December 2013 Wrap-Up

DXCC - Not a lot of time spent at the radio this month, what with the holidays and other family business to take care of, but I still managed to work a few new ones -- Zambia (9J2BO), E. Kiribati (T32RC), Senegal (6V7D), and Greenland (OX3XR). I end the month (and the year) with the following DXCC numbers:

• Mixed: 133 confirmed (171 worked)
• CW: 73 (119)
• Phone: 99 (127)
• Digital: 57 (82)

My first DXCC award for Mixed Mode was applied for and received this month. I've also reached 100 confirmed for 20m Mixed (85 on LOTW, the other 15 on paper). I have not applied for the award, though, because I've not yet had the cards checked. I plan to do that at the HamCon in Plano next June, if not sooner.

WAS - My pursuit of WAS Triple Play is getting close to the end with 129 out of 150 blocks confirmed on LOTW:

• Phone: 44 (need AK, DE, IA, MI, RI and VT)
• CW: 35 (need CO, GA, IA, KY, MI, MN, NE, NM, ND, OH, OK, SD, UT, WV and WY)
• Digital: 50 (worked them all in 2009/2010)

WAS Mixed and Digital awards were applied for and received this month.

2013 in the Rearview - A fairly good year for me, with sporadic operating after getting the station back on the air in June. Foremost, I upgraded to Extra Class after years of procrastinating. I achieved DXCC and started getting serious about CW as I've been promising to do for decades. Some new equipment found its way into the shack -- the Flex 1500 and KPA500; hopefully the former will start to get some use (maybe go for a second Triple Play running QRP?).

Long time coming...

2014 in the Windshield - My main objective in the coming year is to get an antenna on the roof; if nothing else, just my old R-7000 vertical that has been sitting in the garage since 2008. Ideally, though, it would be a hex beam for 20m-6m in addition to the R-7000. Wouldn't mind getting the FT-7800 in the car, either. I'm going to try to work as many of the major contests as time allows. The only equipment I think I need is a auto-tuner that can handle the KPA500. The obvious choice would be the KAT500 if I can gather the scratch. More DXCC awards and endorsements are on the horizon -- I've already enough confirmations for 20m DXCC (once I get the cards checked), I'm one shy of Phone DXCC, I have 73 confirmed on 15m, 67 on 40m, and 76 on CW. WAS Triple Play is close, too.