The recent WPX RTTY contest resulted not only in an all time new DXCC entity worked but also in a new US state being worked in the form of in KR7X in Washington county, Oregon.
This brings to 41 the number of states worked towards the ARRL WAS (Worked All States) award. Of the 41 states already logged the current QSL position is that I have 37 of them confirmed (see map below).
WAS position as at February 2010 - 41 states logged with 37 confirmed
The states still needed for WAS are: Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures Oregon, QSL, RTTY, WAS
A little over a week ago I wrote that I was hoping to get on the bands for this contest. The only requirement was that I’d need to fix my wind damaged antenna. Well that was done and I did enjoy several hours giving away points seeing how many countries I could rack-up during a bit of casual operating.
Conditions (on the bands I used, 40/20/15m) seemed to me to be better than for the CQWW CW contest last November with 15m in particular showing increased activity (with only 1 contact there in the CW contest).
My 107 contacts yielded 46 DXCC entities which are shown in this table:-
WPX RTTY Feb. 2010. 46 countries worked (36 on 40m, 21 on 20m and 11 on 15m)
I adopted my usual (for now) contest approach of seeing how many countries I could work while giving away points to those who are looking to compile a competitive score. I reckon on 50 countries being a sensible target given my compromise antenna and to that end I am pleased with 46 countries worked in what amounted to some 5 or 6 hours operating over the 48 hour contest period.
Quite unexpectedly the highlight of my operating occurred within the first 5 minutes of my first stint early on Saturday morning. I’d popped outside to [quite literally] lash the far end of the antenna (which remember is a random length sloping end fed Zepp) to the back fence and then fired up the rig (Yaesu FT-950) on 40m, which just happened to be tuned around 7.080MHz, higher in the band than I’d usually go looking for RTTY signals, and there he was, PJ4R (Bonaire & Curacao) calling CQ WPX. I worked him within a few calls for one of the easier new ones of recent years. Having not been on the bands previously this year (due in part to the broken antenna) this was also the very first log entry of 2010. What a way to kick-start the year!
WPX RTTY Feb. 2010. Geographic spread of the 46 countries worked,.
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, contest, DXCC, FT-950, RTTY, WPX, Yaesu
This contest is almost upon us and it may well be the incentive I need to get my antenna fixed, it having suffered what I’m assuming is wind damage to the extent it’s been lying on the ground now for a week or more.
I had been contemplating a change to the antenna to move from my existing (but broken) end fed Zepp to a 40m OCF (off centre fed) Windom (with 14m and 7m legs) fed with coax via a 4:1 balun. That may now have to wait as time is short and I’d rather go with what I know at this late stage.
In time I will construct and test that 40m Windom and if it works I’ll see about installing it at home. For now though I’ll just be glad to get on the bands for a few hours regardless of what antenna I’m using.
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, contest, RTTY, Windom, WPX
I wrote back in June that I was making good progress toward working 100 countries since moving to Lichfield in September of 2008. Well I can now report that coming out of the CQWW CW contest this past weekend I have now reached that milestone - 100 countries worked from this location.
The details are 100 countries worked with 74 on CW, 66 on RTTY and 60 on SSB. This includes 8 all time new ones in the form of Anguilla, Desecheo Island, St. Maarten & St. Eustatius, Bermuda, United Arab Emirates, Alaska, Montserrat and the British Virgin Isles.
This brings the overall numbers to 170 worked with 119 on CW, 122 on data modes (RTTY & PSK31) and 111 on SSB. Here’s to the big push towards 200!
Dean Amateur Radio, Blog CW, DXCC, G0RIF, Lichfield, RTTY, SSB
I spent a few hours in total on 40/20/15m giving away a few points and logging about 60 contacts in total. I wasn’t trying to rack up a score and on that basis there were many stations I might have worked that I chose not to call, passing up the more common entities and tuning the bands looking for stations located in more remote or less common entities.
The highlight was the previously mentioned (see previous blog entry) VP2MNK in Montserrat (on 20m) for an all time new one. In addition I worked another 26 countries (24 on 40m, 8 on 20m and just the USA on 15m) including Austria, Belarus, Canada, the Canary Islands, Corsica, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Morocco, Serbia and Slovenia.
Dean Amateur Radio contest, RTTY, WAE
I wasn’t expecting much having decided to give out a few points in the WAE (Worked All Europe) RTTY contest this weekend. Things seemed to be going well with plenty of stations worked on 40m, 20m and 15m (15m in particularly working very well into North America).
Around 16:25 UTC I noticed a spot for VP2MNK on 20m so with this being a potential new one for me I tuned in and listened to see if I could hear him. He was peaking about strength 8 with me but fading badly. I’d need to get lucky if I was to work him, especially as he seemed to be working a run of calling stations, most of which were likely louder than I would be.
I called several times in the next 20 minutes or so, coinciding with his signal peaking at my end, trying to figure out his operating pattern. It struck me he seemed to wait quite a while at times before coming back to a calling station, as if he was waiting for people to make a second call rather than prompting it with a QRZ? or AGN…?
I modified my macro to send my call 4 times rather than my more usual 3 and delayed sending by a few seconds, hoping my call would get some ‘clear air’ when others ended. It seems to have worked because at 16:40 UTC we made the brief contest exchange and he was in the log for country number 169 (and the 94th from this QTH with my compromise antenna).
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, Montserrat, RTTY, VP2MNK
It is always nice to receive QSL cards and the beauty of the bureau system is that you get a lot of cards delivered all at once. It’s great to then look back through the log and remember some of those contacts.
Many contacts can be short & sweet though - this is the case with contest or special event stations who are intent on logging as many contacts as possible as quickly as possible. The cards shown here from OE2008A and HB2008VC are from two such special event stations setup to celebrate the Euro 2008 football tournament co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland. There were many such stations and I received over 30 of their cards in my most recent delivery, a mix of Swiss and Austrian stations for SSB, CW and RTTY contacts.
a selection of the more colourful QSL cards received from the bureau
Here (bottom right) you can also see the card received from Peruvian station OA4WW, this means that of 168 countries logged I now have 151 of them confirmed by paper QSL (rather than some electronic form such as LOTW or eQSL).
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures bureau, CW, Euro 2008, G0RIF, LoTW, QSL, RTTY, SSB
Recent receipt of a few nice QSL cards got me to looking back through my amateur radio station logbook. It shows that September 2009 was a mostly inactive month so far as amateur radio was concerned. ‘QRT’ is amateur radio terminology for ’shutting down’ or ’station off air’ - hence the title of this post.
My logbook shows that between the 29th of August and the 26th of September I didn’t log a single station! I seem to recall that I was a little bit deflated by what I described ‘CQ fatigue’ prior to that period. Maybe I just needed a bit of a break from amateur radio!
My portable operations from Barr Beacon and a brief foray in the CQWW RTTY contest at the end of September certainly made up for that lack of activity with some good contacts and signs of improved conditions on the shortwave bands.
The results of all of that are that I have a number of outbound QSL cards to complete and send to either the RSGB bureau or to the respective stations direct. I can then look forward to the return cards arriving sometime next year with a bit of luck!
In other news, this little update also represents a minor landmark in my blog - the 100th post.
Dean Amateur Radio, Blog portable, Q-codes, QRT, QSL, RTTY
Well it came and went and I dipped my toes in the furious contest waters but nothing new or exciting for me this time. Over a total of about 2 hours operating in 4 sessions I worked some 40 stations in 21 different countries - Armenia, Canada, Croatia, Czech Rep, Denmark, Estonia, European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Morocco, Serbia, Slovak Rep, Slovenia, Ukraine and USA.
What I did notice was that conditions on both 20m and 40m were much improved over my recent excursions to those bands - most stations were worked after just one call, although I was selective in just which stations I worked.
Sadly the few expected rare ones either weren’t active over the weekend or were just not heard at my location. That said I enjoyed getting back on the bands and I’m happy with my little haul and even more so with the improved band conditions.
Dean Amateur Radio 20m, 40m, contest, propagation, RTTY
Yes folks, it’s coming soon, on the weekend of the 26th and 27th of September 2009, the CQ WW DX RTTY contest - one of the biggest RTTY events in the amateur radio calendar.
As usual there are plenty of dxpeditions or dedicated contest operations to coincide with this event. Of note for me are 3A/HA3JB in Monaco (I still need a QSL card from Monaco even though I worked it many years ago) and ZF2SX on the Cayman Islands, which would be a new one for me.
Add to this the usual crop of less common countries that can be heard during a major contest and it could be an interesting weekend…if I get on the air. I’ll hope for a few hours here and there even if only to try and snag those mentioned above. Fingers crossed the bands are in good shape for this one!
Dean Amateur Radio contest, propagation, RTTY