cw

Just got a piece of wood in the mail, not bad for the amount of time I put in. You just never know with contests if conditions or going to be good, better, or super freaking fantastic, so plan accordingly. Looks like my 40 country total held up, but I lost ~20 or so qsos. Pretty good for single-op part-time distracted mode. Thanks to K8MK for the use of the antenna, Elecraft for the still fantastic K2 and WA1Z for the award.

One of my favorite debates to listen to is the "CW versus SSB" debate. It is all over eHam.net and contesting.com and the CQ-Contest reflector and numerous other sources. You might even hear it on the local repeaters. Why does this debate even exist? I suspects it's because hams prone to ragchewing need something to talk about.

Special thanks to W1IM, who came on Friday to fix my old 4-811A amplifier. He found a bad joint that was causing two of the four tubes not to glow. It is back to 100% now (or as close to 100% as it ever was). Having some trouble driving it now; I think the radios have a high initial key spike that needs to come down. These old amplifiers don't have grid trip alarms! The only reactive measure this amplifier takes is to burn a tube or two.

Here is Blake, W1IM doing repairs on the amplifier

I spent most of the day playing with keying stuff. I built a new circuit to key the radios and the amps with more delay, so the first character on cw wouldn't be chopped. I also hooked up an old w1wef cw keyer to one of the computers...it works fb with n1mm. I had been keeping it as a spare, but I might just leave it on. It sends less choppy than the other klunkers. I've had it since the days of the 486 and CT. (read more)

A lot of big qrp scores in the ARRL DX despite the lack of sun spots. I for one know that qrp + good antennas = good qrp score, but I also know that qrp + wimpy antennas = I had fun anyway.

Fun it was. Fun that the 40m vertical I put up actually works well enough for me to work dx on 40m. Fun that the QRN on the low bands was almost non-existent. Fun that I could work people even though I thought they were weak too. I think you get the picture.

I did my time in ARRL CW Sweepstakes and was soundly defeated by the Sunday afternoon doldrums. Once 15m and 20m open, 40m becomes the land of unanswered CQs.

Any plans for ARRL Sweepstakes 75th Anniversary to commence November 1st at 2100UTC ending Monday at 0300UTC? I'm definitely operating Sweepstakes CW format on the 1st of November. Sweepstakes reminds me of the Novice Round-up when thousands of ham radio operators joined the fun. Now is the time to begin fine tuning antennas, practicing logging software functions, and general station chores as necessary.