It has been very exciting to participate in 17/15/12/10-meter openings these days. China, Indonesia, Nepal, etc. are pretty easy pickings. I’ve started running 15 and 10m on the CWT contests.
The image below is 17-meter FT8 – wall to wall signals, 50 to 75 decodes in each slot.
I had forgotten how long it had been since my last activation (November 9, 2021), and how nice it was to be outside. My wife, dog Jaclyn, and I drove to Beach Pond (K-6980) which is on the boarder of CT and RI. It was nice just to be there for a bit, even though the wind was blowing right at us and the temp was around 45. I had moved the battery inside (a 16 AH LiFePO4 battery) over the winter, but the IC-7300 was still in the garage. Thankfully everything still worked!
Despite a minor storm from a solar flare and a long duration event, 20 meters was in great shape for a single hop from the Carolinas down and a bit into the mid west. In fact the pileup was rather thick. 22 nice folks stuck around long enough for me to get them in the log.
Parked right next to the sign – can see the HamStick on the mag mount on top of my RAV4
Our doggy companion Jaclyn LOVES Activations because it means a ride in the car and a walk around the park.
As always, my thanks to the Parks On The Air people, especially the regional coordinators that deal with uploading logs!
The Parks on the Air (POTA) program continues to hold my attention, partially because of the enormous popularity (you can’t turn on a radio without hearing someone calling CQ POTA), and also due to the variety of awards. Today I was granted the “Texas Wild Rice” award for confirmed contacts with 600 unique parks. Thank you POTA people!
I started the year with 5 goals. Two have been completed and two are underway:
I had the privilege of working with seven students across 9 different time zones this winter as their advisor/instructor for a CW Academy Beginner CW class. After 16 sessions (twice a week for eight weeks), I’m happy to say that all the students were promoted to the next level class. They went from little to no experience with Morse Code to being able to copy and send all characters at 20 WPM. Most of them have completed at least one on-the-air CW QSO, and all of them have had contacts via Google Meetings.
A tip of the hat to Dave, Edwin, Rob, Stephen, Ted, Wilbert, and Willard!
I was checking my Hunter status today to see how far I was from the next award and discovered a new award had arrived a few days back (Feb 18th). It is the “Operator to Operator” award, given for working the same operator at 50 different parks.
For months, I’ve enjoyed working Bill Brown K4NYM on CW, often several times a day. It’s gotten to the point where I recognize his signal by sound before I get a chance to copy his call. Without knowing it, Bill and I have worked each other in 50 different parks. He is an amazing adventurer to be out and about so often. There have been some days when the clouds, cold, and damp just seep into my bones this winter, but contacting Bill always makes me feel better. Thank you Bill !
And speaking of thanks, I continue to be amazed by the Parks On The Air program that Jason W3AAX and his team have put together. We are lucky to be in a hobby with so many selfless folks that make it an absolute joy to be on the air!
I don’t know why I didn’t post this photo earlier – it was taken Jan 29th after we had a blizzard. Because of hurricane strength winds, it was hard to measure. I took 20 readings along our driveway and came up with 16″, but many people around us were in excess of 20 inches.
The following week we had another hurricane strength wind storm with sleet and freezing rain. Despite some ice buildup, my antenna managed to stay up in the air. I had done some math and calculated that 1/4″ of ice (total diameter, not radius) would add about 500 pounds to my Inverted-L antenna wire. We had about half that much ice here.
The official prediction for Solar Cycle 25 was a bit disappointing, with most forecasters agreeing that it would be similar to Solar Cycle 24, and only a few suggesting it might be better.
Well, in the 15 months since Solar Cycle 25 began, the solar activity has consistently been above the prediction, and we have already been enjoying frequent 10m DX. Solar activity hasn’t been at this level for 5 years.
Let’s hope the trend continues – if so Solar Cycle 25 might be fantastic!
For the first time ever, all goals for a year were completed in 2021
Some other achievements for 2021 were:
The following are my goals for 2022
