POST WPX

Well my trip to Ore. was a pleasant surprise as the weather was very spring like and I did not have to drive in the snow this year. However the band conditions were very poor with only a few bursts of very good low noise band openings.
The normal throng of JA stations did not ever show up I think we only had four in the log, one VK and only two KH6 stations. But we had a couple of pleasant sunrises with fair openings to Russia, and Northern Europe and one middle East contact with A71AM.

Our score was very low this year even low for us low ball contesters we did about a third of what we did last year. But as always a nice visit with my old friend and some hours of setting on the deck with a drink enjoying the fabulous view and the spring sun. We even managed to do a little antenna work during the slow times so we made the best of it.
Hope some of you managed to work a few this weekend, about time to get some spring yard work done and put up the 6 meter antenna in hopes of a good E-skip season....73 and enjoy the spring.

CQ WPX 2013

Well it is trying to be spring and in short order it will be here, for me the beginning of spring starts with my annual trip to Oregon to operate the CQ WPX contest from the QTH of K7BUY. What this means is that I will most likely have to drive for five hours one way and at least some part of it will be in a spring snow storm....it just never fails.

I guess my point is that not only is it a great radio weekend but even a greater time spent with an old friend away from the hubbub of the city. Try to make a plan in the next year to go see an old friend and do something you both love to do, no matter what it is it is good for us...

I hope to hear you on in the WPX contest it is a good one and a good way to say goodbye to the winter radio season as you know we all spend way less time in the shack starting about this time of the year. I will have a report on our weekend when I return....Get on the radio have some fun and say goodbye to winter....Photo taken last March of the lovely spring WX !

Clipperton Isl.

When I was a kid in rural Idaho I sat on the floor and turned the dial on an RCA floor model radio and was amazed at the things I would hear, my mind would conger up visions of far away places in exotic settings....and I would wonder what is it like there.

Radio was magic then and still is if you think about it....just magic. Over the past 40 some years of being a Ham I have had the wonderful experience of talking to far away places and I still have the same visions as I did as a kid but I sent my signal back to them....I know we all know how this works but it is still magic !

When I served in the NAVY I was stationed in the Pacific and I got to set foot on some very cool tropical places....I wanted to see them all but not to be...I know what a tropical breeze feels like and the sand beneath my feet and I love all things tropical and South Pacific....

Well I will have to say maybe all things Pacific, once again a group of very adventurous Hams have made the trip to Clipperton Isl. to hand out contacts to the rest of the world...Clipperton was number 19 on the most wanted country list....I had worked Clipperton in 92 but followed the 2013 group very close the web is so great for such things.....So when I worked them on 80m and 160m on CW I flashed back to those days setting on the floor looking at that old RCA....

I will always get excited when working a small Atoll in the Pacific, I am not sure what it is but it feels so good for a few moments to be in touch with a remote island with a rich history of explores, pirates and crazy ham operateors putting it on the line to give me the thrill of working one of the most inhospitable and remote places on earth....Thanks to the TX5K team for a job well done, you thrilled me twice last week.

If you do not chase DX then start, it is an adventure from the comfort of your shack....get on the air have fun and dream of far away places......73

             A couple of the tents on Clipperton Isl. thanks again to the TX5K group, well done !

Two in one

What a weekend, I decided to put my new RTTY setup to use in the NAQP RTTY contest and to work the CQ WW160 Phone contest too...160 was a bugger with high noise and not so good prop. I struggled with the whole thing. Friday night very bad with my low antenna and local noise plus the bad conditions, did not think I would make last years score.

I decided to check band at midnight and it was a bit better so stuck it out until about 0200 and managed to match score from a year ago but was a bugger.

However the NAQP RTTY contest was fun and I learned allot it has been 30 years or so for my last RTTY contact so I am in re-training. I managed to work 32 states and get my system setup like it should be. Next adventure in radio will be ARRL dx ssb contest this next weekend, and Clipperton Isl. will be on the air for the first time in some years so will try hard to get new country with that one.

Then the last of March it will be off to Or. for CQ WPX SSB at the K7BUY qth always a great time, good contest and best friend time. So get on the air have fun and 73....

Contest Season

Well it seems that winter has been a bit harsh here in Southern Idaho so only hope is to spend time in the shack. Did a little with NAQP SSB and ARRL VHF contests last weekend but was not fully involved....This weekend will be 160M CQ CW contest and I will be all in.

I hope you will all check the contest calender and pick one to be involved in, will sharpen your operating skills and pass some time in the dreary cold time of the year...73

HEY ARRL - IS THIS A JOKE ?

Just got my Jan. copy of QST on the front cover I see ( GET ON THE AIR WITH A STEALTH ANTENNA) This excites me as you all know I live in the CC&R world and I am always looking for STEALTH antenna ideas.
So I turn to the article...UH...stealth ? This is a 17m antenna mounted in the yard with a hazer type device to raise it and lower it...Stealth? I CAN SEE IT ! Please tell me how a 17m antenna in the back yard mounted  AGL made from shiny metal is in any way a stealth antenna...Burt says he can not have ground radials according to his CC&R restrictions this makes no sense to me at all...I can have this thing in my yard but no out of sight ground radials....give me a break!

So if had this thing in my yard at least 6 neighbors would be looking at it and know it was an antenna...so maybe a very good antenna but not stealth boys....Once again the ARRL and QST missed the mark....if you want to see stealth antennas come to my house.....oh never mind YOU CAN'T SEE THEM........73

CQ WW DX 160m (2012)