Still Around!

Yes, we're still here ... just behind in making posts!

On the contest front, had another antenna issue that developed during the 10 Meter Contest in December ... which kept me out of it except for a handful of contacts. I believe I finally solved the issue, and fired up for the ARRL DX CW Contest, and finished off with 990 QSO's, 239 Mults, for a score of 709,830.

Next up is the Florida QSO Party on April 25 & 26.

On the Emergency Communications side of things, last week we helped installed dual-band antennas at another 7 Hurricane shelters. These will be part of the "backup" communications if everything else goes down. We just have to connect our radios and we're on the air!

We also participated in the County's yearly "Tactical First in Team" exercise last week, which went well.

November Sweepstakes

A little late in on my posts about the CW and SSB editions of November Sweepstakes ... so figured I'd go ahead and combine the two.

The CW weekend wasn't too bad. 15 could have been better, as it only seemed to be open to the West Coast (not that there's anything wrong with that!). A very loud WP3R from Puerto Rico, was the only signal on for a while Sunday Morning.

Got to 78 mults Sunday morning (1545Z), which left VE4, Manitoba, and VE8/VY1, Northwest Territories/Yukon, as the last two needed. Frustrating to hear KE0Z/VE4 calling other stations, and never heard VE8/VY1. Started giving up hope for the sweep and the cool coffee mug ... when VY1EI called me (2322Z) with a big signal. Didn't work anyone else on my run frequency after that (found VY1EI running a few kHz away!), so decided to give 20 another sweep. i found VE4GV low in the band giving out low numbers and got him in the log - working the last 2 mults right after each other!

Noticed quite a bit of activity from Alaska, which was nice to hear.

Final numbers, 687 QSO's, 80 Sections, 109,920 points.

The SSB weekend, wasn't as good. Kept getting some reports of audio problems, but couldn't figure out why. Seemed to be a problem only on 20 Meters. Later, I seemed to have some problems with the logging computer locking up when I was on 40 Meters. Thinking they might be RFI related problems (which I've never had before), I wrapped an RF choke around the microphone and USB adapter cables, and that seemed to have cured the problems. Had hoped to put in some kind of serious effort, but with the problems, and it being an SSB contest (which for some reason, I just can't get into), it turned into more of a "part time" effort.

Final numbers, 138 QSO's, 57 sections, 15,732 points.

Getting ready for CQWW CW this weekend. Planning to put in as much time as I can.

CQWW Phone Wrapup

What a great weekend! Several Florida Contest Group members got together at K1TO's station, and did a Multi/2 effort. Those involved were Julio, AD4Z/HI3A, Dan, K1TO, Fred, K4LQ, Tom, K4MM, Gary, N4DL, Terry, N4TB, John, W4IX, Jeff, WC4E, and Chris, WF3C.

In addition to operating, Julio was the chief "chef" and whipped up a great Dominican Spaghetti dish along with the occasional "shot" of Cuban coffee! Good stuff!

Final numbers for the contest, 3353 QSO's, 136 Zones, 507 Countries, and 5,097,061 points. Looks like we might stay in the "Top 10".

CQWW Phone

The CQWW Phone contest starts tonight. A bunch of Florida Contest Group members are getting together to do a M/2 or M/M from K1TO's place, in memory of one of our members, Vic, N4TO.

Picture is of Dan's 160' tower I took a couple days ago while helping get things ready. Quality isn't too good ... took it with a cell phone.

Should be a fun weekend.

Tropical Storm Fay

Writing this while on duty at the County EOC. Monitoring activities, but at the moment, not much going on. Storm has been, literally, all over the map ... and now it's forecast to pass off to our east ... and not much wind expected ... probably a lot of rain though. We'll keep our fingers crossed and see what happens.

DX Cluster Node

Last week, I switched my DX Cluster node software over to AR-Cluster. In the process, I also changed the call sign over to K4FCG, which is the call of the Florida Contest Group. Did have a few things to work out, and it seems to continuously disconnect from the network, but it's not off-line for than a few seconds before it automatically reconnects again. Still trying to understand that issue. If you need a DX Cluster to connect to, feel free to telnet over to k4fcg.dyndns.org . It's set up to show only spots posted by US and Canadian stations.

NAQP CW

Worked the North American QSO Party this past weekend. Started out pretty well, but things slowed down later in the evening ... once I had to go over to 40 & 80 Meters.

It was nice to hear 10 Meters open again ... sounds like there are starting to be more and more openings, which is a good sign that things are starting to come back ... C'mon sunspots!

Used the Windows logging program, N1MM for the first time, after using the DOS program NA for many years. Felt is was time to move into the 21st Century and try something different ... and maybe a bit more "modern"!

One neat thing you can do, is automatically post your "real time" score while operating. Kind of makes contesting a spectator sport!

Final numbers - 502 QSO's, 158 Multipliers, 79,316 points.

Time to get busy ....

WOW ... can it be? Over a year since I last posted? That's not good. So, now it's time to get busy ... and stay current with this from now on.

Let's see ... the NAQP CW Contest is this weekend, and I'm planning on trying the N1MM logging program for the first time. Have been using NA forever ... but thought it was time to try something else. N1MM also has the ability to post your scores live, so I'm also going to give Live Scores a shot and see how that works.

I've also been running a DX Cluster node here, using WinCluster Lite, but it's no longer supported. So, I've been poking around the various other cluster software sites. Have one in mind, so we'll see how that works out.

Well, that's a start for today. Will be back ...