Thursday, July 31, 2014

July 2014 Wrap-Up

DXCC: Five new ones worked in July, but only added one in the Mixed Confirmed column (9V1YC Singapore). Just 20 new band slots confirmed, and 3 more on CW.

DXCC Totals
7/31/2014
CfdWkdCfdWkdCfdWkd
Mixed16620380m102617m4984
CW14218640m10713415m103135
SSB10513330m558912m611
Digital608220m12416810m3852

Last 10 New DXCC Worked
203SAINT PIERRE AND MIQUELONFP/OH5OHO7/21/2014
202GEORGIA4L8A7/13/2014
201WEST MALAYSIA9M2TO7/9/2014
200THE GAMBIAC5II7/8/2014
199AZERBAIJAN4J0SFR7/6/2014
198SINGAPORE9V1YC6/22/2014
197SAUDI ARABIA7Z1SJ6/22/2014
196OMANA42A6/21/2014
195MALAWI7QNL6/7/2014
194ALBANIAZA/ON4CCV6/7/2014

WAS: Rhode Island on phone is in the book, so now just need WV on CW for Triple Play.

Worked All States
AwardTotalAwardTotalAwardTotal
Basic *5080M2717M30
CW4940M4915M39
Phone5030M3312M2
Digital *5020M4810M23

WPX
AwardTotalAwardTotalAwardTotal
Mixed53380M2017M55
CW37340M24415M206
Phone19730M5812M7
Digital13120M29810M84

Monday, July 21, 2014

DXCC #203: FP/OE5OHO St. Pierre & Miquelon

I've found propagation to be pretty poor from Texas to the VO1/CY9/FP part of the world, at least for me. This is the first FP station I've actually heard and it was a pretty tough one to work. No ClubLog, QRZ, eQSL or LOTW.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

DXCC #202: 4L8A Georgia, 15m DXCC, and the IARU HF World Championship

Another minimal contest effort with 67 QSOs, all CW. One of them was a new country for me -- Georgia, courtesy of 4L8A on 20m. I'll take it.

The contest also netted me my 100th confirmation on 15m (S567O in Slovenia). I'm now 3/5 of the way to 5-Band DXCC.

Update 4-Aug-2014: 4L8A comes through on LOTW for #167 confirmed (mixed)!


Wednesday, July 9, 2014

DXCC #201: 9M2TO West Malaysia

Working from home today, and lucked into 9M2TO on 15m around 2pm local time. Not what I would have guessed to be the best time to work into East Asia, but there he was. He last uploaded to LOTW on 21-May-2014, so we'll wait and see...

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

DXCC #200: C5II The Gambia

How sweet it is!
JA1UII and JE1WVQ have been QRV as C5II and C5JA from The Gambia. Until 09-July. That's in a few hours, and time was running out. I had a very weak copy on C5II yesterday evening, too weak to even drop my callsign. I figured that would be my last chance. But by luck or providence I happened to be home this afternoon and saw him spotted first on 20m (no copy at all), and then on 17m where I was able to log C5II for my 200th DXCC entity worked!



Triple Play #149 - One to go!

Rhode Island on phone -- and with it the phone portion of Triple Play -- is in the books! West Virginia on CW is the last one I need.


Sunday, July 6, 2014

DXCC #199: 4J0SFR Azerbaijan

"Safari" DX-activators club station 4J0SFR heard on 15m CW late this afternoon very weak. I had to use almost all of the K3's magic bag of tricks to pull this one out of the static: bandwidth dialed down to 200 Hz, DSP Noise Reduction on the 1-3 setting, RF Gain throttled back, phones clamped to my head in binaural mode... all this made a very difficult to copy signal pretty darn readable. Got him after a few calls, sent my call a couple-three times to make sure he got it and once I heard it repeated back to me correctly I gave my "TU 599 dit dit" and hit the log submit button. #199 worked is in the bag. US QSL manager, no mention of LOTW on his QRZ page.

Of Triple Play and Antenna Maintenance

About time! I worked 13 Colonies special event station K2C in Rhode Island on phone and their QRZ page promises QSL via LOTW! That will be the last one for the phone portion of Triple Play. Now I just need West Virginia on CW. It kills me, I have QSOs in the log for both RI on phone and WV on CW (even have a card for RI), but the Triple Play award requires LOTW verification. Rules are rules. Unfortunately, West Virginia's second ARRL Centennial operating slot isn't until October 22, so to get this done soon I need to find another CW op in WV that uses LOTW. It could happen, I guess...

And another "about time!" -- almost a year after Tarheel sent me a replacement mounting bracket, I finally got around to swapping it out. The new mount fits perfectly. Now I can send the defective mount back and clear my conscious, as I promised to return it to them 11 months ago.

While I had the antenna broken down I did the recommended maintenance -- removed the plexiglass cover, clean the coil with alcohol and a ScotchBrite pad -- and took to the tripod's mast with some sandpaper to remove the black powder coat that I neglected to fully remove when I first set up the antenna in 2009. Now I know there is a good electrical connection between the mounting bracket and the ground radial plate.

I'm still missing a few radials, lost to the lawnmower no doubt, but I seem to be hearing a little better than I have been of late. Maybe it's just coincidental and the bands have simply improved the day I did antenna maintenance. It could happen, I guess...

Either way, I was able to add a few needed countries to my 17m count -- Romania, Belarus, Samoa, Philippines, Greenland -- as well as a few more of the 13 Colonies stations.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

June 2014 Wrap-Up


Not a very productive month for QSLs, though it was nice to see the 9J2T Zambia DXpedition's LOTW upload come through (got 'em on 40, 30, and 20). Azores (CU2BV) and United Arab Emirates (A65BD) brings me up to 99 confirmed on 15m.

DXCC Totals
6/30/2014
CfdWkdCfdWkdCfdWkd
Mixed16519880m102617m4476
CW13918040m10613415m99131
SSB10513330m538312m511
Digital608220m12116510m3752

Five new ones worked, leaving me just two shy of 200...

Last 10 New DXCC Worked
198SINGAPORE9V1YC6/22/2014
197SAUDI ARABIA7Z1SJ6/22/2014
196OMANA42A6/21/2014
195MALAWI7QNL6/7/2014
194ALBANIAZA/ON4CCV6/7/2014
193GHANA9G5ZZ5/25/2014
192ISRAEL4X4AK5/25/2014
191EAST MALAYSIA9M6XRO5/18/2014
190SAN MARINOT77C5/18/2014
189PAPUA NEW GUINEAP29NO5/17/2014

Still no love from RI on Phone or WV on CW...

Worked All States
AwardTotalAwardTotalAwardTotal
Basic *5080M2717M29
CW4940M4915M39
Phone4930M3112M2
Digital *5020M4810M23

...and a few more prefixes. Yawn.

WPX
AwardTotalAwardTotalAwardTotal
Mixed51580M2017M48
CW35540M23915M195
Phone18830M5612M6
Digital13020M28610M83