Another successful Chillycon is over, and this one while short on attendees, was pretty good. It turns out a number the regulars didn't come out for it as they thought it as going to be too cold. In fact the weather was great, yeah it was a little cool first thing in the morning, but it soon warmed up. At least we had no rain!!
I spent Thursday and Friday doing road trips to various local parks listed on the POTA app, in fact I ended up having to submit 10 separate POTA logs for the time we where at Rideau River Provincial Park. Ok, so I went a bit nuts this year, it was my holiday - give me a break.
Saturday on the air was spectacular, I made 99 contacts that day, see the QSO map below:
The lines heading off on the right side of the map were heading to Europe, four contacts were made into Spain and one into Poland. Not too shabby for 10w and a 40m EFHW antenna.
Eric, VA3AMX, won the DX Trophy, for what seems the 100th time, with a nice cw QRP contact with a VK6. I guess it helps if you sit up all night waiting for the right moment 😎
Over the past year I have been looking at various cw keys, trying to find the right one, and the most comfortable one for me. So thanks to Eric, I'm now the proud owner of a Kent Engineering Standard Morse Key, and what a beauty it is!!! I remember my Dad using one of these keys, but I don't know where it ended up after he passed away. Anyway, Thanks Eric, it will be used!!
Stay Safe Out There!!
Good morning Bob, yes the weather has had a few cold mornings down this way we have seen temps in at -3C in the mornings but it warms up just nice. Very nice job on the amount of POTA and great job with the antenna experiments. I have been looking at the Kent Iambic key but their site is down and DX Engineering has all the Kent keys as not available. Wondering if something is up with them?
ReplyDeleteHave a good what is left of the week and very nice post.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Thanks for the visit Mike. I also wonder what's up with Kent Engineering, perhaps they've closed shop? It will be a great pity if they have closed as their keys are fantastic! As for cold mornings.....it's only going to get worse as we head into the season!
Delete73,
Bill VE3FI
I read a comment a few months back that Kent had been sold and the company is now operating out of Germany .. I don't know any more details than that. Bill, I am glad that you found a key that suits you. I have the same model and it has a great feel. The wooden base makes it a bit clacky but it feels like a Morse key should, IMHO. As I have often said, "Morse Keys are a bit like underwear". One size / brand does not fit all and you need to try them out for a bit before you can be certain that you are happy with the fit ;-) Great to see you guys at Chillycon ! Cheers Michael VE3WMB
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