ARRL 2009 SS SSB is in the Bag

As most of you know, especially those who read my blog, the ARRL November Sweepstakes contest is done for another year. I worked it for about a total of 10 hours and ended up with 185 contacts and 62 sections worked. I have to admit that it was a lot of fun but now I'm tired and must get ready for bed.

A special thank you to all those that I made contact with. I have to say it was a superb job by all. I don't reckon I'll be in another contest for a couple of weeks. The next big one for me is the lustrous PSK31/63 Death Match, put on my the Michigan DX Association. If you are into the digital modes I suggest you get on the waterfall and give it a go. The contest is 48 hours and the winners for each category get swords for prizes. I hope to put in a much better show this than last. If I'm lucky I will end up with a nice blade to hang on the wall but of course that's stretching it.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving everyone. God Bless you all.

73 de AJ4JD,
Tim

P.S. All logs have been uploaded to LoTW and eQSL.cc.

P.S.S. The preliminary results for the August edition of the NAQP SSB contest are posted. I ended up 35th overall in the 4 call area.

CQWW Results

As most of you know, this weekend was the CQWW DX SSB contest. Well knowing me and how much I like contesting, especially if there is DX involved, I worked it. Of course I didn't work the entire 48 hours, heck I didn't even work 24 hours of it. Being such a beautiful weekend and the XYL and harmonic being couped up most of the week, they were itching to get out as well as I. The Fall colors are absolutely wonderful here right now and it's possible that next weekend might not be so pretty.

Instead of devoting the weekend to contesting and putting the fam through the agony of hearing my call phonetically over and over a thousand times or more, I opted to only work the contest here and there throughout the weekend. Total operation time was roughly over 7 hours. Within that 7 hours time I was able to make 71 contacts to 44 DX entities and 14 CQ zones. Total multipliers came to 78 and total QSO points equaled 160 for a grand total of 12,480 points.

Here's the breakdown if anyone's interested:
15m DX: Argentina, Aruba, Belgium, Belize, Brazil, British Virgin Is., Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, Italy, Montenegro, Netherlands, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Slovak Rep., Spain, USA, Venezuela, Virgin Is.

15m CQ Zones: 03, 07, 08, 09, 11, 13, 14, 15, 20
Note: Prior to this contest I hadn't worked a whole lot of DX on 15m. This was indeed the most exciting part of the contest for me.

20m DX: Alaska (I don't know if this counts as a seperate country in CQWW), Canada, Cayman Is., Czech Rep., Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovenia, Ukraine, USA

20m CQ Zones: 01, 04, 05, 08, 14, 15, 16

40m DX: Barbados, Canary Is., French Guiana, Madeira Is., Martinique, Morocco, Portugal, Scotland, USA.

40m CQ Zones: 05, 08, 09, 14, 33

80m DX: British Virgin Is., Canada, Saint Martin, St. Kitts & Nevis, United Nations HQ NY, USA, Virgin Is.

80m CQ Zones: 04, 05, 08

So that's it in a nutshell. DX in bold above are new ones for me. Anyway that's the damage I've done. All logs have been uploaded to eQSL and LoTW. If you need TN confirmed, please feel free to send me a QSL if you worked me. I will be sure to send one back.

Until next time enjoy the reading, enjoy the DX, and most of all enjoy life. Next contest you will likely hear me will be ARRL's November Sweepstakes. After that you can read me during the MDXA PSK Death Match in December. If you hear me or see me in there, give a call, I'll be sure to try and pick you up. Oh I almost forgot, starting November 1st - November 15th we will be on the air as W4H celebrating the 470 Amateur Radio Group's 2nd anniversary. Check out the website for more information. I'll likely add a sticky up top the blog here in the next day or so for more information.

73 es God Bless de AJ4JD,
Tim

PODXS 070 80 Meter Sprint

So last night was the PODXS070 club's 80 meter sprint contest memorializing Jay Hudak (KA3X now SK), one of the original members of the PODXS club and a founding member of the 070 club. The contest had a rolling start as do most of the 070 sprints and ran from 2000 - 0200 local time. So I started off shortly after 8pm, once I was finished eating a wonderful supper that the XYL prepared. At first the waterfall was pretty cram-packed so I went hunting and pouncing until I had about 5 or 6 contacts then squeezed into a spot on the waterfall to call CQ. I had quite a few calls and within the first hour of operating the PSK31 mode I had around 18 quality contacts.

The second hour rolled around and I was determined to work more stations to increase the QSO rate. CQ 80 Meter Test de AJ4JD I continued to call. Contact after contact filled the log. At the end of the second hours I had 40 contacts in the log.

With each hour up to about 11:00pm I would find new blood as new time zones could start the contest. After the Midnight hour things began to slow and I would switch from calling CQ to hunting and pouncing. I did that for the last 2 hours of the contest (well last 2 hours for me). By the end of the 6 hour period I had 79 contacts, one of which was a dup, and 30 multipliers including a couple of DX entities: Puerto Rico, Venezuala, Spain, and Canada. With 78 QSO pts and 30 multipliers, I ended up with a total score of 2,340pts.

I don't know if that will earn me a place in the top or not but it was a fun contest none-the-less. I was able to add more 070 members into the log. As a matter of fact I have now contacted enough member to get my 150 endoresment for my LONP award. I know what you're saying, LON what? The Loyal Order of Narrow-Banded Phase-Shifters. It's a special member society in the 070 club for members who have contacted at least 100 other 070 members.

So that's all I have for now. Hope everyone has a great weekend. For those working the VHF contest good luck and have fun.

73 and good DX to all,
Tim - AJ4JD

PODXS 070 1K Results and the Tennessee QSO Party

Good morning everyone. Well it's been a fun couple of weeks of radio and it's not over by any means. Last week you may remember that the PODXS 070 club was having their 1K Celebration. Well the results have been published and I finished a respectable 6th place which I'm quite proud of. Also I have to offer a bit of congratulations to K1GMD who finished 1st overall with a whopping 143,000 points. Also congratulations to all who participated, it was an absolute blast. Also, Robin (AJ4IJ), my XYL, she finished a nice respectable 14th and contacted Sasquatch. I'm looking forward to the 80 meter sprint this coming weekend.

So this afternoon and evening was the Tennessee QSO Party. I had a lot of fun working the QSO party. I thought I was going to have to share the radio with the XYL but she wasn't feeling very well today and opted to not participate this time around. I did much better this year as compared to last year. Of course it helped that I knew more about contesting as compared to last years TNQP and that we have our very own HF and that I worked it solo.

I did take a couple of breaks during the contest. Once was to run to the CVS to get Robin some cold medicine. Another time was a few minutes here and there to play with the dog outside. The last break was to run out with Robin to pick up pizza and then eat it once we got it back to the house.

So after operating most of the contest, I ended up with 166 contacts. The break down is as follows I had 157 contacts on SSB, 9 contacts on PSK31. I had a total of 78 multipliers. I ended up working 21 TN Counties, 33 states, 3 Canadian Provinces, and 3 DXCC entities not including Alaska, Canada, and the US.

The final score that I had tallied was 26,798 points. That's not official but that is my best guestimation. I guess in a couple of months we will see were the cards fall.

Anyway, thanks to everyone that made contact with me over the past couple of weeks. It's been a blast and I hope to catch you all on the bands and the waterfall again real soon.

73, good dx, and God Bless de AJ4JD,
Tim

P.S. All logs have been uploaded to LoTW and eQSL.

Not to Ill to Play Radio...Thank goodness for digital...

If it weren't for the Digital Modes, I wouldn't have played any radio this past week. I've been down with a bad sinus infection since Tuesday. Luckily, I'm starting to feeling better today. Since last weekend, Robin (AJ4IJ) and I (AJ4JD) have been working the PODXS 070 club's 1K celebration contest. It's been a 3 stage contest for the celebration. The first stage, last Saturday, was to work as many 070 members in 24 hours. The second stage was a scavenger hunt that went from Monday through Friday. You had to work 10 different things (i.e. Fur-Bearing Creature (part of name, call or qth), A tree (part of call, name, QTH etc.)). The third and final stage started Friday evening at 8:00pm EST, after stage 2 ended. The objective was to work non-070 members only and the kicker was that it was no calling CQ, search and pounce only.

I have to say that I worked a lot of DX this last week and a half during the celebration. It seemed that there was a lot of DX on 20 and 40 this weekend. We were working Europe quite frequently and the occasional South American station and plenty of North American stations. Everything, of course, was worked on PSK31 and with 50 watts. Some of the countries include: Italy, England, Scottland, Germany, France, Sardinia, Mexico, Cuba, Netherlands, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Poland, Australia and many more.

So with all the logs uploaded to LoTW and eQSL, as well as having been submitted to the contest manager, all we can do is sit and wait for the results to be posted. For Robin and I, here is how we faired:

Robin
Stage 1: 28 contacts - 28,000 points (Each contact was worth 1,000 points hence the 1K celebration).
Stage 2: Found all 10 objects - 10,000 points (Plus another 5,000 bonus points if approved by the contest manager for finding all 10 making 15,000 points)
Stage 3: 13 contacts - 13,000 points
Total - 56,000 points

Tim
Stage 1: 43 contacts - 43,000 points
Stage 2: Found all 10 objects - 10,000 points (Plus the 5,000 if approved making total 15,000)
Stage 3: 26 countacts - 26,000 points
Total - 84,000 points

I don't know how that will place either of us in the contest, but regardless it was a lot of fun and sure did help to keep my mind off my illness this past week. I look forward to the endorsement for participating and I'm really looking forward to the next 070 contest, The Jay Hudak Memorial 80 meter Sprint. We will also be working the Tennessee QSO Party, from Union County Tennessee, I'll see everyone then.

Good DX and God bless.
Vy 73 to all
AJ4JD - Tim

North American QSO Party and a Few Lighthouses to Boot

So yesterday was a busy day. I started out running the garbage, then mowed my yard and the father-in-law's (KU4ME) yard. After that we decided to run up to Clinch Mountain. We had been out in the field a couple of nights this past week to watch the Perseid Meteor shower and to watch an Iridium flare. While we were up there watching the shower, I had been on the local 145.470 repeater, talking to a few friends. It was then that one of them mentioned going up to Clinch Mtn. to watch meteor showers. That brought the thought of a little restaurant up there to John the KU4ME. Clinch Mountain Lookout Restaurant is home to the famous vinegar pie. Anyway, we enjoyed a wonderful down home meal along with vinegar pie as well as strawberry rhubarb pie.

So once we got back home, it was time to sit at the station and get down to some serious contesting. Last night I worked the North American QSO Party for a good 5 hours. I know you are thinking that if I was a serious contester, the yards and dinner could have waited. Unfortunately, when the temps are hot and the humidity is low, we are plagued with a horrible AC line noise that won't quit. So needless to say, I wouldn't have done any good during the afternoon hours. After about 5 hours I had bagged a total of 120 contacts and 61 multipliers for a total of 7,320 points.

This morning I was awoke by my XYL (AJ4IJ) who was beaming about a couple of good contacts she had made. She contacted a couple of lighthouses and a special event station for the Mason-Dixon line. I won't go into the contacts as I'm sure she will want to blog about them, but she said I should get up and work some as well, considering the bands were doing really well and the noise wasn't in there. So needless to say, after a cup of coffee and a cigarette or two, I sat at the station and made a few lighthouse contacts, two in New York and one in Canada.

So that's been the amount of radio time I've had. I've been on the 470 repeater a bit more here recently so the activity is definitely picking up. Anyway, thanks to all the contacts I made. I hope all had a fun weekend. Good DX and God Bless to all.

73 de AJ4JD,
Tim

P.S. All contacts have been uploaded to LOTW and EQSL.

Not a Whole lot of Radio this week

I haven't been doing a whole lot of radioing this past week. I've listened here and there but not much in the way of operating. Although yesterday I did play just a little bit. We all, Robin, Ashby (KJ4EGJ), and me, contacted a couple of Special Events that were commemorating the Apollo 11 40th anniversary. I also made contact a special event on PSK31 celebrating the International Year of Astronomy. Thanks for the contact Walter (W2GSB). Another contact I made was with an OM in France, F5NMK. I have uploaded all contacts from yesterday to LoTW and eQSL.

Oh I thought I might mention that Robin (AJ4IJ) and I have both joined the European PSK Club (EPC) so if you see us on the waterfall give us a call as we are trying to work the many different awards they have. There are a bunch of them and so far we've both got about 7 or 8. Anyway, if you are into PSK then you should definitely check this club out. They have some really nice certificates for their awards.

Well that's all I have for now. I don't know of much else to write about at the moment so I'll be clear for now. 73 to all.

Tim - AJ4JD

IARU HF Championship Fin

Another wonderful contest came to an end this morning at 8:00am EST. (12:00 UTC). I worked the IARU HF Championship contest for a few hours yesterday. Actually I worked it for about 4 hours off and on and made some really good DX contacts. In total I made 73 contacts and garnered a little over 8000 points. I still need to send my log off to the contest email but I will get that done at some point today more than likely. I've already uploaded to LoTW, but still have to get the log uploaded to eQSL. So if any of the contacts I made need to confirm, that would be the place to do it.

Anyway, to give you an idea on the DX I worked here's a list: England, France, Serbia, Austria, Sweden, Germany, Croatia, Italy, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Madeira Island, Romainia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Argentina, Venezuela, USA, Poland, Crete, Ukraine, Brazil, Spain, Slovak Republic, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Portugal, Bonaire, Curacao, New Zealand, Trinidad & Tobago, Costa Rica, Virgin Islands, Morocco, Canary Islands, and Canada.
A total of 37 DX entities, including the U.S. Not to bad if I may say so my self. All my contacts were on either 20 or 40 meters by the way. I got started way too late to do anything on 10 or 15 but that's okay. There's always next year or the next contest.

Anyway, the contest was a lot of fun, and while I know I didn't score enough points to be any count, I still put forth a very good effort for the amount of time I put in. Until next time, take care, 73, good DX to you, and thank you to all the contacts I made yesterday.

God Bless,
Tim - AJ4JD

P.S. Next up, my contest results since I've been a HAM.

10 Meters Booming.

Was there a possible Canadian French broadcast on my regular FM car stereo yesterday? That's right, yesterday in the late afternoon, I was returning home from dropping something off over at dad's(KU4ME) when I realized that Green Day had faded out and I was now listening to a woman speaking about Michael Jackson in French. I demonstrated this to my XYL Robin (AJ4IJ) with the shortwave in the house after telling her that propagation must be doing really well. I suppose this is what they call heavy Sporadic-E or E-Skip.
It was at that time she told me I'd better get in there and play with the HF. So, I just had to get in here this morning to mention that 10 Meters was booming in like crazy yesterday. I can only hope that it's booming like that again today. I wonder how much the huge sunspot, that's currently on the Sun, had to do with it? I'm sure that was a player in yesterday's conditions. Regardless, I got in there and called CQ for a few minutes and ended up with 4 contacts on 10 with stations in NJ, MD, MA, and IL. By the way, all contacts have been uploaded to LOTW and eQSL.
I would have played longer but the yard was getting closer to jungle status by the second considering all the rain we have had, so the lawn mower was calling my name. If conditions are that good again today, I will be sure to get in there and make more contacts. So if you happen to play radio this evening, look for me on 10 meters. I'll likely be in there.

Until then, 73 and good DX,
Tim - AJ4JD

Updates for W4H and PODXS 070 40 Meter Sprint

So yesterday, we decided to take a break from the "Rat Race" and just play Radio. So with that in mind we decided to work a little bit of W4H in celebration of our Country's Independence. Robin (AJ4IJ) decided to give it a go on 40 Meters for a few minutes with no bites at all. So she decided to turn it over to me. So I tuned over to 20 Meters which was very busy with a contest and of course the 13 Colonies Special Event. (BTW we both worked 5 of the 13 yesterday.) So away I called CQ W4H/AJ4JD on 20 meters and ended up with about 5 or 6 DX contacts. The band was going really long but it was hard to pull stations out due to QRM etc. So over to 40 Meters I went and made a few more stateside contacts. That was about the extent of it for me. I made a total of 12 contacts and all have been uploaded to eQSL. I will get them uploaded to LOTW soon under the W4H call but they are uploaded under my call.
So 8:00pm rolled and it was time for Robin to work the 40 Meter Firecracker Sprint hosted by the PODXS 070 club. She did quite well racking up a total of 80 contacts and 33 mutlipliers for a grand total of 2,640 points. Of course we did take a break long enough to watch our neighbors across the street blow up about $200 worth of fireworks. She also got up long enough to let me make a couple of contacts. Enough to get an attaboy for my 070 certificate. Thanks Honey.

So that's about all I have for now. I should be posting soon and overview of my contesting experience since I've been a HAM and got into contesting. That should be interesting to say the least.
Until next time... 73 and Good DX to all,
Tim - AJ4JD

P.S. We are now on Twitter. You can follow Robin at http://www.twitter.com/aj4ij and me at http://www.twitter.com/aj4jd.

LOTW vs eQSL

Well, I was checking the analytics (stats) on my blog here just a minute ago and found that someone reached my site via the search of "LOTW vs eQSL". So I thought I would blog about the differences between the two. Obviously someone out there would like to know, and since I use both, I can give a little insite from my own perspective. So take it for what it's worth.

LOTW as everyone knows is the online log book done by the ARRL. LOTW is pretty a pretty good program and fairly easy to use once you get everything set up. The set up is really the hardest thing about LOTW. With LOTW you first have to register an account, then wait for a card to come in the mail. Oh yeah you have to download a little program that allows you to get a an encrypted certificate so for security and validity reasons. I understand the purpose I suppose. I wouldn't want someone taking credit for my contacts, but I digress. Actually, at the LOTW website they have a fairly understandable "Getting Started" guide that walks you through the whole process. Within a week I was all set up and ready to upload my log from the log book program I use. To date I've uploaded over 1000 contacts and have confirmed over 400.

The two real positives about LOTW, is that you can use it to confirm contacts for ARRL's WAS, and DXCC awards and endorsements. Another positive is that it integrates quite well with the log book software I use (N3FJP's AC LOG). Two clicks is all it takes to upload new contacts and receive any confirmations that are sitting out on the LOTW servers. As of last check, I lack 4 states to confirm in order to receive my Basic WAS award.

EQSL is another log book site I use and really like it alot. While you cannot use EQSL to confirm/validate contacts for ARRL's awards, they have a few awards of their own and they recently arranged a means to validate/confirm contacts for a few of the awards from CQ magazine. As a matter of fact, I just earned the eDX award for confirming at least 25 DXCC entities. Of course in award to participate in their awards programs you have to be Authenticity Guaranteed (AG'd) and be at least a Bronze member. AG'd is eQSL's way of providing security and proof that you are who you say you are, much like the certificates with LOTW. Fortunately, with eQSL, the AG process is much more simple than the certificate stuff with LOTW. As for the Bronze Membership, you only have to make a small donation to eQSL via PayPal. I've donated $5 this year and that keeps me Bronze for the year.

Other positives about EQSL include actual QSL cards and ease of use. That's right, with eQSL you exchange with your contacts digital QSL cards. You can use eQSL's design shop to make your own or you can make your own and upload the image yourself. Of course in order to do that you have to be at least a Bronze member. Otherwise, regular members have to choose from a small selection of designs. You can view the QSL's you've received at any time. You can also print them out for your collection.

The one drawback is that it doesn't integrate with my logbook software as LOTW. For instance if I wanted to upload my logs to EQSL from my logbook software, I have two options. One is to upload each contact individually via the logbook program. The other option is to export my log into an ADIF format, which my logbook program does quite well, and then upload it through EQSL's upload interface.

So there you have it folks. To summarize, I use both. I like both really well. They are both pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it, and they make award applications so much easier. Of course I still love to receive QSL cards in the mail, however, this is a much cheaper option if you are on a tight budget. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a post here and I will do my best to post the answer.

Until next time, 73 and good DX.

Tim - AJ4JD

Milestones Thanks to the 070 TDW

I didn't write about this during yesterday's post as it hadn't really crossed my mind. However, today it has so I figured I would share with you a couple of milestones to put in the books.

Milestone 1:
- During the TDW contest this past weekend I made my 1000th logged contact. That's right I've hit the 1000 contact mark and still trucking. Of course this is mainly contacts on HF. Who was the lucky OP you ask? None other than N7GVV. Thanks for the contact Jim and the milestone mark. I will definitely be sending a QSL your way just for memorabilia sake. Hi Hi.

Milestone 2:
- Thanks to the wonderful cyber world and the 070 TDW contest, I finally confirmed 25 DX contacts via eQSL and have earned myself the eDX award. That's right folks, my first major Ham Award. No, it may not be as pretty as the major award the old man won in a Christmas Story, but to me it is a major award nonetheless.

So that's all I've got for now. I still lack 5 states for the eWAS via eQSL, and 4 more states for the basic WAS via the ARRL. So if you hear me on the bands or see me on the waterfall give a holler for me. I'd love to work you.

Anyway it's late and about time to go QRT. So I'll 73 for now and thanks to all who I've contacted and all those who have contacted me.

Tim - AJ4JD

Doing the Asiatic Russia Dance

So this evening I just happened to have turned on the ICOM 756 Pro and put it on 20 meters and later tuned the Windom. Low and behold there was no noise. Of course I still had a couple of chores to complete to help out the XYL when I was passing by and happened to hear RZ9uUI beaming North Pole on 14.205. I heard him work a few stations and I figured I'd bring up the log book and get everything ready and see if I could work him. Once I had everything ready he finished with on station stateside and hollered QRZed. I quickly keyed up the mike and threw out my call and right then and there he came right back with my call and a BIG 5-9. Alex was his name and I returned with my name and gave him a 5-9 as well here in Tennessee.

I hope he QSL's direct as well as LoTW and eQSL. That if I can confirm that contact that would make worked all continents FTW. How awesome would it be to get WAC under my belt and out of the way?

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. So until next time 73, Good DX, and God Bless,
Tim - AJ4JD

31 Flavors Failure yet successful.

No thanks to the local AC noise we are plagued with in our little area, I wasn't very successful in the 31 Flavors contest. Not that I'm making excuses or anything, but that noise just wipes out anything and everything that isn't a big power station. Regardless of the fact, I was able to squeak out three good DX contacts during the contest and one of those was with an OM who was making his very first HF contact and to top that off it was via PSK 31. VE2VAG, my hats off to you for taking the wonderful plunge into the world of Digital Modes and HF in one shot. I also got Germany and Belgium.
Later in the evening I made a couple of contacts on 40 meters. It was after the contest period ended in my neck of the woods. W3HF, thanks for another 070 contact. That makes another point towards LONP and my first towards the QCWA endorsement.
You should all have eQSLs waiting for you, I will upload to LOTW shortly.

Well that's all I have for now, so until next time,
73 & Good DX
AJ4JD - Tim

Dit Dit.

eQSL and LOTW is now

Just thought I would let everyone know that I am now confirming QSO's via Log Book of The World (LOTW) and eQSL. So everyone check their accounts and make sure you received my confirmation and if you haven't already, please send return confirmation. Thanks to LOTW, I only lack 5 states for the basic WAS award. Woohoo. Don't forget, I also QSL direct and love to collect QSL cards. If you want one in return I will be more than happy to send out. Just in case you are wondering what my QSL card looks like check out this old post. Anyway, that's really all I have for the time being. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and if I don't post prior to... Everyone have a Happy Easter.

73 and good DX,
Tim - AJ4JD