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Friday, November 08, 2024

Weekend - Nov. 9th and 10th

We have our regular 2nd Saturday of the month VE Session tomorrow. As of right now, only one candidate - a General looking to upgrade to Extra.

Contests:

Not going to go into detail on these, but there are three digital contests this weekend that will probably end up coming deep down into the normal CW portion of the bands - so if you hear digi on you favorite QRP frequency, it's probably one of these:

PODXS 070 Club Triple Play Low Band Sprint

WAE DX Contest, RTTY

10-10 Int. Fall Contest, Digital

Other contests this weekend: (from this weekend going forward, I will mainly mention only contests that will have an effect on the CW portions of the bands)

SKCC Weekend Sprintathon - https://www.skccgroup.com/operating_activities/weekend_sprintathon/

OK/OM DX Contest, CW - http://okomdx.crk.cz/index.php?page=CW-rules-english

CQ-WE Contest - https://w8zpf.com/cqwe/

4 States QRP Group Second Sunday Sprint - http://www.4sqrp.com/SSS/sss_rules.pdf

Special Event Stations:

11/09/2024 | USS Cobia Veterans Day Special Event

Nov 9-Nov 10, 1500Z-2100Z, NB9QV, Manitowoc, WI. USS Cobia Amateur Radio Club. 7.240 14.240. Certificate. E-certificate only, email QSL information to, kc9yl@arrl.net. www.qrz.com/db/nb9qv

11/09/2024 | W2TE MEMORIAL SES

Nov 9, 1230Z-1930Z, W2GSB, Babylon, NY. GREAT SOUTH BAY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB . 28.340 21.250 14.246 24.940. Certificate. W2GSB/W2TE , PO BOX 1356 , West Babylon, NY 11704. WWW.gsbarc.org

11/09/2024 | Walt Grosser (W2TE) memorial SES

Nov 9, 1400Z-2000Z, W2GSB, Lindenhurst, NY. GREAT SOUTH BAY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB. 14200 7200. Certificate. W2GSB GSBAC, PO BOX 1356, West Babylon, NY 11704-0356. In Memory of Walter Grosser, our 2nd President of GSBARC We will be setting up at 09:00 and hopefully be on the air by 14:30 and operate till 20:00 All modes CW operators must bring their keys gsbarc.org

11/09/2024 | Windycon 50 - Science Fiction Convention

Nov 9-Nov 10, 1500Z-2100Z, W9W, Oak Brook, IL. DuPage Amateur Radio Club. 14.070 14.230 14.274 145.430 (local 107.2 PL). Certificate. DuPage Amateur Radio Club, P.O. Box 71, Clarendon Hills, IL 60514-0071. Operating times are Nov 9 0900-1700 and Nov 10 0900-1500 local time (CST). Certificate and other information http://www.qrz.com/db/w9w. https://www.w9dup.org

Last night's 80 Meter Fox Hunt was a 50/50. I worked Jim N0UR pretty easily. The MN to NJ pipeline wasn't quite as strong as usual, but I did get him in the log. Cathy W4CMG was another story. She was at ESP levels to begin with, but eventually got as loud as about 339. Strong enough to work, but I didn't. Kept calling but kept getting "CQ FOX" back in my face. Obviously the TN to NJ pipeline wasn't working for me, although it did for Steve WX2S and Charles W2SH. C'est la vie.

Something a bit interesting that I was reminded of again, though - frequency response. I worked Jim with an ear bud in my left ear - my only good ear, and that was fine. When I went to look for and eventually found Cathy, I discovered that I was able to hear her much better when I switched over to conventional headphones. The earbuds do not do quite as good a job responding to lower frequencies than the headphones. They're great at responding to higher frequencies, including the noise! The headphones were much better at helping me dig her signal out of the noise. 

Unfortunately, nothing will help my right ear until I can afford some prescription hearing aids. I've tried a couple of OTC brands and one pair does work better than the other, but I do need "real ones" if I'm ever going to hear out of my right ear again. First I have to finish paying off my car - then hearing aids. Yeah, I'll be working until I'm 70 - no doubt about that! LOL!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

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