ARRL International DX Contest - SSB

Coming up next weekend, March 6th - 7th, is the ARRL international DX Contest - SSB.   This is always a great contest to work on your DXCC.

Rules can be found HERE.

One rule that I don't understand is the fact that we are not allowed to run multi-operator QRP stations.  The rule makes no sense at all to me, I guess I will have to contact the ARRL and ask why this rule is there.

I noticed that propagation went into the toilet this morning, hopefully it will improve before next Saturday!

Take care out there, and stay safe !!

A Quiet Month..so far...

February around here is normally a very quiet month, and this year seems to be no different.  Of course I'm talking about amateur radio here....not trucker convoys causing mayhem across the country.

I was out a few days ago, using my KX3 and my 20m EFHW.  To be honest, I didn't notice any difference between using the EFHW with a 20m Hamstick, the end result seemed to be exactly the same.  In fact if you overlay todays map with a map from last week, or even last month...they look pretty much the same.

Temperature wise it's actually warmed up to a balmy -3C here, although I'm sure we are going to get hit with another round, or two, of snow before the end of March.  It was quite comfortable doing my last POTA activation, I really didn't feel too cold at all.  The older you get the harder it seems you handle the cold.

This year, I am planning on taking part in the ARRL International SSB DX Contest.  This is being held on the weekend of March 5th & 6th.  I will do this contest QRO with my FT-950, as I think it will be a waste of time running QRP.  The Rules for this contest can be found HERE.

Stay warm and safe out there !!

Back Out Activating...

We've had some terrible weather here over the last week.  Another foot and a half (39 cm) of snow is on the ground and some freezing rain was added to it.  Luckily both my antenna have survived the wind and ice, but not much operating was done.

So today started with this strange golden yellow ball hanging in a beautiful deep blue sky, something we haven't seen for a few weeks now.....time to get out and play radio!!

It was still very cold, -20C in the wind, and the wind was gusting to 35 kph, so it had quite the bite to it.  I chose to go to Lemoine's Point, VE-5141, which is fairly close to my QTH.  With the bad propagation we have suffered through this past week I wasn't sure how the bands would be.

Propagation this morning was:

SFI=130, SN=87, A Index=32, and the K Index=3.....so it was going to be interesting.  Lot's of very deep QSB rounded things off.

Once again I stuck with 20m using the Hamstick, KX3 and 10w.  Really, I didn't think I was going to have much luck today operating....but it was nice just to get out of the house with a radio!

What an activation I had!   I put EA1FIC, Spain, and CU3HY, the Azores, in the log along with 26 US states and 2 Canadian provinces.  It turned out to be a great day.  The QSB was pretty deep at times, and I must apologize for the couple that I just could not work because of it.

Here's todays QSO map:

I'll be back out tomorrow doing another activation as the weather looks like it will still be good enough to do one.

Stay safe and warm out there!