Goal Update January 2018

Posted on February 1, 2018 by robert

So the first month is under our belt for 2018.  DX results were pretty good, already knocking off a couple of my 2018 goals.  DXCC Challenge stands at 1281, and 160-meter DXCC is at 48.  So lets set new goals of DXCC Challenge of 1290 and 160-meter DXCC of 50.  WAS on 160-meters stands at 47 (Need AK, HI, ND), so lets set a new goal of 48.

  • 1,275 Challenge Band-Points — Revised to 1290
  • 160-meter 40 DXCC AND 45 WAS — Revised to DXCC 50 and WAS 48

The International Grid Chase wasn’t part of my 2018 goal, but I’m having fun, and frankly that is responsible for most of the DX improvement listed above.  I made a total of 661 contacts in January (8 on CW and the rest on FT-8).  While LotW records can continue coming in up until Feb 10, the top 10 in the state of RI are listed below:

One thing that has been fun, is seeing 10-meters open for a couple of hours in January, along with brief 15-meter activity pretty much every day.  On the other hand, it is sad to see 20-meters collapse shortly after dark.  30-meters has been fantastic globally (as has 17-meters).

Posted in 160-Meters, Contests, DX, FT8, Grid Chase, WAS | Leave a comment

Contact #8000 Uploaded to LotW

Posted on January 31, 2018 by robert

Back on Oct 3, 120 days ago, I noted that I had uploaded my 7,000th contact into LotW.  Today I am happy to note that contact 8,000 has been uploaded.  Many of those QSOs (654 of them) are a result of chasing grids starting on January 1st.

The QSO was with WH6S, Richard, in Kekaha Hawaii.  Thanks, Richard, for being number 8,000!!

Posted in DX, FT8, Grid Chase, Operating | Leave a comment

Happy 5000th Confirmed LotW QSO

Posted on January 19, 2018 by robert

Confirmation #5000 just came into LotW sometime in the last hour.  It was for a contact with Rich WD4JJI, who lives in a antenna restricted community in FLA.  By stealth and magic, he has found his way onto the air, and wound up being a special contact for me.  So thanks, Rich, for persevering and proving that hams always find a way.

 

Posted in Grid Chase, LotW | Leave a comment

An 80-Meter Surprise DP1POL

Posted on January 19, 2018 by robert

Like many folks chasing grid squares, I’m spending time on the digital modes.  Yesterday was a fairly unusual day for me in that I was able to make contact with places that I usually don’t hear, most likely on  the gray-line.  Alaska and Hawaii were easy shots.  I heard China and several Asiatic countries.  The conditions continued at night as I was attempting to help a ham complete his 80-meter WAS.  While that didn’t work out (we were successful on 30 and 40 meters), I was amazed to see DP1POL on, as well as RI1ANO, both in Antartica.  I watched K1RI work RI1ANO (congrats Bob!), and I was lucky enough to work DP1POL.  While propagation was great, conditions were brutal.  The band was chock-full of well over S9 signals.  Here’s what my waterfall looked like:

It was like that from 0100-0300 when I called it a night.  Here was my exchange with DP1POL:

You can see a few retries were required to finally copy the signal.  And the reward this morning was a LotW confirmation:

Every contact helps, including rare-ones like DP1POL.  Russ KA1ERL and I keep trading places in the hunt.

Posted in Digital Mode, DX, FT8, Grid Chase | Leave a comment

Well THAT didn’t last long…

Posted on January 16, 2018 by robert

Sure enough, within an hour or so, some work was done on the IGC website, and the positions reported have changed around a bit.  For example, here in RI, I’ve moved down to 2nd place.

The key parameter now is “Total Grid Score”, which appears to be tracking unique grid-band points.  Note that I am still in the lead in terms of “Total Unique Grids” at 143, but Russ is in the lead if you take into account his grid-band points.  I am unsure what the significance of “Total QSL’s” is, nor what it is tracking.  From 0000Z on Jan 1 2018, I have a total of 202 LotW confirmations.  Of those, 12 were for contacts made in 2017 or earlier, so that is a total of 190 confirmed QSOs for 2018.  This does not compare to the 178 figure reported above (perhaps it is QSOs with unique call signs?).  I can believe the 169 Total Grid Score as there are several cases that I’ve worked the same grid on multiple bands.

Hopefully the IGC webpage will be changed so the “Total Grid Score” is between the “Call Sign” and “Total Unique Grids” column, and some explanation will be added as to what “Total QSL’s” means.

Posted in Grid Chase | Leave a comment

Lots of progress in the past week

Posted on January 16, 2018 by robert

The International Grid Chase continues.  I’ve managed to put in a few hours each day of the new year to get on the air.  I’ve probably had about 20 QSOs a day, and somewhere around half of them have confirmed in LotW (international stations are notoriously bad about confirming in LotW).  For the moment at least, I’ve managed to crawl my way up to the #1 spot in RI, and 973 out of 15,000+ globally.  Several of the other RI fellas are quite active and will probably reclaim the lead soon.

A side benefit of grid chasing has been a small uptick in my DXCC Challenge band-point count, and three new states on 160-meters.

Posted in 160-Meters, DX, Grid Chase | Leave a comment

Grid Square Hunt Marches on

Posted on January 10, 2018 by robert

In the past 10 days I’ve worked about 200 stations in the grid chase.  A big issue is that less than half of them are confirming via LotW, which is the key for the contact counting.  RI, being a small place, still has several stations in the hunt.

I plotted the first 70 Grid Squares that were confirmed today just to see the spread.  Here’s what it looks like on the map:

And in terms of what is going on in RI in the contest:

Posted in Grid Chase | Leave a comment

Ryan has Success with CAS-4B QSOs

Posted on January 3, 2018 by robert

I mentioned that I’ve been mentoring a neighbor that lives a few houses down the street from me.  Ryan is 11 years old and in the 6th grade.  Ryan hopes to be a meteorologist when he grows up and understands the role that Amateur Radio plays in obtaining information on the ground and in real time, so he’s hoping to get his Technician license later this year.

As we get together every couple of weeks, I try to have a planned on-air activity for him that I can use as a vehicle to discuss some of the rules and regulations, as well as what is required to complete a successful contact.  Today was Ryan’s first chance to make a contact via a satellite — in this case CAS-4B.

I had spoken with Fred, K8II, on a prior pass, and Fred promised he would listen for Ryan’s CQ.  Sure enough he heard Ryan, and they chatted for about 5 minutes.  After Fred signed off, Glen, NK1N, in New Jersey gave Ryan another call (we also heard WB3CSY calling but had lost the bird by the time we finished with Glen).

Thanks to Glen and Fred for helping to make today a special day for Ryan.  He was smiling from ear-to-ear.  Not too many 11 year-olds can claim to have spoken to someone via a satellite!

Posted in AMSAT, CAS-4B, Satellite | Leave a comment

ARRL International Grid Chase Underway!

Posted on January 3, 2018 by robert

Don’t forget that the ARRL International Grid Chase is now underway and runs all of 2018.  While there is an implication that this is a “special” event, it really isn’t.  Any contact you make that is confirmed in LotW counts.  So normal QSOs, contest contacts, etc. will all count.  Here in RI we are off to a fast start with 15 folks in the running so far:

You can check your score here:  https://igc.arrl.org/leader-board.php

 

 

Posted in Contests, Grid Chase, Operating | Leave a comment

Straight Key Night (Day?)

Posted on January 1, 2018 by robert

A New Years Eve dinner and party kept me off the air last night, but I made a point of dusting off my old J-38 key, and firing up a QRP rig that I had built to put 4.5 blazing watts of power out to my loop antenna.  The RBN values weren’t too bad (but I discovered in the process that my QRP rig thinks it is about 0.4 KHz higher than it really is).

Anyway I had a couple of nice chats, including a long one with Randy KB4QQJ running Special Event Station K3Y.

 

Posted in Operating, QRP | Leave a comment