March 2014 Wrap-Up

The TX6G DXpedition was the highlight of my month. I worked them on 8 bands CW, with a phone contact thrown in for good measure on 12m! Even got 'em QRP on 15m with the Flex 1500 just for kicks. Consistently excellent signals into Texas, especially on the higher bands, giving me cause to look into the VDA antennas they used. Hats off to the TX6G team for one of the best run operations I've ever worked. I barely had time to wonder if I made it into their log before confirmation appeared on both ClubLog and LOTW. Well done!

My CW is steadily improving. I'm reaching for the straight key more and more and stressing less and less whenever a QSO strays from the standard "TU 599" exchange. A lot of times I'll just have the radio on while doing other stuff in the shack and find myself copying a CW QSO in my head without even realizing it. So I guess all the work I've put into building my CW skills is starting to pay off. I'm still struggling at speeds above 25 WPM, but  it's coming along.

I was looking forward to operating some QRP in March having played for a bit in the SKCC Weekend Sprint on 3/9 and really getting infected with the QRP bug. But alas, I missed the NAQCC Sprint on 3/19 and the SKCC Monthly Sprint on 3/25, so other than the WES and a few quick QRP contacts with W1AW/0, W1AW/4 and TX6G I was QRO the rest of the time.

Speaking of QRP... my KX1 was sent to Don W3FPR for repair (or not, as it turns out -- he can't find anything wrong with it!); as soon as that comes back I plan to put it to use. Might even get around to building and installing the 80m/30m option. At this time I'm considering the possibility of selling both the Flex and the KX1 to help finance a KX3, something I've wanted for a while. But until then, the KX1 will have to do.

Only other thing on the radar at the moment is nGenLog. Been hearing good things about this free logger, and I'm having some serious issues with HRD Logbook on the old Dell desktop -- having to crash out of the program more and more often, especially when waking the computer up from sleep, and 30+ second pauses are making it impossible to use. nGenLog seems to be a little lighter on the processor, so I'll give it a whirl and see how it goes.

nGenLog

On to the box scores...

DXCC - Five new countries worked in March (Mozambique, UAE, Austral Is., Jersey and Fiji), and six newly confirmed (Vanuatu, Tunisia, Montserrat, Austral Is., Easter Is., and Belarus).

Last 10 New DXCC Worked
184	FIJI ISLANDS	3D2FJ	3/28/2014
183	JERSEY	MJ/K8PT	3/22/2014
182	AUSTRAL ISLAND	TX6G	3/22/2014
181	UNITED ARAB EMIRATES	A61Q	3/22/2014
180	MOZAMBIQUE	C91GR	3/19/2014
179	TUNISIA	3V8BB	2/16/2014
178	VANUATU	YJ0OU	2/15/2014
177	AMSTERDAM & ST PAUL ISLAND	FT5ZM	2/3/2014
176	OGASAWARA	JD1BHA	1/31/2014
175	MOLDOVA	ER4DX	1/19/2014

My QSL stats since January show big jumps on 40m (30 new), 30m (19 new), 15m (20 new) and 10m (19 new) in the first quarter of 2014; in the same period my CW total went from 75 to 117 confirmed (47 new), passing the 100 mark in mid-February, just a couple of weeks after scoring DXCC QSL #100 on phone.

DXCC Totals
4/1/2014	Cfd	Wkd		Cfd	Wkd		Cfd	Wkd
Mixed	152	184	80m	9	26	17m	23	43
CW	117	161	40m	97	130	15m	90	119
SSB	105	133	30m	33	57	12m	2	7
Digital	59	82	20m	110	155	10m	34	48

WAS - Getting close to Triple Play courtesy of the W1AW Centennial stations. With KY and OH confirmed on LOTW and IA pending on both CW and Phone, I need just three states on CW (ND, WV and WY) and one on Phone (RI).

Worked All States
Award	Total	Award	Total	Award	Total
Basic *	50	80M	27	17M	24
CW	46	40M	49	15M	37
Phone	48	30M	14	12M	1
Digital *	50	20M	48	10M	23

WPX -- Steadily increasing my prefix totals. Just hoping CQ is still in existence by the time I get around to applying for the awards...

WPX
Award	Total	Award	Total	Award	Total
Mixed	451	80M	17	17M	21
CW	288	40M	218	15M	172
Phone	181	30M	29	12M	2
Digital	127	20M	251	10M	80