Last night was my final appearance as a Fox for this season. Whew! I pulled both a 40 and 80 Meter stint for Steve WX2S while he was busy dealing with some family issues, as well as my own two 80 Meter sessions. It was a lot, but it was fun! The jury is still out on whether or not I'll volunteer next season. Since I don't post to the K4OAQ real time maps, if I do volunteer again, I might just get turned down. Time will tell and I have a long time to think about it.
Band conditions were not the best last night. The k Index was a tad over 4 and there was ferocious QSB at times. It seemed particularly bad when I was trying to work Don K9DRP. I just could not copy his call! Veteran Ham that he is, Don took his code speed down a notch. Once he did that, his callsign lasted longer than the QSB dropout and I was able to hand him a pelt. Thanks, Don!
I noted in my comments to the Fox Hunt e-mail reflector that slowing down the code speed is something Tim KR0U does, often. When you have 5 or 6 Hounds baying at you all at the same time, a call sign sent at a slower speed really stands out. That's something that I will have to remember myself!
In all, including the two Foxes, I was able to hand out 49 pelts - just one short of my self imposed goal. I'm predicting that between John K4BAI and myself, that we were able to hand out somewhere around 120 pelts - my close to 50 and his probably around 70.
Here's the RBN map from last night:
The screen shot was taken this morning, so the grey line is wrong, but you can get an idea where the skimmers picked me up last night. I made it as far as Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming - which this map does not indicate.
Now - onto the weekend:
Contests:
ARRL International DX Contest, CW - https://www.arrl.org/arrl-dx
Run for the Bacon QRP Contest - http://qrpcontest.com/pigrun/
FISTS Sunday Sprint - https://fistsna.org/operating.html#sprints
K1USN Slow Speed Test - http://www.k1usn.com/sst.html
Special Event Stations:
02/14/2025 | Arizona Statehood Day SES
Feb 14-Feb 15, 1500Z-0000Z, K7A, Prescott, AZ. Yavapai Amateur Radio Club. 28.313 21.313 14.313 7.213. Certificate. Mike Belanger, W1DGL, 219 W Leroux St, Apt. 202, Prescott, AZ 86303. We will be self-spotting to let you know where we are in case the above frequencies are either in use already or QRM/N is too high there. We will start on or as close to the 10m frequency listed and work from there as the day goes on. Happy 113th birthday, Arizona! www.w7yrc.org/club-station
02/15/2025 | Ice Station W0JH - Frozen Minnesota Lake Portable
Feb 15-Feb 17, 1600Z-2300Z, W0JH, Stillwater, MN. Stillwater (MN) Amateur Radio Association - SARA. 21.360 14.260 7.260 3.860. Certificate. E-certificate only, send QSL info , to, W0JHrequest@gmail.com. W0JH will operate portable from a frozen lake in Washington County, Minnesota (Grid Square EN34). In a meager attempt to drive away the remainder of Minnesota winter, the Stillwater Amateur Radio Association will be generating as much RF as possible over the President's Day weekend. (Please help us!!) Certificates will ONLY be sent via email in PDF format. (Send requests with standard QSL confirmation info to: W0JHrequest@gmail.com). There is no need to send a QSL card. www.Radioham.org
02/15/2025 | K4US - George Washington's Birthday at Mount Vernon
Feb 15-Feb 16, 1500Z-1600Z, K4US, Alexandria, VA. Mount Vernon Amateur Radio Club. 7.042 7.242 14.042 14.242. QSL. MVARC, P.O. Box 7234, Alexandria, VA 22307. MVARC will host a special event station to commemorate our first president's 293rd birthday. Members will be at the Mount Vernon greenhouse on the original grounds of the former plantation of George Washington and his wife, Martha Washington mvarc.org , K4US@mvarc.org
02/16/2025 | The White House Communications Agency Amateur Radio Club Presidents Day 2025 Commemoration
Feb 16-Feb 18, 0000Z-0000Z, W0H, Jackson, OH. White House Communications Agency Amateur Radio Club. 3.875 MHz 7.275 MHz 14.250 MHz 28.550. Certificate. Lowell Yates, 6809 Four Mile Rd, Jackson, OH 45640. The White House Communications Agency Amateur Radio Club is excited to honor all of our Presidents this Presidents Day. We would like to especially recognize the Presidents for whom the White House Communications Agency "(WHCA) has provided communications support since its founding in 1942. A WHCA-ARC Special Event certificate will be awarded to commemorate this special occasion. For more information, please visit our events page. https://whitehousecomms-arc.org/events/whca-arc-presidents-day-special-event/ https://whitehousecomms-arc.org
BTW, in relation to my post yesterday about the KX3 ........ there are already folks out there discussing what they want to see as the successor to the KH1! That rig was introduced like what? A couple of years ago? Wow!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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