January 2015

My first full month back on the air since moving to Cedar Key. My goal of working 100 countries before the end of January fell a wee bit short with 98 worked, many of them on 12 and 10 meters (49 and 17 new band slots respectively). LOTW confirmations are rolling in at a steady clip -- a total of 47 new band slots confirmed in January, 18 of them on 12m. I'm starting to dig this band.

Only two all-time new ones this month. Got 1A0C for DXCC #205; now if only they'd update ClubLog, the last QSO uploaded was from July 2012. JY9FC was strong (S7+) on 12m Saturday morning 31-Jan, in the log as DXCC #206. Damn, new countries are get harder and harder to come across after 150...

Great C5X operation by the Brits, got them on 40, 30, 20, 15, 12, and 10 meters. Super-fast daily LOTW and ClubLog uploads. Just a great operation all around.

No contests for me in January. I really wanted to participate in the NAQP CW test but had other commitments. The North American Sprint is coming in a few weeks, that might be the first of the year. I've never worked this contest before. First I need to upgrade to N1MM+.

I've been thinking a little bit about 6m and VHF/UHF lately. But thinking more about 5BDXCC, so I think an 80m dipole will have to come first since that's the only band for which the Tarheel is really deficient.

The Tarheel is now permanently ground-mounted and working well despite a minimal radial setup. Cedar Key is unbelievably quiet and this antenna is really doing well for its small size. I really shouldn't be wasting this opportunity to put up something bigger, though.

This month I returned to a written log/notebook. Still do the computer log, that's integral to my station and will always be the primary log for counting DXCC points and uploading to LOTW and ClubLog, but I really started to miss the hand-written log and all the notes and comments, the kind of personal thing you can look back at in years ahead and reminisce. I just can't do that with a computer log, too antiseptic.  So I started jotting down notes and QSOs in a spiral notebook, keeping track of my YTD DXCC total, noting propagation conditions, band openings, and whatever else crosses my mind while at the key.

                                       

The end of the month tally:

DXCC Totals
1/31/2015
	Cfd	Wkd		Cfd	Wkd		Cfd	Wkd
Mixed	173	205	80m	12	28	17m	62	92
CW	155	191	40m	117	142	15m	110	145
SSB	105	133	30m	61	93	12m	24	60
Digital	60	82	20m	132	170	10m	49	69

Last 10 New DXCC Worked
206	JORDAN	JY9FC	1/31/2015
205	SOV. MIL. ORDER OF MALTA	1A0C	1/5/2015
204	WESTERN SAHARA	S10WS	9/9/2014
203	SAINT PIERRE & MIQUELON	FP/OH5OHO	7/21/2014
202	GEORGIA	4L8A	7/13/2014
201	WEST MALAYSIA	9M2TO	7/9/2014
200	THE GAMBIA	C5II	7/8/2014
199	AZERBAIJAN	4J0SFR	7/6/2014
198	SINGAPORE	9V1YC	6/22/2014
197	SAUDI ARABIA	7Z1SJ	6/22/2014

WPX (Confirmed)
Award	Total	Award	Total	Award	Total
Mixed	587	80M	23	17M	68
CW	425	40M	266	15M	232
Phone	209	30M	69	12M	26
Digital	135	20M	321	10M	100