08/14/10 — Very important! My wife and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary!
More Tower
08/13/11 — Aquired another 13 sections of Rohn 55G. Now have 20 sections on hand. What to build ???
Summer Contesting
08/06/11 — NAQP CW – I had done everything to prepare, to make sure my calendar was clear. Soon after the contest started, my wife called. Her suburban was broke down on the side of the interstate, with all 4 of our kids there too. I left the contest to go retrieve them, then got a friend to go help me retrieve the suburban. Net result was only 77 QSOs in the contest.
07/31/11 — Downloaded and registered SH5. Processed my old logs and uploaded results to my website. Go to that data here: http://w5wz.com/contest-log-statistics/
07/16/11 — IARU contest – I sure shot myself in the foot. I didn’t read the rules closely enough, and did not observe the 10-minute band change rule, so I had to submit as a checklog. I won’t soon forget that mistake.
06/25-26/11 — Operated with Twin City Ham Club, W5EA for ARRL Field Day. We were 2A – one SSB and one CW station + VHF + GOTA. Several members of the LCC were on hand. For the SSB station, we stacked a pair of KLM-KT34A at 30/60 feet. When the smoke settled, W5EA had made just under 3,200 QSOs.
06/10/11 — Heading out to QTH of K5QE to operate in the June VHF
July Efforts
07/09/10 — Wow, it has been hot this summer. This evening, I installed the rotor cable to the middle TIC ring, finishing well after sunset. Also tweaked the 80m dipole at 75 feet. Found water in a barrel connector on the middle 15 meter antenna; dried and resealed.
My FT-1000MP returned from WA4GEG. He got it all repaired, aligned, and returned.
07/03/10 — Using W8JI’s website as resource material, I built another beverage transformer. It is a little faster to use the binocular core design. Too soon to tell about performance.
IARU
IARU 2010 — I got to play some, but not nearly as much as I wanted to, spending 5 hours on the air.
Band Mode QSOs Pts Zon HQ
7 LSB 1 1 0 1
14 CW 34 98 0 6
14 USB 307 969 21 7
21 USB 12 46 4 1
Total Both 354 1114 25 15
Score: 44,560
June Efforts
Late June — My ICE 419B bandpass filter on my 2nd radio failed (unknown to me) while running QRO on 10 meters on the 1st. The consequence – blown receiver in the 2nd radio (FT-1000MP). Sent it for repairs to Byron Campbell WA4GEG. Moved the IC-756P2 to position 1, and am in process of aquiring parts to repair ICE unit. For now, am only running single radio.
06/13/10 — With help from W5KGT and K5ER, we got the TIC ring at 85 feet completed and the antenna (C31XR) installed. Now I need to dress the coax and install the rotor cable up to it. W5KGT and I went up the tower around 7 pm. I witnessed my first sunset from up a tower. It wasn’t too bad being on the tower after sunset; in fact, I rather liked the temperature as compared to daytime.
06/05/10 — Installed my new LP-100A from N8LP. Spent some time cleaning the shack. Replaced a few old coax jumpers with new, and spent most of the day making some QSOs. Worked E4X on 20m SSB.
Spring Construction and Work
Late May — Aquired a spare 8877 “pull” for the AL-1500.
Dayton 2010 — I made the trip with K5ER and KC5WA. I always enjoy the fleamarket and Mendelson’s downtown. Attended CTU for the 4th consecutive year. Won the CTU eyeball sprint, edging out N9NB by only a few points. Enjoyed Wed thru Sat nights in the Contest Super Suite. Attended the 18th annual Contest Dinner; congrats to Louisiana Contest Club member Don Hill AA5AU for his induction to CQ Hall of Fame.
I always seem to bring home work from Dayton. I bought the ‘stuff’ to: 1) shunt feed my tower on 80m and 160m (vacuum variable capacitors, 5,500 feet of 12 AWG for radials); 2) enhance my beverage receiving antenna system; 3) continue streamlining control cabling in the antenna switching shed; and 4) be LOUDER and HEAR better!
05/08/10 — Today I installed the frame and bearing portion of the 1st TIC ring rotor at 85′. My C-31XR will reside on it. Looks like it will get completed sometime after returning from Dayton.
04/14/10 — I pulled control wiring for the 2 new TIC ring rotators thru conduit from the antenna switching shed to Tower #1. Also made up the cables from the shed to the shack.
CQ WPX CW
05/30/10 — CQ WPX CW
Band QSOs Pts WPX
7 62 156 32
14 149 225 102
21 42 81 32
28 11 25 7
Total 264 487 173
Score : 84,251
No radio activity
05/23/11 — Back home after the annual trek to Dayton Hamvention. I was an invited presenter at the Hamvention Contest Forum. That was a lot of fun. As all SSB contesters know, a microphone and a large captive audience is a good time! As always, it was great to see friends!
Aquired an AL-1200 at the flea market. It is a real power house!
05/04/11– Wow! What a spring we’ve had! I’ve not done much ham radio since February. A family vacation to Washington DC during spring break, a couple of rounds of severe storms, and lots of work have consumed my time. Counting down to the annual trek to Dayton in a couple of weeks. See you there!
Posterity Become Licensed Amateurs
04/12/10 — My 2 oldest children received their technician licenses today. My only son Delton age 12 is now KF5GDK, and oldest daughter Jordan age 10 is now KF5GDJ.