Monthly Archives: April 2009

Barbados confirmed via LoTW

I previously had Barbados confirmed via QSL cards that I received, but this morning I noticed that 8P9A has uploaded some contacts from last month so now Barbados is confirmed for me via LoTW.  104 mixed DXCCs and 101 20m DXCCs confirmed via LoTW and an additional 18 via paper QSL cards.

I also emailed KG4CN who operated while he was in Guantanamo Bay Cuba to see if he was going to upload his contacts to LoTW and Dan replied back promptly that he was just waiting for the LoTW certificate to come in and felt it would be confirmed within the next 2 weeks. I have 40m RTTY confirmed via paper QSL for that entitiy but it will be nice to get the 20m confirmation and have it via LoTW.

73,
K2DSL

Google’s home page in Morse Code

Someone suggested checking out Google’s home page today. Here’s the relevant content:

Google Home Page

73,
K2DSL

SP DX RTTY and Florida QSO Party

I wasn’t dedicated to contesting this weekend and did a bunch of other things, but I did participate in 2.1 contests this weekend. There was a 1 day RTTY contest and a 2 session Florida QSO Party that spanned Sat and Sun. The 0.1 contest was I logged 2 Nebraska QSO Party ops as I was tuning around the FL QSO Party.

The SP DX RTTY contest summary is as follows:

        Band    QSOs    Pts  Cty   Sec   Cnt
         3.5       7      41    5    1    0
           7      34     137    9    2    0
          14      29     245   12    7    4
       Total      70     423   26   10    4

            Score : 60,912

The Florida QSO Party summary is as follows. I saw a note on one of the mailing lists that the score might need to be doubled when running low power. I’m ready to head off for the night so I’m not sure if N1MM calculated correctly or it’s really 2x what I have below.

        Band  Mode  QSOs    Pts  Sec
           7  LSB      9      18    0
          14  CW      60     240   36
          14  USB     41      82   22
       Total  Both   110     340   58
           Score : 19,720

I didn’t notice anything exotic about the contacts other then another Turkey contact in the SP DX RTTY contest. And some of the FL ops that were moving between counties were just phenomenal with how many counties they hit and how good they are with CW.

Interesting that there were multiple times where FL stations were so on top of each other it was as if they were on the exact same frequency, which they might have been. They probably couldn’t hear each other on 20m but it must have been confusing when people were calling them.

I also logged 4M5M which is a special event station in Venezuela for International Marconi Day. Odd way to QSL though which I hadn’t seen before. I sent to a US station but need to include $$ for return postage because it’s coming back from Venezuela. Just happens to be the first time I’ve seen any QSL work like that.

73,
K2DSL

Sardina confirmed on LoTW – DXCC 20m achieved

I happened to notice today when I got home from work that IM0/IK0FMB operating in Sardina confirmed the RTTY contacts we made on 20 and 40m one month ago. That gibes me 103 confirmed DXCCs for Mixed and 100 confirmed DXCCs for 20m. Add in the additional 19 DXCCs confirmed via QSL cards and I have 122 confirmed mixed DXCCs.

I need to get the QSL cards reviewed by a DXCC checker and then send in the paperwork and payment to the ARRL.

73,
K2DSL

Triple Play Award #243 Arrives !

Came home from work today and in the mail was a large envelope from the ARRL. Inside was my shiny new Triple Play Award #243 certificate along with a nice letter from NC1L and a form to order a plaque.  Thanks again to all the operators that made the contact and uploaded their logs to LoTW.

Also in the mail was the MFJ-557 keyer which I got on eBay. Real quick shipment and it arrived in perfect working order. Also enclosed were the Introduction to Morse Code CD’s the seller included. I hope to start the process this weekend.

73,
K2DSL

Tunisia Africa confirmed – 3V8BB

Back in Sept 2008 I had a RTTY contact with 3V8BB in Tunisia Africa. I checked their web page often (which is now updated) and was never sure if I should send the card direct to the address in QRZ or to YT1AD which was listed as the most recent QSL via on their web page. The problem was the web page for QSL via wasn’t updated and didn’t cover the date range I made the contact. I decided to email YT1AD who was listed as the most recent QSL via and he responded that he was the correct contact. So off went a QSL card direct to YT1AD and in less then 2 months I received the card.

It’s my first confirmation with Tunisia so that makes 19 DXCCs confirmed via QSL cards in addition to the 102 confirmed via LoTW. Time to get my QSL cards “checked” and apply for DXCC with the cards and LoTW confirmations. I’ll get DXCC and DXCC 20m.

73,
K2DSL

Learning the code

I’ve been able to participate in CW contests and the Triple Play Award by using software to both receive and translate morse code into print as well as send it back to the other operator.  In essence, it makes CW very RTTY like for me. I can already hear certain words such as my call sign, CQ, 5NN, TU without looking at what was translated. I can tell when they come back with a portion of my call sign or have it incorrect just from hearing it and I know I need to resend it.

Of course, that’s not enough to help me work through if the exchange doesn’t go exactly as planned and the CW reader (I use DM780 though I’ve installed CWGet) isn’t able to interpret what is sent back. And it certainly isn’t enough of a solution to make me happy, so I will now embark on learning “the code”.  As a quick aside, it was just recently announced that there were more CW logs submitted for the CQ World Wide contest then phone logs. So CW isn’t dead, despite not mandating a code requirement in the US.

I have a few software programs and web sites to assist with learning the code but none of them seem to be working well for me yet. To be fair, I don’t think I’ve put in any real effort to stick with any one of them long enough to make progress. I also don’t have any keyer. Saturday night, I noticed a MFJ-557 Practice Code Oscillator bundled with some morse code audio CDs on eBay so I went ahead and did a Buy Now and got them. They will probaby arrive the very end of this week or early next week and I’m looking forward to putting in the time to learn the code.

73,
K2DSL

A nice Saturday inside and out

Yesterday was a great day outside. It was as if spring had finally made its way to NJ. Had a bunch of stuff to do and it was nice to be outside. My daughter’s lacrosse team won their first game and she did a magnificent job as the goalie.

On the air, I made a few QSO’s with a handful of special event stations that were running. I still enjoy contacting them and sending for their QSL cards. I stopped by the post office yesterday morning to pick up some stamps, but they didn’t have any of the new Forever stamps which work now and with the new postage rate next month so I got some 42 cent stamps. I hope anyone that gets them responds in enough time to use them.

I also received a real nice email from N2FF, Frank Fallon. N2FF is the ARRL Hudson Division Director which is the division I’m located within. His email was to congratulate me on getting the Triple Play Award. He was #43 and I was #243. Thanks for the email Frank!

Yesterday was also the Michigan QSO Party. Though I didn’t have a lot of radio time, I ended up with 77 contacts on 40/80 CW/SSB. Below is my score summary from N1MM:

        Band  Mode  QSOs    Pts  Sec
         3.5  CW      14      28    7
         3.5  LSB     21      21    7
           7  CW      11      22    9
           7  LSB     31      31   19
       Total  Both    77     102   42

            Score : 4,284

I also heard NN2T, a very local ham to me, participating in the contest so we dropped down a few KHz and had a real nice chat.

Definitely a nice Saturday whether I was inside or out.

73,
K2DSL

Mozambique confirmed via LoTW, 9H1SP and YL Ops

Yesterday I noticed that Mozambique was confirmed on LoTW. The C91TX station was a DXpedition by the Texas DX Society. Thanks for uploading to LoTW and so quickly after the DXpedition. That brings myconfirmed XCCs on LoTW mixed to 102 and  20m to 99.  With 18 additional confirmations, I’m at 120 for mixed. I need to get my QSL cards approved by our local card checker and then send them in with my LoTW confirmations for my 20/mixed DXCC.

I also received a QSL card direct from 9H1SP in Malta. I had made a contact with Paul via RTTY about 1 month ago and sent for his card even though I knew he was a LoTW user.  Thanks for sending a QSL back so quick.

Also, this past weekend, I had a QSO with a YL operating the WW2SUB station located on the USS Batfish. She did a very good job in the QSO. In the last month I recall at least 1 other YL at the mic and that was a special event station for the 150th Anniversary of Mount Saint Joseph Academy and the 10th Anniversary of the Robotics Team there. The young gal at the mic also did a terrific job with my QSO.

73,
K2DSL

LoTW Triple Play Award #243

I started a new job today so I didn’t check to see if anything had happened with my TPA submission. Late in the day, on my train ride home, I got a congratulatory email from Wa2LXE congratulating me on TPA #243. When I got home, I checked the ARRL LoTW site and sure enough, it lists K2DSL  #243  04-13-2009.

Thanks again to all the other ops that were on the other end of the 150 contacts as well as the fine folks at BARA such as WA2LXE and K2ZC for their encouragement and guidance.

73,
K2DSL