Monthly Archives: September 2014

2014 WAE SSB – Part time but full QTCs

Contests

This past weekend was the annual WAE SSB contest here non-EU stations can only work EU stations.

The WAE contests support QTCs which is an exchange of up to 10 other contacts (time, call and serial number) that were made. Each previous contact can only be sent once and a max of 10 QTCs can be sent to any station during the contest. QTCs add points but not multipliers and its a quick way to potentially double the number of points made.

An example exchange might be me working a DL9ZZ station and then he asking if I have QTCs…

K2DSL K2DSL
K2DSL TU 59 456
DL9ZZ TU 59 123
QSL DO YOU HAVE QTCS FOR ME?
YES – BATCH 9/10
0823 DL1AA 100
0823 DL2HQ 233
0825 9A2EU 76
…
0840 GW4BLE 433
K2DSL QSL BATCH 9/10 TU 73

I made the QSO with DL9ZZ which is a point and possible mult and then I get 10 more points for the QTCs exchanged.

I worked a little while on Friday evening when the contest started but most of the contacts were made on Saturday starting later in the morning. Most activity was on 15m & 20m as you can see from the summary below. It’s pretty easy when you just leave your antenna pointed at Europe vs rotating it throughout the contest. For my 40m and 80m contacts it’s the wire that hangs between the trees in my yard – no rotation needed.

My local club was planning on a group VHF contest gathering but the weather was rainy on Saturday so we decided to cancel it. That gave me more time to work the WAE contest.

There was no shortage of stations that wanted QTCs and often I didn’t have a full bucket of 10 to send but they wanted what I had. If I sent them a partial number (less then 10) I might stop by if I heard them later and could send them more. I even came back to some loud stations where I previously made a QSO with but didn’t have any QTCs to send and just sent them QTCs when I had them available.

Sunday was a NY Giants NFL football home game and I was going with the family to it. I was gone most of the day (8+ hours) and after coming back home I got on and tried to make more contacts. I should have stayed home instead of going to the football game since I got sunburned and they played poorly and lost. I might have had more fun making contacts, though hanging out with the family was really enjoyable. Sunday late in the day with just a couple hours left, I was hearing lots of EU stations but I worked them already. I probably should have found a frequency on 20m and started calling CQ but by the time I got home from the game I was pretty beat so I just spun the dial.

I ended up giving out the same number of QTCs as QSOs that I made which is as optimal as you can get in this particular contest. No lack of folks that asked for them and wanted as many or as few as you could send.

Below is my score which shows the QSOs and QTCs per band.

 Band  QSOs  QTCs  Mults
-------------------------
   80:    1           4
   40:   16     6    21
   20:  105    98    58
   15:   96   115    48
   10:    1           2
-------------------------
Total:  219   219   133  
Total Score = 58,254

73,
K2DSL

More original K2DSL – 1950’s QSLs

Contacts

Back in 2009 I wrote a post and was in contact with Merceda aka “Bunny” the original holder of K2DSL in the 1950s.  After a contest a few weeks ago where K2DSW (Bob now in Iowa) and I, K2DSL were often following each other making contacts, I sent Bob an email, In our exchange he asked me about the original K2DSL as he had made contact with her and sent me some QSL cards from his exchanges.  With Bob’s permission, I’m posting the QSL cards from his contacts with the original K2DSL back in the 1950s when Merceda was between the ages of 13 and 15 years old.

1954 – Age 13 (click images to enlarge):

K2DSL_1954_a K2DSL_1954_b

1955 – Age 13 (click images to enlarge):

K2DSL_1955

1956 – Age 14 (click images to enlarge):

K2DSL_1956

1957 – Age 15 (click images to enlarge):

K2DSL_1957_a K2DSL_1957_b

 

Bob also sent along a scanned copy of a reprint from a CQ Magazine article on Young YLs. I’ve included the snippet on K2DSL which includes a picture of Merceda (aka “Bunny”). Again, click for a larger more readable view:

K2DSL_Young_YLs_Reprint

 

I’ll have to check in with Bob and see if he was able to get in contact with Merceda using the email address I had from 2009. Interesting look back into the past. Thanks again Bob for the great scans on those cards from the 50s.

73,
K2DSL