Rules can be found HERE.
This year I'm hoping to be able to combine this event with a POTA activation...which would double the fun.
Don't forget that the event also allows for the use of SOTA summits, so there are lots of excuses to get out of the shack. and play radio outside.
After the long Covid-19 winter it will be great to be able to get outside and operate again, even within the current lockdown rules we are currently under.
Stay safe out there!!
While the HF conditions weren't too bad this weekend for the CQ SSB Contest, the bands certainly were not busy, but there was a bit of fairly deep QSB around. In fact I simply carried on chasing POTA stations throughout Saturday, and didn't give the contest much thought......that was until I decided to pay a visit to 15m around 1600 local time.
So in a period of about fifteen minutes I managed to work:
ZM4T, VK4KW, VK3IO, LU5FC, PT5J, HI3T, C6AGU, OA4SS, 3E3E, and TI1T.
Not too shabby for 90w and an EFHW antenna. Of course the highlight for me was the NZ station and the two Aussies. I haven't had any of those countries in my log for at least three years, if not longer. So, perhaps the bands are slowly getting better, and better days of propagation are ahead of us after all.
Stay safe out there!!
Another quiet few weeks as the great winter thaw continues here in Eastern Canada. It's pretty muddy in most places where the snow has melted, making it difficult to move around and do any portable operating. It's quite frustrating really, but hopefully another week and we can get out and do things without getting filthy doing it.
I did get a nice catch yesterday from the home shack, ZF1DJ in the Cayman Islands operating from a POTA site, Park ZF-0015. Managed to get him on the first call, and while I only received a 55 signal report, I was pretty happy with that. The propagation yesterday was not the best and the QSB was very deep with S9 stations disappearing in seconds - never to be heard from again.
The Rules can be found HERE.
Stay safe out there!!
The bands on Saturday were in decent shape, but the large number of stations all screaming "Your 59, 1kw" was enough to tell me my 100w and an EFHW antenna were just not going to cut it. So, I did what any amateur would have done, I turned off the rig and went for a beer.
On Sunday morning the propagation numbers were actually worse than Saturday, and were: SFI=76, SN=23, A Index=16, and the K Index=2.
Surprisingly though, the bands seemed quiet and in better shape. I through out my call before I went out for my daily morning walk, and from 1402 - 1432 UTC I managed to put ten DX SSB stations in my log using only 10w into my EFHW. They were:
CQ8M, HP3SS, HG8R, EB5A, IK0ETA, 9A9A, OK1DOY, SP8R, ED5R, and S57DX.
It seemed that there were very few US stations around at that early time, which of course only made it easier for a QRP station like mine to get its signal through and be heard. It was only later that I realized that most of the US stations had probably taken the time off to go to church 😎
Stay safe out there!!
This weekend, along with the CQ WW DX Contest on the last weekend in March, are great opportunities to work some fantastic DX. The bands will ....or should be....full of DX signals, normally you can work 100+ countries with no problem.
Now, the downside to this is the fact that the propagation has been garbage for the past 3 weeks, so let's hope it decides to propagate correctly this coming weekend for us.
The Rules for this event can be found HERE.
Frank M. Howell, K4FMH, wrote in a recent Blog post: Can we defuse the demographic time-bomb?
"Hams, as indicated by the proxy of ARRL membership and in the National Contest Journal past and present subscriber data, are sorely under-represented in the pre-50 age ranges"
"Traditional radio sport is facing a demographic cliff of ageing ham contesters."
"It is often attributed to the social thinker August Comte to have said, Demography is Destiny. But it does not have to be so. (see my talk to the Sutton & Cheam Society in London) It does require taking the blinders off of tradition and evaluate it for what it is today and what it means for the future. This almost always requires those in power to make such decisions to forsake their own vested interests in favor of change.
Like the famous Lemmings advertisement by Apple, not everyone has to walk off this demographic cliff. We just have to take the blinders of tradition off our eyes, wake up, act for the common good, and smell the demographic coffee. Because it’s brewing…"
I am so sick of reading this crap!!!!!! Ham radio seems to have ALWAYS been an “old guys” activity from the very early days.
First of all, not all hams are interested in membership in their national radio society, ARRL or otherwise. Most do not subscribe to a ham radio magazine, so the numbers he used to project that theory are flawed from the very start.
Secondly not all hams are into contesting. I was at one time, I took part in every contest I could. Then I had an epiphany, sitting on my ass for 14 hours a day contesting is not very healthy....so I stopped. Yes, I still dabble, for an hour or two at a time. But my health is far too important to sit in a chair for many hours at a time.
Thirdly, many people get a ham license and do nothing with it, they don’t even buy a radio. Or, in the case of two local hams I know here in town, have many radios and yet haven’t been on the air at all in over 10 years.
Fourthly, a good number of hams get their license in their teens, I know a couple who were aged 9 and 11, but they leave the hobby for work or higher education reasons....then come girls and raising a family. But, eventually, 25 or 30 years later, they come back to the hobby as they now have the time and, more importantly, the money to buy good equipment.
How many people have got their license over the past decade or so, been treated like crap by the ‘good old boys’ on the local repeater, and have left the hobby for good? A good number from what I have read, and yeah, I bet they give the hobby great reviews when the subject of amateur radio comes up in conversation!
To me, rather than trying to fill the bank accounts of national radio societies with new members, we should looking at finding ways to rid our hobby of the chronic rule breakers. You know, those hams that use 1500w to talk across their small town to talk about medical issues that nobody wants, or needs, to hear instead of using the lowest power setting to do so as required by law.
Or, how about trying to find a way to rid the hobby of the those who sit all day on a certain 40m frequency and spout obscenities at all comers, the same goes for the individual with a VE7 call, who sits all afternoon on 14.313 spouting death threats to all and sundry. I mean it’s the place to go if you’re looking to learn a few new swear words each day, but it’s not ham radio as I was brought up to believe.
My Dad, VE7CVQ, became a Silent Key in 1993, and you could hear the complaining about it being an old guys hobby back then. Nothing has changed and nothing will ever change as long as this hobby is allowed to continue. You cannot force youngsters into the hobby, so go with what we’ve got.
A better way of looking at the ‘numbers’ in ham radio is to look at the historic level of participants over the years, and I’m sure you’ll find them fairly constant.
You see to me, ham radio is not about “the number of participants” at all. It’s about experimenting with antennas, different modes, and different power levels to see who and what you can work.
Stay safe out there!
Rules can be found HERE.
