become well known after so many Requin operations, they let us go past to get to the radio room where Art was waiting for us. Setup went quickly and smoothly. Art told us we know the routine, which we do, so he left after a couple minutes to get to his work.
The operation started slowly with Mike on 40 meters. He only made one QSO during the first half hour shift. It was with our friend from Chicora, PA, Tom WB3FAE. Next on my half hour turn on 30M, I made 5 QSOs, starting with Tom WB3FAE again. Then Mike got two QSOs on 20. We kept rotating bands in half hour shifts, and wound up with 17 QSOs all told in 9 SPCs if my rough count is right. We shut down right on schedule at 1800Z, and headed for our meal at Chili's, then to my QTH. Mike had to get home to check on his dog, Jayden, so he didn't stay around.
All in all a very good day. As we were leaving the sub, Art told me he really appreciated us coming down to the sub and always enjoyed our visiting. Next trip to the sub should be the day before Thanksgiving.
Meanwhile next Wednesday, Mike, Tom, and I will be doing a POTA operation. More info here in the diary as the day gets closer. Now off to my shack for the streak QSO. -30-
Wed Oct 12 7:10PM - I went up to my room to shave around 1715Z and after I finished, I decided since I was there, I'd check the bands. My noise wasn't there although the furnace noise did show up once. All the bands through 10M were open for DX. Signals weren't all that strong and there was a lot of QSB, but at least the bands were open.I tried calling 4 or 5 DX stations and only worked two. I got OV1CDX on 12M, and IK3VUT on 15M. I had a 5 minute solid chat with the IK3 station. I also tried a GM4 who was hearing me, but not well enough to copy. I think I also tried an LZ and an HI station with no luck at all. Before I chased the DX, I also worked a POTA station on 20M. It was a fun time harkening back to the days of the last sunspot maximum several years ago. I'll have to do it more often, I guess.
Tomorrow as I've been saying, Mike and I head to Pittsburgh in the rain to operate from the USS Requin. I hope we don't get thunderstormed out. A few times ago if memory serves, we had to shut down when the lightning got too close to the area of the sub. If all does work out, we'll start operations shortly after 1400Z. Since there is only one station that can be operated at a time, we'll have to share our activity among 40, 30, and 20 meters with maybe a brief excursion to the higher bands to see if activity there warrants a try. Basically we'll try around 7041, 10117, and 14061 with maybe a half hour at each, then repeating the cycle. It really all depends on conditions at the time so we can't really pin down a schedule. So you'll have to just tune around to find us. If you do and you have the capability to spot us somewhere, please do. Personally I never use spotting so I'm not all that familiar with how it works so I can't tell you more than that. We plan to operate until sometime between 1700 and 1800Z, depending on how much activity we encounter. We'll be using the Requin equipment so that means we will be using QRO power around 100 watts since it is an activity to promote the Requin and not ourselves and our QRP equipment. The call we'll use will be NY3EC, the call licensed to the sub. It's based on the call the Requin had when it was actively in service, which was NYEC. The three had to be added to make it conform to Ham Radio callsigns. If you want a QSL card, see the NY3EC listing in QRZ. I think that pretty well sizes up the operation. Hope to work you tomorrow.
How about closing with a couple fooling around pictures from our Monday parkpedition.
Disclaimer: Mike started it, I just followed suit. -30-
Tue Oct 11 8:47PM - As usual in my 'noise era', I made one QSO in our NAQCC sprint and then quit. I was hoping for a bigger effort in our anniversary sprint, but that went down the drain when the noise returned in full force. Thanks to WB9HFK for the one QSO. I'd like to see his setup. He often is the only station I'll hear well enough to work when my noise is present.
Not much else to report today. I did a little bit of prep work for our Requin subpedition on Thursday. Oh, and Mike said he worked 10 states from the park on Monday plus the F4 station. He didn't list the states in his text message though so I don't know what they all were. He did say he worked several WI stations.
I didn't do much out of the ordinary otherwise. I did some editing and deleting of some pictures on my laptop and phone to clear things up a bit on those devices. Now it's time to get the weather data. -30-
Mon Oct 10 5:31PM - Mike and I just finished our N3A/A session at Kittanning Community Park followed by a meal at Wendy's.
It got off to a very slow start, especially for me. I made two QSOs on 40M in the first 14 minutes, followed by an hour and 32 minutes of nothing but unanswered CQs. I did take a short break to stretch my legs, but that was only about 10 minutes out of that 1:32. Finally around 1700Z, I said enough of this after I made one more QSO on 40. I switched to 30M and almost immediately made a QSO there with W8GG, Greg (ex-WB8LZG) from MI, followed by one with WA2JMG. Now that's more like it! I stayed on 30M the rest of the time and although the action wasn't all that heavy, it sure beat 40M, hands down.
I wound up with 12 QSOs on 30M for a total of 15 all told. Meanwhile Mike made 19 QSOs, mostly on 20 including a couple on 30 before I took over there. A total of 34 QSOs was pretty good considering the way things were going.
I worked the following states: MI NY CT VA NH MA SC NC AL OH. I'm not sure of Mike's states, but he was very pleased to have worked a French F4 station among his 19 QSOs.
For the second outing in a row, setup and teardown went very smoothly with not even a minor glitch. We think it helps to got to the site at least an hour before our scheduled operating time starts. At least it was that way the last two sessions. Perhaps not having to hurry leads to less mistakes, and also leaves things in better order for the teardown later.
Now it's waiting till Thursday and a trip to Pittsburgh to do a subpedition from the Requin. -30-
Sun Oct 9 7:36PM - I hope I don't jinx it by saying this, but my streak QSO tonight should be a cinch with the SST Sprint starting at 0000Z in about 20 minutes.
Not a lot going on today. I just finished putting my laundry away for the week. Earlier in the day, my neighbor fixed a spaghetti dinner to have while we watched the Steelers getting demolished by Buffalo 38-3.
A final reminder that Mike and I will be activating N3A/3 from the Community Park tomorrow from 1500-1900Z around 7041, 10117, and 14061 +/- QRM. Hope we can work you. -30-
Sat Oct 8 8:33PM - I sure don't keep track of the dates and times of contests any longer since I don't really enter but a few seriously now. So I forgot this was the weekend of our own state's QSO Party. When I got on this evening I heard N3RD calling CQ PQP and worked him easily for my streak QSO. Then called CQ on 30 for a few minutes before I QRT for the night. I didn't get anything at all on 30.
I did a little work on my Excel log today. I got the info from the POTA web site for my few POTA contacts I've made lately. That didn't take long so I thought I'd look for my missing LoTW logging. My Excel log showed 25,301 LoTW veries, but the LoTW web site showed 25,302. So I filtered all my Excel entries to show only those veried in the LoTW. Then called up the veries on the LoTW site sorted by QSO date to match the sort in my Excel log. Comparing the two listings then showed I missed logging one verie from WB9HFK back in July. Now I'm at 25,302 in both sources and it didn't take all that long.
Along the way I found a couple other errors in the Excel log. One prefix logged wrong and one time missing which I got from my paper logs and fixed up.
That's it for today. It was a cold day until late afternoon. In the 40s until then when it did briefly get into the mid 50s. I went for a quick walk to Family Dollar to get a couple things and hurried back home to warm up.
Coming up Monday a trip to the Kittanning Community Park to operate N3A/3 in the NAQCC Anniversary Week Celebration. Lookd like nice weather. Sunny in the mid 60s. Mike and I will be on 40, 30, and 20 around the standard QRP frequencies from 11AM (1500Z) to 3PM (1900Z). Since there are 3 bands available and only 2 ops, we'll adjust our schedule when we get there according to band activity. We will have 2 of the three bands active almost all the time. Tune around and if you find us, please give a call. -30-
Fri Oct 7 8:42PM - An interesting night on the bands. It started with yet another POTA contact from KD8BBK in K-1985. I haven't checked to see just where that is yet, but I will later. I felt like I needed more than a quick POTA contact tonight so I called CQ on 40 and got an answer from W4NLT in VA. He surprised me by saying he was in the QRP ARCI test since I said nothing about it in my CQ nor was I very near the QRP frequencies. Anyway I gave him my ARCI # 1880 and my power of 5 watts so I hope that helped him in the test. That's the first contact I've made in a QRP ARCI test in a good many moons. Finally another CQ led to a contact with VE3IID up in Kitchener, ON on 40 meters. So it was a 3 QSO night. Reminds me of 3 dog night. HI
Otherwise my noise was back again tonight. I think I heard the TV next door, but I'm not sure so too early to draw a firm conclusion.
It was chilly today with a high of just 55 so I did most of my walking inside. Speaking of that, I talked about the fitness app on my Apple Watch / iPhone a few entries ago. Well, I now have another streak in the works. For the last 503 days now, I've reached the goal on the Move part of the app. That's based on motion, walking and calories burned. Not bad for such an old man. HI
That seems to have covered my notes for today just in time to finish my web sit updates and then get my weather records. -30-
Thu Oct 6 8:46PM - OK, let's look at my log notes. First of all, it was tough getting a QSO tonight despite the bands being in good conditions and my strong local noise absent once again. No TV heard next door, so maybe I am on to something about the noise. Anyway finally I resorted to working a POTA station on 40M up in VT - W3PYF.
Thanks to Carl N5XE who sent me in the mail today a couple of keyer/bug pads after reading about my efforts at curing the sliding around on my desk of my bug. Thanks Carl. I haven't had a chance to try them yet. I may wait to try them at the Requin next week since so far the sandpaper is working fine on my desk here.
A nice weather day again with a high of 70 although mostly overcast. I took a couple walks and a couple sits in the park enjoying the weather. I also sat on my front porch for the same reason several times. On the last walk of the day, I stopped at Family Dollar and Sprankle's. Myliea was working at Sprankle's and I had a chance to chat briefly. She said she is now full time at Sprankle's. The only thing wrong with the weather today was actually not a weather problem, but an astronomical one. The Sun set too quickly bringing on darkness much too early and of course it's going to get worse and worse until December 7 when the earliest sunset occurs, then slowly turns around and it starts staying light a little later each day.
That covers the notes I made on my log about today. I think the log notes idea is going to work to help me remember what I want to write about. -30-
Wed Oct 5 8:42PM - One of my favorite sayings is this true one: The only constant thing in the World is change. Think about it and you'll probably agree that is true. Anyway I am making a minor change in my daily routine. Kind of silly and trivial perhaps, but it may help in writing my diary entries. When I'm on the air in the evening I often think about something that I'd like to write about in the diary, but then I get involved in a QSO and forget all about it when I get to the computer. Getting older doesn't help matters any. So I've decided to devote a small space at the bottom of my log page to brief notes about what I thought of writing about. I did that tonight, and here is what I've come up with.
It was a beautiful day today as are many September and October days here. September wasn't all that great this year, but today this October day made up for it. Perfectly clear skies, only a light breeze, and temperature in the low 70s with low humidity. The kind of day you'd like to record for playback on those nasty winter days.
This morning I decided to look at the POTA web site and get some data about POTAs I've worked to add to my Excel log. In the process one QSO on the POTA site wasn't showing up in my log. Then when I checked the date in the log, there was no QSO listed for that date. I knew that was impossible so I went and got my paper log and the QSO was listed there. Did I forget to transfer it from paper to computer? I guess so, but then further checking showed that I entered the wrong date for the QSO in the transfer. I had 5/20/2022 instead of 8/20/2022. Had I not been checking the POTA site, I might have never found the error.
There was no bad noise on the bands tonight. Now my usual noise was there and some furnace noise when the furnace kicked in. But not a trace of the really bad noise. Why? Well, maybe just maybe I noticed something. I didn't hear any TV programs coming from the house next door. It's never played loudly, but when it is quiet in here, I can tell when it is on. I know they have a big screen TV which could be a plasma one. I'll have to do some more looking into that.
Tonight I worked WB4IT, and it turns out he is only 45 years old and a ham for 10 years, and he operates only CW with a very rare SSB QSO. I told him that it was great to see a young ham on CW, and it is.
After that I called CQ on 20 at my usual 18-20 WPM speed, and someone came back to me at I would guess somewhere around 12 WPM so I cranked the keyer down and worked him. I'm always glad to QRS to match the caller's speed if it's vastly different from mine. I'll also QRQ when I know the ham who calls me at a higher speed.
OK, that takes care of the notes on my log page. I don't think I would have remembed it all without those notes so I'll try to keep the system going now. -30-
Tue Oct 4 7:21PM - It was on ordinary day here with nothing to really talk about. Say, maybe I'll post a couple sunset pictures since my email and laptop are working well again. I have to send the pictures from my phone to the laptop via email, then edit them a little more here on the laptop. Kind of fine tuning, you might say, since I can do a lot of the editing chores on my iPhone. So let me pick out some nice ones, probably the ones I've sent to Jasmine recently.
Here are 5 pictures with the date above each one:
October 3:
October 2:
September 30:
September 27:
September 26:
I think that the variety in the sunsets really sets them off and shows how no two sunsets are ever really alike. Putting them together like this really shows that off very well. Also they were taken from different angles and different locations. Mainly some from the front of my home and others from the riverfront park.
It's streak QSO time now, so I'll close here. Hope you enjoyed the sunsets show. -30-
Mon Oct 3 8:25PM - When in doubt, reboot. My email was acting up so that I couldn't send or recieve email for a couple days. Today I decided I'd go to the Windstream web site and see if my mail was being held up there or wasn't even getting to Windstream. Well, some 40 messages were there waiting for me, so I figured the trouble was in my laptop. I rebooted it and that fixed things. I should reboot more often, but it is so slow in doing so, I hate to waste time. But then I probably waste more time when it acts up and sometimes gets to running slow in whatever it does. Kind of a Catch 22 in a way, I guess. Nuff of that.
Other than that it was a quiet day after the EOM/FOM activity of the past couple days. It was a little chilly most of the day until late afternoon and early evening when the chill let up enough to allow me to take a walk down to the park where I sat on a bench and watched a pretty nice sunset.
I got a quick POTA contact from VE3KIU for my streak QSO this evening. POTA is a good way to get a quick QSO when I need it. -30-
Sun Oct 2 8:47PM - Well, one more October event was finalized today. A POTA outing on October 19 with Mike and Tom. We'll activate McConnells Mills near Butler, PA. More details as the date draws closer.
Today was a shopping day to stock up on food for Roscoe. Bruce and I went to Walmart, Dollar Tree, and Family Dollar, and now Roscoe is set for at least another month now.
I used the SST tonight to get my streak QSO from K5MM, then called CQ on 30 and got an answer from W4JF in SC.
It was a nice day today after we got the remnants from Ian out of the way early this morning. Kind of chilly, but otherwise nice with partly cloudy skies followed by mostly clear skies. I got a chance to sit in the park and watch a decent sunset. -30-
Sat Oct 1 8:43PM - I finished up my EOM/FOM chores this morning. I made a trip to the P.O., the bank, and Family Dollar. Then I put my September weather readings in my Excel spreadsheet. It turned out September was just a tad warmer (0.8 degrees) than normal and quite a bit wetter at about 1.5 inches above normal precipitation. There was only one daily record broken. That was a high minimum of 67 degrees on one day. I guess the more years of records you have, the less likely you are to have records broken or tied. I have records that start in mid September 1959 and continue through this year, so you can figure out how many years that is.
I got a surprise when I turned on the rig tonight. 20 meters was full of CW signals from stem to stern. I forgot this is the weekend of the CA QSO Party. I called a couple stations on 20 with no luck, so I went to 15 where I worked NW6P for my streak QSO, then QRT. -30-
Fri Sep 30 8:31PM - I got quite ambitious today and I think I got all my end of the month chores done except to get my September weather data in my Excel weather spreadsheet. Oh, and I just thought of one other thing. I still have to flip my calendars to October although I don't really need to do that until Midnight. HI I got all my September QSOs uploaded to LoTW and eQSL. There weren't that many, only 53 this month since I didn't really do any contest work to speak of. I also got my first half of October's bills paid. Plus some other little EOM things as well. I also got filled up on some groceries in a trip to Sprankle's where I saw a couple of my friends.
The bands were interesting in a few ways this evening. First now I have my regular loud noise competing with my furnace noise since I've turned it on to battle the chilly weather of the past several days. The furnace won out on 20. 30 is only bothered by the furnace. The loud noise won handily on 40. Despite that, I got a QSO on each of the bands and it was DX on 40 and 20. First I got N8AI in TX on 30, then went to 40 and worked a very weak E77DX after several repeats of my call. He got WW right away, then added the K3 for K3WWW, but had trouble figuring out the P at the end, but we did complete the QSO. Then it was on to 20 where I immediately ran across PP5RT. I called him just for fun since I don't work Brazil too well on 20, but surprise!, he heard me right away, but needed a couple repeats to get the call right.
Think I'll go change the calendars now before I forget and wake up to September again. -30-
Thu Sep 29 8:50PM - Wow, another month almost done already. Hope the winter months zip by just as quickly.
Not a lot to talk about for today's happenings. I do have some news though.
Two of our (Mike and me) events for October were pretty much finalized today. We will be doing our annual Columbus Day NAQCC Anniversary Parkpedition. That will be October 10 from approximately 1500-1900Z. We'll be using the call N3A/3 on (+/-) 7041, 10117, and 14061 kHz. We want to contact as many folks as possible so please keep each contact short. The operation will take place in the Kittanning, PA Community Park, weather permitting. Otherwise we'll probably do it from my home QTH. There are more details about QSLs, certificates, logs, etc. on the NAQCC web site.
Then on Thursday, October 13, Mike and I will head to Pittsburgh to operate from the Requin. That will start at or near 1400Z and continue as long as activity warrants, probably around 1730-1800Z or so. Since this is an event to promote the Requin and the Carnegie Science Center, and not a QRP activity, we'll use QRO power of around 100 watts on or near 7041 and 14061 kHz, using the sub call of NY3EC. QSLs go to the NY3EC QRZ entry. -30-
Wed Sep 28 8:50PM - I got a lot of little chores done today. Nothing really worth writing about, but it felt good to get some things accomplished. Some I had been putting off for a while.
One thing I did do today that I'm going to comment on. I checked the bands in I think the 1500 or 1600Z hours. The upper bands were open up through 10 meters. No really strong signals, but quite a few DX signals were heard. I didn't work any as all were common countries that I didn't need, and I didn't have all that much time to stick around. I really got on to find out about my noise. If it is plasma TV, there may be two in the neighborhood. One real strong one and one that goes up and down in strength. Today it was the second kind. Then this evening, the first kind was there. So I'm gathering some data on the noise which may or may not help me to find out for sure and to fix it. Stay tuned for more.
Another comment on tonight. I worked K9LN in IL, and got a 599+20 report from him. I don't get many of those at all. It was before I gave my rig and power info too.
Well, it now looks like Mike and I will be doing our annual NAQCC Anniversary parkpedition on Columbus Day after all. Then we are going to see if we can go to the Requin on the 13th or 20th. I'm waiting to hear back from Art about that. -30-
Tue Sep 27 8:37PM - Today was a day pretty much like yesterday with perhaps a little bit more walking and park sitting.
The infamous noise was back full force tonight with no ups and downs. It was steady all the time. There were a lot of signals overriding the noise though. There was a lot of activity, but it took a while to find someone calling CQ. I finally did though. I found and worked K5WK down in MS. He was a good 10DB over S9 and far above my noise level. He gave me a 599 so we had a good path between us on 40M.
I still haven't done any more listening during the day since that time a few days ago. It might be interesting to see if my noise is there during the day. If its a plasma TV, perhaps the owner works during the day and only watches during the evening. If so, maybe I'll have to think about shifting my operating time from evenings to afternoons. -30-
Mon Sep 26 8:42PM - Another quiet day. Not even too much walking as it was rather chilly and breezy. I did get to Family Dollar for a few things and did sit in the park for a short time. I'm afraid I'll be doing less and less of that outdoor stuff as the nasty season approaches. SIGH!!!
The noise situation is pretty much the same as last night. It's there, but very up and down almost like it's being keyed or modulated in some way. Still with the better conditions because of the sunspots it's not hard to work through the noise. Tonight I got Nate N8HWV on 40 pretty easily and we had a 12 minute QSO before the band changed enough to end it early.
It looks like Mike and I won't be doing our traditional Columbus Day parkpedition for NAQCC Anniversary Week. I won't go into why. As an alternative we're thinking of going to the Requin on that day instead if it will be available. We'll find that out at the end of this week. -30-
Sun Sep 25 7:49PM - Just sitting here doing not much of anything, so I thought I'd start my diary entry, and finish it after I get my streak QSO. Should be easy tonight with the SST Sprint going. I haven't entered one fully for quite a while now. Maybe I'll get back to them someday, but for now it's a good source for my streak QSOs.
Last night, my noise was completely gone again. The main suspect now is a plasma TV somewhere in the neighborhood. I got an email from Charles KW6G about a similar problem he had that was traced to a plasma TV. He said the noise pattern he had was similar to mine. He also said it's possible to get noise from such a TV at quite a distance. Up to a half mile with a really good receiving setup. He also had a lot of other thoughts and ideas about what I might try to cure the problem. About the best suggestion for a permanent cure is to wait till the plasma TV owner upgrades to a much quieter LCD TV. Yeah! HI
OK, off to the shack now at 2358Z. Be back to finish.
I'm back, but then so was my noise. It's intermittent tonight for whatever reason. At least it's not as bad that way. I easily worked K9UNX in the SST on 40 for the streak. -30-
Sat Sep 24 9:40AM - OK, I'm pretty much resigned to having my noise back and am not going to do anything about it for a few days. So here's the info about the phone and watch I promised a couple days ago.
I have now come to the conclusion that the iPhone is one of the best purchases I have made. I call in my auxiliary brain. When I can't think of an answer to something with my main brain, the iPhone is there to help me. It can give me the weather at a glance, as a forecast, current conditions, or current radar loop. Need to look up something on the Internet, the Microsoft Edge browser is there for me. Edge is my browser of choice and I installed it as the default iPhone browser. One thing I use a lot that I thought I never would is texting or messaging. I always thought the keyboard would be too small for my fingers. However before I got my phone, Jasmine let me use her keyboard, and I thought it wouldn't be that bad. Now I use texting a lot. It beats telephone and email hands down. Of course when I want to talk to someone like my friend Charlie from WPIT for example, it's nice to have the portability of the telephone. I particularly like to sit in the park and talk. Another feature is the many game apps available to play and pass the time whether I'm waiting for something or just plain wanting to pass some time. The Spotify music service app allows me to listen to virtually any song that was ever recorded whenever I want to. I've only found one song that wasn't on there and that is Dusty by the Rag Dolls. I could go on a long time about Spotify, but I think that brief description will take care of it for now. In fact that is going to cover the iPhone for now except for one thing. The camera. I have had dedicated digital cameras for a long time now, but the camera in the phone outperforms them all in every way. The pictures are great quality, and so easy to share with someone. For example, Jasmine and I both really like sunset pictures and share them with each other. The built in photo editor is a real help in getting just the right look to the pictures. And on and on and on I could go, but I'm going to stop here for now about the iPhone. Part two of this entry now will deal with the exercise regimen and how the Apple watch (and the iPhone) help with it.
First this Disclaimer: No, I do not work for Apple. I am just a very satisfied customer of two wonderful products made by Apple. I love to talk about them. If you're thinking of getting a phone and/or watch, I urge you to not put it off any longer and head to the nearest Apple store and go for it.
I started a walking regimen way back when I had some back problems and a sciatic nerve problem around the mid 1990s. The exercise helped to alleviate and eventually cure the problem.
I used a pedometer that my late cousin gave me to keep track of my walking. Eventually I incorporated the data into an Excel spreadsheet as I do with a lot of data such as my K3WWP log, my weather records, etc. I see the first entry was on April 20, 2004. It included just the basic miles and number of steps as entries. Then those were computed to running totals/averages and minimum/maximum daily totals. I got a new pedometer on November 29, 2004 that added some additional stats like time walked, mph, steps per mile, calories burned. I averaged around 5 to 7 miles walked per day for the first year or so.
Every so often for one reason or other I got a new different pedometer, but the stats stayed the same. Then on May 23, 2021 I entered the iPhone era. On June 10, 2021 I added data from my new Apple watch.
Now I use an iPhone app called Pedometer++ which provides daily number of steps, miles walked, and number of stairs climbed. That data is linked to the Apple watch so I can see it at a glance while walking. The watch does much more though and keeps a lot of exercise stats. The main thing it does is provide daily exercise goals as follows.
A move/calorie based goal which I have set to 520 calories per day currently. The goal has changed a bit since I started, going from 600 to 500 to 520 now. I have never failed to reach the goal.
An exercise goal which counts minutes exercised. Exercise means any movements including walking at more than a normal walking speed. That is set for 70 minutes and that goal changed from 60 to 70 at some date. I believe I've also never missed achieving that goal.
A stand goal which is simply getting up out of your seat and moving around for at least a minute or so each hour. I have the goal set for 10 hours, but generally always hit 15 hours each day.
Let me close this entry with a couple totals/averages. As of yesterday, September 23, 2022, I've walked a total of (at least) 48,105.61 miles. I say at least because I add some distance after I take off the watch and put it on its charger around 11PM. That's an average of 7.15 miles per day. I've counted for 6,733 days now in the spreadsheet. Maximum daily mileage was 20.31 miles, minimum 0.89 miles. Total steps taken (at least) 94,171,304. Suddenly my legs and feet seem tired. HI. -30-
Fri Sep 23 8:46PM - It's back! Yes, my noise came back last night. After I finished the diary entry and went to the shack, I turned on the KX3/PX3 and to my horror there was the noise I thought had departed for good in late July just as bad as ever. It's the same noise exactly that was there before. My theory as to how and why it disappeared no longer holds true. That really depressed me, and I don't feel like writing more about my watch/phone just yet.
30 meters seems the least disturbed by the noise and it has been in good shape lately, so I may use it as often as possible to find my streak QSO as I did tonight. I easily worked PJ2/K8ND when I set the rig to split. -30-
Thu Sep 22 7:42PM - I often talk about walking or other exercise I do here. Also I talk about my smart phone and Apple watch. Let me kind of tie that all together in this entry.
First of all the history of the phone and then the watch. I had always kind of ridiculed the need for a cell or smart phone until early in 2021. It seemed to me that once someone got a smart phone, they kind of locked themselves into an invisible cell with the phone and took that cell and phone everywhere they went. Kind of a new meaning of 'cell' phone, I guess. Anyway it was my friend Jasmine who provided the final spark to ignite me into getting a phone. She, Mike, and I had gone on a Christmas lights tour and I promised her and Mike I'd get them something to eat because they helped me to really enjoy the tour. It got too late that night and Jasmine had to get home. To shorten the story, we scheduled the meal for MLK day since Mike and I usually get together on that day as it was a holiday for him when he worked for the Post Office.
So the three of us got together and enjoyed a good meal. During the meal, we got to talking about phones. I don't recall exactly how it went, but the jist of it was that Jasmine told me I really should get a phone. Since I respected her very much, and always listened to things she had to say, I took it to heart and did get the phone a little while later. I wanted to get the exact same model as she had so she could teach me how to use it. I didn't get the exact same model, and that's a story for another time, but it was a version 11 compared to her 12, and was similar enough so I learned a lot from her about it.
She also had an Apple watch and after she showed me some of the things that could be done with it, I wound up without her direct urging as with the phone, I wound up getting a watch a little while later.
That's the story of how I became a smart phone and Apple watch user. I have no regrets whatsoever, and I often mutter silent thanks to Jasmine for urging me to get them even though she is not there to hear me.
I think I'll end this part of the story here and continue it in a later diary entry, emphasizing all the uses I have found for my "toys". There are a lot. I might do that tomorrow or maybe later on. Stay tuned.
Right now, it's 0000Z so off to the shack for my streak QSO. -30-
Wed Sep 21 8:45PM - I did a couple out of the ordinary routine things today. I gave myself a haircut. I think I mentioned this before in the diary, but I haven't been in a barbershop for almost exactly 50 years. I've cut my own hair since late in 1972. Wow, has it been that long? There are a lot of things I can use that phrase for, and more show up just about every day. I guess that's just another thing about growing old. Oh, and I don't use any fancy gadgets or accessories to cut my hair. Just an old pair of scissors, a comb, a brush, and a couple of mirrors. One mirror mounted on the wall, and one held in my hand to see what I'm cutting in the back of my head and neck. It's not really all that hard, but I imagine one day I might lose enough flexibility in my arms to not be able to do it, at least not the back anyway. Hopefully I'm a long way from that point yet.
The other thing I did was to fool around with my bug. It got to the point where it was slipping around on my desk. I got a piece of coarse sandpaper, folded it in half with the sand side out, put it under the bug and it gripped nicely so that the bug doesn't slip around. After I did it, I got to thinking about when Mike and I operate from the Requin. The paddle tends to slip around on the operating table, and maybe the sandpaper idea would work for that also.
I had a couple of 30 meters QSOs tonight for the streak. WB4IT in AL, and VE2AAW in QC. I didn't get a chance to check for DX this afternoon like I did yesterday. -30-
Tue Sep 20 8:48PM - Well, I did it. I said I was going to get on during the day and check the higher bands. There wasn't a lot to be heard, but I did work E78WW easily on 15 meters around 1500Z. He was a legit 599 and gave me a 569. Then I heard another E7 station, but he was only about s4. I tried calling him once, but he never heard a proverbial peep out of me. At least I got myself kick started to look at the bands during the day. Maybe I'll do it more often again.
A walk and sit in the park tonight followed by a shopping trip to Sprankle's. That about covers the day besides the usual things. -30-
Mon Sep 19 8:52PM - Ho hum, another restful quiet day. Other than sitting on the front porch, taking a walk to the post office and Sprankle's in the early afternoon, and another walk in the evening to the park where I sat for awhile, really nothing much else happened that was noteworthy.
The bands were interesting this evening. At least interesting in that 15 meters was open to Oceania. I didn't work anything there, but did hear a ZL7 who was quite weak and in the noise. I can't remember now what ZL7 is. I think it's Chatham Island if my old memory serves. I did hear my Skyview friend Bob WC3O work the ZL7, I believe. I heard a C3O anyway near where the ZL7 was and exchanging RST reports. I'm going to have to kick start myself into getting on 17 through 10 during the day and get to chasing some DX. One trouble is that there aren't really many common countries anywhere that I haven't already worked. I guess 12 meters would be the most likely place to go as of those bands, it's the one on which I have the fewest countries worked. This would be a good time to do that since there doesn't seem to be much else going on in my life right now. -30-
Sun Sep 18 8:22PM - Another quiet day today with nothing out of the ordinary going on. Just the usual. A walk this evening down to the park where I sat for a while. It was a little warmer and a little more humid today, but still very nice mid-September weather. This evening, 20 meters was pretty good, so I thought I'd check 17. It was dead save for N0GRA calling CQ. Somebody answered him, but he couldn't copy the caller, and he called CQ again. I answered and got him for a short QSO before he got called to dinner. Nice to get a 17M QSO. Haven't got a lot lately. I'll have to check it more often. -30-
Sat Sep 17 7:48PM - A couple of projects this morning, then not much the rest of the day. I watered Ange's garden as he is away for a couple days. Then I fixed an object holder on Bruce's van that had come loose. I don't know what the real name of such a thing is, but then, it really doesn't matter as long as I got it fixed. HI.
Now a couple state QSO parties should provide me with a quick streak QSO in about 10 minutes.
That's it for the diary entry and the day except I did one of my walks and sat in the park this evening. -30-
Fri Sep 16 8:55PM - A little different day today. I rode along with my neighbor to Butler where he had to visit an eye doctor. All in all that ate up about 4 hours of the day. Nothing much else out of the ordinary happened. I went for a sit in the park this evening. It sure is getting darker earlier and quicker. Those of you a little familiar with astronomy and trigonometry will understand that this is very close to the time of year when the rate of sunset change is the greatest so it is noticeably darker each and every evening. That rate of change will continue to increase until the autumnal equinox, then the change will start slowly slowing down again. Anyway no matter why, the bottom line is it is discouraging to be losing daylight earlier and earlier in the evenings.
I had some trouble getting my streak QSO this evening. I wasn't getting answers to my CQs and not getting answers when I responded to other folks' CQs. Finally I found a DX station calling CQ right on top of a local birdie. I had a bit of trouble getting his call. Sounded like eithe an LZ or an LG. After listening a minute or so, I got that it was LG5LG in Norway. My Scandinavian pipeline was working as I got him with a single call although he wasn't too strong. That was on 20 meters.
Time now for the 9PM weather readings. -30-
Thu Sep 15 8:45PM - A day in which I got quite a bit accomplished, and also had a good time. It was just about a perfect September day weatherwise. Mostly sunny skies, cool in the 70s, a light breeze, and low humidity. The kind of day you wish you could save and play it back 364 other days in a year. I went for three walks which included some shopping for groceries at Family Dollar. I also paid some bills with checks and mailed them off. Two trips to the bank to replenish my meager bank roll and later to order some more checks. The second bank trip I saw one of my girl....friends whom I hadn't seen in a while. I also sat in the park for quite a while. Another outdoor joy was sitting on the swing with Roscoe for quite a while.
I also talked with my friend Charlie from WPIT on the phone during one of the times I sat in the park. While talking to him, it dawned on us that it's been close to 30 years since our WPIT days. Wow! and Whew! How time flies.
After I got home, I did a little research on a couple of other WPIT friends. Didn't get any direct info, but sent off an email inquiry to a local television station we knew they worked at after WPIT. Hope to hear back soon.
Then off to the shack where I worked a SE station, K4MIA for POW/MIA men and women. And now I'm typing this all down and about to post it in the diary. -30-
Wed Sep 14 8:34PM - It looks like something went wrong with my web site updates yesterday. I either skipped doing them for some reason, something went wrong with saving the updates, or something happened in the upload process. It might have been a problem saving the updates because I seem to remember typing them. Anyway hopefully I"m now back on track again tonight so we'll put that behind us.
It was a beautiful September day today and I took advantage of it with a couple nice walks, some sitting in the park and on my front porch, and some shopping.
This was also my day for getting my food bank box. Now I've got to finish my web site updates and then go to the shack to get at least one QSO in our NAQCC sprint. I already have the streak QSO for the day from W6O in MO, one of the Rte 66 SE stations.
-30-
Tue Sep 13 8:30PM - Worked an interesting prefix in PV200BR this evening. Not much else to talk about besides the usual things and I talk about them too much. So I'll just let this stand as is for my diary entry this evening. -30-
Mon Sep 12 8:43PM - Not as much to write about as there was yesterday. I worked a bit with our NAQCC QSL manager today to get the QSL situation straightened out. I had trouble uploading my N3AQC logs. That seems fixed now with a change of email addresses. I did a little more work in the back yard today and have two full recycling bins full of lawn waste ready for pickup tomorrow or Wednesday. I sat in the park for quite a while today enjoying the nice weather. I wanted to go again this evening, but a heavy short rain shower popped up at the time I wanted to go. So I sat on the porch instead. As the rain was winding down, there was a nice sunset of which I took several pictures. I'll have to pick out a couple and send them to Jasmine. I remember the first time we found out that both of liked sunset pictures. We spent about a half hour looking at each other's pictures. After the sunset wound down, it was off to the shack for the streak QSO. Actual 3 streak QSOs as I worked NK4DX, a POTA station, AB0BM in Iowa, a state I don't work all that often, and a Rte. 66 SE station W6M in Kansas. The same can be said for KS as for IA, I guess. -30-
Sun Sep 11 8:48PM - Mike and I had an interesting day at Unionville. It started out with the weather being kind. A large area of moderate rain just cleared the area before we started our drive to the hamfest. From then on the rest of the day we only had some very lite sporadic drizzle. When we got there we started looking for N2EM to give him his QSLs from my QSO with him on 20, 17, 12 meters from Moraine Park the other day. Had we been more observant, we could have saved a lot of time as N2EM was one of the ones who collected out tickets at the "gate". He had a plain to read call letter cap that neither Mike nor I noticed. I can't even think up a good excuse for us. So we started our search inside the fire hall. Tom WB3FAE said N2EM was here and was wearing a green shirt. So Mike and I checked all the green shirts with no luck. Bruce AA3LX said he'd tell N2EM I was looking for him if he saw him again. A couple other hams said the same thing. Finally I decided to see if we could make contact via the PA system. When I asked the PA operator, he told me N2EM was out at the gate taking ticket. So stupidly I took the long walk (quarter mile?) back out to the gate and lo and behold there was Mike N2EM with the plain to see call letter cap. To shorten this already story, I gave him the QSLs I made up for him, and we had a pleasant chat for about 10-15 minutes.
Now that was taken care of, Mike, Tom, and I walked around the tables, but didn't really find any items we needed. We visited some more with Bruce AA3LX, saw Bob WC3O as we do at every hamfest, and a few other hams we knew. We finished up at the POTA table talking with Matt about some things to do with the POTA program.
After that, Mike and I left and headed for Ponderosa where I stuffed myself with their Brunch Buffet. Then on home where we sent some comments about and pictures of our Skeeter Hunt winning effort to NK9G who wants to make a video about the top five finishers in the Skeeter Hunt. That took quite a while, but we finally got all the info emailed to NK9G.
Next it was up to the shack to check the bands. Mike first worked a K4A special event station. I net checked 17M and found an Austrian station, OE5CSP calling CQ. He wasn't all that strong, but I called him anyway and he not only answered me right away, but we had a nice chat going well beyond a TU 599 QSO. We talked about our rigs and the weather. It was almost solid copy all the way. He had to ask for a repeat of my antenna, and that was about the only missed copy. I figure it was probably my second longest Austrian QSO after my friend Oliver OE5OHO with whom I had a few chats. Then Mike worked him.
I figured if 17 was so good, 12 was probably open also. It was and I quickly worked FY5KE. At first I thought that was a new band-country, but later I saw I was wrong as I had him on 12 before. It was 17 on which I needed him. I guess I looked at the wrong entry in my DXCC chart. Oh well.
Mike worked him, then headed for home to take care of Jayden. I did my laundry and a couple other little things until now here I am typing the diary entry and about to go get my weather readings. -30-
Sat Sep 10 8:27PM - Another busy day. I did some more cleaning up in the back yard to take care of the neglect of the past couple months. HI
Another thing I did was to make up a couple N3AQC QSL cards for N2EM on 17 and 12 meters. I think they came out pretty good. I hope to see N2EM at Unionville tomorrow and give them to him in person. Hope that works out. It's supposed to rain but if so, they will move inside. -30-
Fri Sep 9 8:48PM - A little busier day than recently. I went to the bank and Sprankle's early today. Ran into Jenna in Sprankle's whom I hadn't seen for a while. After some usual things, Ange dropped by and cut the grass in my back yard. When he finished, I cut down some weeds and other plants that he couldn't get to with the mower. I didn't realize I had let it go so long. Some of the weeds/flowers were around 3 feet tall or more growing right along and through my wire fence. Then this evening I went for a walk in the park, sat on my bench there for a while and took care of some texting and a phone call. Thanks again Jasmine for encouraging me to get that smart iPhone. I asked Mike if he wanted to hit Ponderosa again on Sunday for their breakfast buffet. However when I called Ponderosa, they no longer have a breakfast buffet, just a brunch buffet from 11am-1pm. So after the Unionville hamfest, we'll stop there.
I just now got a text message from Tom WB3FAE who just finished our POTA logs for uploading to POTA. He said we had exactly 80 total QSOs in 30 states plus Ontario.
I thought I mentioned this in the diary, but I don't see it. The Skeeter Hunt results were posted a couple days ago, and we won first place by a big margin 23140 to 17824. As I commented to Tom, we kind of lapped the field. HI. OK, time for my weather readings now. -30-
Thu Sep 8 6:25PM - Today was our delayed power "upgrade", and I got a chance to experiment a bit with my QRN. I operated when the power was down with battery power and took noise readings. Then when the power was restored, I repeated the readings. There wasn't a whole lot of difference as I'll show in the following table. This does not involve the really bad noise that disappeared about 5 or 6 weeks ago.
First column is the band obviously, then next the noise level with battery power followed by the noise level with AC restored. That gives me something to work with if I decide to pursue the matter with the power company.
Actually the noise is not as bad as it was with the other noise and I can work with it very well now. I didn't take measurements before the upgrade today, but I think it may be a little better now. Anyway enough about that.
Mike and Tom and I will be going to the hamfest in Unionville, PA which is near Butler. I mentioned that a couple entries ago, but wanted to repeat it here. If you're anywhere near Butler/Unionville on Sunday stop in. As I said, it's always a friendly compact get together. If it rains Sunday, they simply move inside the fire hall and it's business as usual.
Today while the power was out, Bruce and I went for a little shopping trip and then a longer ride exploring some country roads. Many years ago when I was young, my Dad and I loved to do that. I guess he didn't get enough driving on his mail route at some 220 miles a day, and liked to drive with me on the weekend also. Maybe the highlight of today was Roscoe who went along on the ride, eating an ice cream cone we got him. That's quite a sight. Maybe I'll have to video it some day.
Note the new version of the top banner on my pages. It's updated to 27 years now as the site was started on September 8, 1996. Wow, has it been that long I've been maintaining this web site? I guess so, figures don't lie. Maybe another brief history of the site is in order here in the diary, but not right now. -30-
Wed Sep 7 6:00PM - Our POTA operation went well today. We set up in the 1300Z hour. Setup went smoothly and pretty fast, especially mine since I made those changes in my antenna and pole I mentioned in the diary a couple entries ago. After I was set up, I helped Tom finish his set up. He has a bigger and more complicated setup than I do. When we were all set up, we started operating around 1400Z. My 20 meters operation was nowhere like it was for the Skeeter Hunt a few weeks ago. Basically skip was a lot longer today than then. I didn't work any short skip stations like I did then. Outside of a local PA station, my QSOs were with FL (10), AL (2), LA (1), CA (2), NV (1 absolutely booming in), TX (2), KS (1), MN (1). All were quite strong with the exception of the 2 CA stations and one other I can't remember. Oh, a word or two about the PA station.
Mike worked N2EM from nearby Slippery Rock, PA and kidded about the DX station he worked. Well, a minute or two later, N2EM called and worked me. Then we checked with Tom to see if he worked N2EM. Just as I got to his table about 50-75 feet away from us, he got called by and worked N2EM also. Now as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.
N2EM called me again, and I said WKD B4. He said yes, but could I work him on 17 and 12 meters. I explained about our single band setups with filters, but said I would give it a try. I asked the frequency and he suggested 18070. I removed the filter from my setup, tuned to 17 and called him. The antenna worked perfectly on 17 and we worked easily. Then he suggested 24900. I tuned up there, called him, and we worked easily there also. So actually I have 3 PA QSOs for POTA. I told Tom what happened. It turns out Tom knows N2EM and he suggested that N2EM may have needed PA on 17 and 12 for WAS on those two bands. That sounded quite logical. I think I may email N2EM and ask him about it.
Otherwise it was a good operation with the QSOs divided fairly even among the three of us so that we came up with about 80 QSOs total. I think Mike had the most with around 30, Then Tom with around 26, and me with 23. Tom is taking care of posting our 3 logs to POTA, then we'll have some more stats, maybe.
All in all, a fun day, but we wish Tom could have been closer to us, but we didn't feel like moving the heavy park benches around. Next time we will though. Oh, the weather was absolutely gorgeous with cool temps and partly cloudy skies. Also some nice breezes.
Next up for the three of us, the Unionville, PA (near Butler) hamfest this coming Sunday. That's always a nice friendly compact hamfest where we meet a lot of our WPA ham friends. -30-
Tue Sep 6 8:32PM - I just finished packing up my portable kit for our trip to Moraine State Park and our POTA operation with Mike and Tom. I hope the weather cooperates. There is a slight chance of showers in the morning with a little more of a chance in the afternoon. We'll just have to wait and see. It was a similar situation for the Skeeter Hunt a couple weeks ago and that turned out dry and good. Hope the same for tomorrow.
It was a warm but quite humid day today. I got a bit worn out just walking down to Family Dollar this afternoon. I wanted to do a bit more shopping this evening, but the rain came and wouldn't go away.
Hope you can work us tomorrow. We'll start out around 7041, 10117, and 14061. If that doesn't pan out, we'll QSY and post the info on the POTA web site. -30-
Mon Sep 5 8:27PM - Hmmm, same time as last night whatever that means.
About the only thing worth mentioning today is some work I did on my portable antenna and mast which I'll be using on
Wednesday for our POTA parkpedition. When the mast or pole collapses, there is a cap that covers up the open end. It has a tendency to wander off and get lost or misplaced. Today I fixed it so that it is connected to the pole by a piece of strong string. A simple fix I should have done a long time ago, but..... On the Skeeter hunt day, Mike showed me some Velcro fasteners he got to hold his pole to the stake in the ground. I liked the idea, and since I had some Velcro strips, I designed and made my own fasteners similar to his. I think they will work fine. I'll find out Wednesday if they need any tweaking or not. They should be better that fussing with the short bungee cords I'd been using. That will be a blessing. -30-
Sun Sep 4 8:27PM - It was back to a quiet day today after the past few were rather busy. I mostly was just lazy and sat around doing nothing or playing games on my iPhone. I went for a walk and shopping trip this evening to get some things I really needed. I used the SST to get my streak QSO this evening. Just worked W8FN, then QRT.
No new details on our Wednesday parkpedition. See the entry for Friday the 2nd for info. -30-
Sat Sep 3 8:53PM - A good night on the bands tonight with 4 QSOs including S57V on 30 for a DX QSO. 1 other on 30 and 2 on 40. All somewhat of a rag chew. I think that's the most I've had outside of contests. Usually of late, I just get my streak QSO and sometimes one more, then QRT.
Otherwise today I did the analysis of my LoTW vs. eQSL veries and posted a table and some comments on the main page in the QSL section of my web site. The stats show a pretty good dominance of LoTW over eQSL. Since 1990, the percentage of return stands at 33.35% for LoTW to 19.32% for eQSL. I think maybe part of that is due to the fact that contesters are more interested in getting a simple matching record and may not care about a printable QSL card. And many of my QSOs are from contests. I'm going to do some more research on that theory and I'll post the results.
That about covers the day here outside the usual things. I did take a walk and sat in the park this evening although it was pretty warm and humid.
If you want to let me know your thoughts on LoTW and eQSL, I'd be interested to get an email from you. -30-
Fri Sep 2 8:14PM - Not a lot going on today. I did get all the LoTW and eQSL matches into my K3WWP Excel log today from the upload of my QSOs yesterday. Only 11 eQSLs and maybe 30 or 35 LoTW matches. I noticed one thing. Most folks who enter the SST Sprints are prompt and thorough LoTW users. Let me see something. In the August 1 SST I made 35 QSOs. Of those 35, I got 24 LoTW matches and only 6 eQSLs. I'm not sure what that means. Let me see totals for August 1-31. 77 QSOs, 36 LoTW, 11 eQSL. How about a random month a few months ago. Let's try May of this year. 307 QSOs, 176 LoTW, 57 eQSL. Although that' a small sampling of my 95,000 or so K3WWP QSOs, it looks like LoTW is much more popular than eQSL. Well, since I'm here, how about the whole year of 2022 so far? Through August 31. 1,890 QSOs, 1,069 LoTW, 282 eQSL. Impressive showing for LoTW vs. eQSL. Maybe I'll extend the survey of my log back several years sometime, but not now. Actually there is a little table in my QSL section of my web site with a total of QSOs, LoTW, and eQSL, but it needs a little updating since April of this year. It shows percentage of return on QSOs uploaded to both LoTW and eQSL since the raw totals uploaded are different for LoTW and eQSL.
OK, that kind of filled up my time for the entry, but a couple more comments. It was a nice day today and I went for one of my few mid-day walks today, then another one this evening. No shopping either time though. Just sat on the park bench for a while each time.
It looks like we finished up details for our next parkpedition. It will be on Wednesday, September 7 at Moraine State Park near Butler, PA. I'll be there along with Tom WB3FAE and Mike KC2EGL. It will count as a POTA operation. We hope to arrive around 9AM and start operating as soon as we get set up. We'll try to spot ourselves on the POTA web site. I think we'll use the NAQCC Club call of N3AQC. We'll operate as long as activity warrants. OK, I just got off a text to Tom about which bands we'll use and to be sure about N3AQC. Yes, Tom wants to use N3AQC. I'll take 20M and Tom and Mike will decide on 30/40. Tom is in charge of those parkpeditions that are POTA operations. -30-
Thu Sep 1 8:25PM - I finished all my COM (Change of Month) chores today except for a little updating of a couple Excel spreadsheets. So that will give me a chance to take care of those two topics I mentioned in yesterday's diary entry.
First thanks to Mike N4VBV for confirming my guess on the question about not needing any steenking beams. We both are pretty sure it originated in the Bogart movie, Treasure of the Sierra Madre when Bogart and his cohorts are confronted by Mexican bandits posing as police. Bogart asks to see their badges, and they pull out their guns and say "We don't need no steenking badges." I'm pretty sure that is close to accurate. I haven't seen the Treasure of the Sierra Madre in a long time now.
As for FISTS, it is really a sad story how everything seemed to conspire against the club at about the same time. There was a fire at FISTS HQ that destroyed some club assets. Then Nancy WZ8C became ill and passed away not long after that. She was the heart and soul of the American chapter of the club, and without her guidance, FISTS activities just declined and continue to decline. As K2UPI and I said last night, we can't remember when we last heard FISTS activity around the .058 frequencies. There have been attempts to revive activity, but no one has come up to the Nancy standards in keeping the club going. Nothing would please me more than to see a revival of FISTS. There are other CW clubs but none can match FISTS in its heyday. That's sad. As I often say, the only constant thing in life is change. Things will always change one way or other. Some of it good, and some bad. -30-
Wed Aug 31 9:13PM - My busiest day in a long while with all the regular end of month chores to do. I got the majority of them done, but still have a few left for tomorrow.
It was also busy on the bands tonight. I had two nice QSOs with KP4YO and K2UPI that lasted a total of most of the 0000Z hour, so I'm running late here and am going to have to postpone a couple topics I wanted to talk about here in the diary until tomorrow evening. One about the quote question I posed in the diary a few entries ago. Another about the discussion I had with K2UPI about FISTS. -30-
Tue Aug 30 9:08PM - I accomplished some things today, a couple of which may be worth mentioning. I was having problems with my computer this morning, especially with the Internet and email. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to do a total reboot. It took a while, and I was wondering what was going on. I remembered the last time I did a reboot, my AVG anti-virus program did a big upgrade that took a while. I figured the same thing was going on today and I was right. When the reboot did finish, that cured the problems and I have a nice new version of AVG as well as a better performing and faster computer.
Another computer related thing was remounting my modem/router. I would accidentally knock it over now and then, so I bolted it to my computer desk today.
Tonight the bands were interesting as they have been since the cme/flare the other day. Tonight there were a lot of fairly strong SA stations on 20, mostly LUs and one OA whom I worked. I don't often have success with Peru, but tonight with a couple repeats of my call, I had a nice short QSO with Tony OA4DX with solid copy both ways. Then I went to 30 and there were a lot of strong signals there. After trying unsuccessfully to work a strong EA9AZ because of losing out to other stations, I called CQ and had an answer on my first CQ from KY8D in MI. We had a 28 minute QSO before the band died on our path. -30-
Mon Aug 29 8:56PM - Conditions were quite bad this evening. I couldn't get any answers to my CQs. When I called AA0YY, he had all kinds of trouble copying me. The closest he ever got to getting my call right was K3WKP. Now that says a lot about poor conditions. It's hard to get a K out of a W unless conditions are really bad. I put him in the log, but I wasn't happy so I went to 20 and worked CT1JML a lot easier. Only a couple repeats of my call needed.
It was a hot day today. I had to go to the bank, and thought I'd go fairly early in the day, but it was still hot and humid and I worked up a good sweat. At least I got my banking done.
Not much else going on today except the routine things. Another routine thing due now. Time to get my weather records so I'll close this and do it. -30-
Sun Aug 28 8:52PM - 252! No, not the number of QSOs we made at SkyView today. No, not the number of typos and other errors in the diary so far this year. Give up? That's the Solar Flux number today. The highest since I don't know when and I'm not going to look up right now.
We had the usual good time at SkyView. Always nice to see the members again, especially Bob WC3O and Jody K3JZD mostly because we know those two better than the others. The others are great also. If I listed them all here, this would be a very long entry. Band conditions were strange today mainly because of the CME/Solar Flare that produced the SF of 252 as mentioned above. I worked 40 and Mike worked 20. Most of our QSOs came from the KS QSO Party. Mike got 18 plus one KH6 Party QSO. I got 9 KS stations plus 5 other QSOs. Then fairly suddenly 40 went completely dead except for a few birdies. Just like someone turned the band off with a switch. 20 stayed good for Mike but it slowed down. So we closed down around 1700Z.
A confession and an explanation. As you know I operate under these conditions: I use only CW, no other modes. I use QRP power no more than 5 watts output. I use simple wire antennas, no type of gain antennas. Got that? Well lately I have decided to apply that strictly only to QSOs I make using my call of K3WWP since I am promoting operating like I described. However when I operate to promote other causes using other calls, I no longer strictly adhere to those conditions. Got that? Using my K3WWP call it is 100% as described above. Other examples: When I promote the preservation of the USS Requin Radio Room for the Carnegie Science Center using the Requin call of NY3EC, I will follow the guidelines except for using QRO power of 100 watts to better promote the Requin. Or today when our operation did promote the SkyView Radio Association using N3AQC and to experiment with different antennas, the guidelines above were followed, but the club gain antennas were used in conjunction with their simple wire antennas. Got all that now? There will be a test in a few days. HI
When Mike and I got home, I suggested he use my station to add more KS QSOs to his fairly nice total so far. He did and although there were fewer he hadn't worked before, he was working the ones that were left as easily with my simple antenna setup as he was from the big beams at SkyView. As I said, "We don't need no steenking beams here". What is that paraphrased quote from? I'm not sure. I have an idea, but I'll wait to see if you have any ideas. Now I gotta close for now and take care of Roscoe. -30-
Sat Aug 27 8:40PM - Gee, meteorological summer is just about over. Where did it go. Hope winter goes as fast.
Again not much to report today. I got my gear set up for our SkyView trip tomorrow. We'll be leaving about 8AM, and if we don't get lost, we'll be there in plenty of time to get set up to start operating at 9AM --- Famous last words
Went for a walk and sit in the park this evening. Then off to Sprankle's where I saw Teela again and talked to her a bit about her college plans. She wants to study History.
I guess that about covers the mostly eventless day. -30-
Fri Aug 26 9:21PM - Another quiet day, but at least I did some work. I weeded my back yard and some of my brick sidewalk. It was a somewhat cool day, good for that kind of work. We had a shower in the afternoon. Then it cleared up again and I went for a combo walk, park sit, shopping trip to Sprankle's. There was a new girl working there with the interesting name of Britain Elizabeth. She was named for the country and Queen. -30-
Thu Aug 25 8:48PM - This was kind of a busy day today, but only with a lot of little not worth writing about things. HI. I guess the most interesting may have been refilling my iPhone Straight Talk service. I could not get past one certain point early in the process until I noticed the IP address it was listing for me and it dawned on me that was from my AVG VPN server which I use to mask my Internet activity. After that AHA! moment, I disabled the VPN temporarily and things worked fine although still a bit slow because of all the security steps everywhere today. I like what they do, but they do slow things down. Better safe than sorry though.
It was an above average hot day for late August so I wasn't outside much during the day. I did take a good walk/shopping trip this evening though. It was still a bit hot and humid but better than during the day.
Looking forward now to our annual SkyView visit on Sunday for our QRP demo with Mike KC2EGL and Tom WB3FAE. Always nice to visit with the SkyView members and especially to talk with some who are not all that familiar with QRP and / or CW for that matter. We'll probably roam all over the bands, but try to call CQ now and then around 7041, 10117, and 14061. We'll use the NAQCC club call of N3AQC. Hope to work you. -30-
Wed Aug 24 9:11PM - Forget what I wrote about the power upgrade in last night's diary entry. They never showed up today. I talked with a neighbor who has a son who works for West Penn Power. The three of us kind of figured out that since there have been so many storms and power outages in the general West Pennsylvania area of late, they couldn't spare a crew for a non-critical upgrade. It was more important to restore power to those who don't have any. Makes sense, but they could have notified us why the upgrade wasn't done today. Anyway I found out I can get along without power quite well as I never used any power till it was clear around 3:00PM they weren't coming. I hooked up the radio to battery and used the battery in the laptop. Or actually I should say I was ready to use the radio and laptop with battery. I got busy with other things and never did use them. Mostly I played with my iPhone and Apple watch. So the check to see about my noise will have to wait.
I might as well tell you my theory about the noise. I told Mike this past Sunday and he kind of agreed. Jasmine moved out of the house next door on August 1st. Since that's about the time the noise disappeared, I thought she might have taken some piece of electronic gear with her. Perhaps the lava lamp I gave her as a gift. I'll have to check when I gave her the gift to see if it was near when the noise started. I might find that out from my diary. Hopefully the power upgrade will still be done and wasn't cancelled altogether. -30-
Tue Aug 23 8:26PM - Another of those quiet days with a couple of highlights. The weather was nice again, but a bit hot during the day for walking. I did walk this evening, sat in the park, and stopped in at Sprankle's where I saw one of my friends, Teela. When I got home it was streak time. I had a quick QSO with V31XX at 0003Z on 30 meters. I had to repeat my call a few times which is unusual for V31XX. Perhap the summer static was bad down in Belize today.
Tomorrow will be an interesting day with our power out for maintenance from about 8AM to 3:30PM. I got some food at Sprankle's that doesn't need cooking or heating, so I'm set with the grub. I figure I can entertain myself with battery power for the radio. Also the laptop will be good on battery, but no Internet as the router will be down. My phone and watch should work fine and I think the batteries in them should last for 7.5 hours and the satellite connection should work. Stay tuned to the diary tomorrow evening to see how things turn out. -30-
Mon Aug 22 8:38PM - After the great exciting busy day yesterday, today went back to the quiet days of late. The weather was decent and I took a couple of somewhat long walks today. I paused mid-walks to sit in the park. I did a little redding up around the house also. That was about it except for the ordinary every day things.
I got a little unusual QSO this evening. Brazil on 30 meters. Brazil is a country I either work somewhat easily or not at all. Tonight it was kind of in-between when I worked ZX8F. I had to repeat my call a few times but he stuck with me till he got it right. I think that may be a new prefix. I haven't checked my WPX totals for a long time now. Maybe a project for these quiet days or sometime this winter.
I checked my Skeeter log thoroughly today and found another SPC in IN which I missed counting yesterday. So it's 24 SPCs instead of 23. Maybe that will make just enough of a difference to boost our position somewhat. Larry W2LJ says scores should be posted around September 5. -30-
Sun Aug 21 7:38PM - I'm sure glad we didn't get rained out in the Skeeter Hunt today. It turned out to be one of my most interesting experiences ever in contesting. I usually do most of my contesting work via S&P. But in QRP sprints like today, I will call CQ most of the time. Well, the first hour turned out to be just about the most intense hour I have ever had in contesting. I started out right at 1700Z calling CQ. My first answer came from Larry W2LJ on my first CQ. As you may know, Larry is in charge of the Skeeter Hunt, so that was a bit of a thrill in itself. But there's more. After that first CQ, folks called me steadily for the first 25 minutes in which I made 25 contacts. It did slow down a bit so that I wound up with 40 contacts in the first hour. Actually I got the feeling I was on a DXpedition to some rare country running a KW station the way folks were calling, 1, 2, or 3 or so at a time. I had fun working the pileups which is something as a minimal QRP station I seldom get to do. Looking back, I wish I'd logged on a computer instead of on paper. I don't write that well all that fast so that slowed me down somewhat. I might have gotten closer to 50 contacts in that hour with a computer. Anyway that was really fun, and I have to say I handled the situation very well and am proud of that. Kind of makes me wonder how I could do if I ever did get the chance to join a DXpedition. I'm too old for that now, so I'll never find out.
Let's get to the bottom line. With Mike working 40 and me 20, we made 83 QSOs all told, which at a glance seems to be the best we've ever done in a Skeeter Hunt. With 23 SPCs, that should make our score somewhere near the top. We sent in our report right after we got back here, so we'll see how we made out when the scores are posted.
After that extreme contesting, I'm going to skip the SST Sprint this evening and just use it for my streak QSO.
Now I've got to enter my 61 QSOs into my N3AQC log. Whew! HI -30-
Sat Aug 20 8:35PM - Tonight's streak QSO was with an Asiatic Russian station on 20 meters. I'm not sure when the last time I worked Asiatic Russia was. I think it's been a while unless I worked one in a big DX contest. Bear with me while I go look and see. Hmmm, I worked a couple earlier this year. I forgot about them. RM9I on May 15, and UA0DAR on March 20. I guess I wasn't all that excited about it. HI. I also heard the same station tonight that was my first Asiatic Russian back on July 30, 1995 - RW0A. I didn't work him tonight though. Tonight's QSO was # 217 with Asiatic Russia. I guess that's why I'm not quite as excited about working Asiatic Russia now. HI. Still I do get a kick out of working that part of the world along with Japan and Korea. I just wish I could work SE Asia and pick up the last 4 zones I need for a WAZ award. That's like a black hole to me though. I've only even heard that part of the world a couple times. -30-
Fri Aug 19 8:33PM - A quick POTA contact via VE3FP for the streak tonight. This is a good opportunity to talk about the streak. Every so often I will get a congratulatory email from someone saying congrats on the 10,000 QSOs (contacts) or the like. Well folks, it's NOT 10,000 CONTACTS, it's 10,000 CONSECUTIVE DAYS on which I've made at least one QRP/CW contact. Actually as of today, August 20, 2002 UTC, it's 10,243 CONSECUTIVE DAYS, starting on August 5, 1994 and continuing without interruption through today. The total number of contacts in those 243 days is 74,076, of course all at 5 watts or less on CW using simple wire antennas, most of which are in my attic. Those are the very basic stats. If you're interested in more like how many contacts were made on each band, how many from each country, what hour of the day most were made, etc., go to the QRP SECTION of the web site, and the QRP Streaks Page. There you'll find stats on several different streaks. Go to the Main link for data on this streak I'm talking about here. I hope you'll find it interesting, especially if you enjoy statistics as I do. -30-
Thu Aug 18 8:35PM - I got a phone call this morning from the power company saying they are doing some maintenance/upgrading to the power service in this area next Wednesday. A little while later it struck me to wonder if that may be something that will help my QRN situation. I hope so. I guess I'll find out next week.
The noise was absent tonight again. Conditions seemed pretty good with a lot of strong sigs on 40 and 30. Not a lot on 20 though.
It was a nice day for walking today, at least in the morning. Then it got warmer as the day went on and was a bit too warm for walking this evening.
I'm looking forward to the Skeeter Hunt on Sunday, although the weather doesn't look too great. Mike and I may have to improvise somehow if we do get the promised (threatened?) showers and thundershowers. We'll see how it turns out. -30-
Wed Aug 17 8:47PM - Well, today was pretty much like the past few days here. So pick a day and re-read it, and you'll have a pretty good description of today. Kind of like the old Dragnet program - only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. HI
Seriously, the days have been pretty much the same for a while here. That can be good or bad. Nice to be boring with all the same, and not exciting or worrisome with new matters to handle every day. Take your pick.
One big thing is my noise. It is now intermittent which seems to make it worse with its coming and going. 40 and 20 have it bad while it's not noticeable at all on 30 which is wear I had the success tonight with two, almost three QSOs.
Now what will tomorrow bring. Nice boredom or hectic change? Tune in tomorrow night to find out. -30-
Tue Aug 16 8:44PM - When I sat down at the keyboard to type this diary entry, I wondered how many nights I've done that now. Also how many consective nights. I know when I started the first month or so, I didn't do it every night. Also I missed a couple nights after I did get started regularly. Let me delve into the Diary Archives and come up with a rough figure. The very first entry was on April 23, 2006. Whew, has it been that long? Time flies when you enjoy what you're doing. Then there wasn't another entry until May 11, 2006. A few skipped days followed, then it looks like it became regular on May 21, 2006. So let me do some math now. I'm guessing all the years from 2007 through 2021 there were 365 or 366 diary entries so that's 15 X 365 = 5,475 days. Add 1 day for 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 makes 5,479 days. Add 228 days this year and about 230 for 2006 makes a rough total of 5937 days that I've typed a diary entry. Check my math. I'm not as sharp as I once was. HI Well, actually Mike typed a few entries so that is really a rough total. I think that will take care of tonight's entry. -30-
Mon Aug 15 8:18PM - How did those lines from Jaws go? I think it was Jaws anyway with something like "just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water" and "heee'sss back". I'm not much of a modern movie fan here so I could be all wet (pun intended). I enjoy movies from back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, with a taste of movies since then. OK, end of introduction to the entry.
Just when I thought it was great to get back on some quiet bands, I turned on the rig and horribly, there was my bad noise back just like before. That shot my theory, so I'm not even going to mention it. Sigh!!!
At least signals are stronger again now with the new sunspot cycle firing up pretty good. So the noise may not mess things up as bad as before. I saw several strong sigs well above the noise on the PX3 tonight and worked KP4YO on 20 easily.
Took a couple nice walks and sat in the park today. It was quite nice, perhaps even a bit September like with a high in the low 70s and a breeze blowing. -30-
Sun Aug 14 7:52PM - I just got home from a walk and sit in the park. I think I'll skip the SST tonight. Just not in a contesting mood. I might use it to get my streak, but that's it.
I went to Walmart early today with Bruce. I picked up a couple dozen breakfasts for Roscoe. For myself I got a pair of jeans and shoes. I also got a couple cans of Turkey spam.
Then this afternoon, I did my laundry, getting back into my Sunday laundry routine again, but it won't last long. The next couple Sundays will be occupied with ham radio. The Skeeter Hunt, then the visit to Skyview.
Time now to head to the shack, then back here to log the streak QSO and update my Propagation page. -30-
Sat Aug 13 8:27PM - I pretty much could just copy yesterday's entry, change the heading and a couple little items and it would be accurate for today as well. Instead of the 100 Years of WABC, I listened to Cousin Brucie live early this evening and earlier in the day I listened to music on Spotify.
Instead of DJ5MW in the WAE Contest, tonight it was IR2Q.
No garden watering today. There, that covers today quite simply. -30-
Fri Aug 12 8:29PM - I spent a lot of time in my "Time Machine" today. I'm speaking of re-listening to the 100 years of WABC presentation of (I believe) 12 hours of the history of 77 WABC that was originally aired last year. I think it is so great to re-live a lot of that history. Also it is so great that the new owners of WABC since 2020 are bringing back the programming of WABC as it originally existed back in mainly the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Today I listened mainly to the 11th hour of the presentation featuring Cousin Brucie Morrow, perhaps the #1 DJ of all time in the opinion of many folks in the radio business as well as the general public including me. I have many other 'favorite' DJs also, but Brucie is slightly ahead of the rest, especially since he is still active. He was on several stations after leaving WABC including Sirius Radio, before coming full circle back to WABC. Other DJs I liked? Art Roberts, Dick Biondi, Jack Armstrong, Dan Ingram (I didn't hear him when he was active, but via recordings of air checks, etc.) Oh, and many others that would take too long to list. Maybe someday I will as they deserve the recognition. It will be hard for fear of leaving someone out. Perhaps right now I should add Chuck Brinkman from KQV in Pittsburgh.
This is the weekend of the WAE QSO Party, so QSOs come easily. Tonight it was DJ5MW. I was his second QSO in the contest after he worked a station who worked him before the contest started, and he held onto him for his first QSO.
Oh, I also did a couple of outdoor walks today as well as sitting in the park. And I watered Ange's garden this morning hoping that will hold it till he gets back home on Monday to water it. It's going to be dry the next couple days, but quite cool for mid August, so I don't think it will dry out that much. Hope not. -30-
Thu Aug 11 8:49PM - A more than usual busy day today. I walked downtown on two separate shopping trips to Sprankle's and later Family Dollar. I stocked up on a lot of things and saw a couple of my "girls" at Sprankles. The weather was nice with a high around 80, low humidity, and a light breeze. Ideal for walking. I also sat in the park for a while hoping that Kelly and her dog would come along, but no luck.
This evening when I got home from Family Dollar, I went right to the shack after putting the things I bought in their place. I worked special event station W4C which had something to do with cats since he signed at the end with MEOW. The op must have been someone I know or who knows of me since he said nice QRP signals or something like that. Well, let me see if I can find out any info. Well, no current info on QRZ. Let's check the 1x1 call database. OK, it's for International Cat Day and the licensee in K3TW whom I have worked a few times.
Time now to get the weather and get a couple things done before walking Roscoe. -30-
Wed Aug 10 7:13PM - A pretty nice day today and the next few should be the same. That is temperatures no higher than the low 80s, mostly in the upper 70s with little or no rain. Almost seems like September in August. It would be nice to have some rain though so I wouldn't have to water Ange's garden. As it stands now, I may get away with just one more watering before he gets home on Sunday/Monday. I gave it a real soaking yesterday and with the cool weather, it may not lose much water. Perhaps just a touch up on Friday or Saturday to be safe.
Nothing much happened today except I went with Bruce to pick up my monthly box of food for us seniors. It was also nice for sitting on the front porch which I did for quite a while. I hope to get a chance to sit in the park again with this nice stretch of weather coming.
Just waiting around now for 0000Z to come so I can go to the shack and hopefully continue my QSO streak yet another day. It's hard to believe it's now been 233 days since the streak reached the 10,000 consecutive days mark. But tonight, barring disaster, will be day # 10,234. Whew, I feel I'm getting really old now. HI -30-
Tue Aug 9 8:48PM - As usual of late, not much going on today. I watered Ange's garden this morning as he is away on vacation. I did a few minor things around the house. I went for a little walk down to the post office to mail a QSL card and another letter. That's pretty much it. -30-
Mon Aug 8 8:36PM - An interesting day. I've had a leak in my basement the past few days and finally got a plumber here to fix it. That delayed my laundry until early this evening. I got my streak QSO on 30 meters again in the form of KA4EET down in FL. My noise is still MIA, and I'm about ready to talk about it without fear of jinxing it into returning. HI
My computer seems well behaved again and I hope it stays that way. -30-
Sun Aug 7 6:06PM - I'm doing this early tonight for a couple reasons. First I might enter the SST Sprint at 0000Z and do the full hour. That throws everything off schedule when I do that and I have to rush to get my web site updates done and get my weather records taken and logged before walking Roscoe at 0130Z. I don't need that kind of rushing around.
Second my laptop has been acting up lately, and there may come a day when it will quit altogether. If you don't see any web site updates some day, that's probably what happened. I hate to think of that because I hate the thought of having to set up a new computer. I'm getting too old for that. -30-
Sat Aug 6 8:48PM - I forgot about the NA QSO Party, not that I was planning on entering it anyway. But I got a surprise when I turned on the rig this evening and saw all the activity. So all I had to do was wait for the clock to show 0000 and work somebody for the streak. That somebody was Greg up in MI, NA8V on 40 meters.
Other than that another day with not much going on. Just a lot of sitting around listening to a rebroadcast of The 100 years of WABC radio. That was one of my favorite Top 40 music stations from the 1960s through the early 1980s when they changed to a talk format. Of course now, they are coming back to part music with music of that era with Cousin Brucie, Vinnie Medugno, Joe Piscopo, Tony Orlando, and a couple others. I also watched some old Our Gang documentary videos. I guess it was a real nostalgia day for old John. HI
I'm about ready to post my theory about my disappearing local noise. It was gone again this evening. -30-
Fri Aug 5 8:30PM - Another day with nothing much to write about. I did work a couple DX stations this evening, one right after another on 20 meters. I1YRL followed by EA4EM. They weren't the easiest QSOs, but they were good ones.
My bad noise is still gone. Now I can hear my other local noises and storm static which are nowhere as bad as the other noise. Still waiting to see if the noise disappearing syncs with another event around here before I'm convinced it's really gone and not just a coincidence. -30-
Thu Aug 4 8:34PM - A rather nice day today, despite a couple of showers. Mild temperatures most of the day except when the sun came out now and then and pushed the high to the upper 80s. Really nothing to write about out of the ordinary though.
Perhaps one major bit of news. My serious noise seems to have vanished. I have a theory where it went, but I'm going to be sure it is gone before the theory becomes a fact and I talk about it here. My QSO took a little doing tonight, but at 0013Z I found VE3DDI calling CQ and worked him pretty easily. After the past couple weekends being active, it looks like now there will be a couple quiet ones before the Skeeter Hunt comes along followed a week later by our annual Skyview visit. Perhaps between now and then, Tom WB3FAE and I will do something. Stay tuned to the diary for any info about that. -30-
Wed Aug 3 9:05PM - Well, it wasn't the greatest of days at times, but overall not bad. I'm not going into detail. This evening I had to get a quick QSO as my neighbor wanted to do some shopping before the stores closed. We did get that done, and after getting my weather readings (the high was 92 today), here I am typing this diary entry. -30-
Tue Aug 2 9:06PM - In contrast to yesterday, this was a slow day. I spent a lot of time getting caught up on my eQSL and LoTW loggings. I went for a walk late this evening and sat in the park for a while. That about wraps up this day. Hope tomorrow will be a bit more active like yesterday. -30-
Mon Aug 1 8:24PM - OK, here's a couple of short stories about the FOBB, and first the SST.
The SST had a lot of activity, and I was working stations easily, especially on 40 as 20 wasn't quite as good. I racked up 35 QSOs in I think it was 21 multipliers. I'm checking that right now. I had the feeling that it wasn't good enough for first place and predicted that someone with a better station would take advantage of the good conditions and beat me out. I was right. Not only did I get beat out, but the fellow who beat me also beat my all time record of 42 QSOs in the QRP Category. He got 44. I'm not positive, but unless I missed something, that's the only time anyone got more than 42. Well, records are made to be broken, they say. I have no regrets and am pleased I held it that long. Oh it is 21 mults.
As for the FOBB, Mike and I had a lot of fun. Our setup uncharacteristically went very smoothly even with Mike having to use my K2 instead of his usual KX3. Things went rather slowly and the QSOs came far apart at times. I had 40 and Mike took 20. We wound up with almost the same number of QSOs. I had 23 and he had 25. I forget our total multipliers and don't have the paper log handy. Multipliers (SPCs) aren't figured in the scoring so it doesn't really matter. The bottom line is it was a nice day and we had a lot of fun.
Personally it was a great day. I got almost all my end of the month / first of the month work done today plus the laundry I missed yesterday. I went for a couple of nice walks and met a couple (3) new girls along the way, including two with the same name of Kelly. What are the odds? HI I did my banking and grocery shopping as well as having a sit in the park although that was mostly talking to the one girl (lady) and her dog. And now I'm waiting for a couple subs from Vocelli's for me and Bruce, so I'll close here and update a couple more pages. -30-
Sun Jul 31 9:20PM - Late and busy, so a story on the FOBB and SST in tomorrow's diary some time. -30-
Sat Jul 30 7:36PM - Not much else to do right now, so I thought I'd write the diary entry. It was a fairly hot day today especially this evening. I was going to go for a walk, but didn't like the heat in the sun. My neighbor a couple houses up the street was having a yard sale. He gave me a couple items. A little train set. And get this - an AM/FM radio in the shape of a microphone. I'll have to hide it tomorrow when Mike comes. I'll never get over the kidding of having a microphone in my possesion, even though it doesn't work as such, just as a radio.
Speaking of Mike, we spent a good part of the day texting back and forth trying to solve his KX3 problem with no success. So it's plan K2 for the FOBB tomorrow barring a last minute fix. We'll use my old K2 rig which originally was Mike's before he sold it to me about 10 years or so ago. I never used it all that much since the KX3 came along not long after I got his K2. I'm glad we'll be giving it a test tomorrow in case I ever have trouble with my KX3, I'll know the K2 will be there to help me out. Looks like good weather at least. High in the low 80s with partly sunny skies in the morning then becoming cloudy. -30-
Fri Jul 29 9:10PM - Ran into another ham friend I haven't worked in a while - Den WD9DWE on 40M. Sure is nice getting reacquainted with these old friends lately. They are like robins appearing in the spring, to make a comparison if I may.
Had an interesting time in the SST this afternoon. Before I continue, let me check the 3830 Scores. OK, after thinking I didn't do all that well, especially on 20 meters, I posted my score soon after the sprint and was surprised to see myself in 1st place in the QRP Category. And just checking now, I'm still up there. So I didn't do as badly as I had thought. There are 11 entries in the QRP Category, so I guess most QRPers have posted their scores.
I took a couple walks/shopping trips today to get exercise and stock up on groceries. Of course, to see if any of my girl.....friends were working. I met a new one today with the unusual name of Myleina, and saw another I just met yesterday. So the trips were worthwhile. HI
I heard from Mike today. He is having trouble with his KX3 and might not have it ready for the FOBB on Sunday. So I said he could use my K2 or KX1 if necessary. We'll have to be retrained on how to use them. Neither one of us has used them since we got our KX3s as far as I can remember. It may be interesting.
Time to walk Roscoe now. 73 -30-
Thu Jul 28 9:15PM - A little late tonight. Had a couple of 14 and 16 minute QSOs. Just at the end of the second one, a nice sunset was developing so I rushed out to get pictures of it. After that, time for my weather observations, and now here typing the diary entry. So it won't be a long one.
Nothing really to write about anyway so it doesn't matter. It was a warm humid day with scattered showers so I didn't get a chance for any outdoor walking and had to get my quota of walking indoors. Just not the same, but effective nonetheless.
Looking forward to Sunday now and the FOBB sprint with Mike. We'll be using the club call N3AQC from Kittanning Community Park. Looks like a nice sunny not too warm day. We've got BB #12 for our number to give out. Hope to work you. We should be active for the whole sprint mainly on 40 and 20. -30-
Wed Jul 27 8:39PM - It seems of late I've been running into folks I haven't worked for a while. Probably due to the sun spots opening up the bands again. Or folks realizing things are improving and becoming more active again. Whatever, it was nice to run into Greg WB8LZG this evening. Ah, but he has a new call now and was W8GG when I worked him. Greg is a long time NAQCC member who is a top notch woodcarver also. He has provided a lot of beautiful prizes for our NAQCC activities over the year.
I guess the big event today was having a plumber visit to fix a defective faucet in my kitchen sink. Something I could have done myself in the past, but old age is catching up with me, I guess. So I go the easy route on things like that these days. HI.
I hate to say this, but I think my serious noise may be gone for good. It hasn't showed up in a few days now. I hope that doesn't jinx it now. I have an idea about what it may have been, but I'm not going to talk about that until I know for sure it is gone for good. Anyway whether it lasts or not, it is nice having it gone. -30-
Tuesday Jul 26 8:46PM - As promised, my weather related pictures from the past few days:
That's the 2.50 inches of rain we got. It doesn't show up all that well, especially the measurement markings. The black dots indicate 0.5, 1.0. and 2.0 inches I put them there so I can see the approximate readings from my kitchen window. The first longer line above the dots is 2.25 inches, and the water level is right on the 2.50 inches line.
I wondered how hot it was in the sun so I put the thermometer on my front sidewalk. I make it to be about 125 degrees by interpolating above the point where the degree markings end. Hard to tell exactly.
Just one of the many beautiful sunsets we've had lately. I just took some more pictures tonight a few minutes ago
That's it for tonight as not much happened today that wasn't normal. -30-
Mon Jul 25 9:17PM - I've taken some interesting weather related pictures the past couple days. Think I edit them and post some here in the diary tomorrow.
I had a long and interesting rag chew tonight with Harry WA1GXC for my streak QSO on 30 meters. 30 has kind of come alive lately with a lot of good signals.
Had my poorest showing in a SST Sprint last night. About average for me, but poor in relation to other QRP stations. Fifth place in the QRP Category the worst I've ever done. I was having trouble breaking the pileups that the high power stations were generating. Still 27 QSOs is right on my average. -30-
Sun Jul 24 7:20PM - Think I'll do the SST Sprint this evening so I'll write the diary entry now. Not much to say anyway. It was a very hot and humid day, perhaps the most uncomfortable one so far this year. Sure glad I got the air conditioner last year.
Biggest project today was working on getting our POTA logs out to NAQCC and POTA. Tom and I are coordinating things via text messages. Still some work left to do tonight or maybe tomorrow. Got so busy with that, I forgot about doing my laundry and will do that tomorrow also.
Tom and I are thinking about activating a couple more parks around this area. He is going to scout out one likely suspect. When it's all set, I'll talk about it here in the diary, and it will be posted in the usual places. -30-
Sat Jul 23 9:11PM - Nothing much to talk about today. Just kind of a take it easy day. I did some more work on my POTA log getting it ready for Tom to combine our two logs for submitting to POTA.
Sorry about the delay in posting the POTA pictures in yesterday's diary entry. I had some computer problems which seem to be fixed now as of around Midnight last night. Hope so anyway.
This evening one of my streak QSOs was with Tom KA2KGP. I've met Tom several times at various hamfests, but haven't seen him for a while now with the high gas prices. Too expensive to drive down here from NY and vice versa. I've told this in the diary before but for anyone new to the diary, here goes. The first time I met Tom was at the Butler hamfest. I was walking behind a couple hams and could only see the letters KGP on the back of a tee shirt. I knew those letters since Tom is an NAQCC member, but I couldn't see the KA2 as they were covered by suspenders. I asked and it turned out it was Tom and his brother Mike N3COD. I learned then that Tom is a deaf ham who is able to copy CW. A few years later, at the same hamfest, Tom kind of snuck up on me and sent his call from a CPO at a nearby table. I caught it right away, and turned around to see Tom standing there. I really hope that gas prices will go down again so I can see Tom and his brother in person again. -30-
Fri Jul 22 8:33PM - OK YLs and OMs, time for a picture diary entry. Haven't done one for a while, so let's go.
A view of Moraine Lake. Unfortunately with vegetation, trees, etc. obscuring the actual view of the lake itself. Still you get an idea of how nice a day it was.
It was good to see Bruce AA3LX after a couple years. He helped with logging and spotting.
I normally hate pictures of myself, but this one, taken by Bruce is not bad at all. In fact I like it. Might use it to replace the one on my home page.
Here's Tom WB3FAE. Thanks to him for the ride out to the park, and the great fellowship today. We had a real ball.
Here's Tom's antenna, blowing or leaning into the wind.
A wide view of our operating table, parked very nicely in the shade of some trees keeping it cool.
A close-up of the greatest rig in the world for someone like me who only operates CW and QRP. That's my opinion along with a lot of other folks as well.
And finally, my 17 foot multi-band vertical which is my choice of portable antennas currently.
You can see it was a beautiful day and a very active day. I made 46 QSOs in 18 states and Ontario on 40 and 30. Tom took 20 and made around 43 QSOs in around 15 states and Canada. I forget his exact figures now. I have enough trouble remembering my own, let alone someone else's. HI There was a lot of QSB, and I lost 3 or so QSOs before completing them. Thanks to all who did work me and Tom. You're very good ops to copy our QRP signals in less than optimum conditions. -30-
Thu Jul 21 9:08PM - Kind of a coincidental QSO tonight, you might say. I worked K8RQX who out of the blue when he heard I was using a KX3, asked me if I do any POTA ops with it. Probably the first time I've ever been asked that on the air. You know my answer was yes, and in fact I'd be doing one tomorrow. To add to the conicidence, his name was Bruce and Tom just told me this evening that our friend Bruce AA3LX would stop by our operation tomorrow. Strange. Almost nothing has changed about the operation info. We are leaving a half hour earlier from here to try to get setup there before it gets too overly hot which it will later. So we may be on the air a little bit earlier. Also Tom has to be home a little earlier so we had to cancel our planned Ponderosa meal. Hope to work you tomorrow. -30-
Wed Jul 20 9:12PM - Another somewhat busy day today even though it was hot in the low 90s. My neighbor's brother helped me trim the big bush in front of my house. It had really gotten out of hand after not being trimmed last year. It took a while, but it looks nice tomorrow. I was going to take before and after pictures, but I didn't think of it. I also did some more yard and sidewalk trimming later in the day. No long walks, just a short one around a couple blocks. The rest inside.
No changes to our POTA plans this Friday, but the info is now on QRZ, the NAQCC maillist, and on the POTA web site. The info on the POTA site is the best place to look as Tom will be updating that pretty close to real time on Friday for you POTA chasers. I don't really do any POTA hunting myself, but like to help Tom give out some QSOs from Moraine State Park. Hope to work you if you are interested. -30-
Tue Jul 19 9:14PM - Not much going on today out of the ordinary. It was a hot, humid one so I limited my outside exercise. I did sit on my front porch quite a bit and did do some yard work late in the afternoon when the yard was in shade, but that was about the extent of it.
Other than that, Tom WB3FAE and I did some planning for a combo parkpedition / POTA event this Friday. We'll be going to Moraine State Park near Butler, and will be using the NAQCC club call of N3AQC. I'm waiting to hear from Tom about..... well got a text from him just as I was typing here. He says we'll try to operate from 11AM to 3PM or 1500-1900Z mostly on 40 and 20 (7030 and 14060), but maybe try 30 and 15 depending. He says to check the POTA web site for more info and updates. Also perhaps later info here in the diary. -30-
Mon Jul 18 9:18PM - A nice day today, and somewhat busy. I made it to Sprankle's today and saw a couple of my girl.....friends who were working today, and stocked up on some milk and a couple other items. It was good walking there and back for the exercise also.
I did some yard and sidewalk work a little later in the day. My daylillies are in full bloom now. As you may know, the flowers on daylilly plants only last one day, but there are so many it looks like they are there a lot longer. I try to pick off the dead flowers every day. Sometimes I count them as I go, and I've been over 100 several times over the years. Those plants are BUSY.
I got an email question today from Tom NT4TC asking about the speeds I normally operate. I decided after I answered him personally, I'd add the question to my FAQs page which I did if you want to see it.
Tonite a POTA station provided my streak QSO, and I also called CQ after that and got an answer from K1NVY in Washington State on 20 meters. -30-
Sun Jul 17 6:55PM - Unless conditions are as bad as they were last Friday, I'll probably be getting in the SST Sprint tonight at 0000Z, so I thought I'd write the diary entry early. Again not too much to report today. I did my weekly laundry as I do every Sunday now. I also double checked some entries in my Excel log. For example if I had the correct zone number for countries among some other things. I went for a walk this afternoon, but it was too humid to walk all that far. I didn't even make it to the park nor did I make it to Sprankle's where I needed to get a couple things and see who of my "girls" were working today. Hopefully I'll do that tomorrow as I haven't been there for a while now. -30-
Sat Jul 16 8:51PM - Not much, if anything, out of the ordinary today. The weather was nice and I went for a good outside walk this evening and sat on a park bench for a while just thinking and enjoying the weather. The bands weren't all that good tonight despite the high SF number. I got a couple QSOs, W4BOC at some POTA site and KB1FGC in CT. The second QSO ran into severe QSB and ended prematurely. -30-
Fri Jul 15 9:07PM - A full day here. I took care of my second half of the month bills and ran them down to the post office where I had to purchase some stamps. I was surprised to find it now costs 60 cents per stamp, another effect of our current high inflation rate under the current administration.
I did some yard work cleaning weeds out from around my rose bushes.
I was involved in some other things I won't bother listing and almost forgot about the SST Sprint. I got to the shack late, and it didn't really matter as conditions were so poor that after listening for a few minutes, I just quit without getting any QSOs.
I went for another walk and sat in the park for a while. I talked with Charlie from WPIT for about 25 minutes while I was there. Sure is nice to have a smart phone. Again I have to thank Jasmine for urging me to get one.
I had a nice rag chew of 30 minutes with N9BSO for my streak QSO this evening. That was on 30 meters.
Now one last chore, walking Roscoe, to close out the day and wonder what the weekend will bring. -30-
Thu Jul 14 8:33PM - To those who celebrate it, I hope you had a Happy Bastille Day today.
I had kind of a busy day, at least this morning. Bruce and I took Roscoe to the groomer and while he was there, I did some shopping and came up with around 65 dollars of food. Prices sure have soared with our current 9 percent inflation rate. It took a while, but the groomer finally called to say Roscoe was ready. He sure looks better now and feels better also with his paw nails trimmed. He hadn't been to the groomer for a while now.
I also did some more sidewalk trimming this afternoon. This evening I went to the park and sat on a bench for maybe a half hour or so. -30-
Wed Jul 13 9:13PM - Got tied up in a computer project and I'm running late, so a short entry tonight. Well, the last couple were long, so this balances things out, I guess. Nothing much to talk about anyway. It was a nice day to be outside watching the cumulus clouds drift by. I did that from the front porch and also a park bench. My QSO came quickly tonight when I worked Pierre VE2PID/W8 via a remote station in MI somewhere. My last QSO with him was exactly one year ago within a few minutes. -30-
Tue Jul 12 6:39PM - OK, here's the entry I promised last night. I went up to get my streak QSO as usual at 0000Z. The bands were pretty good so I decided to check 15 meters. Turn back the clock now to the 1990s. When my web site was new, one of the things I wanted to do was to promote the use of CW by teenage hams. I solicited reports from teenagers who enjoyed and used CW on the ham bands. That feature was a hit for a while, but petered out as teenagers turned more to Internet communications and if they did get ham licenses, they went for phone or the "new fancy" digital modes. Fewer and fewer used CW, and my supply of teenage reports dwindled to NONE, unfortunately. The reports are still here on the web site for anyone who may be interested in what teenagers thought of CW in the 1990s. There are 17 reports there. They are in the CW section, listed on the Teenagers and CW page.
If you go to the page and look at the last entry on the list, you'll see N5NU who was 14 when he wrote the report in 1997. All the reports are very interesting, but his was especially well written. He had a great way of putting things.
OK, segue back to the present now and last night on 15 meters. There was one strong signal showing on the panadapter screen. When I tuned it in and listened, I became very excited when I found it to be Jason N5NU operating from Costa Rica as N5NU/TI2. I answered him, and he sent a partial call. I sent my call again and he came back with K3WWP, is that you, John? or words to that effect. I said yes Jason, it's me. I think he was as excited as I was. We wound up with a 20 minute rag chew. I seldom have rag chews that long with DX stations, but it was virtual solid copy all the way. I was 549 to 569, and he wa 579 to 589.
The last time we worked was in 2000, probably in a contest as he was seriously into contesting then as I was. So we had a lot to get caught up on. We talked about a lot of things. Basically, he is in Costa Rica learning about missionary work along with the Spanish language. He goes to school about 25 hours per week. He'll be there until he completes school next April, then it is off to missionary work in Chile. He doesn't have the best radio setup, but is as active as time permits. He's 39 years old now and married. That kind of made me feel old knowing this teen I knew is now an adult and being very successful in his life's work.
That doesn't happen very often that I run into someone I knew years ago, and it was really a thrill working Jason. I think fate, God, luck, whatever was with us for that QSO, permitting us to talk solidly for that long. That, along with other things is what makes ham radio the great hobby it is.
I'll have to go through my log to see if I've recently worked any of the other 16 teens. At a quick glance I only see one. That was Jeff N1SNB whom I worked several years ago now for a rag chew type QSO and a couple of contest QSOs if memory serves. I do remember Jeff was running some software that IDs CW signals (Skimmer??) and my call popped up on his screen and he gave me a call and we talked for a while.
Wonder who I'll work tonight in about an hour now. -30-
Mon Jul 11 4:52PM - Just a coincidence I wrote yesterday's and today's diary entries at the same time. HI
Let me insert something out of context here. Be sure to check tomorrow's diary entry for info on a very special QSO I had Monday evening after I wrote this entry. Now back to the regular entry.
I just finished uploading my IARU log to ARRL, and thought I'd write the diary entry since I'm sitting here at the computer. Nothing all that much to write about. I did get into the SST Sprint last evening. Conditions were good, but balanced out somewhat by my usual bad noise being present. 28 QSOs not bad, but 17 multipliers on the low side. Good enough for a second place score on the 3830 Contest web site results in the QRP Category. Only a single point higher than the third place score, but that's all it takes. HI
A nice weather day today, but it did get hot later in the afternoon. Before that, I did some yard work, or actually sidewalk work, pulling grass and weeds out of the cracks in the bricks. I also went for a short walk. I was going for a longer one and maybe stop at Sprankle's, but it was already pretty warm. I also did some house cleaning, sweeping the floors and cleaning some furniture. I guess now I'll just rest this old body this evening. Maybe fool around on the bands if the noise is not there and conditions are good. -30-
Sun Jul 10 4:52PM - Since I probably will get in the SST Sprint this evening, I won't have time to write much of a diary entry then. So let's do something now.
Here's some more info on my participation in about 3 hours of the IARU HF Championships last evening from about 0000-0130Z and 0300-0430Z. 20 and 15 meters were absolutely jumping with STRONG signals, especially from EU. As I said in yesterday's diary, I could go up and down the bands working stations at will, for the most part using just a single call to them. In that second hour and a half, I added 25 more stations for a total of 57 QSOs from 30 countries. I missed working AF for a contest WAC. I had one on the hook, but he got away without ever getting my call right through his pileup.
I did get these representative countries from the other 5 continents: AS-C4HQ, EU-EW5A, NA-ZF2VE, OC-NH6V, SA-PY2XL.
Totals by continent: AS-1,NA-2,OC-2,SA-1,EU-all the rest-51.
Most distant station-C4HQ at around 5650 miles or so.
By band: 20-27, 15-10
Best country: Poland-6.
I worked several contesting stations I haven't worked in a while now: 9A0HQ, RU1A, OH1F, TM0HQ, DL5YM, HG1S, IR2Q, YL2SM, LY9Y, SN7Q, S50HQ, S57DX. I worked several stations I worked for the first time ever: EW5A, C4HQ, LZ0HQ, EF4HQ, DM5W, IO9HQ, PY2XL, OM2HQ, ZF2VE, SM0HRP, OE0HQ, IR3Z, Z30HQ, DL3JAN, NH6V, WH7T, SN7X, OK4YL, OH2BA, II3WRTC. I think working new stations shows that QRP works better than working the same stations over and over. Why, you ask. Because it is easier copying a call you are familiar with than one that is new to you. A few DX stations have taken the time to tell me that usually once they hear a WEAK partial call with a WW, WP, or similar, they guess it is me, and come back to me instead of some stronger call they are not familiar with. They said it, not me, but it makes sense. I copy partial calls, and often am sure of who it is, just from that with a little help from recognizing certain fists. A fist is just like a voice to those of us who have listened to the Morse language for many years.
I kind of got off track there. Let me see if there is anything else I wanted to talk about in my IARU log. No I don't think so. I do need to update my streak totals on my home page through June though, and I'll do that now. -30-
Sat Jul 9 10:32PM - At 0000Z, as usual, I went up to my shack. I figured it would be a quick streak QSO in the IARU Contest. Well, it was, but it turned out to be EW8A booming in for an easier than expected QSO from a country I hadn't worked in a while. Hmmmm, conditions seemed to be very good, so I tuned around some more and by the time I was through 92 minutes later, I logged 32 stations with most of them coming with a single call and no repeats. Kind of like I was running that mythical KW and beam station I kid about when I work DX so very easily. 29 of the 32 QSOs were with EU on both 20 and 15 which were about equally good. 22 were on 20 and 10 on 15. That has to be the best conditions and easiest DX QSOs I've made in a few years now. I worked Asia in C4HQ on 20. A rough count shows 23 countries worked. I logged on paper as I wan't expecting such a rush of stations, so that count may have to be revised a bit. Haven't had so much fun on the bands for quite a while now, at least in working so much DX so very easily. Hope that's a sign that the bands are really shaping up as the new sunspot cycle really gets going. It's late now, or I'd write more. -30-
Fri Jul 8 8:58AM - The 13 Colonies Event for 2022 is now over as of 0400Z today. It was a lot of fun as it is every year. I managed 46 QSOs this year not counting one dupe of K2H on 40 meters. As I said in yesterday's diary entry, I again missed GB13COL as I do every year. I think for the first time, I got all 13 K2 stations plus WM3PEN on a single band, 40 meters, when I worked K2E at 0203Z last night. I didn't think I was going to get him as he wasn't hearing me for at least a dozen times I called, and he wasn't working anyone else during that time either. Finally, I did get the QSO though. Let me go back a few diary entries now and update a table I presented then.
This year is the earliest I've completed the 13, and I did it early on the Third of July. I've gotten clean sweeps of all 13 every year starting with 2016. Here are the completion dates along with the first and last states worked, and total QSOs on all bands including WM3PEN and TM13COL:
Year Date First Last Tot
2022 3rd PA NH 46
2021 6th SC RI 42
2020 5th NH NJ 25
2019 4th MA NH 28
2018 4th NJ MA 18
2017 6th MA VA 17
2016 7th RI NY 16
It is interesting to see the order in which the colonies were worked each year. It varies quite a bit from year to year. Some colonies seem to be very active one year, then not so active the following year. I can't account for that as it would seem to me that the organizers try to have similar amounts of activity from each colony each year. Maybe it's quirks of propagation or the way I'm active in the chase, and so forth. One example is NH. They were everywhere last year, yet very hard to find this year. Anyway here is how they were worked each year:
And the totals QSOs including a few dupes with each state for all 8 years listed above.
STATE NY VA RI CT DE MD GA MA NJ NC NH SC PA WM3PEN TM13COL GB13COL
QSOs 14 16 10 11 16 10 15 16 13 16 13 15 16 12 3 0
And finally the total QSOs per band this year:
160 0
80 9
40 14
30 7
20 12
17 2
15 2
Tot 46
See you all in the 2023 13 Colonies Event, I hope. Now to get off my log and donation for my certificate. -30-
Thu Jul 7 8:23PM - It's getting a little confusing for my old brain in keeping track of the 13Col QSOs and SST QSOs separately on paper, and then putting them into my computer log later, but I've managed to keep it all straight.
I added a couple 13Col band QSOs today - TM13COL on 17M, an easy QSO unlike the one on 20 a couple days ago. First call and a couple repeats and he was logged. Then this evening for my streak QSO also, K2L SC on 30 meters. That brings me to 45 13COL QSOs with only one repeat K2H on 40 meters. All from just tuning the bands, no spotting of any kind. I'd like to make it to 50 QSOs, but not too many left to work. Maybe some on 80 before it ends at midnight tonight. It's been a lot of fun and got me a lot of air time during the day, something I haven't done much of lately. I'll have a wrap-up on the 13Col event in the diary in a couple days.
BTW, still haven't even heard GB13COL. I think the event organizers need to get more activity from GB13COL and maybe some more powerful stations. Not only my opinion. I've heard others express the same feelings. Maybe next year will be better. -30-
Wed Jul 6 9:12PM - An interesting day today which I'm not going to describe except that it had its ups and downs. Let's concentrate on the ups. I continued to chase 13Col stations on different new bands and didn't have much luck during the day. This evening though, I added 3 more in K2C on 30, K2F on 80, and K2E on 30. That makes a total of 44 band-13Col QSOs, breaking what I did last year by 2 so far with another couple days to go. Let's see. I have 8 on 80, 12 on 40, 6 on 30, 10 on 20, 1 on 17, and 2 on 15. Those are just the 13 colony stations. I also have WM3PEN on 80, 40, and 20. Also TM13COL on 20. Hmmm, I need to do some recounting. That totals 43 while the other list shows 44. Some other time, not now. Well, it's later tonight and I had to find the error. HI. I worked K2H twice on 40m which accounts for the difference of 1 in the totals. Now I can rest easier. HI
I also worked EI9JF in the midst of the colony chasing on 20 meters. I guess that does it for this entry. Time to walk Roscoe. -30-
Tue Jul 5 6:05PM - As I texted Mike a little while ago, "David (K3WWP) beat GOLIATH (TM13COL pileup) on 14035 a few minutes ago." It was a struggle, and I must compliment the TM13COL operator. He stuck with stations including me until he landed them. He kept with partial calls until he got the complete correct call pulled out of the pileup. Also compliments to the pileup stations who honored TM13COL by keeping quiet for the most part while he was sticking with someone.
In my case he would send K3MM two or three times and when he got no answer while I was standing by, he went with simply K3 or K3? and I figured it might be me, so I started calling again. The same thing happened again with another tentative call, then back to K3 or K3?. I started calling again, and he got K3WWW. I knew that was me and I sent K3WWP K3WWP 599. He came back with my correct call and TU 73, and for the second year in a row I have 13 colonies plus TM13COL in the log. Now where is the English COL station????
I did some chores today thanks to Bruce helping by driving me here and there. I mailed some checks, did some banking, and went grocery shopping. Bruce had to go to all three places also so that worked out good.
I guess tonight I'll try to find a few more K2 stations on different bands. -30-
Mon Jul 4 7:29PM - I had a quiet Holiday today. I didn't really do much of anything. I did get on the air a couple of times to try to find some 13Col stations on a new band. I found K2G Georgia on 17M and made the QSO on a single call. I'm virtually certain it was John K4BAI at the key. He caught my call easily on the first try and called me by name as he almost always does when we work in a contest or special event. I answered TU JN 599 PA, and we exchanged 73. I found several other K2 stations but none on any new band besides the K2G on 17.
I heard from Mike. He had some problems with his antenna falling or being knocked down and was late starting the chase for the 13Col stations. I think he only has DE so far. I'm sure he'll get a lot more now that the antenna is fixed.
I chased TM13COL on 20 for quite a while yesterday afternoon. He was at a good level to work him, but the pileup was just too full of powerful stations, probably running very QRO power and beams that covered my minimal QRP and dipole signals. Oh well, still have a few days left to get him. Probably won't even hear GB3COL as usual. At least I got the 13 colonies and have 34 13Col QSOs total on various bands.-30-
Sun Jul 3 9:07AM - Regular diary readers know I'm a nut for statistics. Ham radio gives me a lot of opportunities to exercise that nuttiness. I'm going to present some stats from the 13 Colonies event after this important announcement.
I virtually never use any kind of spotting to make contacts. I don't like other folks helping me out. I want to do things for myself. That's true of my life in general. I don't like to ask other folks for help, although as I get older, I do need help with some things I used to do all by myself. In contrast, I love helping other people in any way I can. Of my 100,000 plus QSOs, I've gotten less than 10 from spotting or from a tip from a ham friend. All the others, I've gotten by just tuning around the bands and listening. I don't have anything at all against those who do use spotting. It's just not my way of doing things. End of soapbox comments.
Having said that, if I used spotting, I'm sure I could get all 13 colonies on the first day, but..... As it is, this year is the earliest I've completed the 13, and I did it early on the Third of July. I've gotten clean sweeps of all 13 every year starting with 2016. Here are the completion dates along with the first and last states worked, and total QSOs on all bands including WM3PEN and TM13COL:
Year Date First Last Tot
2022 3rd PA NH 28 so far
2021 6th SC RI 42
2020 5th NH NJ 25
2019 4th MA NH 28
2018 4th NJ MA 18
2017 6th MA VA 17
2016 7th RI NY 16
I never have worked GB3COL. Maybe this year since I don't have to look for any of the 13 colonies except to get them on a new band.
It is interesting to see the order in which the colonies were worked each year. It varies quite a bit from year to year. Some colonies seem to be very active one year, then not so active the following year. I can't account for that as it would seem to me that the organizers try to have similar amounts of activity from each colony each year. Maybe it's quirks of propagation or the way I'm active in the chase, and so forth. One example is NH. They were everywhere last year, yet very hard to find this year. Anyway here is how they were worked each year:
Sat Jul 2 7:35PM - A most interesting day in the 13 Colonies Event. So far I've got 25 QSOs in the event. I'm trying to work each station on as many different bands as possible. So far I've got 10 on 40, 3 on 30, 9 on 20, and 2 on 15. Most interesting was MD. On 20, K2F had about the biggest pileup I've ever heard, at least for a W/VE station anyway. I tried for about a half hour to break it, but couldn't, so I gave up. I came back later and found K2F now on 40 with still a big pileup but with a difference. This time he was operating split, so I set the KX3 for split, waited till he finished working a station, gave a call, got a WP?. Called again and MD is in the log, leaving NH to complete the 13 colonies. And where is NH? Last year it was everywhere. This year not a trace of a K2K station yet. But a lot of time left to get one. This is really a great event, and the organizers deserve a big pat on the back for a great job.
It's a shame that there are some hams who keep calling while the K2 stations are busy working someone. Also some hams will reply to a query even though their call contains nothing like the query. For example a K2 station will query WP? and many hams will reply even though there is nothing like a WP in their call. Also many hams seem to have no idea what UP or UP1 means and will continue to call right on the K2 station frequency. However the majority of hams in the event are great operators who do everything exactly right, and that makes it a great event.
With the MMC contest tonight, my streak QSO should come quickly, then I'll go search for NH again. -30-
Fri Jul 1 8:29PM - A lot of fun today on the bands chasing the 13 colonies stations. I worked 8 colonies and WM3PEN so far. Worked PA MA GA RI VA SC NY NC. Let's see, that leaves if I can remember, NH CT NJ MD DE. Think that's right. HI. It was easier earlier in the day when the RAC was going on as a lot of hams were in that. I started to get into the SST, then decided to look for colonies instead. After the RAC ended at 0000Z, the big pileups started for the colony stations. Had to struggle to get NC after that, while earlier the other 7 came quite easily with around 3 calls or less each. Lot of fun. A great event. Wonder who will be the elusive last state for me this year? I think NY and VA were two of the last ones in previous years, but I got them already.
I finished a lot of the last of month - first of month things today. I finished logging all the May LoTW and eQSL matches and uploaded all my June QSOs to both today. Also took care of mailing some bills. Oh, and put the June weather records in the computer. Interesting that the monthly maximum, minimum, and mean averages were all three 1.1 degrees above normal. I don't think that ever happened before in all my 62 or so years of records that all three departures were the same. -30-
Thu Jun 30 8:19PM - I forgot about the RAC contest tonight. It used to be one of my favorite contests before it became as big as it is now. I used to do very well in it without all the competition. I guess that is logical and goes without saying. HI. The late Corb K8UCL and I had a friendly competition going in both the RAC contests until he became ill and eventually passed away. I miss him along with a lot of other hams who are now SK. Anyway I just used the RAC to get my streak QSO. Later today at 1300Z the 13 Colonies event starts and I'll be very active in that trying to keep my streak of clean sweeps going.
Otherwise another beautiful day. I sat on the porch for quite a while simply enjoying the day and contemplating how great life is.
I also logged the veries from eQSL and LoTW that came through during May. Still have a lot of LoTW to do. It seems that most all of the SST participants are avid users of both services and provide a lot of work for me to get all their veries logged. -30-
Wed Jun 29 8:43PM - Interesting night on the bands. Well, 20M at least. I had two rag chews with EU stations. First I1YRL, Luc. Next was SM5DYC, Ola. I don't mean 30 minute rag chews, but QSOs with DX that go beyond just 599 TU. I always enjoy those kind of QSOs with DX, although the TU 599 ones are good also.
I did some more work on the web site today. I changed the QRP Rigs page all around. I won't describe the changes here. If you're curious, check out the page.
Mike reminded me tonight that the 13 Colonies event will be starting in a couple days. I hope to make a clean sweep again this year with the 13 Colony stations, WM3PEN and the French and English stations. The English one always seems to avoid me somehow each year. More about that when the event starts.
Not much in the way of non-ham stuff today. It was a nice weather day though. Sunny and temps in the mid 80s with low humidity and somewhat of a breeze. Good enough to swing with Roscoe on the porch swing for a while. -30-
Tue Jun 28 9:27PM - Another of those running late days, so I'll have just a short entry. It was rough getting my QSO tonight. My noise is back full force again plus conditions weren't all that good. I did manage to work Alan WA3ZKI on 40 though. So the streak moves on. Time now to walk Roscoe, so that's it for the diary. -30-
Mon Jun 27 5:50PM - I thought I'd do my diary entry while my laundry is in the dryer. I missed doing it yesterday since I was busy with Mike doing FD. Let's start with some pictures as soon as I get them edited.
Top row: Mike operating, his antenna with a nice sunset in the background.
Middle row: John operating, his antenna.
Bottom row: John shaking hands/paws with Jayden.
Ooops, laundry is dry. Be back after folding and putting it away.
I'm glad you really didn't have to wait. There were other interruptions besides the laundry. Let's talk a bit about FD itself now.
It was rough for various reasons. First I had one cable plugged in wrong between the KX3 and PX3. One of those obvious things that you consistently overlook. Finally I knew I needed another pair of eyes to look at it. Well, Mike looked and found it right away. Maybe it helps to have younger eyes.After that was fixed, everything else was ready to go.
2PM Saturday came and the bands came alive like a big DX contest. There was so much activity, it was hard to fight the bigger dogs with my little puppy station. I was constantly getting beat out by other stations. But I persisted and did work my share of stations, but seldom beating a pileup. I had to wait for a break in the piles. It was pretty much the same way all day Saturday till we gave up around 9PM or so.
Meanwhile Mike was having his problems also. He was just not being heard. I figured he had some kind of antenna problem. However a check of the SWR showed everything OK. But knowing the KX3, the ATU can tune many things besides the antenna and make everything look OK. I've seen it where it will tune up the feedline without tuning the antenna. But that's a long story for another place and time. Basically in that case, bypassing the tuner will reveal the problem. Mike did that, but said the SWR was still good. Fast forward to Sunday. Mike went over his setup again and this time found that one of the jumpers on the ant was set wrong. One jumper was set to 20 as it should have been, but the other was set to 30. As soon as he corrected that, his results greatly improved.
Moral of the story as Sherlock Holmes stated it. When all logical sources are eliminated as the cause of a problem, whatever source still remains has to be the cause, no matter how silly or improbable it is.
We got started on Sunday after breakfast and walking Jayden. It seemed Sunday was still the same as Saturday although the piles were diminished, and it was easier getting QSOs. Still there were fewer station left I hadn't worked on 40, so I headed to 15 and had a ball there. It was fairly well open across the country, but shorter skip was dominant and I worked a lot of nearby stations in states like IL, IN, NC, etc. Mike stuck with 20 after finding virtually nothing on 10, and found it easier to make QSOs with the antenna glitch taken care of.
We went all the way to the bitter end at 2PM. I thought maybe I could make it to 200 QSOs, but fell short at 190 from 39 states and 2 VE provinces. I'm not sure of Mike's totals, but the problem kept them down even though Sunday was better than Saturday.
All in all, forgetting the problems, it was a fun weekend. I had a great time getting acquainted with Jayden, and we became good friends now, I think. He's a great little (big) dog. He does pretty much all the dog things that Roscoe does, but doesn't bark as much as Roscoe. The only real barking all weekend was when I had to get up a couple times during the night. He really let Mike know he thought there was an intruder in the house. That' a good thing in case it ever does happen.
We left for Kittanning around 4PM or so, and visited Wendy's for a meal. It was a surprise the dining room was closed, and we had to do the drive-thru thing. When we paid, we found out a shortage of staff was the reason for the closed dining area. Signs of the times we're living in these days. I think that's enough for this entry. I'll try to get caught up on some other matters in the next few entries. -30-
Sun Jun 26 10:52PM - I really like these weekends spent with Mike doing ham radio, working with trains, and so forth. However, they leave me with a lot of things to get caught up on. For example, I have my weather records, my ham radio logs, and other such things that involve daily records. So I'm going to put off talking about our FD experience for a day or two. Also some other diary matters as well. Hope you understand. -30-
Sat Jun 25 8:49AM - Jayden says "Woof" after we got back from his morning walk. Mike says "Hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight". Jayden thought there was an intruder in the house during the night and did a lot of barking which kept Mike awake.
Here's a picture of me and Jayden from last evening:
More later in the day. -30-
Sat Jun 25 9:32PM - A very difficult day on the bands. Conditions were not all that good, especially on 20, the band that Mike took. He called countless stations without being heard except for 14 stations. I had 40 and things were a little better there, and I got 112 QSOs, but I must have called stations at least 500-600 times to get that many. I told Mike it looked like a big DX contest on 40 with wall to wall stations from 7003 or so up to at least 7070. QSB would bring some stations above the pack, then take them back down again. When someone did call CQ, it was like a pack of hungry lions jumping on some meat thrown to them. My QRP signals were low on the pecking order so I would almost always get beat out for the meat. I did break a pileup now and then, but not often. I had to wait till the pack was satisfied before I got a chance to get the meat. It was quite frustrating, but still in the end it was fun especially in the struggle to get those chunks of meat or QSOs. HI
I was happy that the setup went smoothly this morning after fixing a couple glitches last night. Also happy that my battery held up so well. It only dropped from about 13.1 to 12.9 volts with all those unanswered calls. Now we'll see what tomorrow brings.
Jayden had quite a time last night. Every time I woke up and went to the bathroom, he started barking like crazy. Mike and I think he thought I was an intruder in the house even though he seemed to get used to me during the evening last night. Today he and I grew even closer together so I hope we'll have a quieter night tonight. He is really a great friendly dog. Mike said he weighs around 75 pounds, I think. I went along on the morning walk today but I skipped the 9:00 walk tonight. I'll go again tomorrow morning and we'll do breakfast the same place we did today. -30-
Fri Jun 24 11:45PM - Well, Mike and I just finished watching Casablanca. We paused during the movie to take Jayden our for his 9:00 walk. Before the movie, we set up our antennas for FD and checked them out. All worked well with a couple little glitches that we solved after some thought. So we're pretty much set up for FD tomorrow with some final things to do in the morning.
I got my streak QSO tonight from W2XU up in ME. Before the day changed I also worked AB1T in VT and got a 589. So our setup seems to be working well. More info in tomorrow's diary entry. -30-
Thu Jun 23 - 7:33PM - Mike and I texted back and forth several times today thinking about last minute things for FD. Since this is the first time I'll be going to his place instead of vice-versa, things are somewhat (quite) different. I just hope I don't forget anything and that Mike has all the things there that we use here when he comes down here. HI That sounds complicated, and I guess it is to a certain extent. Looking back though, it's similar to when Mike and I went over to Tom WB3FAE's place for FD a few years ago. We'll be operating from the same tent we worked from then. Mike set it up today, so that's taken care of.
I've come up with a couple more changes for the web site that will simplify my work on it. I often get questions about what I use for logging, so I'm going to add more details about that to the Logs section. Also since there are so many QRP rigs available now and my Rigs page is way behind in keeping up on it, I'm going to do a complete overhaul of that section/page. It won't be until after FD and probably after July Fourth as well.
Right now, it's time to think about getting my streak QSO in about 15 minutes. -30-
Wed Jun 22 8:46PM - I had some other things to get caught up on for the diary, but I'm going to postpone them further to talk about our (Mike and I) FD effort this year.
Those of you who are regular diary readers know that we've done FD from the field, so to speak, for the past several years now. I'm not sure how many, but must be 8 or 9 now if not more. We've done them mainly from two locations, Chicora, PA with Tom WB3FAE and from my QTH here in Kittanning, PA. We've used N3AQC or N3A as calls. This year things are going to be different.
Mike now has a dog and that brought on a change of plans. This year we'll be doing FD from his QTH in Brookville. Also N3A was not available as I waited too long to apply for it, so we are using K3A instead. That way Mike can take care of Jayden without having to look for a dog sitter.
Mike is coming down here to get me around 6PM on Friday and we'll set up our antennas and check them out. Saturday morning more setting up of equipment, eating, walking Jayden, etc. Then we'll join the fray when it starts and try to get in as much operating as possible with breaks for Jayden's needs, and eating as well as sleep. And that's it in a nutshell. Maybe more details in tomorrow's diary.
Today we had a 3 way birthday meal at Texas Roadhouse in Butler, PA with me, Bruce, and his brother Jeff. Kind of strange since our birthdays are all a couple months apart, but the meal was good so I'm not complaining. Also we had a very nice waitress named Steph for Stephanie. I got to chat with her a bit about her name, etc. She and I set up a birthday brownie for Bruce whose birthday was yesterday. -30-
Tue Jun 21 8:38PM - A hot day today, so a lot of time spent indoors in the AC. The high on my remote unit was 91. It's supposed to be hot all week according to some forecasts. We'll see.
I got an email response to my diary entry of yesterday. I'm going to check with the one who responded for permission to post his response in the diary as it may benefit other hams in the same or a similar situation as Tom. Also I'm not sure if he copied the email to Tom or not. If not, I will. Just never got around to doing that today despite getting the email early in the day.
My noise was gone again tonite after being particularly bad last night. I worked KS1I on 40 and had a nice 16 minute QSO. -30-
Mon Jun 20 8:42AM - Yes, AM. Thought I'd update those topics from yesterday's entry.
First the letter from the blind ham, my answer to him, and his response to that.
"Good morning, Mr Shannon.
My name is Tom Castle. I’m a legally blind (newish) amateur radio operator who is just returning to the hobby (I started in 2017 and then quit the same year because of restrictions my QTH placed on me).
I’m absolutely IN LOVE with the idea of QRP, CW and simple wire antennas (necessity). I stumbled across your webpage and have found it to be INCREDIBLY inspiring. But I do have a question if I may ask you…
Being new to CW (I mean really new… I started 2 months ago learning and am currently only able to copy and send at about 10 wpm). Now, following along with your streak, I’ve noticed that search and pounce was an important part of you keeping your streak(s) going. Obviously, that COULD be problematic for me since I’m limited, currently, in my CW proficiency. IE. If I can’t find anyone at my speed to copy, I could just not have anyone to try to QSO with. And calling CQ on QRP seems like playing the lottery a bit.
So, would you have any strategies or suggestions or tips as to how to best attack my ‘problem’? I could certainly sell my KX3 to get a 100w rig (limited funds for sure since I’m disabled) but I’d really rather not do that if possible. I guess I should also mention that I live in a townhome community in NE Florida. So my QTH is still compromised. I am running into an EFHW 63’ sloper that I put up and take down when operating (top end is at 33’).
I’m sorry to bother you but do hope that you have some suggestions. This is DEFINITELY the area I’m most interested in in ham radio. So I’d rather not have to change.
73,
Tom – NT4TC"
My answering email based on what I have generally found to be true in my 59 years of being a CW operator mostly with QRP power levels of 5 watts or less. Of course there are exceptions that I didn't or won't go into.
"Hello Tom,
First of all, please address me as John, not Mr. Shannon. Thanks.
I am intrigued with your email. I have never really communicated at any length with a blind ham before, nor any blind person at all for that matter. So it is hard to identify with someone like you who is blind.
The first thing that struck me was the thought that since you are deprived of sight, your other senses like hearing should be stronger and more acute. I've heard that, but don't really know firsthand if it is true or not.
If it is, I wonder if it would be easier to learn and practice Morse Code since it is an audio means of communication. Have you taken much effort to practice Morse on something like the Internet program "Just Learn Morse Code" available at www.justlearnmorsecode.com? Always practice at a couple words per minute faster than you can copy solidly. Being able to copy fast is a very important asset to succeeding with QRP. One reason being that those who are sending fast are generally proficient at copying weak signals. Calling someone who is sending fast is more likely to lead to a QSO than calling someone sending slow.
I don't really see any problems with your setup as you describe it. Sounds like it is not any poorer than what I have here. With the modern receiving equipment around today, most hams can easily pull in QRP signals unless they have a very noisy QTH as I have here.
I don't think switching to higher power is the answer unless you go to a KW transmitter and a big high beam. 100 watts is not that big an increase over five watts. Maybe 2 S Units at most. I've worked a lot of 100 watts stations who are not all that strong, but they copy my QRP easily.
Perhaps I'll mention your situation in my web site diary and see if anyone has any more or better suggestions. With your permission of course.
Keep me informed on your progress.
John K3WWP"
And Tom's response to that:
"Hi, John.
Thanks for replying so quickly!!
There is some truth to the idea of sensory compensation as it relates to blindness. My case is different a little bit, in that, I was not born blind… My blindness was caused by two strokes in 2015. (I’m 50 now). I have experienced some changing in my hearing… unfortunately (especially living with two teenage boys), I’ve also seemingly gained a higher sense of smell! 😊
As for online resources, yes, I’ve been using LCWO online and that definitely is working for me. I’ll look at the site you’ve mentioned too.
I thought that my copy proficiency (or lack thereof) might be a problem having success with QRP and CW. But I am where I am currently and am working on it hard.
KW and beams are definitely not in the picture for me. Simple wire antennas only since I literally have to put them up and down when operating. Which is actually a good thing for keeping me moving and such.
As for your web diary, you certainly have my permission to use my situation. I’m wanting to learn and, as I mentioned, I’m really ONLY interested in CW/QRP operations… in spite of my limitations and my compromised QTH.
Again, thank you for your time. It means a lot!
73,
Tom – NT4TC"
If you have any suggestions for Tom, or just a little encouragement, you can either email me, and I will forward it to him or better yet, use his email from QRZ.com.
As far as the SST last evening, with my noise back, it was rough but good propagation compensated for that and I had my best results in a while with 31 QSOs, good for second place. I debated on counting a 32nd QSO which would have given me first place, but I just wasn't sure he got my info or not, so I didn't count it.
I also talked via phone (not ham radio phone, of course) with my good friend Charlie with whom I worked at WPIT. We like to check up on each other every couple weeks or so. Charlie has traced down another WPIT employee, and we hope to talk to her soon. He is waiting to hear from her. -30-
Sun Jun 19 9:20PM - Everytime I have a bit more than usual material for the diary, I run late and can't use it till the next day or so. That's true. I've got my SST report - the best results in a while despite my noise being back. A nice email from a blind ham I wan't to share with you. A good weather day with a couple nice walks. A call from a WPIT friend, etc. Tune in tomorrow for details. -30-
Sat Jun 18 8:30PM - What's that line from "Jaws". Something like "Heee's Baaack"? Well my noise is back and I feel like the swimmers must have felt when the sharks came back or however it went. I never have watched the movie. It was very disgusting to turn on the rig and see that jagged line on the PX3 and hear the buzz in the KX3 headphones.
Anyway, I'm used to it as far as working with it so I made 5 streak QSOs. 4 in the WV QSO Party and P3X in the AA Contest. Forgot for a minute I forgot P3 was Cyprus in Asia it's been so long since I worked a P3.
It was a good day otherwise. I decided to go down to Sprankle's for the first time in a while and one of my friends was working tonight. I got such a warm feeling when her face lit up when she saw me in her check out line. That made my day.
Happy Fathers Day to all of those to whom it applies in one way or another. Have a great day tomorrow. -30-
Fri Jun 17 8:35PM - Didn't do well in the SST today. Here's a copy of my 3830 soapbox: "17 QSOs my lowest total ever. Only one other time did I fail to make it to 20. The reason, not my noise level, it seems to be cleared up now. The trouble was lack of propagation. Even without my worst noise, sigs were still down in my 3-4 S Unit lower noise. Those whom I did hear were not hearing me all that well. Bottom line though is still a lot of fun. I really love these SST Sprints. As I've said, the time frame is great, most operators are great with minimum exchanges and good procedure, and when the propagation is better than today, they easily copy my weak QRP signals. I must compliment Tom W8TK in particular. He copies my signals easily even though I can barely hear him at times. Must have a super quiet QTH. Other stations also are almost the same way."
That pretty much says it all except conditions must have been poor as well elsewhere since my score is good for second place as of writing this diary entry. K4PQC down in GA had 23 QSOs for first place. Here's a quote from his soapbox: "Bands are very noisy with over S-5 static on 40. Rig: Flex 6600M running 5 watts into a 160 meter horizontal loop at 35 feet." Geez, S5 static is almost a quiet band here. HI. There were 6 entries so far. -30-
Ooops, promised some sunset pix tonight. Almost forgot. Here we go.
-30-
Thu Jun 16 8:20PM - Noise still gone! Hooray. 40 and 30 good tonight with a lot of signals well above my now diminished noise level. I worked Dick K4JJW in NC on 30 for almost a half hour talking about the old days. Well isn't that what all us old folks talk about? Dick is 80 and I'm just a couple years behind him.
I did some more work on the web site today. I eliminated the huge Visitors List page with almost 4,000 calls on it and replaced it with a search box to search all my old and current guestbooks. I think that should work well. Oh, oh, looks like maybe a nice sunset. I'm going to check, then come back and finish here. (time passes....) OK, it's now about a half hour later. There was a pretty nice sunset. Also Jasmine just got home from a visit with her friends, and we chatted for a while before she had to go inside. I got a lot of good pictures. Now I've got to pick out the best ones and send them to Jasmine, and maybe post some in the diary tomorrow.
It hit just above 94.5 degrees today which will round off to 95 for my records. The hottest day of the year so far. -30-
Wed Jun 15 8:35PM - Three days in a row now with my worst noise absent. Sure is nice. Conditions were down a bit tonight from last night, but I still managed an easy QSO with Bill NZ0T in MO on 40 meters.
A hot day in our little town today. Let's see, my remote unit shows a high of 93, but another unit showed it a bit higher. We'll have to let the shelter thermometer be the judge when I get my 9PM readings. My body can tell you it was definitely very hot, and the heat index must have been in the low 100s. Well, it is that time of year.
Nothing much else different today except I did skip my outside walks and did all my walking here in the house with the AC. I was going to go out before it got dark and mail a couple checks, but they can wait till tomorrow early morning. -30-
Tue Jun 14 9:22PM - Hey, my noise was gone for the second consecutive day. If the activity on 40 has been the same for the past several days, then the noise was sure masking a lot of signals. There were many signals the past two nights with their whole bodies sticking out of the noise instead of just peeking out the top of their heads. I could even hear the QRPp signals in our NAQCC mW sprint this evening. Wow! -30-
Mon Jun 13 8:48PM - Another rather lackluster day, but the weather was pretty good, something it is not going to be the rest of the week if predictions hold true. Showers and thunderstorms every day with some quite hot weather. I see 96 predicted for Thursday with a heat index of 108. I like it hot, but that's a bit much.
Hey, I didn't hear any of my bad noise this evening. Just the normal noise that I can deal with more easily. Hope it is gone for good and not just on a brief vacation. I got 3 streak QSOs in the form of AB9CA, KY4IE, and VE2SPEED.
I fixed a couple of computer problems today that had been bugging me for a while. I won't go into detail, but One was with AVG AntiTrack, the other with ESET Virus scanner. And that about wraps up the day here. Wonder what tomorrow will bring now. I know what I'm hoping for. We'll see if my hopes/wishes come true. Tune in tomorrow to see. -30-
Sun Jun 12 9:18PM - A good time was had by me in the SST Sprint this evening. A little better score than those of late and currently in 1st place in the QRP Category, but I don't see scores posted yet from a couple of QRPers who should have a better score than mine. Running late, so that's all for this entry. -30-
Sat Jun 11 8:48PM - I had a little fun in the GACW WWSA Contest this evening. Conditions and activity weren't all that good, but I did manage to work 4 stations. I could have had more, but I didn't work any W/VE stations, just DX.
Other than that, still nothing much to write about as not much out of the ordinary happened. Well, my neighbor and I did some shopping for Roscoe. Actually he drove me to the store and I did the shopping. Roscoe is now set with over 2 months of food and treats now. I also had a good walk and sit in the park early this evening. Plus several sits on my front porch. I seem to be doing a lot of sitting lately. Wonder if old age is catching up on me. HI. Well, if so, it's not really funny.
Oh, I did one other thing today. I watched my favorite baseball movie, Field of Dreams. I taped it many years ago, but didn't catch the first part on the tape, and really never did see the first part until today. Actually that part didn't really have a lot to add to what I already knew about the movie, but it is now nice to have seen the full movie. -30-
Fri Jun 10 9:24PM - As usual, late again. Sunset pictures, good conditions, ordering a sub, etc. I worked HB9CVQ on 17 tonight. I thought that was a new band for him, but after checking my computer log, it was not. I have worked Andy on 7 bands though, 80 through 10, except for 40 for some reason. That may be the most bands worked for a DX station. I'll have to check sometime. That's about it for tonight. Oh, not a good showing in the SST this afternoon, only 20 17 340 third place. -30-
Thu Jun 9 9:13PM - Running late again. The bands were good this evening up through 17 meters and I got a QSO each on 20, 17, and 30. I had a great rag chew with W7GTF in Winthrop, WA. Solid copy both ways with QSB.
It was a nice cool day today and I took advantage with a couple good walks.
I also fooled around with an old keyer and got it working. So Mike and I now have two good keyers to assist in calling CQ when we visit the Requin. We often have to do a lot of calling CQs to get QSOs even now that we use the Requin xmtr at 100W so the keyers will help with that. It will also give us more time to chat with the visitors to the sub. -30-
Wed Jun 8 8:41PM - I don't think a lot of hams realize yet that the sun is active enough again to open up the higher bands. In the evenings of late, 20M is quite good but not all that active. The same with 17, but still less activity. My QSO tonight was on 17 with David XE1XR who was going begging for QSOs with a lot of unanswered CQs. I imaging the higher bands are even better during the daylight hours. I just don't seem to find the time to check. Maybe that's true of other hams as well which might explain the lack of a lot of activity.
Otherwise not a lot of things to talk about. I'm busy, but just with a lot of usual activities that I don't like to keep talking about here for fear boredom will set in. For example, today I mowed my back yard lawn and dug grass out of the cracks in my brick areas. Ho hum. At least it was good exercise to keep my old body in shape.
Tomorrow I'm going to ride over to Butler with my neighbor who has some business over there. Then we may also do some shopping and get something to eat. And that closes out another day and diary entry for now. -30-
Tue Jun 7 9:09PM - Another dull day, both weatherwise and activitywise. On WPIT we had a fellow who did a little traffic safety 5 minute spot, and he always ended with something like trafficwise, safetywise, and otherwise. That just popped into my head when I wrote that opening sentence. I wish I could remember exactly how his ending went. He was a very nice man and I was the one who would engineer the spots for him. I probably have a tape of one of his shows here somewhere. I think I'll look for it sometime to see just how that ending went.
The bands were rough tonite with my local noise peaking around maximum and propagation not that great. I managed to work Jose KP4JRS on 20M, then later N5GW in our NAQCC sprint. Neither QSO was easy, but they were good QSOs to keep the streak and my NAQCC Sprint participation going. -30-
Mon Jun 6 8:27PM - Kind of a busy day today but never really accomplished much. HI. I guess we've all had those kind of days. The bands weren't kind tonight although I did finally get my streak QSO after about a quarter hour trying. Called a few strong signals on 20, 30, and 17 and didn't get heard at all. Then I did work Tom N4LSJ in Ohio on 20 meters, but QSB took us out after a couple short rounds. Not really much else to talk about. Oh, Let's see if I held onto 3rd place in QRP in the SST. Yes, only two stations did better than I did. One uses a horizontal 160M loop at 35 feet, much better than I have here. I don't know what the other station uses. OK, guess that's it for tonight. -30-
Sun Jun 5 10:55PM - Yep 10:55PM. It's been a long good day. Mike and I had a great time on the USS Requin helping Art run up the contacts for the Requin in the Museum Ships Weekend Event. Art and ?? had 19 QSOs yesterday and Mike and I added 22 more today. Conditions were pretty good. We worked one other ship station in CA, the USS Hornet. After that we had dinner at Applebee's in the Pittsburgh Mills. Then home here where we worked on and fixed a memory keyer that wouldn't work on the Requin. So the next visit to the Requin, we can save our FISTS and let the keyer call CQ for us. HI.
Then later this evening, it was the SST Sprint. I again logged with pencil and paper, then transferred to GenLog and then to my K3WWP Excel log. Whew. A lot of work, but a lot of fun at the same time. -30-
Sat Jun 4 8:50PM - DX is alive with the sounds of Morse Code. Sing that to "The hills are alive with the sound of music"
Yep, more and more DX is showing up in my log without even really trying for it. I got HA3NU, HI3T, and GB70E very easily this evening in just 6 minutes. I'm going to have to start doing some daytime DXing and see what conditions are like then. 10 and 12 haven't shown much of anything here in the evening. 15 has had some sporadic DX in the evening. 17 has been good evenings as is 20. So probably all those bands are good in the daytime. I'll have to find out.
Well, Mike and I are going to the Requin tomorrow for Museum Ships on the Air Weekend, so maybe we can check there, although we are mainly going to help Art to get some QSOs in the Requin log for the event. We don't have a specific schedule set up so I can't give one here. I do know we'll be running 100 watts since it is a Requin Event and not a QRP or NAQCC event. We will be using the sub call of NY3EC. Bands will probably be 40, 30, and 20. Maybe 15 and 10 should they happen to be open. Frequencies may be near 7040, 10117, 14061 on those three bands, but nothing is set in stone at this point. Just look around for us. Hope to work you. -30-
Fri Jun 3 8:54PM - Here's my soapbox from today's SST Sprint: "I wasn't going to enter today. Then at the last minute I decided to do so. I didn't feel like setting up my laptop, so I grabbed a couple sheets of paper and a pencil and logged on paper like in the old days of ham radio contests BC (Before Computers). My noise wasn't too bad, but propagation wasn't too good. I had trouble getting heard on 20 meters and there wasn't a lot of activity on 40 till the last few minutes. I must say it was fun logging on paper. I might do that more often."
Oh, my results were 24 17 408 Second place QRP Category so far.
Otherwise a quiet day today. So let me post a sunset picture from the ones Jasmine and I took.
OK, it's a little later now, but here are the pictures:
The first picture is one Jasmine took earlier in the sunset. The other I took a little later.
OK, almost bedtime now. CUL -30-
Thu Jun 2 9:12PM - Running late again tonight. I guess that will happen a lot during these summer months. Tonight I was sitting on the front porch with Jasmine and we were taking pictures of a beautiful sunset. Maybe I'll post a picture or two, but not right now. Several other good things happened today, but I don't have time to talk about them now.
I called CQ on 20 this evening and got an answer from Washington State. I wonder when the last time, outside of contests, that I got an answer from Washington. Let's see if I can find out quickly. OK, it's happened 30 times at least. The last time in a contest was 9/19/2013 from W7OM on 20M. Last non-contest time was 7/26/2012 from N7MOB on 20M. Almost 10 years ago. So it doesn't happen often. Overall I have 520 QSOs with Washington State. That's tonight's trivia/stat fact. HI -30-
Wed Jun 1 9:10PM - A great start to the month of June. I had a long visit with Jasmine in which I gave her a graduation present, actually four little presents. We also talked a lot about her future plans and a lot of other things. Later on I had a short talk with an older girl I met just last week.
It was a hot day, the third day in a row the high has been around 90. I really tired out on one longer walk I took in the afternoon heat. I think I'll stick to indoor walking when it's that warm outdoors from now on.
I processed my May weather records into my Excel weather file. It was another above average temperature and precipitation month as a lot of months have been lately. About 2 1/2 degrees above normal temperature and around an inch and a half more rain than normal.
Tonight I watched my favorite John Wayne movie with neighbor Bruce, "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon". As I commented to Bruce, if there is such a thing as perfect movies, that has to be one of them. Everything comes together like a great recipe, the acting, plot, scenery, score, just the right mix of drama and incidental comedy, a great ending, etc.
A quick DX QSO extended the streak this evening, II2WRTC on 20 meters. Took a few tries to get my call right, but he did.
Sounds like I had a pretty good day as I proofread this entry. HI -30-
Tue May 31 9:13PM - Another late day, but really not much to talk about anyway. I did some of my EOM chores today like flipping calendar pages, uploading my May QSOs to LoTW and eQSL, some financial stuff, and other such things. -30-
Mon May 30 8:50PM - Shame on me. I forgot to fly my flag today. I did attend the Memorial Day Parade though. That's some compensation, I guess. Blame it on old age and too many other things on my old mind.
I got a quick streak QSO this evening from VP9UKR on 40M at 0000Z.
Not much else to report. Tomorrow being the end of the month day will be a busy one. In addition to the normal EOM chores, I have a couple more things I want to do. If they turn out good, maybe I'll talk about them here in the diary. -30-
Sun May 29 9:15PM - Running late again tonight because of the SST Sprint. I got 26 QSOs and 17 mults for 442 points and 3rd place for the time being. My noise was very bad again tonight or I would have done better, I think. -30-
Sat May 28 9:21PM - A good day again today like most other days this week. I could write quite a bit about today, but I'm running very late because I fooled around in the WPX Contest after I got my streak QSO and worked 20 contacts. I'll maybe write more later tonight or in tomorrow's entry. -30-
Fri May 27 8:57PM - What an absolutely great day. Remember the Herman's Hermits song, "I'm Into Something Good"? Well my day was similar to that except the day parts in the song were different from the day parts for me today. That's all I have to say about that. Also good was Mike stopping by this evening for a belated birthday celebration. After that I watched and recorded Jasmine's High School Graduation which was streamed on the Internet. Just a great day all around. I also had fun in the SST this afternoon and as of a while ago, I'm in second place in the QRP Category. If tomorrow is half as good, it will be wonderful also. -30-
Thu May 26 8:34PM - Not much to talk about today. It was kind of a gloomy day in many ways.
Thanks to Gust ON6KE for pointing out some errors on my DXCC page in the AWARDS section. I had forgotten to update some stats on that page mainly when I worked my only Andorra station about 6 weeks ago. I think I got it all fixed now. It had been so long since I worked an overall new country, I just forgot about updating some of the stats.
I haven't done a "Why is it that..." in a long time now here in the diary. Let's do one that I have done before, but it maybe needs repeating. Why is it that some station can be booming in here well over S9 and I can't even get as much as a ? out of him (or her) when I call? Is there really such a thing as one-way skip? Or is there some other reason? Even when no one else is calling him, he can't hear me. Yet he seemingly works everyone else who is calling him. It has nothing to do with the location in the world either. I can work much weaker stations from that location easily. What brought this on tonight? Or who? It is FM/OQ3R on 20 meters. Normally I work FM easily no matter who else it is there. Anyone want to give an opinion on the matter? I'm glad it's some country that I don't need at all, but it's still aggravating and frustrating. -30-
Wed May 25 7:46PM - My first day of being a year older and everything feels the same. I had a good day today mainly because of a nice visit with a lady who owns a Bulldog named Bogart (or Bogey) for Humphrey Bogart. We had a discussion of Bogart and his movies and wife Lauren Bacall among other subjects.
I worked some more on my 100,000 QSOs stats. I changed things around on the page, and added s section counting contest and non-contest QSOs. I also added a direct link to the 100,000 QSOs page as you see above.
A beautiful day again and I took advantage of it. The next few days are supposed to be rainy ones now. Ugh!
Time now to get ready to head to the shack for my streak QSO. I would love to get there and find my noise gone, but little chance of that. -30-
Tue May 24 8:51PM - This was a great (birth)day today. I came into the world at 3:21PM on May 24, 19XX. No, I'm not giving the year here on the Internet. At that time every year on my birthday, I like to be with a good friend. Last year it was Mike and Jasmine, two for the price of one. This year it was a little different. No human friends were available at that time, so I spent it with my canine friend, Roscoe. Before that though, I did spend a few minutes with Jasmine when she got home from school. Anyway enough of that.
My noise was strong as usual tonight, but I managed three QSOs, two on 40 - AB9CA and K3LU in OH and MD, one on 17 - VP9/VE3DZ.
I added some more stats to the 100,000 QSOs page in the LOGS section of the web site today. I'm finding it interesting as I compile the stats. I hope you find them interesting as you read them. I still have more stats to compile. I'm going to do them gradually instead of all at once. After all, I'm a year older now. HI But as I told Jasmine today, I really don't feel my age. She said she thought that was because of all the walking I do. She's right, that is a big factor, I'm sure. -30-
Mon May 23 5:36PM - I said I would talk more about QSO # 100,000 in today's diary entry, so here goes. As I worked stations in the SST Sprint, I was mentally counting them down toward the 22nd QSO which would be that # 100,000 overall. As I got close, I found myself getting excited and also nervous thinking about it. I actually became a bit sloppy in sending which is something I virtually never do. I would say normally in a sprint like the SST, I never send anything sloppy. Also I started to send the wrong info a couple times. For example, instead of sending TU JOHN PA which is the standard SST exchange for me, I started to send my call instead. Once I got past the 100,000 QSO mark though, I was back to my normal self and went perfect the rest of the way. I think it is even more of a thrill today, if that's possible. While I think of it, thanks to Gust ON6KE for the email of congrats on the 100,000 QSO mark.
As far as the sprint itself, my noise was bad all the time, yet I made 35 QSOs in 20 SPCs which as of now is good for first place in the QRP Category. Conditions were good allowing a lot of stations to surface up out of my noise on both 40 and 20. There were some that were just at or below my noise that I didn't try to work for fear I couldn't tell if they came back to me or someone else. That's really the worst part of the noise problem. Otherwise I may have hit 40 QSOs.
Today was a good day. The weather was decent and I did my walking and sitting in the park bits. I also saw Jasmine as she came home from school, and we had a nice little chat. I really wanted to catch her as this was one of the last days I'd ever be able to have our short little visit after school, since tomorrow is her last day of high school and she will be off to college in the fall.
I'm working on stats from the 100,000 QSOs and in a few days, I'll try to get them posted in the 100,000 QSOs page in the LOGS section of the web site. I am wondering what my next ham radio goal will be. Maybe getting to 100,000 using just my KN3WWP and K3WWP calls, or maybe just K3WWP?? -30-
Sun May 22 5:11PM - And QSO # 100,000 with John Shannon (K3WWP, etc.) was with N4KS at 0034Z on 40 meters. More in tomorrow's diary entry.
I double checked my totals today and QSO # 100,000 will be QSO # 22 in the SST Sprint this evening, barring some disastrous propagation conditions that keeps me from making at least 22 QSOs. I average over 30+ QSOs and have only failed to make at least 22 QSOs 2 times in 21 sprints. So the SST Sprint scenario is likely to happen tonight. I hope its someone whom I've worked before like John K4BAI as one example. When I get to 21, maybe I'll pick and choose someone or just take someone at random. It should be fun, but then all SST Sprints are fun for me. I still hold the record number of QSOs in the QRP Category with 42, although that should be broken soon by somebody with a bigger QRP station than I have here.
Otherwise today, it turned from Summer in the 90s yesterday to Fall with a high earlier in the day of 78 or so, after which it has fallen to 62 now. I think it was Mark Twain who said about the weather in, I believe, New England, if you don't like it now, just wait a little while and it will be guaranteed to change. That's not the exact quote, but you get the jist of it. Anyway, it applies to Kittanning also, especially recently. -30-
Sat May 21 8:47PM - I got a bit carried away on the bands tonight with very good conditions on 20 and my noise being only intermittent. I made 11 QSOs to make it virtually certain QSO # 100,000 will come in the SST Sprint tomorrow evening if not before then. 8 of the QSOs were in the EA Contest plus W5M, KM5G, and XK0AA. I'm not sure where XK0AA is. Should be in NWT, YT, or Nunavut. Let's see if it's on QRZ. Well, it says not found so I'll have to do more research unless one of you knows offhand and emails me.
OK got to get the 11 QSOs in my log now and also get my weather readings. -30-
Fri May 20 6:05PM - After the great day yesterday, it was a quiet normal day today. It was supposed to be the warmest day of the year so far, but that didn't happen. Instead of a predicted high of 88, it was only around 78 late in the afternoon after being in the low 70s until then.
I had a poor showing in the SST Sprint this afternoon with only 22 QSOs. That's my 3rd lowest total in the 21 SSTs I've entered. So far though, no one has been in the 30s in the QRP category so I guess conditions weren't all that good anywhere. Right now I have 4th place in the category. Still it was a lot of fun and nice that my noise wasn't there for the first 45-50 minutes. It was mainly QSB on 20 and low activity on 40 that hurt me this time. Also it got me 22 QSOs closer to 100,000. I'll probably make it during the SST Sprint Sunday evening guessing I'll make a couple each this evening and tomorrow evening, and make at least 31 QSOs in the Sunday evening SST Sprint. Or if conditions are poor Sunday, then it will be Monday or Tuesday evening. Stay tuned to find out. -30-
Thu May 19 5:07PM - I had a very good day today. Beautiful weather for walking/park sitting. I also stopped in Sprankle's for the first time in a while now and saw a couple of my "girls" there. Also I started up my page here on the site about my 100,000 QSOs. Of course I still haven't reached that mark, but it's close. I hope nothing happens between now and when it happens. Anyway if you want to check it out, it's in the LOGS section, on a 100,000 QSOs page.
The weather remains nice, so there's probably another walk/park sitting coming up this evening for old John. HI. Maybe even another Sprankle's visit. I don't know. Of course then later it's off to the shack to get the streak QSO. See you all tomorrow here in the diary. -30-
Wed May 18 5:47PM - I was up in my shack doing something else this afternoon and thought I'd check to see if my noise was still there in the afternoon. It is, so maybe if it is going to be there all the time now, I might be able to get it checked out with the power company. When it was intermittent, if I contacted them, the odds would be in favor of the noise not being there when they came. I'll have to watch it the next few days and see what happens.
While I had the rig on, I thought I'd see what was on the higher bands. 20 didn't have much. 17 had one or two weak stations. 15 had several stations, and I worked two Germans DD5XX and DJ2DX fairly easily. 12 had nothing. 10 had one weak unID station. Probably had my noise not been there, the station count would have been higher. I'm sure the noise masked quite a few signals. It was nice to work my first EU stations in the afternoon in quite a while. Mainly simply because I haven't been getting on the air in the afternoons.
Next time on the air will be for my streak QSO in a little over a couple hours.
It was a chilly day today, but good for walking and not too bad for some park sitting and thinking. I just got home from the park a few minutes ago. I saw a small shower coming on the radar and figured I didn't need to get wet besides being a little chilly to begin with. HI -30-
Tue May 17 8:55PM - Really nothing out of the ordinary today. It was a bit chilly, but nice for walking and sitting in the park. Good day for thinking about things. Bands were as usual tonight. Very noisy and propagation not that good. Very few stations popped out of my noise. However K4VSV finally did so on 30 and we had a short chat. The 18th QSO we've had over the years. That's pretty much it. -30-
Mon May 16 6:10PM - Look like 4th place in the SST Sprint last night which is about where I figured with my noise being pretty bad. Also propagation seemed down a bit especially on 20 meters and there were fewer than usual stations strong enough to pop out of the noise.
As you see above, I need 67 QSOs to reach the 100,000 mark. If I get 30 in the SST sprints of May 20 and 23, that may mean that sometime in the SST of the 23rd is when 100,000 might be logged. That will put me close to 74,000 QSOs in the 10,150 or so days of the streak at that time also. I think I'll come up with a page of stats for all these landmarks. Maybe sometime in June depending on how nice or not nice the weather is. I don't want to miss any nice weather being outside enjoying it. We have precious few days of good weather around here. -30-
Sun May 15 9:11PM - Running late tonight because of the SST Sprint, so this will be a short entry. Conditions were their usual noisy self tonight and it was rough. My ears are full of QRN right now. I did manage to get 30 QSOs which is kind of a standard goal for these sprints. I figure making a QSO every 2 minutes is a pretty good achievement for my simple QRP station. The 30 QSOs came from 19 multipliers for 570 points which may be good for 3rd or 4th place in the QRP Category. I heard the one fellow who runs QRP with a beam so he'll probably beat me out along with one station in NC with a good contesting setup. After I finish my web site update I'll post my score. -30-
Sat May 14 8:39PM - After the great busy day yesterday, today seemed kind of quiet and I guess it was. I can't think of anything out of the ordinary that I did today.
The bands were noisy tonight, but some of the stronger contest stations broke through my noise. I managed to work RM9I in Asiatic Russia for my streak QSO. I can't remember the last time I worked Asia unless it was in the CQ or ARRL DX Contest in Nov/Feb. I'll have to check later and see out of curiosity. -30-
Fri May 13 8:46PM - Of course as usual a great day when Mike and I get together. Thanks Mike.
Mike arrived about 8:30AM or a little after. We talked a bit, then headed for Pittsburgh. It was an uneventful trip and we didn't get lost as we usually do. HI. We arrived and had to walk all around the Science Center to get to the Requin. When we got there, Art came out to greet us and we went to the radio room. I brought one of my programmable keyers with us so we could automate our CQs. However it wouldn't work with the sub's rig possibly because of incompatability between stereo and mono plugs. So it was manual CQing till we get that figured out.
It went pretty slowly today and we wound up with just 12 QSOs in 3 hours of pretty much continual operating. We use the ship's log and take pictures of it for our personal use. I have yet to transcribe my portion of the log.
At 1:00PM we packed up and headed off to Indiana, PA and the HobbySpeed store. Mike had some questions to ask about his Big Boy locomotive. It was nice to see Brett again, and also Ryan and a couple other employees. We became pretty good friends with them before CoVid struck. Hope that can continue now. After a visit there for a while, it was on to our next stop. Guess what for! Right, to get something to eat. I picked out Hoss's Steak and Sea in Indiana. I'm glad I did, because we had a great meal with a very ample salad bar. Oh, and maybe best of all, a cute waitress named Abby.
Next it was off to our last stop before heading home. Mike is an avid biker and there's a bike shop in Indiana we stop at when we're in that town. I'm not much into biking at all so while Mike talked with two of the employees there, I had fun playing with the two dogs that they have in the shop. After the visit there, we headed back to Kittanning, then Mike headed to Brookville to check on his dog, Jayden.
I went for a walk in the park to complete my Apple Watch activity goals which I did. I sat a while before heading back home. A few other little things and it was time to go to the shack for my streak QSO. I had a long rag chew with Mike AA4MC in VA on 30M. Like the other night, 30 was very stable for the entire 41 minutes of our QSO. It's nice to see 30 that way again after a couple years of very poor propagation on that band. -30-
Thu May 12 8:33PM - Kind of a busy day today. Besides the usual daily chores, I cut the grass in my back yard, went downtown for some shopping and banking where I got a graduation card and gift for Jasmine, sat in the park a few times, and some other things I can't recall now. Must not have been important. HI
Conditions were horrible tonight and I thought maybe Friday the 13th (UTC) might be a jinx preventing me getting my streak QSO. I don't believe in that stuff though, so I continued chasing 9A/UW1GZ on 20 and after maybe 15 tries or so, I finally got him to secure the streak for yet another day and also get another QSO closer to the 100,000 mark. Hopefully tomorrow on the Requin I'll get even a little closer, but I like to have Mike do most of the operating and I do the logging. -30-
Wed May 11 9:03PM - Just got my weather readings. It was 83 today on my "official" thermometer. It sure felt like it and it felt good. I took a couple walks and sat in the park for a while. That made it a good day. It was also good for a couple other reasons. I got to visit with Jasmine after school for a little while today which is always good. She is at a very busy time of life right now and I don't see much of her. I also got my food bank groceries today including a bonus box of vegetables including regular and sweet potatoes, onions, and rutabagas (I think that's what they are. HI). It was such a big box I know I could never eat it all so I shared it with my neighbor.
Then this evening I had a great QSO with K1OV Mike in CT on 30 meters. We had a solid 2X QRP 34 minute QSO and even dropped down to 1 watt for a while and it was still solid copy at that level. So all in all it was a good day.
Remember this Friday Mike and I will be operating from the Requin in Pittsburgh. A rough schedule that we are planning is to operate from around 1400Z to 1730Z alternating every half hour around 7041, 14061, and 10117 in that order starting with 40M at 1400Z. We'll be using the Requin equipment since the operation promotes the Requin and not us or QRP. It will be QRO around 100 watts using the Requin call of NY3EC. I think that covers the info. Any questions? Just ask. -30-
Tue May 10 8:52PM - Another beautiful weather day with a high around 80, no wind, clear sunny skies. Of course I was outside a lot today enjoying it.
A rather quick streak QSO tonight with CT3MD on 20 meters. He had me as W3WWP at first and never did send a corrected call after I sent K3 K3 WWP. So I logged him and then got an insurance QSO from K1ZJA on 40 meters. That's 109 QSOs to go to 100,000 now. -30-
Mon May 9 8:41PM - Perhaps the nicest day of the year today. Beautiful clear skies and bright sunshine. Mild temperatures. Just right for walking and sitting in the park with a touch of shopping thrown in. I did all of that almost to excess today.
My noise was bad tonight, but I managed a fairly easy QSO from ZP/OK2WX on 20 meters. He broke through my noise fairly well. He topped it by an S unit or maybe 2.
BTW there is no rain in the forecast here till Saturday so it should be a good week with Tues-Fri being much like today. -30-
Sun May 8 9:18PM - I hope all those eligible had a great Mother's Day. I'm not eligible, but I did have a nice day nonetheless.
Here's my SST Soapbox, "I had a good score going even with moderate noise, but then at 0050Z my serious noise kicked in and with 9 minutes left to go and needing 7 QSOs to reach 40, I was unable to hear anyone I hadn't already worked because I only needed the weaker stations and lost them in the noise. Oh well, still a lot of fun and 33 QSOs not all that bad with my QRP and indoor antennas." Let's see how many folks have beaten my score so far. I'm in second place to the fellow with the beam and high dipole antennas. I can live with that. HI. -30-
Sat May 7 5:23PM - Another wet gloomy chilly day today. Our total rain over the past couple days has approached 3 inches now. As of now though, it looks like it has come to its end. I hope so anyway. No walks today unless I go this evening.
I did a lot of computer work today along with indoor walking to pass the time. After having some trouble with my Excel K3WWP log, I did a little study and came up with a simpler and better way to count my number of verifications from LoTW, eQSL, and regular QSL cards. Then when I did that, I modified my QSL page here on the web site to reflect updated totals. I also added a category to the stats to count QSOs that have been verified by any of LoTW, eQSL, card, or 2 or 3 of the methods. The total QSOs verified one way or other is 37,079 of 94,146 or 39.4 percent. Now to find something else to pass the time until 0000Z and streak time. Then after that, I think I'll watch the movie about Douglas "Wrong-Way" Corrigan. I haven't seen it in many years now and was always interested in his flying feats including the biggie across the Atlantic Ocean to be one of the first to do it in such a small plane. -30-
Fri May 6 7:46 PM - To quote my SST Soapbox, "It's strange. Sometimes my QRP station acts like it is Superman and I can easily work anyone I hear. Other times it's like Superman with Kryptonite and it takes 3 or 4 calls to get someone if I get them at all. Today it was the Kryptonite version. Also my #1 noise was there part of the time which didn't help things out. I don't think I ever described my station here. I use a KX3/PX3 combo at 5 watts to an attic random wire (80,40) or an attic dipole (20). See k3wwp.com for my web site promoting CW/QRP operation."
That is so true. Sometimes my QRP can pass for a kw/beam station from the ease with which I can work stations. Other times an S9+30DB station can't hear me calling him. Mike thinks some hams have filters in their brains that filter out any signals that are not S9+. Of course there are many reasons for such behavior that I'm not going to go into right now. It's either elating in the first case or discouraging in the second case.
Even with the second case in effect today I did manage 27 QSOs good for third place so far. The first place winner beat me by 4 QSOs and a couple multipliers, but he used a beam and a 60 foot high dipole.
Although it has rained almost the whole day, it was a good day as I got to talk with Jasmine for the first time in a while now.
Oh, here are my total K3WWP QSOs by continent:
Con QSOs
AF 781
AN 19
AS 600
EU 15986
NA 74367
OC 332
SA 2091
? 11
The question mark is for /MM stations for which I don't know the continent. -30-
Thu May 5 8:26PM - Not much to talk about today. It was just a normal quiet day. The weather was nice and I took advantage with some walks and a couple sittings in the park.
So since I'm nearing 100,000 QSOs, I decided to work on some stats to see how the QSOs were distributed among bands, countries, states, and other ways. Today I did by band. These are just my K3WWP QSOs, not the other calls I've used. There are 94,186 of them in total as of May 5.
Pretty much as expected with 40, 80, 20 leading the way with 15, 10, 30 next, followed by 160, 17, 12, 6, and 60 bringing up the rear. I think next I'll do it by continents. Thinking about it now, maybe by countries and states might take too much time even though my Excel log can do each one in a matter of a second or two. But transcribing the info here into the diary would take a lot of time. We'll see. -30-
Wed May 4 6:02PM - Well, either the SSTers are not as avid about eQSL as they are about LoTW or they haven't done their April SST QSOs yet for eQSL. I suspect the former. Over 200 LoTW matches yesterday to log, and only 70 eQSLs to log today. That was a relief. HI. Only took maybe a little over an hour today vs. maybe 3+ hours yesterday. I wonder how my LoTW matches stack up overall vs. eQSLs. Let me check. OK it's 24,705 (or 24,706 see yesterday's comment) for LoTW, and 14,422 for eQSL. That's number of QSOs verified for each service. And not to leave them out, I have 9,745 QSOs verified by regular QSL card. That figure might be a little low since I wasn't as thorough checking cards from my early days of ham radio. But it is in the ballpark.
It was kind of non-May today. Kind of dreary, chilly, and breezy. I did manage a couple walks though, but not as long as usual. Hoping for a better day tomorrow. I'd like to get to Sprankle's and see how my friends are doing there. I haven't been there for a while now.
We did go shopping for Roscoe today. We got his flea/tick pills and heartworm pills along with a collection of snacks and breakfasts. Speaking of Roscoe, it's time now for his 4th walk of the day, so I'd better get going. -30-
Tue May 3 7:42PM - Kind of a good day all around, especially for ham radio. I checked and logged all my LoTW matches today. My log shows 24,705 matches while LoTW shows 24,706. So there is a discrepancy of one QSO. I had that one other time in the past and it took a while to figure it out, but I did. I don't know if I want to bother or not this time. Knowing me as a perfectionist, I probably will. HI.
Tomorrow I may tackle the eQSLs. It seems that those who enter the SSTs are avid LoTW users. I bet over 90 percent as a rough estimate of my SST QSOs in April showed up in the LoTW when I uploaded my log a couple days ago. Whew! Tomorrow I'll find out about how avid they are about eQSL.
While doing the LoTW matches today, I found a very nice one. My Andorra station, C31CT is now officially veried for a new overall veried country. I'll update my DXCC table in a day or so, or maybe later tonight. Who knows?
More good ham radio news. Mike and I will be doing a subpedition from the Requin on Friday the thirteenth of this month. That is unless something changes. Art from the sub will let us know if it does. Also we'll be doing Museum Ships on the Air from the Requin the first Saturday in June. Sounds like a lot of fun coming up.
Time to head to the shack now and get my streak QSO. -30-
Mon May 2 9:22PM - Well, I finished up my delayed EOM/FOM work today, and had time left over for a couple of walks and park sittings as well.
The bands were good tonight and my bad noise disappeared after a couple minutes revealing many signals on 40 through 20 meters. I made a couple QSOs on 40 and listened around for a while on the other bands. It was interesting to hear Andy HB9CVQ booming in on 20 meters at S8 to S9. I could have worked him easily but I've worked him so many times I thought I'd let some other folks work him. He really wasn't getting all that many calls though. Maybe a lot of folks felt the same way I did.
Think I'll go walk Roscoe now, then come back and finish updating things here. Bruce is out somewhere tonight, so we won't be watching old TV shows (MASH, Leave it to Beaver, etc.) tonight. -30-
Sun May 1 6:56PM - Wow, here it is May already. It's interesting how the passage of time accelerates as one gets older. I don't really understand the physics behind that, but more and more I believe it is a true phenomenon.
Anyway I'm writing this entry early tonight so I won't have to rush later around the SST Sprint, Roscoe's walk, etc. I did get caught up on a lot of my end of month work today, and now I have some first of the month things left to do which I'll now put off till tomorrow.
It was a rainy day today to start off the month of May. Still I went strolling through the park today in the merry merry month of May as the lyrics from an old song go. I also went down to Sprankle's but none of my girls were working today.
I uploaded my April QSOs (291 of them) to LoTW and eQSL today. Now I've got to log the matches in my K3WWP Excel log. That will be a task that will take some time since I do it manually. Someday maybe I'll write some programming to make the task easier. Meanwhile that will help pass some time until the SST Sprint.
Just as I was about to post this, we had a shower move through that produced a nice rainbow. I got a couple hurried pictures of it that I'll send to Jasmine and also post one here:
Note the features of the rainbow. The main brightest bow, a secondary larger fainter bow, the lighter sky inside the main bow, the darker sky between the two bows, and some faint hard to see extra bows just inside the main bow. Very nice. Wish I'd had more time to take even better pictures. This was actually taken through a somewhat dirty window. -30-
Sat Apr 30 8:07PM - I was lazy today and lax in my end of month duties, so I guess it will be a very busy day tomorrow getting caught up. Oh well, that's what I get. HI
I think maybe right now I'll try to get my April QSOs logged in eQSL and LoTW, so I'll just cut this short here. Nothing much to report anyway. -30-
Fri Apr 29 6:03PM - Horrid conditions for the SST Sprint today. I only made 23 QSOs in 16 multipliers. I was very surprised that so far, that is good for second place in the QRP Category. My horrid conditions were due to my regular noise being present for the full hour in full force. Maybe other folks had the same or worse conditions. Anyway the 23 QSOs put me 23 closer to the 100,000 QSO mark as shown above. Mike is guessing that #100,000 will come in FD. I'm guessing earlier than that. Let's see. There are 9 SST Sprints in May and I've averaged about 32 QSOs in the 15 sprints I've entered so far. That would be 288 QSO in just the sprints in May which would put me way over 100,000. If there were only the sprints I would need to enter 7 to reach the 100K mark. But there are other days as well. Let's say 2 QSOs per non sprint days. Going by that, I would reach 100K on May 23. So that is my guess. Wanna take a shot at it? Just email me with your guess.
Otherwise it was a nice day today. Gradually warming up with some nice clear skies. It was 63 today. I took a couple walks and sat in the park a couple times. Well, about 100 minutes till 0000Z and streak time. Maybe I'll get in another walk? -30-
Thu Apr 28 8:52PM - Not a lot to talk about today. It was kind of a quiet day. The weather started out cold at 30 on my remote unit, but was less cold late in the afternoon as it hit the mid 50s. Not bad for walking or sitting in the park which I did a couple times along with a little shopping.
My bad noise was absent again tonight and I had a couple nice QSOs, one a 2xQRP with N2CI in NJ. The other was with K1ZJA in NC who answered my first 30M CQ. He was using a K4D, the type of rig I used at the QTH of WB3FAE a couple weeks ago. It sounded great, but then, it's an Elecraft so what do you expect.
I was just thinking about when I might hit the 100,000 QSO mark. It shouldn't take that long with the twice weekly SST Sprints, a Requin subpedition, maybe the CQWPX contest at the end of May if I don't have it by then. Anybody reading this want to make a prediction of the day I'll reach the 100K mark? Maybe I'll have a little prize for the one who comes the closest. Not a promise, but we'll see. -30-
Wed Apr 27 9:14PM - A busy day today getting caught up on a ton of correspondence and some other work around the house. It was a cold day so a good day to stay inside. I only went for one walk early this evening and did some shopping while I was out.
The bands were pretty good this evening and my main noise was absent for a happy change. I worked old NAQCC friend Jock N1JI on 30 meters, then called CQ on 40 and got an answer from W1GF up in Maine. -30-
Tue Apr 26 9:03PM - A personal note to start - Happy Birthday Mike!
I had a great 42 minute QSO for my streak QSO tonight with Harry WA1GXC in RI. We are a lot alike in many facets of ham radio and talked about a lot of them. I won't go into details or this diary entry will be as long as our QSO.
The bands were good and my worst noise was absent. Hope it left forever, but I'm sure it was just resting.
As you see near the top of this page, I'm closing in on the 100,000 QSO mark counting all my contacts using K3WWP and several other calls I've used like a second call I got for a few years in Pittsburgh, the NAQCC calls, NY3EC on the Requin, and a few more. Someday I'll count all the QSOs and list them by calls, but not now. -30-
Mon Apr 25 8:48PM - Another preview of summer day today, and I spent a lot of time outside walking, sitting in the park, shopping, sitting on the porch, and working around the outside of the house.
Tonight conditions seemed good on the bands and a lot of signals were overriding my noise. I made three QSOs, one each on 40 (N5DY), 30 (WA1HGJ), 20 (LZ2HR). I chased 9K2NO on 20, but couldn't break the huge pileup he had. Then I heard LZ2HR and got him on my very first call, no repeats. Probably could have gotten the 9K2 station without his pileup since he was about the same strength as LZ2HR. Oh well, I don't need Kuwait although it would have been nice to work another one. -30-
Sun Apr 24 9:18PM - I was going to write this before the SST Sprint when I had more time, but I got distracted with a couple other things. So this will be brief. My noise was there for the SST, but I did manage 36 QSOs which was a moral victory, but only third place in the QRP Category at the moment. That's about all the time for now. See you tomorrow evening. -30-
Sat Apr 23 8:34PM - Well, earlier this week we had Winter with cold temps and s#$w flurries. Then mid week we had spring with moderate temps and flowers blooming. Today it was Summer today with temps in the low 80s and bright warm sunshine. Then in a couple days it may be Autumn with fall like temperatures. No falling leaves though. HI. A full year of seasonal weather in just about ten days. Very interesting and maybe somewhat unique to have four seasons in such a short time. If it wasn't so much work taking so much time, I'd go through my weather records dating back to 1959 to see if there were any similar happenings.
I went out and enjoyed the weather today walking, sitting in the park, doing some outside work around the house, and I just got in from sitting on the porch. Tomorrow is supposed to be similar to today so I may replay my activities.
My noise is still there tonight, but some sort of contest was going on and I quickly worked KR2AA for my streak. I don't know what the contest was but I heard the exchange being RST and serial number so I sent 599 1 and he was satisfied. HI. -30-
Fri Apr 22 8:50PM - My noise was in full force most of the day today. It ruined my SST effort this afternoon to the point I only made 23 QSOs working those stations strong enough to fly above my noise level. There were a lot more right at the noise level that popped in and out, and I suppose a lot more never made it out of the noise. Still it was a lot of fun and a challenge to my skill. I copied a couple stations I would have to give an honest 229 RST if that good.
It was also hard to find a QSO tonight, but fortunately old friend Dan KB6NU in MI was above my noise and we had a solid 25 minute 2X 599 QSO.
Well, got to walk Roscoe shortly and do a bit more site updating, so I'll close now and get my temperature and weather 9:00 readings first. -30-
Thu Apr 21 8:46PM - Except for cutting the grass, today was pretty much like yesterday, so I'm not going to run through it all again in this entry. Also the noise behaved about the same tonight, except I only made one longer QSO instead of two.
Mike did add the following about our tag team efforts. I added it to the contest results page, but will repeat it here also. "We stopped the tag part of tag team contests when we started to have collisions. It got too dangerous. HI HI". -30-
Wed Apr 20 8:41PM - Not much to talk about today. The biggest happening was cutting my grass for the first time this year. It felt good getting the exercise and it looks nice now. It was around 50 degrees which was just about ideal for such work. It was also nice for walking and I did quite a bit of that. A little chilly for park sitting, but I did some nevertheless.
I also worked on my contest results page and am pretty close to finishing it now. I didn't realize Mike and I had done so many contests together either using N3AQC or N3A. We also did many tag team efforts where we both work the same station or try to, using our own calls one after the other. It got the name tag team when we used to both use the same rig and "tagged" each other to switch seats at the key. That got kind of old fast so we now use the same rig but each of us has a keyer and headphones hooked to the single rig. We still call them tag team contests though.
My noise was kind tonight. It didn't start up until I was just about ready to QRT after making two QSOs for the streak. I worked WB8BIL in MI on 30 (kind of short skip) and K2HYD in VA on 40. -30-
Tue Apr 19 8:49PM - A decent day today but still with pesky s#$w flurries and cold temps. Looking forward to Sunday when it is predicted to be a summery 82 degrees. Kind of like Winter, Spring, and Summer wrapped up in just a few days.
When I was getting my walking exercise today, I got to thinking (I think a lot while walking when I'm not praying) that I haven't updated my contest results page in a couple years now. So I devoted some time today to updating and revamping it. It's still a work in progress though as I have some more ideas and data to incorporate into it. One main thing is I'm putting my SST Sprint results on that page rather than here in the diary from now on. Take a look if you're interested in contesting or just curious. -30-
Mon Apr 18 7:03PM - This was a good and busy day. I got a lot accomplished, and I'll tell you about only a couple of things so as hopefully to not be boring. Well, there was one thing that was not so good. We had off and on S#$w flurries all day and the temperature didn't get out of the thirties during the daylight hour. My remote shows a high of 42, but I'm pretty sure that was during the night or very early this morning. The s#$w didn't stick, but it may if it continues after dark.
I got all my second half of the month bills taken care of and took them to the post office. Then I went to the bank to order some new checks. On the way there I ran into Teela from Sprankles who was out sprinkling ice-melt on their sidewalks. That gave us a chance to chat a bit about our Easters and a couple other things. After my business at the bank, I went back to the PO to get a book of Forever stamps.
After I got back home, I took a look at my bed lamp which had developed a bad switch after 60 years or however long I've had it now. I explored some ways of trying to fix it, but none were practical. So I bit the bullet and ordered a new one from Ebay. It should be here in a couple days.
Throughout the rest of the day till now I did some other little things I won't elaborate on.
I think I'll update my SST results table now. I'm holding on to first place in the QRP Category for the latest Sunday evening one. The fellow I thought might beat me out didn't. OK, here goes now:
Date QSOs Mults Score Finish Entries Notes
2/14 33 18 594 4 9
2/21 26 21 546 1 12
2/28 27 20 540 2 9
3/ 7 26 21 546 4 10
3/14 33 26 858 1 13
3/21 36 25 900 1 12
3/25 28 18 504 3 9
3/28 38 25 950 1 13
4/ 1 18 13 234 3 11 Only put in 1/2 hour.
4/ 4 42 29 1218 1 12 All time record QRP Category score among all participants.
4/ 8 1 1 1 DNE 9 Made one QSO (CT7AUP) from the QTH of WB3FAE with his new K4D. Didn't enter score.
4/11 37 22 814 4 12
4/15 21 15 315 3 9 Plagued with my full force noise.
4/18 36 29 1044 1 10
I'm getting to like these SST Sprints more and more. I'm thinking maybe of trying the CWT Sprints now also. Only thing I don't like is transfering the QSOs from GenLog to my main Excel log. I've got it pretty much down to a system now, but still takes time. Maybe I can refine my system even more and save some more time. I've just got to get un-lazy to work on it. HI -30-
Sun Apr 17 9:17PM - Hope you all had a great and blessed Easter. I did here.
Interesting SST tonight. Very good conditions made it hard for me to beat the QRO stations and I didn't get a lot of QSOs on the first call. I did manage 36 QSOs in 29 multipliers for 1044 points. That's good for first place in the QRP Category for now, but I doubt it will last. I figure one station down in NC if he ran QRP will beat me out. We'll see in a couple days.
Don't have time to write much more, but thanks Mike for confirming the Holy Land Contest was the one in which we didn't get a single QSO. Also he said the year was 2013 when we did our multi-contest run. OK gotta run now to walk Roscoe. -30-
Sat Apr 16 8:21PM - This is often known as the weekend of many contests. Several years ago, Mike and I tried to figure out how many contests we could work that weekend. I think it was 7 if memory serves, and we made contacts in all but one, The Holy Land Contest. That was fun. Maybe Mike will read this and add some comments which I will add to tomorrow's diary entry.
Tonight I just used one of the contests, the MIQP to get my streak QSO from K8QKY.
Otherwise, it was a good day too. My neighbor's brother had Easter dinner today and as usual invited me along. I ate in moderation instead of stuffing myself and that was good. We had turkey instead of the traditional ham since another neighbor gave us a turkey for Christmas I believe, which we didn't use but froze it instead then.
The weather was a bit chilly today, but I got in three walks nonetheless. I sat on a park bench and did some thinking about things and played some games on my iPhone. I thought there might be a nice sunset tonight, but it never really developed all that well, just a few pastel red clouds.
I guess that about covers the day here. -30-
Fri Apr 15 7:32PM - I got into the SST Sprint this afternoon. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I'll just copy my soapbox comments here and maybe elaborate a bit.
"My undetermined high local noise was back in full force today. It took all my contesting skill and 59 years of copying code to eke out just 21 QSOs. I sat there for an hour waiting for someone to get strong enough to pop out of my noise and work him. Kind of like those carnival events where you wait for a duck or something to pop up so you can shoot him. HI HI
Still a lot of fun even if a bit frustrating."
I guess that pretty much says it all. Even with that, I'm in second place in the QRP Category at the moment. I don't think that will last though.
Just waiting now for the streak QSO time at 0000Z to arrive. Let's see if there are any contests this weekend that I could count on for an easy QSO if my noise is still there. Yes, there are quite a few scattered throughout Saturday and Sunday should I need to resort to one for the streak.
It was a pretty nice day today. Warm, mostly sunny, but very windy. This is no kidding. I was sitting in the park on a metal bench anchored to a concrete block. The wind was so strong that I felt the bench shake slightly in a couple strong gusts. I was afraid my USS Requin cap might blow away, but I kept my head turned into the wind so it couldn't get under the brim and lift it off my head. -30-
Thu Apr 14 8:18PM - I went up to the shack wondering if my QRN was going to be present and turned on the KX3/PX3 and saw the dreaded noise pattern as shown in the images in my April 1 diary entry. I muttered "Oh, no", it's going to be a long session to get my streak QSO. A quick check showed 30 to be least affected by the noise. I heard a station tuning up or at least sending a very long dash. I went about a kHz above him and called CQ. Bingo, either he or someone else answered my first CQ. Anyway it was AA4HH, Butch in AL. We had a short but nice QSO and the streak was quickly secured for another day.
It wasn't all that great a day weatherwise, but I did get out quite a bit. I even had a couple sessions sitting in the park. I really enjoy doing that. I just wish one thing. I wish I had someone of the female gender to join me there. Oh well, maybe some day.
No shirt yesterday. Today it was a shirt and jacket as a cold front went through earlier today accompanied by a little rain. Prabably will only find a trace or a couple hundredths of rain in my rain gauge when I check it at 9PM, about a half hour from now. Well, really not much to say and I'm just rambling on now, so I'll just end here. -30-
Wed Apr 13 8:21PM - No shirt, screens in storm door, girls in shorts. Summer must be here. Well at least it's a preview of what is coming before too much longer. The high was, let's see, 78 and it felt even warmer when the sun was out. A nice day for walking and sitting in the park and later on the front porch. Also some shopping.
When I went to the shack and turned on the rig, I was pleased to find my strong noise was gone and there were a lot of peaks on the panadapter on 40 and 20 meters. However it didn't last long and the noise was just a little late showing up at 0006Z. So the struggle was on to get my QSO which I did when I worked W5SG in TX on 20 meters.
I sure would like to find what that noise is, but the problem is that it is not there all the time nor is there any real pattern to when it is on. Calling the power company would probably be useless as I'm sure whenever they might come, the noise would be absent. Like taking your car that makes a strange noise to the garage. For certain it will be quiet as a mouse when you take it there. Ah well, that's life. -30-
Tue Apr 12 8:50PM - Didja ever have one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong and you thought you'd never get them set right? Then you calm down, think it out and everything falls right in place. Well that sums up my day today. I won't bore you by elaborating, but just leave it at that.
My noise was back with a vengeance tonight and I thought I might not get my streak QSO, but that worked out when I worked POTA station K4NYM on 20, LZ5DB on 40, and K4JPN on 20 in our NAQCC sprint. Whew! -30-
Mon Apr 11 1:15PM - I was going to go for a walk and maybe stop at Sprankle's to see who was working today, but then the rain started and put an end to that plan for now. So I think I'll write about the SST Sprint and maybe write a bit about how I attack contests in general.
First here's an update on my SST scores:
Date QSOs Mults Score Finish Entries Notes
2/14 33 18 594 4 9
2/21 26 21 546 1 12
2/28 27 20 540 2 9
3/ 7 26 21 546 4 10
3/14 33 26 858 1 13
3/21 36 25 900 1 12
3/25 28 18 504 3 9
3/28 38 25 950 1 13
4/ 1 18 13 234 3 11 Only put in 1/2 hour.
4/ 4 42 29 1218 1 12 All time record QRP Category score among all participants.
4/ 8 1 1 1 1m 9 Made one QSO (CT7AUP) from the QTH of WB3FAE while visiting and looking at his new K4D.
4/11 37 22 814 4 12
On 4/11 I missed 1st place to three other folks who had the same or 1 more QSO and 1-3 more multipliers. It seemed that unlike the 4/4 sprint, I wasn't getting as many QSOs on the first call, and had to wait through a QSO or two to work the station. Generally if I don't get someone on the first call, I will wait through two QSOs at most to work someone or if it is a new multiplier, maybe a couple more QSOs, then if I still don't get them, move on so as not to waste too much QSOless time. If a station doesn't hear me or anyone else, I'll try two more times, then move on also.
The importance of multipliers:
Say my score is currently (QSOs), (mults), (points):
50,10,500
If I work a station that is not a new multiplier:
51,10,510
Or if it is a station that is a new multiplier:
51,11,561
You can see how much greater worth a new multiplier is, a gain of 61 points vs. a gain of 10 points. It's definitely worth waiting to work a new multiplier station.
A couple other notes. If someone comes back to you with WWP?, it's probably good to reply with K3 K3WWP since he only needs your prefix.
Of course, always strive to send perfectly in a contest. Sloppy sending slows things down for not only you, but the station you are trying to work.
If you can, try to match the speed of the station you are working. If he is very slow, you slow down also so he doesn't have to ask for repeats which speeds up the QSO. If he's very fast and you send fast, that naturally speeds things up also.
There are lots of little tricks to contesting that the top notch contesters use to boost their scores. I am only going to add one more here, then close this book.
Enter as many contests as you can. Familiarity helps a lot in contests. One top EU contester, I forget who now, told me that he can usually recognize me even if he only hears a weak WP at the end of a call and that cuts down on a lot of asking for repeats of my call. Or tuning across the band and hearing just BAI, you can most likely guess that is John K4BAI.
Just some food for thought from someone who has been hamming for 59 years and entered over 1500 contests along the way. -30-
Sun Apr 10 6:22PM - To accomodate the SST Sprint Sunday evenings, I'm adjusting my schedule a bit. One thing I'm going to do is to do my diary update around 6:30-7:00PM. Anything to do with the SST Sprint will then be in the Monday diary entry.
As far as today goes, this works out fine as nothing much happened here. It was a chilly day, only hitting 50 degrees at this time after struggling through the 30s early in the morning and the 40s most of the afternoon. We even had some light s@#w at one point. Bruce had to go out to the school bus garage and he said it was almost a blizzard out there only a few miles from here. He said there was about a half inch on the ground in only several minutes. Of course being April, it didn't stay around long.
That's it for the diary. It's now about an hour and a half till the SST Sprint. I sure hope my noise is down tonight. I'd like to see if I can beat my 42, 29, 1218 score from last Sunday evening. That may have been a fluke though since as I mentioned a couple diary entries ago, that was an all time record for the QRP Category in an SST Sprint. -30-
Sat Apr 9 4:50PM - Not much going on today to write about, so here are some pictures and commentary from yesterday's Requin subpedition. We had an interesting visitor on the sub. A ten (?) year old boy who was interested in learning Morse Code. Unfortunately his parent(s) kind of rushed him through and we didn't get to talk to him, only very briefly. We did suggest that he try the program Just Learn Morse Code, and he said he would.
I just logged my Requin QSOs in my "Other Calls" Excel spreadsheet log. I have all QSOs I made using other than K3WWP, such as NY3EC, K3WWP/3, WA3IXO, K3MJW, KB3MQT, N3A, N3A/3, N3AQC, N3AQC/MM, WA3IXO/3. There are 5,633 QSOs in that log. If you add my K3WWP QSOs in the K3WWP log, 93,943, that's a total of 99,576. Whew, I'm approaching the 100,000 QSO mark in my 59 years of hamming. I remember being impressed by a card I got back in the 60s or 70s from W6KG who had over 100,000 QSOs then. I thought I would NEVER come anywhere close to that number, but now it looks like I may surpass it later this year barring anything unforseen happening.
OK, let me get the pictures ready and post them now.
Above is the old man at the paddle. I wish cameras would lie sometimes.
Above is the young op Mike calling CQ or working someone with the SK. Say isn't that grey hair under the cap?
Maybe the camera did lie here? I kind of like this picture which I sent to my friend Jasmine.
Just a general picture of some of the radio gear that was donated to the Requin over the years.
The SWR/Power meter, clock, and Icom IC738 rig which we used to make our 10 QSOs.
The straight key Mike used to make most of the QSOs.
Over to Tom's home now. His antenna mast, antenna, and view from his deck.
The other end of his end-fed wire antenna. Hard to see against the background.
We should have gotten a picture of Tom's shack with the great K4 rig. It's really great, but perhaps overkill for someone like me who operates only CW/QRP. Although it does that well also as we proved yesterday, fairly easily working DX including my first ever Andorra QSO. Hope you enjoyed the "tour". -30-
Fri Apr 8 7:43PM - We had a fun and interesting (strange) day today. Mike arrived a little after 9:00AM, and after kibitzing a little bit, we headed off to Pittsburgh. The trip was uneventful except for missing one minor turn in downtown Pittsburgh because a construction truck was blocking the turn. We got to the sub and got set up quickly. So far, so good. Usually our subpeditions start off in a rush, then slow down. Today it was the opposite. A slow start and things gradually picked up as our session went along. One QSO the first hour, 3 the 2nd hour, 6 the last hour. We shut down at 1:00PM (1700Z) to have time to go visit Tom WB3FAE in Chicora.
Ah, Chicora, the source of one strange event. When I took my shift on 40M, I worked among a couple others, KB3NSK who lives in, you guessed it, Chicora. I talked with him for 18 minutes. I asked if he knew Tom WB3FAE and he said yes, they were good friends. I told him about visiting Tom later that day. OK, wait, there's more. While I was talking to Eric KB3NSK, Mike was talking to a couple visitors on a sub tour. He was kidding them about me working a far away place, Chicora. OK, ready? Turns out they were from Chicora and they were good friends with Tom and his wife Debbie. Hear the Twilight Zone music in the background? Now Chicora is a town of maybe 1,500 population. So what are the odds of the above happening? I'm sure the odds of it happening are extremely low, but it did happen.
So then it was off to Chicora to see Tom. When we got there, I told Tom we had a strange story for him. However Eric had called Tom and told him he had worked us on the sub. He beat us to the punch, but we did add the bit about the sub tour visitors.
It was good to see Tom and Debbie again. Tom was eager to show off his K4 to us. He had me sit at the rig and try it out, which I did. Another somewhat strange thing happened. After getting used to Tom's paddle, I made a few DX QSOs. Still nothing unusual until..... I heard C31CT from Andorra. That is the one mainstream country in Europe I have only heard once before, but never worked. The other time I heard it was at Skyview a few years ago. He had a huge pileup, but I eventually beat the pileup. Tom had reduced the K4 to QRP 5 watts, and he has a simple wire antenna. Also he is less than 50 miles from Kittanning, so that makes it a new country for me, and completes Europe except for SMOM and Mt. Athos which are not mainstream countries but DXCC entities. I think those are the only two entities I need now. I'll have to check later to be sure.
After our visit with Tom for a couple hours, we headed back to and through Kittanning to the fish dinner. However we made a wrong turn and went a few miles out of our way. We got back on track using my iPhone GPS. As it always has been, the dinner was a real treat.
Back home again, but Mike had to leave right away to go check on his dog, Jayden. That was the end of a great day with Mike, as usual. Now off to my shack to get my streak QSO. Some pictures maybe later or tomorrow. -30-
Thu Apr 7 7:16PM - Tomorrow is subpedition day. Mike and I will start at or about 1400Z. We'll change bands every 30 minutes in this order: 40 (7041), 30 (10117), 20 (14061) We'll repeat that order till time to leave around 1730Z. We'll use the Requin equipment at QRO power (75-100 watts) since it's a USS Requin activity to publicize the sub, not a QRP activity. Conditions may force us to alter the schedule somewhat, so if you don't hear us on schedule, check the other bands. Of course those who have participated before in a subpedition know we use the sub's call of NY3EC which is a modification of the Navy call the sub used when active - NYEC. Hope to work you. Let us know if you hear us, but can't work us. Also if you listen, but don't hear us at all. That info may be helpful in adjusting our schedule in future subpeditions. I'm going to have Mike read this now to see if he has any ideas for changes or additions. So check back later tonight or early tomorrow morning.
It was a pretty good day otherwise. Cloudy, chilly with light showers now and then. I did get in a shopping trip with Bruce to Dollar General this morning. Then in the afternoon, I went to Sprankle's mainly to see who was working and to pick up a couple things. I was in luck as Jenna was working and on a break when I got there so I got to chat with her a bit.
We'll try to get some pictures for the diary tomorrow. Hopefully of all three of our activities. The subpedition, visit to WB3FAE, and the Lenten Fish Dinner.
Time now to finish up my web site updates. Sure is great to have the computer working like a speed demon again. Then off to the shack for the streak QSO. -30-
Wed Apr 6 7:41PM - If you read the earlier post today, ignore it. I got the computer working well again with a simple hard re-boot which got rid of an uninstall program which was running in the background and slowing things to a crawl. Now it seems to be running like it did when I first got it about 3 1/2 years ago or so.
Now I'm just waiting for 0000Z to get my streak QSO.
Today was a fairly good weather day with a high in the low 60s under cloudy skies. I sat in the park 3 times. On one walk home, I set a speed record, at least among the walks I measured on my Apple watch, and there are a lot of them. In about a half mile, I set a one mile pace of about 15 minutes and 57 seconds which translates to just slightly over 3.75 MPH. Nothing like a good walk to build up one's spirits and physique as well. -30-
Tue Apr 5 6:07PM - Ho hum, kind of a boring day so I took on a little project I started yesterday. I'll get to that in a minute.
It was a fairly nice day and I did get in a couple walks for some shopping and sitting in the park. It was in the mid 60s so I went in shirtsleeves. I also did some work in the back yard where I fixed up a brick border around one of my rose bushes. There are a couple more that need some fixing, and I may get to them the next nice day we have. I also cleaned up some junk that has been lying around the neighborhood for a while now, and I got tired of seeing it.
This Friday, Mike and I have a busy day planned. Were doing a subpedition on the Requin from 10:00A to about l:30P (1400-1730Z). Then we're going to visit Tom WB3FAE in Chicora for a while. We haven't seen him in a while, and we want to see how he's coming along after some surgery. Then we'll head back through Kittanning to a Lenten fish dinner several miles east of Kittanning. Mike's Subaru is going to get a workout. HI.
OK, now the project. I checked all the SST scores back through the beginning on September 14, 2020. I found that my score last Sunday evening is the highest of all time in the QRP Category. There's a slight qualification to that. From Sep 14, 2020 through Dec 28, 2020, there was a different scoring system in use, and many scores were above my 1,218 points. However using the current scoring system for all the 2020 scores, none top my 1,218 points. I'm not reporting this as bragging, but I am very pleased with that. I'm sure the record won't stand long. Only until some big contest station decides to use QRP power. I saw many reports of over 100 QSOs in the higher power categories. I've said this before, and I'll say it again. I really like the SST Sprints. I find with most stations using QRO power levels, I can easily hear them through my local QRN and work them. It's not like a dedicated QRP sprint like our NAQCC Sprints where it is very hard to pull the QRP signals through my noise. Also I like the exchange format of Name and SPC. That's easy to copy even if some stations are down around my noise level. Fun, fun, fun. -30-
Mon Apr 4 8:51PM - The world is full of strange wonderful little things. It was 59 years ago yesterday I got my first ham license as KN3WWP. Combine that with what happened just a little while ago and it is pretty neat. I worked Vince KE8UCE and had a nice chat with him. What's unusual? Well, he got his first license just one month ago. As I said, I think that's pretty neat, the grizzled veteran working the "raw" rookie. A lot of things like that happen. It's just unfortunate that we mostly hear about the bad things happening in the world and not the good.
Having nothing else to do at the time today, I decided to see how my SST score from last night stacked up against all the other 2022 QRP Category scores. There was an average of 12 or so scores submitted in each of the 2 sprints every week. You can figure out how many entries there have been. I was surprised to find that of all them, my score last night was tops.
It was a nice but cool day, good for walking and sitting in the park plus a little shopping. So I did just that. Now it's time to close out the day with the NCAA Men's Championship Basketball Game whick starts in about 20 minutes. -30-
Sun Apr 3 9:21PM - Great conditions and somewhat low noise yielded a new personal high score for the SST Sprint. 42 QSOs, 29 mults, 1,218 points. Currently in first place in the QRP Category with 10 scores reported so far. That's about all the time I have for a diary entry now. I'll update my index and propagation pages later tonight. -30-
Sat Apr 2 9:07PM - This was a good day pretty much all around. I got my CoVid Booster shot and a second Shingles shot this morning and had a little fun kidding around with one of the girls at RiteAid. A little later in the day I went for a walk and sat in the park for a while. It was a bit chilly, but tolerable in the sun. After eating, later it was a second walk and sit in the park. A little chillier by then, and I didn't stay as long.
Back home again and did a couple things before going to the shack. There I found at least 3 state QSO parties going on: MO, MS, LA and decided to fool around in them for a while. I set a goal of getting a total of 10 QSOs and made it by getting 6 MO, 2 MS, and 2 LA. Doing the SST Sprints has boosted my interest in contesting and I may be doing a little more now. We'll see.
Just checked a little while ago and Kansas beat Villanova to make it to Monday evening's final against the winner of Duke/North Carolina in progress now. They are pretty even right now with Duke up by 3 at the moment. -30-
Fri Apr 1 5:54PM - Hope you didn't get badly fooled by anyone today. So far anyway, I haven't. Well unless it was the propagation god fooling around with me on the SST sprint. My strong local noise showed up about 4 minutes into the sprint and rendered about half of the 60 minutes of the sprint useless. I only made 18 QSOs vs. an average of around 30 in the several sprints I've entered now. Here are a couple pictures of the noise on my PX3 panadapter. The noise is actually overall much stronger than the level shown on the screen. It's more like S8 or S9 but the AGC seems to knock it down, plus I use different receiving antennas to cut the level of the noise to try for a better S/N ratio. However with this noise, that doesn't seem to help. I'll try to get a couple more pictures in the Sunday evening SST without the noise. The comparison should give a better idea of what I'm going through here.
Right now, today's score is only good for 3rd place in the QRP Category. My normal score, without the noise, etc., would probably have been good for first place. Oh well, it's not winning or losing, but the enjoyment that comes from these SST sprints that counts. -30-
Thu Mar 31 8:16PM - My noise still there tonight, and again I worked a DX QSO. V31XX was well above the noise on 30M and I got him easily for the streak.
Being the last day of a month, most of my time was spent doing my EOM/FOM monthly chores. I won't bother you with those details. It was a fairly nice weather day except it was very windy. I did get in a trip to Sprankle's and also a sit in the park. It was so windy, I could feel the metal benches which are fastened to concrete blocks moving slightly in the wind. I had to take my cap off and carry it lest it blow away. Still the temperature was in the low 70s and that made it very tolerable. Especially when the sun broke through the clouds. And that pretty much covers the day. -30-
Wed Mar 30 8:12PM - I was going to work on a timeline of my ham radio "career" today, but I got involved in other things and since the timeline would take a lot of work and research, I put it off till later. I will do it, but I just don't know when.
After winter made a final(?) curtain call this morning with a little mixed frozen precipitation, it turned out to be a very nice day with sunshine and a high of 66. I wound up outside quite a bit. I started with a shopping trip to Sprankle's to pick up a lot of groceries since I hadn't really been shopping since St. Patrick's Day for one reason or other and needed a lot of things. In the process it was nice to see two of my young friends there, Brianna, and Teela. Always good to see them. After I lugged all those groceries home, I set out again to Family Dollar for another load of things they have but Sprankle's doesn't have. I lugged them home, then got something to eat.
Next up it was a walk down to the park to sit and enjoy the weather. I guess that lasted about 45 minutes or maybe longer. I wasn't through yet. I came home and did a few chores including walking Roscoe. Then my neighbor Bruce treated me to a sub for helping him out with a couple things. After that, it was off to the park again. I was hoping for a sunset and some nice pictures for Jasmine, but nothing materialized, just kind of high gray clouds.
Home again, and up to the shack to find my terrible noise was back full force again. I found PJ5/SP9FOW on 20 overriding the noise, and worked him easily to keep the streak going. I think that's day #10,101 now. Yes, that's right. Also the first DX in a while now. -30-
Tue Mar 29 8:39PM - I had a QSO tonight with WA1K, and we got to talking a little bit about our ham history. Although he is much younger, we both had periods of inactivity in our ham careers. In fact he is just now getting back on the air after being QRT for a while. Anyway the point is that in a few days now on April 3 it will mark 59 years of being a ham for me. I'd like to talk about that as I do each year about this time.
My first license as KN3WWP is dated April 3, 1963, and my first QSO was on April 8 with the fellow who got me interested in getting my license. He got the call KN3WWW. We took our tests the same day from Red W3CYG in Kittanning. Unfortunately Larry KN3WWW died at the early age of 29 as his son told me about a year or so ago.
My first non-local QSO was on Apri1 22 with WN9GAR in WI on 40 meters. I stuck on 40 until I got some 80 meters crystals and my first 80 meters QSO was on October 20 with W2KAK after I had my General license which I got in August or September. I'll have to check that. I'm just doing this tonight from memory with some checking in my Excel log. I also had some 15 meters QSOs as a Novice, but TVI ended that quickly. Most TVs in those days had IFs around 21 MHz so.......
Looks like October 6 was my first 20M QSO with VE7BMW. Not bad for someone who didn't know a lot about what he was doing back then. HI. I progressed quickly in ham radio and soon learned a lot of things. College and Tech School kept me busy, but I stayed active on the bands up through December 4, 1973. The last 4 years activity was very limited since I started work at WPIT in April 1969.
I was off the air altogether from December 5, 1973 until June 17, 1981. Then active again from then until September 23, 1983. Off again until February 15, 1993. I'm going to have to cut this short for tonight as I need to do some other things now. Hopefully I may continue it on the actual 59th anniversary date of April 3. Filling in more details, etc. -30-
Mon Mar 28 8:40PM - One of those days when the bad happenings were offset by some good things which made it an average day. I'm not going into detail as it willl get boring. I should mention one thing though which may be of help to someone. I was trying to refill my iPhone Straight Talk plan this morning and none of the several ways I tried to do it seemed to work. Finally I tried one thing and it worked beautifully. I disabled the ad blocker on my Edge browser, and bingo it worked like it always had before. So if you run into anything similar, keep that in mind.
Now I'd like to bring you up to date on my SST results in the QRP Category.
I did a full hour in all but the 3/25 Friday one when I only did 45 minutes. The deadline for results still has 24 hours or so to go for the 3/28 one, but as I've said usually all results are in within 24 hours of the sprint.
Nice rag chew tonight for my streak QSO with Howard K4LXY on 40 meters. Solid 58/99 both ways for 29 minutes. -30-
Sun Mar 27 9:12PM - Had my best SST result tonight 38 25 950. Just missed the 40 QSO mark. Having the SST in the 8PM EDT hour kind of messes up my Sunday evening schedule, and I'm going to cut this entry short and have more to say about the SST, NCAA, etc. in tomorrow's entry. -30-
Sat Mar 26 8:31PM - Worked some real DX tonight - Natrona Heights, PA which is 20-25 miles from here. HI A new ham licensed about a year ago and just getting into CW. He didn't stay in QSO long so I don't know much about him. Think I'll drop him a letter when I get the chance.
I see Villanova just won and advanced to the final four. Next up it's Arkansas/Duke. A lot of folks are rooting for Duke because of Coach K's retiring after a long distinguished career. He's the only BB coach with over 1,000 wins in the NCAA.
It was a cold blustery day today so no walks. I did want to go to Sprankle's but not badly enough to go out in that weather, I guess. We also had some s#$w mixed in with the cold and wind. A little stuck to the ground, but quickly melted, thank goodness. I see the high was 43 today, so the s#$w didn't have much of a chance, but still too cold for me.
I checked the SST scores from yesterday, and I dropped to third place after another ham entered with a score better than mine. Oh well, winning is not important. Enjoyment is, and I really like these SST Sprints. They remind me of the old ARRL CD Parties from long ago, and the current NA QSO Parties of today. Nice quick simple exchanges that can be turned over quickly even though the speed is limited in the SSTs. -30-
Fri Mar 25 5:31PM - Just finished entering my first Friday SST Sprint after several Sunday SSTs. Got a late start as I was involved in some other activities. Only put in about 45 minutes of the hour, and made 28 QSOs, 18 Mults, and 504 points. I just logged on paper as I didn't want to waste time setting up GenLog on the laptop. Currently that's second in the QRP Category. I'm happy with the results. Projecting it to a full hour would be about 37 - 24 - 888 which would have been first place. I think from now on, I'll try to do a full hour in both the Sunday and Friday editions of the sprint.
I didn't notice any trace of my bad noise this afternoon. Perhaps it's something that only runs in the nighttime. Maybe that streetlight across the street. I'll have to see if the noise coincides with it or not. Maybe I'll try it tonight if I remember.
Besides the sprint about the only things out of the ordinary today were a shopping trip to get Roscoe his food and installing a new toilet paper roll holder to replace one that broke last week. Quite an exciting day, wouldn't you say? HI
Hope there are some good BB games this evening. It will be interesting to see how #15 seed St. Peters does against Purdue. Also to see if Kansas will be the only remaining #1 seed heading into the Elite Eight this weekend. -30-
Thu Mar 24 10:33PM - Yes, it's really that late. Things got kind of piled up and all times seemed to get pushed back. Almost like double DST. HI. You know they really did have double DST in WW II. I've always meant to read more about that, but never have gotten around to it.
None of the things that pushed the time around were interesting enough to write about, so I won't. It was a nice day and I took some good walks and long sessions sitting in the park. We had a fairly nice sunset tonite. I took some pictures of it from the park and sent some to Jasmine who enjoyed them.
My heavy noise was back on the bands tonight, especially 40 meters, so I used 80 and 30 to get a couple QSOs. Do you notice that 30 doesn't seem to be as active as it used to be, or is it just my location here or maybe just my imaginaton? -30-
Wed Mar 23 8:37PM - Seems to me that the new sunspot cycle is now pretty well underway. I notice QSOs in my log on the higher bands that weren't there a few months ago when most everything outside of contests was on 80 and 40. Tonight I had a nice rag chew on 20 meters, then had a tail end call when that ended. I don't get all that many tail enders on 20 and higher bands with my QRP. The rag chew was with an old fellow BCB NRC member and we reminisced about the good old days of BCB DXing in the 70s and 80s or so. That hobby went down hill when almost all BCB stations went 24/7 operation and also the FCC relaxed the BCB ID regulations which made it hard to ID stations especially since many of them went with satellite broadcasting services for their programming. Sigh! It sure was a lot of fun in those days, especially at sunset and sunrise and Sunday nights into Monday mornings when many powerhouse stations went silent for maintenance. I used a homebrew BCB receiver with mechanical filters and a homebrew altazimuth loop antenna. I logged some 1800 or so BCB stations in all states but Alaska and around some 60 countries. I think I got all continents except maybe Asia. I'll have to check sometime when I don't have something else going on which I usually do. I also DXed the LW aeronautical beacon band, SWBC stations, FM and TV stations as well. Maybe I'll dwell on some of those other non-Ham DX activities in future diary entries.
Oh the BCB rag chew was with Dave Fischer whom those of you who were involved in BCB DX should know from his writings in the NRC newsletter/magazine years ago. He was using the KCDX Club call of W0CW tonight. His personal call is W7FB.
We remain on the borderline between some leftover winter and some spring weather. We need a few more degrees to make it really comfortable, so come on, let's get going. Just a bit chilly for good walking most days right now. -30-
Tue Mar 22 8:31PM - I heard from Mike a while ago. We won't be doing the subpedition to the Requin until April 8. Mike can only do it on a Friday and Art couldn't reschedule his hours to accomodate us this Friday, and Mike is busy next Friday, the 1st. So that left the nearest available Friday as April 8. Oh well. More info as the day gets closer.
The bands were good tonight. My worst noise was gone again and the lesser noises weren't that bad plus there was a lot of activity all the way up through 15 meters. 40 was really busy, and 20 was close behind. I think I heard one signal on 17 and 2 or 3 on 15. Not much, but better than it has been for a while.
Otherwise not much else going on. Kind of a chilly cloudy day not conducive for good walking. I did go for one walk down to the park this evening. I was about the only one out walking.
And that wraps up this entry. Nobody answered my BB trivia from last night's entry, but I didn't really expect any answers. -30-
Mon Mar 21 8:24PM - Had a good sprint last evening with 36 QSOs, 25 Mults, 900 points, so far first in the QRP Category. We'll see if it holds up. I've noticed that most folks report their SST scores shortly after the sprint ends, so that bodes well, I guess.
A fairly quick streak QSO tonight at 0005Z when I worked Ray K2HYD on 40. Good thing too, because after our QSO, my worst noise started at around 0020Z. It had been absent for a few days.
It was a chilly day, wind chill wise although the temperature was in the 60s. I went for a couple walks in shirt sleeves, but probably should have worn a light jacket.
I'm waiting to hear from Mike about a possible subpedition this Friday. He is going to contact Art at the sub to set things up. Any day is OK with me so I figured we'd cut out the middleman, me, and have Mike and Art work out the date this time around.
Not much else going on. I'm undergoing withdrawal from basketball until the March Madness resumes on Thursday with the Sweet Sixteen in action Thursday and Friday, then the Elite Eight on Saturday and Sunday. It will bear watching to see if St. Peters can become the first #15 seed to win three games in a tournament. They play a tough #3 seed in Purdue who have had two strong games so far. St. Peters is one of only 3 #15 seeds to win two games now. In fact, no #14 has ever won 3 games either. I might check all the 13s also to see if they have 3 wins. I kind of guess they do, but who knows. What's the most common seed matchup in a tournament final? Hint: it's not 1 vs. 1 by itself, but 1/1 is tied with another combination at 8 each. That's according to my Excel spreadsheet from 1985 (when they went to 64 teams) through 2021. I have all the tournaments in the spreadsheet back through the first in 1939. What's the lowest seed to win a tournament? Who and when? -30-
Sun Mar 20 7:25PM - I think I'll do the full SST Sprint tonight if conditions are good and my noise is reasonable. So I'm writing the diary entry early. Really not much to write about. It was a blustery day that made it seem a lot colder than it actually was. Temperature in the 50s, but wind chill in the 30s?? I only went for one walk and that was just a little bit ago. I just wanted to get some fresh air.
I guess that really about covers the day. -30-
Sat Mar 19 8:41PM - Interesting propagation on the bands this evening. 15 meters was fairly well open to various parts of the World. K5GN in AR was booming in, PY2NDX was strong, a couple of UA stations were pretty good, but with the somewhat usual flutter. I managed to work UA0DAR. He got the WWP on the first call, but took a while to get the K3, then he wasn't sure of the WWP, but he put it all together for a solid QSO.
Other than the BB tournament with one very interesting game between Baylor and NC, nothing much else was going on, especially outside. It seemed every time I wanted to go out for a walk and/or down to Sprankle's, it started to shower, so I never did get out except for a quick walk in the park this evening before dark. I sure like Daylight Shifting Time. Just a note on the Baylor/NC game. NC was up by 25 with some 10 minutes remaining. Baylor caught up and took it to overtime. So the 'experts' said Baylor has the momentum now to win. No one told that to NC however, and they broke out of the gate fast in OT and pulled away a bit to win handily. I think even though the players and coaches are different, NC still has that great savvy to not worry about things and play and win games as they did today. So 1 #1 seed is out now. Kansas is still in it, and Gonzaga plays later tonight. The 4th #1 seed, Arizona plays the last game tomorrow evening. Then the sweet 16 go on to play next weekend to get down to the Elite 8. Love it!! -30-
Fri Mar 18 8:46PM - Didja ever hide something or just put something away somewhere, and were totally unable to remember just where it might be? I do it every now and then, but I think tonight was one of the worst cases. I bought some roses to give to my girl_______friends for Valentines Day and had a few left over with still one needed to be given to one girl who only works occasionally. So I put them away somewhere 2 or 3 weeks ago. I thought she might be there this weekend so I went looking for them. Do you think I could find them? Of course not. I looked high, low, and in between with nary a trace and I gave up. I went over to my coat rack for something, and lo and behold, there they were in their plastic bag hanging on the rack behind some other stuff. About 45 minutes wasted looking. Oh well, that's life, I guess.
Another good weather day with walks, etc. Also following the BB tournament. Only a couple upsets today so far, and not really big ones like yesterday when # 15 seed St. Peters beat # 2 seed Kentucky. I believe that's only the 11th time a 15 seed has won since they went to 64(68) teams in the tournament.
My QRN was present with a vengeance tonight. It was a struggle to work someone, but I caught a POTA station on 20 for the streak. -30-
Thu Mar 17 9:01PM - Not much I can talk about this St. Patrick's Day. Hope you all had a good one. Rough to get a QSO tonight, but I worked old friend Andy HB9CVQ on 30 meters. A beautiful weather day. Spent a lot of time outside walking, working, and sitting in the park just thinking. Also followed the NCAA BB Tournament on my new iPhone NCAA app. It's neat how it works to let me know every score all the time. As usual Richmond pulled a 12 over 5 upset in the first round. This time over Iowa. #1 Gonzaga had a rough first half, but got their act together in the second half and won by 20 or so over Georgia State. And so it went. -30-
Wed Mar 16 8:54PM - I fooled around in the NAQCC Sprint and now don't have much time to do the web site updates. So here's a short diary entry. It was a nice day today. The first day of the year when I went without a shirt while working outside in the yard. It hit 72 degrees and I got a slight start on my tan for the year.
I went for a couple walks also. Two in the park and one to Family Dollar. The park tonight had a beautiful sunset show which I photographed. I sent the pix to Jasmine and she thought they were pretty.
I guess that's about all the time I have for now. Going to get my weather readings, walk Roscoe, get the NCAA BB scores, and watch some TV with my neighbor. Oh, I got only two QSOs in the NAQCC Sprint. Too much QRN and QSB. -30-
Tue Mar 15 8:26PM - The Ides of March. My neighbor and I were wondering how many people nowadays still know what The Ides of March is.
Be that as it may, it's now the deadline for entries to the SST Sprint held Sunday evening, and I'm still in first place in the QRP Category. I started entering the SST Sprints seriously back on Valentines Day, and I've finished as follows in the QRP Category.
I'm happy with those results considering my high noise level, valley location, and simple wire antennas. I think on a good night I might make it to 40 QSOs. Last night I was on pace to do so, but then had a couple of slow periods that knocked down my rate.
I worked N8HWV in WI tonight for the streak. He mentioned the streak and I thought his call was familiar. I worked him on day 10K of the streak back on December 20.
Speaking of the streak, it is written up on page 69 of the April QST. I just got my copy a couple days ago, and was surprised to run across it there. -30-
Mon Mar 14 6:16PM - I had a busy day today with a couple computer projects and a couple of house projects
On the computer, I sent in my SST Sprint score again. For some reason it never went through last night, but it did today. As of now, I'm in first place in the QRP category among 12 entrants in that category. Now if I can hold on till tomorrow evening, I'll have my second first place finish in the last 4 or 5 weeks I've entered the SST.
I also finished getting my Excel spreadsheet ready for March Madness which starts tomorrow evening.
As for the housework, I removed the old external dryer vent from my window. I no longer need it since I got the internal vent a few weeks ago. That was a bit of a job, but I like hard work. It helps keep me young, and that's important at my stage of life. Of course there are other ways I keep myself that way also. I did a bit of fine tuning work on my new sump pump setup also. That wasn't as hard.
Time now to walk Roscoe for the 6:30 walk. Then fool around for an hour or so till it's time for my streak QSO. -30-
Sun Mar 13 7:44PM - A busy evening so far and it continues so I'll squeeze in the diary entry here. Of course it's selection Sunday for my favorite sporting event, March Madness, otherwise known as The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. I just finished putting all 68 teams into my Microsoft Excel spreadsheet in which I keep track of all the games in every round starting with the First Four this Tuesday evening. I've got a spreadsheet for each tournament since the event began many years ago. I'll talk more about it in upcoming entries, I'm sure.
Then of course it's the SST Sprint plus getting used to Daylight Shifting Time on top of everything else.
Gotta go now to get my GenLog program ready for the sprint. I had trouble setting it up last Sunday at the last minute, so I'm going to try to get it ready early this week. -30-
Sat Mar 12 8:06PM - The big event of the day was the unwanted visit of Old Man Winter who dropped about 5 inches of s@#w overnight and early this morning. Then he sent a strong wind to blow it all around. At least the wind blew it off the trees and wires as it was very wet when it started and stuck to everything. I hope OMW knows now that he is no longer wanted and stays away till December or January now, even longer if that is possible.
I haven't mentioned this, but during the past few days I've been "upgrading" my laptop with some software from AVG to make it more secure and protected. I installed AVG Internet Security which includes an Antivirus and Antimalware to protect the whole computer. Those are just two of the main features. There are more features also I won't list here. Then I installed the AVG VPN (Virtual Private Network) Which isolates my computer from just about everything and everyone who may want to try to break-in or spy on my computer via the Internet. Also two other units, AVG Tune Up which does just what its name implies. Tunes up my computer to make it run faster and more securely. Finally AVG Antitracking which keeps web sites, etc. from tracking my activity on the Internet. All in all, all the AVG apps or programs are very customizable so that they don't block everything, but allow me to let certain people, web sites, and so forth have access to me. I've noticed my laptop is somewhat faster now even with all the AVG apps running in the background. Also I worry less with having AVG guard me just like having a burglar alarm and perhaps a guard dog protecting my home.
I haven't put my two streak QSOs in my computer log yet, but I believe both were stations I hadn't worked before. I'll know that in a little while or heck, I might as well do it right now before I finish the diary entry. Nope, it was one and one. K1KTF was new, but I worked AJ4YA once before back in 2016.
Well, it's that time of year again tonight when Daylight Shifting Time goes into effect. I'm taking a little bit different tack this year. Instead of trying to remember which clock sets itself and which I have to set, I'm just going to wait till tomorrow and check all my clocks to see which ones did set themselves, and fix those that didn't. I'll see how that works out. No matter how it does, there still will probably be one that I forget to take care of. Fortunately it's usually an obscure one somewhere. HI -30-
Fri Mar 11 8:20PM - Not a whole lot to talk about today. I had one major project and all the rest I did was pretty much the usual everyday stuff. I did some work on my sump pumps. I switched the two of them around and did some adjusting of the float. That's it in a nutshell. I had a real quick TU 599 type QSO on 40 meters with CJ3A for my streak QSO. Now the rest of the weekend will be battening down the hatches for around 4-6 inches of the ugly white stuff. Hopefully the last time we have to do that this spring. Should never have put away the s@#w shovels last weekend. -30-
Thu Mar 10 8:24PM - Looks like Winter is making a second encore appearance this spring. Heavy s#$w predicted for Saturday anything from 2 up to 7 inches. Fortunately s#$w doesn't last long this time of year. Even the blizzard of '93 with a couple feet of s#$w was gone in a few days.
I called Art from the USS Requin this evening, and he said the Requin will be opening up after a winter of rest this Saturday. Mike and he are going to arrange a schedule for a subpedition. That cuts out the middleman, me, since anything is OK with me as far as a schedule. As soon as they decide, I'll announce the date here in the diary.
I had a QSO with WA1GXC in W. Kingston, RI this evening. It was very interesting. He has a lot of old gear and also likes to build gear. Unfortunately we had to cut it short since Bruce and I had some food on order and it came too soon as far as the QSO went.
I didn't get a chance to work on that s#$w video today. Maybe tomorrow. -30-
Wed Mar 9 8:16PM - Let's see what I was going to talk about tonight. I know I mentioned a couple things in last night's entry. OK, my tulips sprouting. I guess it happened last weekend when the temperature was in the 70s and I just didn't notice them until yesterday. So here's the picture:
Now today you wouldn't recognize the tulips as only the very tops were sticking out of about 2 inches of s#$w as Old Man Winter put on an encore performance this morning. Fortunately most has melted after a 40 degree day.
What else was there now? Oh the carpet work. I filled in a linoleum gap between two carpets with a couple throw rugs. It made for an interesting color combination as shown in the picture. It's better than the old cracked linoleum though. I cleaned up the carpets after taking the picture.
And for those sadists (or is it masochists) out there, here's a video of some huge s#$wflakes in the s#$w we had this morning:
OK, we s#$w haters lucked out. I'm having trouble with getting the video to work in the web site here. I'll work on it tomorrow if I have time. -30-
Tue Mar 8 8:30PM - Well, I got interrupted in writing here by my neighbor calling me over for a pizza, and I wasn't going to turn that down. I had some things to write about here, but time is running out now, so I'll tell what I was going to write and then flesh it out in tomorrow's entry if I remember. My tulips have sprouted. I have pictures of them. I did some carpet work in my house today. Maybe a picture of that. I got one QSO tonight with Larry W8VLN on 40. He said the upper bands have been good. I'll have to try them during the day. After the couple warm days, it was cold again today, so only one walk / shopping trip. Details in tomorrow's entry. -30-
Mon Mar 7 8:34PM - Not as good a day as yesterday, but you can't have great days every day. This one still wasn't bad. The weather wasn't good though. We had rain and very strong winds when a cold front came through around 4:30PM. There were trees and power lines down all over the county although we were spared in Kittanning probably because the town is in a river valley. Good for weather, but could be better for ham radio. I have no complaints on that account though.
Four QSOs again this evening including a special event VE station and a DX station. Also a solid late evening 20 meters solid 2X 599 QSO. And it closed out with a rag chew with old friend Bob. The calls and band in order: VA2PEACE 40, WA5EEZ 20, NP4AW 40, and NR8M 80. Oh, and my noise that returned the past couple nights was gone again tonight. Still all the usual noise, but at least that worst one is gone, hopefully for good.
I guess that sums up the day without boring you with all the usual everyday things. -30-
Sun Mar 6 8:08PM - Won't be long now till I have to wait till 8:00PM EDT to get my streak QSO as we go to Daylight Shifting Time next Sunday at 2:00AM. I kind of liked getting it out of the way at 7:00PM. That doesn't sound good as it sounds like I'm calling it something I didn't like doing when I say get it out of the way, but you get the drift. Anyway it will be great having it set up so that sunset comes an hour later according to the clock time, if not in reality. OK, nuff sed about that.
I'm in a good mood tonite because it was a great day with wonderful weather and a nice little chat with one of my Sprankle's girls. The temperature hit 71 according to my remote unit right next to me here. It felt great although it didn't quite feel 71 all the time with some gusty winds. Nice when it was calm and the sun was out though. Could have passed for May then.
It wasn't a good night for the SST Sprint though. I started out with two strikes and didn't get a home run tonight. I had to settle for maybe a double? I had trouble getting my laptop to start up when I took it to the shack and lost some 5 or 10 minutes. The second strike was that high noise level I mentioned last night. It made it rough copy on 40. However with my 58 years of copying CW under all conditions, I managed to almost get the same score as the last two weeks when I finished 1st and 2nd in the QRP Category. So we'll see how I made out this week with my 26 QSOs and 21 multipliers. I don't really care about winning or losing though. So that doesn't matter. Once I got rolling tonight it was fun, and that's the bottom line.
As I said, I'm feeling good tonight and probably could go on and on with this entry, but don't worry, I won't. I'll spare you. HI -30-
Sat Mar 5 8:27PM - A great weather day with a high in the mid 60s, great for walking in shirtsleeves. I took a couple walks and sat in the park for about a half hour on each walk. Felt great. There were a lot of people I guess came out of hibernation who were out walking kids, dogs, and themselves.
Actually it was so nice outside I didn't even stop in Sprankle's to see my friends or do any shopping elsewhere. Kinda regret that now. HI I'll have to get caught up on that tomorrow. I think it's supposed to rain tomorrow, but that won't matter.
I had 4 QSOs this evening despite the return of one of my noise sources on 40 meters. I had just been thinking how nice it was to have that noise gone. I probably shouldn't have done that as it seems maybe I summoned it up again. It did clear up enough to have 2 good solid QSOs on 40, then kind of hampered a third QSO. I also worked one station on 80. The returning noise wasn't bad on that band. -30-
Fri Mar 4 7:59PM - A good day again today, but not as great as yesterday. I got in a couple good walks, including a 3 mile one as soon as I got up this morning. I was still feeling good about yesterday and I doubled my usual 1.5 mile walk I start my days with. That's always an indoor walk. I got in a couple outdoor walks also. Mainly to the park and then down to Family Dollar to pick up some things and later to return one item that didn't work right.
Not a lot more to talk about today. After yesterday's long entry, that's probably a good thing. HI
Tonight I worked KC8KBD in NC and NV1B in ME both on 40 meters. -30-
Thu Mar 3 8:19PM - Boy, when spring came a couple days ago, everything turned great. I had a great day today. First I had the satisfaction of doing a great repair job on the wheel of my neighbor's walker. It looks almost professional. Fixing something is always very rewarding. When you do it for someone else who really needs the repair, it's doubly or triply rewarding.
Then later in the day I went for a walk around sunset to get some sunset pictures for Jasmine. It wasn't the best sunset, but it was nice. I got some 6-8 pictures of different stages. Then on the way home, I stopped in Sprankle's and was pleasantly surprised to see 3 of my young friends there. One was Haylee whom I don't see often since she spends her time really hitting her school books hard instead of working, and it pays off as she said she is getting all A's. I think that is great and told her I was proud of her. One of my newer friends, Brianna was there also. I showed her the sunset pictures and she said they were very nice. I asked Haylee if she would be working for a while yet. She wasn't sure. I said I had a Valentine Rose for her and would come back later with it. I got my groceries, checked out with Haylee, and went home. I was deciding if I wanted to go back later with the rose or not. I thought I would since I didn't know when I would have a chance to see her again. I came back and gave her the rose. She really liked it. I thought I'd give Brianna one too even though she has a steady boyfriend. That doesn't really matter, because these girls I talk about are strictly just friends. In a way like the daughters I never had. Anyway I gave her the rose and said if her boyfriend asked about it, just tell him a crazy old man gave it to you in Sprankle's. HI
Now to celebrate my great day, I'm going to order something from Vocelli's for me and my neighbor. Of course, Roscoe will get some of it too. HI
I've worked a lot of folks lately that I've worked a lot, but haven't worked in a while now, and there was another one tonight for my streak QSO. It was Bob K9OSC, and before that it was someone I worked before also, but unlike the others, I hadn't worked him that often. It was N5DY. Viva Spring!! -30-
Wed Mar 2 8:06PM - Ain't it great it's spring! I got out for a nice walk and some shopping. Also visiting some of my young friends. Oh, I also saw the first robin in from the forests early this morning. I wanted to get his picture, but I was walking Roscoe and couldn't get my iPhone camera before he flew away. I did get another chance when I walked through the park. It wasn't the best picture as he wouldn't pose correctly. HI However I texted it to Jasmine and she thought it was nice. I also showed it to a couple of my young friends at Sprankle's. I've got time, so I'll post it at the end of this diary entry along with one other I took of him. I also explained the difference between Meteorological and Astronomical Spring to my friend Alexis at the bank. She was very interested in it. I think a lot of folks are not at all interested, but she was different. I also kidded her about my money bag I keep my change in and then take it to exchange it, metal for paper as I put it. I'll have a picture of that too.
I just feel so really great after a day like today. Winter's departure is a great thing to celebrate every March 1. Although sometimes he makes an unwelcome encore in March. I hope not this year.
Another nice rag chew QSO with someone I haven't worked in a while was my streak QSO tonight. It was Jim K4WOP on 80 meters.
OK, let me take a few minutes and get the pictures ready for posting.
First the robin picture I sent to Jasmine.
Next the robin picture I edited quite a bit to get a decent if not great image of the robin out of the shadow of a bush in the park.
Then the money bag I kidded with Alexis about. I showed her the words on it and told her I never did quite get it filled up to that amount.
This has been a fun entry. Hope you enjoyed it. -30-
Tue Mar 1 8:05PM - Four things occupied most of my day. First I put my February weather data into my weather excel spreadsheet. February turned out to be a little above average in temperature and quite a bit above normal in precipitation. Only a few daily records were set. Three days had precipitation above 1 inch all of which were daily records. One day had a record daily low temperature range of three degrees between high and low. That was it for daily records.
Second I uploaded my February QSOs to the LoTW, then to eQSL for the third thing.
After that to celebrate the coming of Spring today I cut my hair. Other than that, the only other things I did were my usual daily chores. I wanted to go walking outside, but every time I thought about it, either some rain started or looked like it was going to start. So I decided to put that off until tomorrow.
My streak QSO tonight was with K4SUE in SC on 40 meters. Oh, looks like I finished second this week in the QRP Category of the SST Sprint. NQ2W took first place. -30-
Mon Feb 28 8:42PM - Just a couple hours now till Spring arrives. Isn't it wonderful! I feel sorry for those who celebrate Astronomical Spring. You have some 21 or so days till your Spring arrives. It's much more satisfying to have Meteorological Spring which arrives on March 1 every year. This year it really looks like spring also with all the s#$w gone and mild temperatures here. It's great. I'm in a state of euphoria.
Of course, being the last day of a month, I had my usual end of month chores to take care of. I'm almost done except flipping some calendar pages, putting my February weather data into my Excel weather spreadsheet, and a couple other little things.
Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer with a high in the mid-50s. I'll probably go for some outdoor walks. I need to go to the Post Office and I also want to go to Sprankle's to see who of my young friends are working and to get some groceries as well.
I just feel so great right now that winter is about to depart. Also it won't be long now till Daylight Shifting Time goes into effect and we have some nice bright evenings again. Wow!! We even had a nice sunset this evening to welcome the coming of spring. I took some pictures and texted some to Jasmine. I always think of her when we have nice sunsets as we both enjoy them. It's getting a little late now. Maybe I'll share a couple of the sunset pictures with you also in tomorrow's diary entry. -30-
Sun Feb 27 8:09PM - I had fun in the SST again this evening. I don't know if I'll wind up with a two game winning streak in the QRP Category or not. I made one more QSO than I did last week when I won, but.... I guess I'll find out on Tuesday after the entry deadline. I even worked V31XX in the SST. Also outside the SST, I worked a nice prefix in 4A90SON on 20M.
Other than doing my laundry and making gingerbread with my neighbor, there was not much going on besides the SST. -30-
Sat Feb 26 9:25AM - I've changed my mind. Well, if women can do it all the time, I can do it now and then. Apologies to any YLs/XYLs reading this.
Unlike I said a few entries ago, I've decided to keep my contest "honor roll", and have two "honor rolls", one for contesting QSOs, and one for total QSOs. Of course I mean QSOs using CW and QRP and only K3WWP QSOs. It is just so easy updating things using my Microsoft Excel log, it won't take all that much time keeping both updated a few times per year depending on how active I am.
Hey, look, only a couple days till spring. This is one time I'm glad time seems to pass faster when one gets old. Of course, March can be a nasty month, but is generally typical of early spring as far as weather goes. One exception was 1993, remember the blizzard? Also 1960 when March was colder than either January or February. That kind of spurred on my meteorological interests when that happened and the interest is still going strong after 62 years. My weather records started as a school project in 1959, actually mid-January 1959 and were intermittent that year. On January 1, 1960, my continuous records started and are still continuing.
Well, I think I'm going shopping with my neighbor now unless he has changed his mind (speaking of) as he does much more often than I do. HI -30-
Fri Feb 25 5:33PM - I finished the Honor Roll page I've talked about the past couple entries. To see it, go to the QRP SECTION, QRP Honor Roll page. If you find out you may be on there, email me and let me know.
That's the entry for today. -30-
Thu Feb 24 8:20PM - It's still not perfectly clear what our weather is going to be tonight, but it does look better than it did since the freezing rain seems to have been eliminated, leaving just rain, s@#w, and sleet. Most of the overnight stuff is predicted to be rain. However with the temperature in the low 30s, it's still up in the air (pun intended). Anyway no use worrying about it since I don't have any control over it.
Just one QSO tonight as there wasn't much activity being heard here. I worked WO8L in NC on 80 meters.
I finished parsing my Excel log looking for data for the honor roll page I mentioned in yesterday's diary entry. I've got all the data now, and have to put it into a page in my web site now. I guess it should go in the QRP section, but I'm not positive yet. Here are the top ten stations and the number of QRP QSOs I've had with them followed by some notes.
KB3BFQ is my former neighbor Eric who is responsible for the idea of my streak. We made QSOs in a lot of contests as he liked contesting. He also had a streak going for a while, and I helped him with some of his QSOs, but didn't count them for my streak.
A lot of the W1AW QSOs came in the 100th anniversary event in 2014. I worked all 50 states and perhaps an average of 3 or 4 QSOs per state on different bands.
N2ESE was a good rag chewing buddy with some QSOs in our NAQCC Sprints. He also had (has?) a streak going. His is QRO with at least 2 QSOs per day. I'd like to check with him to see if it is still going. I haven't heard him in quite a while now.
Of course you know WY3H, I'm sure. He lived a couple miles from here and was co-founder and first President of the NAQCC. I also have 102 more QSOs with him when he was KB3LFC, and I think another when he was KC3YD if memory serves. Don't have time to check at the moment.
K4BAI of couse is a well known contester, but also a good friend with whom I've had rag chew QSOs also. I also have many more QSOs with him when I ran more than 5 watts before QRP was declared to be 5 watts output or less. Before that it was 100 watts or less input power. I plan to write about that change in the diary some time. Now back to the honor roll.
W9MSE, N4BP, W2JEK, and W2SH were mostly contest QSOs. I think all QSOs with N4BP were contest. I have had some rag chews with the three others. I also had an eyeball QSO with W2SH once.
KA2KGP is a mix of rag chews and contest QSOs, mostly NAQCC sprints. I've also seen Tom at some hamfests over the years and in fact had a little story about that in a recent diary entry.
Sadly a few of the honor roll members are now Silent Keys like N4ROA, WA8REI, K4UK, K5KA, and perhaps a couple more also.
When I do the web page, I'll probably have notes like this about other members. There are 86 stations with whom I've had 50 or more QRP QSOs. -30-
Wed Feb 23 8:10PM - Basically just sitting around here waiting to see what kind of weather we are going to get the next couple of days. There are a few different forecasts I track here and all seem to be forecasting something different or different quantities of it. They include rain, sleet, snow, and freezing rain. I haven't seen any hail (wrong time of year for that basically) or graupel predicted among the various precipitation types. So it's just wait and see.
I had another multi-QSO evening tonight. I've had quite a few of them lately as I've been staying in the shack longer as conditions are picking up as the new sunspot cycle gets its act in gear. Tonight it was all on 40, K3UT GA, W0KO MN, and WA4IAR GA. None of the three were real long QSOs for one reason or other.
I've got to go check something now. Be right back. You won't even know I'm gone. HI OK, I was checking the K1USN SST Sprint scores from this past Sunday. I think the deadline for entries is past now, and I have the top score in the QRP category among 12 entrants. I'm happy with that. It's only the third time I've put in a full hour in the SST. I usually just use it to get my streak QSO. I really like the SST after those three times doing the full hour, and think it will be a regular Sunday evening event for me from now on, at least for a while.
I'm making a change in the web site. I mean changing one page. I'm going to stop updating my contest honor roll page, and instead have an honor roll of stations I've worked the most times using 5 watts or less, both in contests and in regular QSOs combined. I've checked about a third of my 93,000+ QSOs so far and the top three stations are as of now, K4BAI 221 QSOs, K4LTA 129, AA3B 109. Of course most of the QSOs of the leaders will be contest QSOs, but there will be a few consisting of only regular QSOs. I hope to have it finished in a few days after we get these storms out of the way. -30-
Tue Feb 22 8:48PM - The big project today was installing a new sump pump. My 21 1/2 year old one gave up the ghost a few days ago. It went fairly smoothly and pumped out some water from some moderate rain today.
No walking today as it was too wet. Would have been a nice day for walking without the rain as it was near 60 for a few hours. In fact, it's still 60 right now.
Three QSOs tonight including TO4A whom I got on 40 with but a single call. The bands were pretty much in average shape tonight. Not a lot of stations heard here though. -30-
Mon Feb 21 8:31PM - A nice day today so I took a couple longer walks combined with some shopping. The high was 63 on my remote unit. So the first walk was in shirtsleeves, the second later in the day with a light jacket. I can't wait till shirtsleeves will be the norm for walking outdoors.
Not really much else to talk about. I did some updating of my Excel log with the QSOs from the SST last night as well as finishing up some ARRL DX QSOs.
The bands were good this evening and I made 4 QSOs on 80 through 30 meters. 80 - NR8M, 40 - KC2KWA,K9CZ, 30 - W5BIB. -30-
Sun Feb 20 8:12PM - This was a good day for the most part. I'll dwell just on the positive since it covers 99 percent of the day. Remember the lyrics from a song that go like this: Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and don't mess with Mr In-Between. That's what I'll do. The weather was very nice today after a cold start and we had a good snow-melt which enabled me to go for a walk and stop at Sprankle's for some shopping and to see who of my "girls" were working. There was one I've known for a while, and to whom I gave a little Valentine's rose about a week late since I hadn't seen her in more than a week. There was also one new girl working there whom I hadn't talked to before today. So that made for a nice day already.
I took a brief check of the DX Contest around noon, and it didn't have a lot to offer so I never did get back in it. Instead I concentrated on getting the QSOs into my K3WWP Excel log. I wound up with 106 QSOs and 65 multipliers, but I'm most happy about making the contest WAC as I mentioned yesterday.
Then I did my laundry and after that finished, I got in the SST Sprint this evening. Let's see, I made 26 QSOs, down from last week's 33. Conditions were strange tonite with some rapid QSB and even more noise than usual, plus a few regulars seemed to be missing, maybe bothered by the DX test ending just as the sprint started. Anyway it was fun as always.
Now I'm updating the web site and then walking Roscoe and visiting with my neighbor a while before closing out the day doing this or that till midnight. -30-
Sat Feb 19 8:04PM - Mike was here all day, so long time diary readers know that was a great day. Mike arrived around 8:15AM and we got right to setting up for the ARRL DX Contest. I had a few things ready in advance so it didn't take long to finish and get going chasing DX. We stayed at it from around 8:30AM till 7:30PM except for a sub sandwich from Vocelli's around 4:30-5:00PM. I also had to take Roscoe for 3 short walks when I left Mike alone in the shack for 10-15 minutes each.
I'm not looking at my log right now, but I think I made around 105 QSOs in about 60 or so band-countries. I'll have more info in tomorrow's diary entry. Right now I'm a bit on the tired side. I find it more tiring just sitting at the radio desk than doing some walking and exercising. I did finish up my Apple watch fitness circles. I thought I wouldn't make it, but I did. I don't think I'll finish my 20,000 steps for today though.
Just rambling on a bit here in no partucular order. I managed to make a contest WAC for the first time in quite a while. Let's see from memory in no order. Asia - JH4UYB, Africa - CR3W, Europe - TM6M, Oceania - KH6LC, South America - P44W, North America - VP5M. I think that's right - it's been a while since a contest WAC was made.
OK, enough for tonight. -30-
Fri Feb 18 9:07PM - Busy, busy, busy. Billy De Wolfe's phrase applies to the ARRL DX Contest. I think with sunspots returning and providing good conditions again, everybody and his brother is in the contest. I haven't heard such a busy contest in a long time now. It was rough for me to break through the big pile ups, but I managed 15 QSOs, and the very first one was Japan - JH4UYB whom I've worked several times. Also heard JA3YBK, but didn't get him. Lot's of fun and warmed up for tomorrow now, I think. Oh, 15 was open well past 0100Z tonight. That's where I got JH4UYB. Gotta go now. -30-
Thu Feb 17 8:06PM - This was a good day overall with a couple little glitches along the way. I got my Federal and State income taxes filed on-line today with Turbo-Tax and both have been accepted as OK. I did run into a missing 1099-R form along the way though, and had to walk down to the bank to get one. No big deal and it was nice for a walk. Best of all, filling out the forms and filing them with Turbo-Tax was totally free since my forms are always simple each year. I don't have a lot of fancy financial dealings - hardly any at all. An advantage of being a little poor, I guess.
Then it was a good evening on the bands. I had six QSOs, five of them were DX stations getting ready for the ARRL DX this weekend which I talked about last night. The other QSO was one of those with someone I haven't worked in a while, Tom KA2KGP. I mentioned him in the diary a few entries back, I believe. Yes, back on Feb 8's entry. The five DX stations came on 3 different bands as follows: V47UM 30, FM/VE3DZ 20, ZF2MJ 20, TI5/N3KS 40 (we have worked many times and took a few extra seconds to greet each other by name), and FM/VE3DZ 40. Lot's of fun! -30-
Wed Feb 16 7:54PM - A busy day today with some planned projects and some unplanned. Planned was a trip to the groomer for a haircut and toenail trim for Roscoe. That should get him ready for the upcoming warmer spring weather.
Unplanned was my neighbor Bruce having a problem with his smartphone. It just went dead on him despite the battery being fully charged and everything looking OK. A trip to Walmart cured the problem. Somehow it just needed a hard reboot. The tech guy there said that happens to Android/Alltel phones now and then.
The past few nights I've been working folks I have worked a lot, but not recently like W9VC, NR8M, CO8LY, K9MMS, and now tonight it was K8MPH. After we had a 20 minute rag chew I went to 30 meters and found CT9ABV there and got him on the very first try. So DX is gradually creeping into my log again even though I don't chase it like I used to. Hopefully there will be a lot more this weekend in the ARRL DX Test. Mike and I will do a tag team effort on Saturday, but he can't stay the full weekends now since he has his dog Jayden to take care of. So I don't know how much of an effort I will put in on Sunday. Just depends mainly on my mood. I don't really have anything planned for Sunday so unless that changes, I would have the time to put in a good effort. It's not as much fun going it solo for me anymore though. -30-
Tue Feb 15 2:28PM - One thing I neglected to mention in yesterday's entry was an additional pedometer app I have on my phone/watch. It measures total steps, distance, and floors climbed. Here's a picture:
The top line is total steps - 10,482 at 2:11PM today.
Middle - total miles - 4.3 today so far.
Bottom - number of floors climbed - I've gone up 4 flights of stairs so far today.
I have a goal set for 10,000 steps a day. The green ring closes when the goal is reached. I always try to wind up with 20,000+ steps a day though, so perhaps I should adjust the pedometer goal to that figure. I may do that some day.
There is also a Health app on the iPhone that displays a lot of the stats I've talked about in much more detail plus more stats I haven't mentioned like Walking Asymmetry, Walking heart rate average, Walking speed, Resting energy, Heart rate variability, Stand minutes, Step length, and too many more to take time to list here. It really can give you data on many many aspects of your health.
Since I posted my diary entry early yesterday, I didn't get a chance to talk about my streak QSO last night. It was someone that Mike and I have worked many times each, and if we don't hear him for a while, we kind of wonder if he is OK. I'm talking about CO8LY. After I worked him, I texted Mike and said something like, "I bet you CAN guess who was my streak QSO tonight". Well, I was right. He got it on the third guess after trying WB3FAE and K3WW. I've worked CO8LY 62 times. I don't know how many times Mike has worked him, but it's a lot also. Bottom line, it's good to know he is still well, and active. -30-
Mon Feb 14 1:43PM - I think I said in the diary some time ago I was going to talk a little more about my exercise regimen. Or maybe I just thought about it and didn't say it. Whichever way it was, I'm going to do it today. I'm in a good mood after seeing one of my Sprankle's girls and giving her a Valentine's Rose just a little while ago.
As you know, about a year ago now, my friend Jasmine encouraged me to get a smart phone. I did, and got one similar to the one she had, an Apple iPhone. That was one of the best decisions I've ever made, and without her, I might have never gotten one. Thanks Jasmine. Well, she also had an Apple Watch, and while she didn't directly encourage me to get one, I did want to have one like hers, so maybe 4-6 weeks later, if that long, I got the Apple Watch like hers. With her help, and some help from Mike also, I learned how to use both quickly, although I still need to ask her about some point here and there. I do have a very good handle on both now after almost a year. With that introduction, let me get on now and describe how they help me with my exercise regimen.
The watch has a Workout app, that can be set to various types of exercise, including running, cycling, rowing, stair stepping, yoga, and many more. I use only two of the others though, indoor walking, and outdoor walking which I'll describe now.
The walking apps are very similar to each other except for a couple of items in the readout on the watch. The display for indoor shows the following:
Elapsed time
Active Calories expended
Total Calories espended
Heartbeats per minute
Distance walked
For the outdoor it's:
Elapsed time
Active Calories expended
Heartbeats per minute
Average time per mile
Distance walked
You can set a goal for each of the following:
Open - no goal, just totals for the items
Calories
Distance
Time
As the workout is in progress, the watch displays the items as shown here for an outdoor walk. An indoor walk is similar with Total calories instead of average time per mile:
There is also a display that can be alternated with the above displays that looks like this:
It shows the time of day and a graphical/text display of:
Active calories (red ring)
Exercise minutes (green ring)
Number of hours in which you stood for at least a minute and moved around (blue ring)
The rings close as the daily goal is reached. My goals are:
Red - 520 calories
Green - 70 minutes
Blue - 10 hours
I'm nearing a year of closing all three rings each and every day. Actually I think in the early days, I may have missed some days. I need to really check that out when I have time. All info is archived in the phone so I can do that.
I may have some more to add to this some time, but I think that gives an idea of what I do daily here. If you exercise, I think you should look into an iPhone/Apple Watch to help you track things. -30-
Sun Feb 13 8:12PM - To paraphrase Charles Dickens' opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities: Today was the best of times, today was the worst of times. Well, not really, but I wanted to do something different to open the diary entry.
It was a little bad today when I went to Sprankle's with the intentions of giving a Valentine rose to a couple of friends who work there. However they were all off today, so I'll have to try again tomorrow.
It was good with the weather today. A bit chilly, but still nice with no s@#w in sight. Well, perhaps a couple flurries, but I ignored them.
It was a good SST Sprint this evening. I bested my top number of contacts in the hour long sprint by two set just last week. I made 31 QSOs last Sunday and 33 this evening. I'm really enjoying the SST Sprints. Wish I'd gotten into them more often instead of just using them for my streak QSOs. I think I might be able to do 40 QSOs when conditions are a bit better as I had some breaks of a few minutes without any QSOs tonight. We'll see. -30-
Sat Feb 12 9:21AM - Every once in a while usually after I have a great day like yesterday, I like to post some interesting info gleaned from emails that I receive.
I received this from Enzo M0KTZ last month. I'm posting it not for the congratulatory info it contains, but for something he says near the end which the congratulatory info serves as an intro or prologue. He gave me the OK to post it. I always ask before posting anything.
"Dear John K3WWP,
I am a relatively new ham, fully licensed in the UK in July 2021. Since then I have been operating exclusively CW QRP, and I am having a lot of fun. I read the fantastic story of your 10,000-one-QRP-CW-QSO-a-day feat on the GQRP mailing list. I am just amazed.
I will be honest with you: I have never venerated any "hero" in my life, since I believe any of us becomes a hero when they do what they love and what they believe in. But man, your dedication and skill are beyond human comprehension. So if I had to have a hero, well, that would be you, without any doubt HI HI
I love CW and QRP and I will try to step on your footprints. I am 42 now, so if I am lucky I might have just enough time to get there HI HI.
But most of all, I really hope we will have the chance to have a QSO, sooner or later. I will be looking for you.
Thanks for having provided us the best living example that science knows much more and much better than what commercial rig sellers want us to believe.
72 de Enzo M0KTZ"
Read that last sentence again and ponder it. I think it is true that many commercial rig companies do push much more complicated and EXPENSIVE equipment that is not at all necessary to enjoy this wonderful ham radio hobby. I never realized until Enzo pointed it out, that in a way my activities with QRP/CW prove beyond a doubt that you don't need to be a rich person to enjoy the hobby. A cheap (as in not expensive) simple station can provide many hours of enjoyment on the bands. Thanks Enzo. -30-
Fri Feb 11 8:51PM - Running a bit late tonight and quite a bit to say so I'll do a Readers Digest style. Another great s#$w melt day with a high near 60. Good riddance s#$w. Don't come back.
I got my flowers for Jasmine today (Jasmine flowers, what else?) and gave them to her. We had a nice long visit talking about a lot of things.
Bands were decent tonight and I had a couple rag chews.
Took a long outdoor walk today and did some shopping downtown at Family Dollar. Tomorrow maybe I'll go to Sprankle's and shop there and see who is working there. -30-
Thu Feb 10 8:46PM - Another s@#w melt day, thank goodness. Still quite a bit left, but a lot of grass showing now and a lot of bare dry sidewalks as well.
Another 3 QSO evening, KI4PS VA 40, W9VC IN 40, NI8N OH 80. Mid length rag chew QSOs.
Otherwise an ordinary day. -30-
Wed Feb 9 8:31PM - Very good bands tonight, especially 40 meters. I had just short of a solid hour of 3 rag chew QSOs from 0004Z to 0101Z. The first and last came on my single CQ. Thanks to NR4A in FL, WQ9H in IN, and W2CW in NC. W2CW was also running QRP and was solid copy through my QRN which was down a little, but still present and annoying.
Other than that it was a nice warm day with a high in the mid 50s, but with increasing clouds in the afternoon. Because of that and the ice mixed in with the s#$W, the melt was good, but could have been better. At least the sidewalks are cleaned off, at least where there was an effort to clean them by the property owners. Hopefully in a couple more days even those sidewalks will be clean and I can resume my walking. I need to get down to Sprankle's and see my young girl.....friends there.
Not much else going on so I'll close and get my Home Page and the Propagation Page updated. -30-
Tue Feb 8 7:36PM - It only hit around 32 degrees today, but still we had a little more s@#w melt which was nice. As the Sun's position in the sky increases this time of year, its heating power increases, and that is a great help in leading the way to defeating this horrible season and its miserable weather.
I almost forgot that tonight is our monthly NAQCC sprint, so when I thought of it, I set an alarm on my Apple watch so I wouldn't forget it again. Conditions seemed pretty good this evening so maybe I'll stick around a bit and try to get 5 or so QSOs instead of my usual 1 or 2 just so I can keep at the top of the number of sprints entered list. I'm not perfect as I have missed a few of them over the years. Tom KA2KGP is only a few behind me for the top spot, so I have to keep him at bay. However if anyone does catch and/or pass me, it would be nice if it was Tom. I know him in person from meeting him at several hamfests, and he's really a great guy.
I remember one hamfest in Butler several years ago, he snuck up to our table while I was occupied with something and the table next to ours had a keyer and CPO on it. He used that to send his call which I caught and looked over to see him standing there. I'll always remember that. -30-
Mon Feb 7 8:06PM - Somewhat of an interesting day, or different at least. I got to enjoy one of my favorite things today as far as weather goes. That is, a decent s#$w melt as the temperature was in the mid-40s for quite some time. However the layer of ice in between the s@#w inhibited a real good melt, but still any melt is a good one in the right direction. It gave me a chance to work on getting my sidewalks cleaned off. Also it allowed me to get out to my weather shelter in the back yard for the first time in a couple days now.
I also helped my neighbor's brother install a light over his brother's porch steps next door for better visibility at night. It seems to be working well so far.
One of my two Valentine's Day flower bouquets came this morning and the other I ordered this morning should be here on Thursday. I hope the girls I'm getting them for will like them. We'll see, I guess. -30-
Sun Feb 6 8:30PM - For the second Sunday in a row I did the full SST Sprint hour. I upped my QSO total from 21 last week to 31 this week. 40 was really hot and I also got one QSO on 20 meters. A lot of fun and a good rate of 31 per hour. I think I may try to make this a weekly event from now on. We'll see.
Not much more to talk about as I'm doing some on-line shopping for a special Valentine's Day gift for someone and I am going to try to get the order it tonight or tomorrow at the latest. Nuff sed about that for now. -30-
Sat Feb 5 7:09PM - I'm listening to Cousin Brucie on 77 WABC as I'm typing. He's broadcasting via cell phone in upper NY State where all other communication forms are down from the ice storm. He's been doing his show from upper NY where he has a home since CoVid 19. It's every Saturday from 6PM to Midnight on 77 WABC via radio, internet, etc. It seems WABC is going back to its Top 40 days at least on the weekends. Right now he's doing a tribute to the three rock and roll stars who lost their lives in the plane crash on February 3, 1959, Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper. I'm sure those of you in my age group know all the details about that, so I won't add more here.
I got a quick streak QSO in the VT QSO Party from K1MZM on 80 meters.
Now back to listening to Cousin Brucie. -30-
Fri Feb 4 7:54PM - This was a pretty good day considering the dire weather predictions of last night. We wound up an almost negligible coating of ice topped off by about 2 inches mixed sleet and s@#w. Some s@#w was added today, less than an inch. Many communities got it MUCH worse than us. We are thankful here, but sorry about all the not so fortunate folks.
Topping off the day was my streak QSO with Lane N8AFT over in OH. He's a good friend and long time diary follower. If all works out, Mike and I might take a trip over to Columbus, OH to see Lane later this year. I think I'll text Mike about the QSO and also see how he made out in the storm. -30-
Thu Feb 3 8:41PM - Still waiting to see what the storm is going to bring. All it did so far today was rain quite a bit with the temperature between 37 and 34 where it is now as I write this. One common thread is that the ice accumulation will be less than 0.1 inches which is good. Then throw in a mixture of rain, sleet, and snow to finish the recipe. I hate winter!! Come on spring!!
The bands seemed poor tonight, and it took a little looking to find and work WC4N in TN on 80 meters for a short QSO. -30-
Wed Feb 2 8:19PM - Just sitting around waiting to see what the big storm is going to bring tomorrow and tomorrow night. The predictions are all over the ballpark and of every kind imaginable, so it is hard to tell.
Meanwhile I'm entering my LoTW confirmations into my log. I hadn't done it for a couple months now and there are certainly a lot with a couple big contests mixed in this time.
Not much else to talk about. -30-
Tue Feb 1 8:01PM - Here we go with yet another month and time again to wonder how time passes so quickly and accelerates as we get older. I did a few leftover end of month / first of month chores today. I mailed in a couple bill paying checks and did a little shopping courtesy of my neighbor and his van. I think only one thing remains and that is to enter my January weather data into my Excel Spreadsheet. I might do that after I finish my web site updates. Actually I went out to my weather shelter in the back yard for the first time in about a week today. I adjusted the shelter readings a bit with the remote unit I have been using for those seven or so days. The overall low for example was -9 on the mercury in glass thermometer vs. -11 on the remote unit. Little adjustments like that with a note in my records explaining it. Well, I better stop talking and get to it. -30-
Mon Jan 31 7:35PM - A quiet day to close out the first month of 2022. Of course it was my end of month chores day and I got most of them done. I still have to upload my January logs to LoTW and eQSL. Think I'll do that after this diary update is finished. Actually I guess it is finished now as I don't have much else to say except it was a very quick streak QSO this evening. Almost as soon as I sat in the shack chair, I found and worked Joel W3ZT on 80M up in NY. -30-
Sun Jan 30 8:21PM - I thought I'd do something different this evening and put in a full one-hour effort in the SST Sprint. I've always wanted to do that but always wound up just getting my streak QSO, then quitting. I set a goal of 25-30 QSOs, but fell a bit short with only 22. I did work most of the stations I was hearing through my QRN, but there were some that never made it out of the noise well enough to work them. Still it was fun, and I may try it again some Sunday evening. I did my laundry in the afternoon today to clear up the time for the SST Sprint this evening.
Other than that not much out of the usual daily routine went on. -30-
Sat Jan 29 12:18PM - A beautiful sunny day today, although cold at 24 degrees now. I spent a lot of the morning getting caught up to date on the response to several postings about my 10,000 day streak. I think I've answered all the emails and guestbook entries, but if you sent me something expecting a reply and didn't get one, let me know. Either I didn't get it or it got lost among all the responses.
Now I'm going to take it easy the rest of the day. I'm not very good at that, so before long, I'll be delving into something to do. HI I'll cover anything left over about the streak response in tomorrow's entry. Oh, here's something else now. I had 853 visitors to my website on yesterday, the 28th. That's an all-time one day high number of visitors beating out 739 back on June 3, 2014. I'm not sure why the big response that day. A note in my spreadsheet for that date says simply "Thank you email posted" ????-30-
Fri Jan 28 9:07AM - A couple of days ago I asked about a surge in visitors to my web site. Since then it has become clear what is going on. That was just the tip of the iceberg popping to the surface. It started on the 23rd with 140 visitors, then the totals for the next few days were 92, 104, 115, 182. That was on my Free Visitors Counters site through the 27th UTC date which it uses instead of local time days. StatCounter, my other counter server showed 349 visitors for the 27th. For today, the 28th so far, FVC shows 580 and counting, and SC shows 166 and counting.
So what is going on. Well, the story of my 10,000 day streak appeared in a few sources. Those that I know of are The ARRL Letter, an email by Marty AG3I to all the Skyview ARA members, the GQRP mailing list, and maybe some others I am not aware of yet. Since then, I have gotten a lot of congratulatory emails and guestbook entries. I will try to respond to all personally, but for now, here is a list of those whom I've heard from and say thanks to. Hope I don't miss anyone.
Ron NG7V, Enzo M0KTZ, Dave K6WDE, Rich K4CPM, Sean W9MCP, Matt K7BG, Marty AG3I, John W4KV, Steve K4EU, Van NH7IT, Paul N8XMS, Mark G8XQB, Geo N1EAV, Bernie KQ3Z, Gene AA8MI. Wow, that's quite a turnout. A special mention to Matt K7BG. He and I are contest buddies for many years going back to when he was AA7BG. I also got MT from him as W1AW/7 back in the ARRL centennial celebration in 2014. We recently worked in the NAQP for the first time in a while.
I'll have more about the response in upcoming diary entries. For now though, I have other things to take care of including walking Roscoe in the newly fallen s@#w. He seems to like the white stuff so I've started calling him King (of Sergeant Preston fame). -30-
Thu Jan 27 8:57AM - Yes, AM. I thought I'd write a weather entry since many of you seem to enjoy meteorological info as I do.
When I went to bed last night at midnight, it was already 2 below zero so I figured we had a chance to get a somewhat rare double digit below zero reading by sunrise. I was right. Here's a picture of my La Crosse Technology (I still call it AcuRite at times so either reference means the same unit) remote weather unit. Beside it a picture of my old CompuTemp remote unit. The difference in the readings comes from one (La Crosse) sensor mounted in my shelter in the back yard, and the CompuTemp sensor being mounted on my sheltered front porch. Right now with the sun shining in the back yard, La Crosse shows zero degrees and the Computemp hovering between -4 and -5. Now the pictures taken very near sunrise at 8:11AM.
That set me thinking about past cold days. Here's a time sequence of my all-time records as they advanced over the years.
25 Jan 12 1959 (First day of my records
23 Jan 14 1959
12 Jan 16 1959
6 Jan 18 1959
-2 Mar 8 1960
-4 Dec 23 1960
-6 Jan 25 1961
-12 Feb 2 1961
-16 Jan 24 1963
-18 Jan 17 1982
-20 Jan 21 1985
-21 Jan 19 1994 (18th thru 21st, lows were -10 -21 -11 -18. High on the 19th was -4)
All in all there have been 16 years since 1959 with temperatures of -10 or colder here at my house. The earliest in winter was Dec 18 1989 (-10), latest in winter Feb 27 1963 (-10)
That's it for today. Time to move on to some other hibernation activities. -30-
Wed Jan 26 5:37PM - I was just sitting here at the laptop doing pretty much nothing, and I thought I'd try to get caught up on some topics I wanted to put in the diary, but never got around to them.
First of all, I am wondering if my site was posted somewhere popular as I have had a surge of visitors the past few days. Maybe just a coincidence, but that's usually the reason for a surge. If you know, email me.
A few days ago I got an email from Gregg WB8LZG, one of our very early NAQCC members. He congratulated me on entering my 200th NAQCC Sprint recently. I had no idea I was there, although I knew I was getting close. Whew, that's a lot of sprints. I'm sure I don't have a total like that in any other sprint or contest. Gregg also added some other comments about me and the history of the NAQCC. I asked him if he would let me post them. I'm still waiting to hear from him about that. Anyway, thanks Gregg for all the comments and info.
Let me go through my emails again. I know there are some there that contain things I want to comment on. Lane N8AFT sent me a few emails of late with various topics. One being that today, January 26 is the anniversary of the Great Blizzard of 1978. Do a search for "Blizzard of 1978" on the Bing search engine for more info about that. Interesting reading for anyone interested in meteorology as I am.
Several months ago, Roscoe was being unintentionally naughty and chewed up a 5 dollar bill that had unknowingly slipped out of my pocket onto a plush chair. My neighbor gathered up all the pieces, maybe 30 or so of them, and gave them to me. I sent them to the Mutilated Currency Division of the US Treasury. They've been emailing me reports every few months on the progress of recovery, and a couple days ago, they said my case has been concluded and now is going to an accuracy review. If approved then, I'll be sent my five dollars. I can't remember if I posted a picture of the torn up bill or not now. Let me check. I don't see it, but here is the picture:
More info on the story in my 2021 diary archive, August 24 entry.
Finally in the catching up topics. When I say Zoom, what do you think of? Nowadays probably the Internet chat service or however the service is described. Personally, being a kid at heart as you know from my mentions of my young friends, I think of the old PBS kids show Zoom that aired in two different installments in the early 1970s and from 1999 to the early 2000s. I still like to watch them now and then. I recently found some videos about how the "Zoomer" kids look now and how they have been doing since leaving. Very interesting. Do a Bing search for "zoom kids today" and browse through the many listings if you'd like to see some of them. -30-
Tue Jan 25 7:57PM - Some more s#$w today as it looks like winter is here to stay for a while after a nice month and a half beginning with late fall like weather. Oh well, can't do anything about it except to hibernate till it's over.
I got a couple QSOs tonite via my CQs. Both on 80 meters. QSB killed the first one after a couple rounds while the other was solid for 23 minutes.
That's about it for today except for the usual non-interesting things not worth talking about. -30-
Mon Jan 24 8:21PM - Winter marches on like a WWII German Blitzkreig. A cold day again today. It did touch 32 for a high, but quickly retreated again. That was basically a sun-assisted high temperature. Even though I have a semi-official thermometer shelter in the backyard, it is susceptible to sun heating because the exposure is not near official standards because of the location, shape, and limited size of the yard. So on sunny days as this was, the maximum is probably a couple degrees higher than it would be if the shelter exposure was nearer to official NWS standards.
I had my longest streak QSO in a while tonight. Chuck K4QS and I went at it for 44 minutes at about 22 WPM on 80 meters. It was 2x solid copy all the way with his KW and my QRP. His 75 foot high dipole helped things out a lot. -30-
Sun Jan 23 7:36PM - Same old Sunday evening story. While doing my laundry, I got my streak QSO in the SST Sprint. Tonight it was old friend John K4BAI on 40 meters. That is the 237th time we've worked each other, mostly in contests, but also some nice rag chews along the way. John is probably the ham that I admire most. Except in the most frantic fast paced contests we always take time for a brief greeting like tonight's HNY.
It's baaack! The ugly white stuff. Just when you thought it was safe to go out on the sidewalks, about 3-4 inches of it accumulated today. SIGH! Please bring on spring quickly. With that depressing thought, I'll close for tonight. -30-
Sat Jan 22 8:28PM - Pretty much another nothing day. It was a cold one, at least to start the day at sunrise when it was 5 below zero. It quickly recovered to the mid-upper 20s though which wasn't too bad. I'm not sure when we had a temperature colder than -5 the last time. Let's look and see. It was January 7, 2018 when it was -10. Before that, back to 2015 and the bitter cold February-March period with -6 on March 6 and 4 days in February when it was -9 or colder. Brrrr.
A bit rough getting my QSO tonight as the conditions seemed poor again. I did get W3ATT finally on 80 meters and we actually had a solid 21 minute QSO. -30-
Fri Jan 21 7:53PM - As easy as it was last night getting QSOs is how hard it was tonight, a 180 degree reversal. I did finally manage to work old friend Paul KB4GYT finally, but it wasn't easy, and the QSO kind of crumbled in QSB and QRN after the first round completed.
Nothing else worth noting happened today. About the only good thing to say about it was that it was a bright sunny day, although cold with a high only a little above 20. No s@#w though, and that's another good thing, for sure. -30-
Thu Jan 20 7:49PM - An interesting evening getting my streak QSO just 1 month after hitting the 10,000 day mark. That has nothing to do with the interesting part. Just thought I'd throw it in. HI.
I got on a little late as I was over at my neighbor's house till about 0010Z or so. Tuned in to 40 and found PJ2ND calling CQ and operating split up 1. I set the KX3 for split and called. He sent K3?, I sent K3WWP and we had a quick QSO. Then I heard KP4JRS calling CQ. Zeroed in on him and got him with just sending K3WWP once. Two quick easy DX QSOs with 2 calls and a repeat. So with the streak QSO(s) out of the way, I went to 80 and tuned around. Found K4LXY and we had a 24 minute solid rag chew till the end when QSB set in. I sometimes kid about having a hidden KW amplifier when conditions are good like tonite and my 5 watts works so well. It doesn't really take a KW when conditions are good and they certainly were tonight.
Looks like a cold night coming up here and tomorrow night as well. The low predicted to be near 0 both nights. But none of the ugly s#$w predicted outside a few flurries, so the cold won't be so bad. -30-
Wed Jan 19 8:15PM - This was a busy day today, but I don't have all that much time to talk about it here in the diary as our NAQCC sprint is coming up in a few minutes. So here's sort of a Reader's Digest version. I got an indoor vent for my clothes dryer and finished installing it today. It was venting out my kitchen window, and now I think I can seal up the window better against the cold weather, although it was pretty good already. It got up to 50 today so I went out to my weather shelter to get caught up on my readings. We lost all but about 3-4 inches of our s#$w today. So I also took a walk to Sprankle's to pick up a couple of items and also got the chance to see a couple of my girls there. I got a DX station for my QSO tonight in FM/F6BWJ. Got him on 40M with just a single call. I also did some other small things around the house which I won't go into since I probably can't remember them anyway. HI. OK, that's it. -30-
Tue Jan 18 8:36PM - Things are getting back to normal today after the big s#$w, but there is a lot left over that is going to be an unwelcome guest for a while yet. Sigh!
I made 4 QSOs this evening, the most in one day outside of contests in quite some time. One was on 40M with KU4E. That ended prematurely when the band just changed suddenly. Then I went to 80 and called CQ. W8KM in MI answered me before too long. After a 14 minute QSO, K9UT gave me a tail-end call. He's one of our early NAQCC members at #66. After that, I called CQ again and W3HIZ answered me from Baltimore MD. -30-
Mon Jan 17 7:57PM - Not a good day overall. We got about 10 inches of the ugly white stuff overnight and early today. I'd post a picture of it, but I don't post obscene pictures in my diary. There was some good in it though. There was no freezing rain mixed in, nor any sleet. At least I didn't see any, and there were no traces of any left if there was any.
Not much else to write about except my streak QSO that came from Mike KB0HXL on 40 meters. It was about as "mild" up in MN as it was here, 27 vs 28. -30-
Sun Jan 16 7:34PM - Well, tonight we're under a winter weather advisory because of heavy s#$w with a possibility of some freezing rain and sleet mixed in.
I said I'd have more info about the tag team event in the NAQP on Saturday with me and Mike. I wound up with 130 QSOs, some 40 more than Mike mainly because he left a bit early to take care of his dog Jayden. In my log, I see 42 sections overall from all 5 bands 80, 40, 20, 15, 10. If you count sections or multipliers per band, it adds up to 15 15 14 11 6 = 61. QSOs per band 28 25 27 35 15 = 130. I was in a good mood, and was really up for the contest. You probably know why, so I won't mention it here. I think I only made about 5 sending errors the whole contest and I was dupe checking mostly in my head instead of in GenLog. It really felt good and I'm looking forward to another tag team effort come the ARRL DX contest next month. It was nice to have 15 and even 10 open on Saturday. I hope they are open again regularly from now on for the next couple years at least.
My streak QSO tonight of course was in the SST Sprint when I worked N8AA on 80. Right now I'm doing my laundry which like the SST is a Sunday night tradition. HI. -30-
Sat Jan 15 9:07PM - Busy day. More info in tomorrow's diary entry. Fun in the NAQP with Mike preceded by shopping this morning. -30-
Fri Jan 14 8:23PM - I was surprised to find 40 busy and 20 had a few signals this evening. Hope that bodes well for tomorrow when Mike and I will be doing a tag team event in the NAQP. I called CQ on 40 tonight and got an answer from KC2KWA in NC.
I took care of my second half of the month bills today. I think the 14th is the earliest I've ever gotten them done. They were all here and I was ambitious for a change so.....
Except for two trips to the post office, I didn't do any walking today. It was a bit on the cold side in the low 30s most of the day. Not much else going on to talk about. -30-
Thu Jan 13 7:51PM - Rainy today, but still a good one for a couple reasons. First it was rain, not s@#w and that's always good. Second I got to see Jasmine after school today for the first time in a while and it was a good visit albeit a short one.
Otherwise I did some more house cleaning. I'm trying to do a little bit each day and maybe by December 31, 2022 I'll have it in pretty good shape. HI
The bands seemed good tonight, but when they are good, sometimes it makes it hard to find a QSO since everyone is already working everyone else and CQs are hard to find, and no one seems to answer my CQs. However that didn't really hold true tonight as I found and worked W9YY near Chicago who was calling CQ on 80M. -30-
Wed Jan 12 8:20PM - A little busier today which is good. My neighbor and I went shopping this morning to Family Dollar and Sprankle's. We got stocked up on some things, and more important to me, I got to chat a bit with a couple of my young girl....friends at Sprankle's.
The bands were better tonight, or I should say busier, I guess. For the third night in a row now, I've had solid 58/99 rag chews with hams in Ohio. Tonight it was KD8BBK in Louisville, OH on 80 meters.
Actually I guess except for the shopping, it really wasn't all that busy a day. Well, the weather wasn't bad with a high in the mid 40s and I got in a nice walk and a sitting in the park for some phone games and thinking. -30-
Tue Jan 11 4:06PM - A couple entries ago I said I wish I had taken a before and after picture of some s@#wmelt. I hadn't then, but I did today and here are the pictures taken 1H 58M apart. The first at 11:21AM, the second at 1:19PM. They were taken out my kitchen window. Note how much of the s@#w melted, especially on the concrete pads left over from an old lumberyard that used to be there many years ago. The air temperature was in the low 20s, well below freezing. The melt was mostly from the sun beating down on the ground. Once it opened up some breaks in the s@#w on the concrete, the melt went fast after that.
-30-
Mon Jan 10 8:52PM - Late getting to the shack, but I made up for it by finding a QSO almost immediately like last night. When I turned on the PX3 I saw 3 or 4 strong peaks and the 4th one I checked turned out to be NR8M calling CQ. Got him, and we had a very solid 2x599 QSO for 32 minutes. Bob is in Ohio and the QSO was on 80 meters.
Otherwise as usual not much to report on. I was going to report on my fitness activity, but I'll have to analyze the fitness statistics more before I can do an accurate report. Very basically, I walk between 9 and 10 miles daily in 20 to 22,000 steps at a rate of 2.5 to 3 mph. Those are very basic stats, as a said and bear more analysis to be more meaningful. -30-
Sun Jan 9 7:16PM - SOSE - Same Old Sunday Evening. My QSO came almost immediately when I sat down at the rig thanks to the SST Sprint. I worked Anne N1YL on 80M.
I enjoyed one of my (maybe my only) favorite winter activities today. Watching s#$w/ice melting. Temperature in the mid 40s made short work of the approximate 1.5 inches of s#$w and a glaze coating of ice. Good riddance! It will be back though, unfortunately.
It was even nice enough to go on a couple of the Roscoe walks in shirtsleeves. Although later in the day, I needed a light jacket to go shopping to Family Dollar.
I wish I'd taken a before and after photo of the s@#w yesterday and then the green lawns and bare sidewalks today. Oh well, maybe next time. Maybe a time lapse photo would be nice. I have an app for my iPhone that takes time lapse photos very nicely. Maybe I'll post one of my better cloud / sunset photos. -30-
Sat Jan 8 8:31PM - The bands sounded pretty good tonight as the SF climbed over 100 again. It took a little while to find a QSO as everyone seemed already occupied in a QSO of their own. I finally did find and work W3ZT in NY on 80 meters.
Other than that, it was mainly just watching the weather forecasts keep changing as the forecasters couldn't decide if there was going to be freezing rain or just rain tonight. They're still not certain, but all forecasts predict only a trace or glaze of freezing rain if it does happen. It's just a wait and see situation. Then tomorrow will be an all rain event with up to 0.5 inches of rain and temps in the low to maybe mid 40s. -30-
Fri Jan 7 8:49PM - We wound up with about 1.5 inches of the ugly white stuff last night. Sure looks ugly outside compared to a couple days ago. Not as bad as it is where the ham I worked tonight lives though. By far. It was -5F right when we worked and the low in the morning was -35F along with 3 feet of s@#w on the ground. I don't even like to type that or think about it. That's in Cass County, MN if you're wondering.
Otherwise not much to talk about. I did some house cleaning again today and organized some things as well. Of course no going outside except for brief walks with Roscoe.
Waiting for a sub from Vocelli's right now, so I'll close. -30-
Thu Jan 6 7:26PM - It's s#$ing right now and that pretty much fits in with how the rest of the day has been going, to sum things up quickly. Even the bands were not that good tonight. I finally managed to find Chuck WS1L and worked him on 80 meters to keep the streak alive. It wasn't much of a QSO, but good enough to count as one. That's about all I can think is worth writing about. Hopefully tomorrow will be better and provide more material for the diary. -30-
Wed Jan 5 8:40PM - I ran into another old ham friend like I did last night with NR8M. Tonight it was Dan KB6NU. Unfortunately conditions weren't as favorable tonight and we struggled to copy each other and finally had to quit after about 7 minutes of trying. That's life on the ham bands.
Otherwise it was a great day or evening actually. My neighbor Bruce needed something at Sprankle's. I told him I might be going there, and that cinched it as I really didn't need anything right away and probably wouldn't have gone without his needing something. Well things worked out great because my young friend Haylee was working. She had cut way back on her hours because of school work, and this was the first time I'd seen her in just about a month. She was quite busy, but we did manage to talk for several minutes around the work. It was good to hear that all is going well with her.
Otherwise we had an even nicer sunset tonight than last night, and I did the same routine, taking pictures and sending them to Jasmine who immediately thanked me for them.
Let's see, what else happened today. It was a nice day and even mild enough to sit in the park for a while for a thinking and iPhone game session. Very unusual for January. We might get an end to the nice weather in a couple days though with some s#$w predicted. We're on the edge of the storm and how much we get depends on the track. Right now it looks good with around an inch or maybe just a little more. That could change one way or the other though. OK, waiting for a sub sandwich now, so I'll close here. -30-
Tue Jan 4 7:47PM - The rut continues in 2022, but it's a good rut. Decent weather, no major problems, not a lot to do, etc. plus contact with friends in person and on the radio. It would not be bad to have things continue this way until spring, and then pick up with warm weather, gardening, more walking, maybe some fishing, astronomy, train rides..... John, wake up, stop dreaming. Why? There's nothing wrong with dreaming, let me continue, OK?
I'll get back to that later, I guess. After getting to the shack a few minutes late, it only took a minute to find my friend Bob NR8M calling CQ. We had a nice long 32 minute rag chew, actually talking about the same stuff I talked about above plus other ham related things.
I did some more updating on the web site today. I added a QRP rig review of the Icom IC-705 written by Charles KW6G. It is very well written and informative and the first review submitted to me in several years. You know, there are several places you can contribute info to my web site. Take a good look around the site and see what I mean. You don't have to be a great writer with perfect grammar by any means.
We had a nice sunset tonight. I took several pictures and sent some to Jasmine who thought they were very nice. Think I'll post one here and also a picture of Roscoe I took earlier today. Back in a couple minutes.
The sunset viewed from back of my house. Roscoe on my neighbor's couch AKA Roscoe's bed. -30-
Mon Jan 3 7:56PM - OK, I got the date right tonight. This New Year's Day on a Saturday has me all out of sync with dates. However at least I haven't written 2021 here in 2022...yet. Probably will when I get to dating some important document.
It was a good day today. I went downtown to the bank, PO, and Sprankle's to get some things done and things bought. I saw a couple friends in the bank and Sprankle's. Had a good chat about the holidays with a bank teller friend. She and I had similar quiet holidays.
A bit of a tough go to get my QSO tonight. One of those nights when the only good signals were in nets, rag chews, or some kind of contest. I also called a lot of unanswered CQs till finally I got an answer from Bill W1KX up in ME on 80 meters.
I did some more work on the web site today. Thanks to a couple of you who pointed out some things that needed fixing or something that could be added. Feel free to speak up via email if you see anything on the web site that needs updating or any additions. -30-
Sun Jan 2 7:34PM - The string of quiet days continues. My main activity today continues to be work on updates to my web site. I updated my QSL stats page in the QSL section and the yearly stats page in the QRP section. I also updated the visitors list listing of guestbook signers and a few other minor things like adding a picture of my portable setup in the pictures page here in the Home section.
Of course being Sunday, I got a quick QSO in the SST Sprint. Hard to believe it's already 14 days past day 10,000. Time does fly. -30-
Sat Jan 1 9:21PM - As you see from the time stamp, I'm running late tonight. I think I finished up all my End of Year/First of Year work today. I just a little while ago wrapped up putting last year's weather data into the computer and I still have to put the printouts in my weather folder so I guess I'm not really done as I said. HI. Anyway, got to run now, so 73 and Happy New Year. -30-
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