I've Been CQ'd!

CQ World Wide DX Contest SSB Flavor

The Post Office safely delivered not one, but TWO large white envelopes to our box which we retrieved today. I'm not a big fan of SSB contests but once in a while I will jump in and play. Well, when 10 meters calls, I will listen. During this contest, it was once again all about 10 meters, for me anyhow! Like a kid drawn to ice cream, I have enjoyed this band for years. And since 10 meters was so quiet for so long up here in Alaska, every contest I'm checking it frequently. This SSB contest drew me in without hesitation and I guess I did pretty well for my small station effort. Obviously my amplifier was still functional at the time of this contest as it was a high power entry. I had some points deducted as my claimed score was a bit higher than my actual score. Anyhow, this is what I had submitted to the 3830 list -

 CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: KL8DX
Operator(s): KL8DX
Station: KL8DX

Class: SOSB/10 HP
QTH: Alaska
Operating Time (hrs): 14.5

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
  80:                    
  40:                    
  20:                    
  15:                    
  10: 1359    28      63
------------------------------
Total: 1359    28      63  Total Score = 270,816

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

Yep, 10 meters sure did impress! A minimal effort to chase new to me
DXCC entities. Some very impressive numbers this year! I'm not a SSB
type but enjoyed my time on 10 meters! Let's hope the trend continues
into next month for the CW version. More of a detailed breakout and
overview just posted to my blog.

73 from chilly AK!

Phil KL8DX

CQ World Wide DX Contest CW Flavor

The second white envelope had my certificate for the CW version of the CQ World Wide DX Contest. I've enjoyed this contest for many years and I threw in for the all band effort this time around. I normally don't enter all band due to the fact my low and antennas stink and I can't work much on 40 & 80 meters. 160, forget it! My strongest bands are obviously those capable of being worked by my trusty Mosley TA-34-XL, 4 element beam. I obviously did not achieve a golden log here either as my submitted score was higher than my actual score. I strive to do my very best in all of my contest efforts but on crowded bands compounded by many factors, it's not unusual to bust a callsign or two (in my case, normally a few more than that). I'm still excited about my effort and when the 2012 version rolls around, I will try to not only better my score but my accuracy too. Sometimes you just gotta take a few extra moments to "get it right."

My submitted 3830 report for the CW contest was -

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: KL8DX
Operator(s): KL8DX
Station: KL8DX

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Alaska
Operating Time (hrs): 29h45m

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    0    0        0
  80:    7    5        5
  40:  45    10      13
  20:  451    22      56
  15:  378    19      30
  10:  971    18      20
------------------------------
Total: 1852    74      124  Total Score = 792,396

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

Best effort EVER for me in any contest. High bands were extremely
busy and I'm forever thankful for the CW filters in my Icom. Lots
of callers at times, which made it tough to pull out even one call.
The only thing that would have made this contest better was a good
European 10 meter opening. No complaints as 10 has been open daily
now for the last few months! 

Thanks so very much for all the calls and sorry to those I missed.
My CW skills are not the best and some of the pile-ups can be crazy
for this DX'er turned weekend warrior. I'm a contesting greenhorn 
with the desire to improve. In looking back,I probably should have
hunted more multipliers on 15 & 10 meters. 

Glad this weekend was quiet weather wise as a Chinook is forcasted
to hit the interior this week and next weekend with predicted gusts
to 70 mph. Time to nest the beam just above the roof line and break
out the shorts as our temperatures will be well above zero. Our family
beagle will sure be looking forward to the warm up as she won't have to
wear her "Puppy Paws" when she heads outdoors. 

Many friends encountered this weekend, wish I was better at typing
out personal greetings. I have problems with hitting the correct F-KEY
let alone ALT-K and typing a short personal "Hello" without a buffer. 

As the contest season gets started once again, I have these great pieces of wallpaper to inspire me to achieve more than what I did the previous year. A higher score and fewer mistakes is my end result. Not sure what my strategy will be for 2012 but you can sure bet, my first is just being there!  

2012 CQ World Wide RTTY DX Contest

2012 CQ World Wide DX RTTY Contest

How about those high bands, huh?? It was another memorable weekend for contesting. This past weekend was the hugely popular RTTY DX contest of the year sponsored by CQ Magazine. I must say, seeing that 10 meters was beginning to open on a daily basis, it had me pretty excited about this past weekend. Knowing that propagation was going to be favorable for a heavy high band assault, my main focus was going to be not on my highest score I could achieve, but the most new countries (Entities) as possible for my 10 meter DXCC quest. I was hopeful that we would have some propagation into Europe on 10 meters along with a side order of everywhere else around the globe. I must say, I was not disappointed. 

I began hearing European stations on Friday night (local) but I was having a tough time getting any in my log. I was running low power as I have yet to have my amplifier repaired. Probably a good thing as I'm sure I would have thrown the power switch and went to high power for 10 meters, just to work more countries. So, I just had to simply work for each and every contact. I managed to work CQ Zones 18 (UA9YE) and 17 (UO1P) not long after the start of the contest. This gave me hope that it would not be long before I hear CQ Zones 14, 16, 20 & 21, where most of the 3 pointers would come from. I was on 10 meters until around 0218z and it became quiet enough for me to venture on to 15 & 20 meters.

I did not hear much going on 10 meters until around 0600z. My first CQ Zone 15 QSO was with HG7T, not long after the top of the hour. I was able to work a few more European stations before I could not work any others. I threw in the towel to get an early start as I was hoping that my European path would be much better in the early hours of the morning. I was back on shortly after 1040z, and I found working into Europe a bit easier. 

RTTY activity  on 10 Meters as heard (seen) in Alaska

I'm not going to bore you with a play by play of my weekend, but I found myself bouncing back and forth between 10 & 15 meters. When 10 meters would quiet down, I would venture on to 15. Both bands really produced and were very exciting to operate. Even though I had MANY stations CQ'n in my face all weekend with my low power effort, it was very rewarding, not to mention exciting, each and every time I would see a station come back with my callsign from abroad. At one point on 10 meters, it was like playing a propagational slot machine and winning, hearing and seeing those contacts falling right into the contest log! Cha-ching! 

The 10 meter excitement did not stop there! Great openings right here to the lower 48 states, Central & South Americas, Pacific, Asia, well...you get the picture. It was a crazy weekend and there was sure no lack of 3 point contacts. It was not necessary to open a case of "Butt Glue" in order to remain in the chair for hours at a time. The high bands yielding almost endless excitement all hours of the day and night. It was another contest weekend I will remember for years to come.

STATS 

By the time the dust cleared, I had worked all but two states, missing only NE & SD on 10 meters! I'm pretty happy with that. Since I spent the majority of my time on 10 meters, I left a few open state multipliers on 15 meters. The only station I tried in vain to work with no luck (I tried working many but I tried really hard for was) 7Z1SJ. I was unable to break the pile-up and get that new country in my log. But, the contest season is just getting started so hopefully there will be plenty of opportunity for that one and more. 

Score Summary for ARS KL8DX

My score summary is listed to the left showing my effort in this past weekends contest. According to N1MM, I operated a total of 33 hours and 27 minutes. My goal was to beat my last years effort (submitted SOSB 10) and I accomplished that. I also wanted to work over 1,000 QSO's and I was tickled when N4NW called in for number 1,000 on Sunday afternoon.  But the weekend was not entirely a DXfest as the double CME made things extremely challenging for me Sunday afternoon. The bands went from crowded to almost empty in a short amount of time. So much so that I started to do a few loads of laundry and a few other household chores before the bands finally started to show signs of life again. The high bands did not fully recover before the end of the contest as many signals had AU associated with them and callsigns did not totally decode correctly leading to more than normal repeats. But they came back, yielding a bit of excitement before the clock struck midnight.

A more detailed breakout of my log is below. I was very impressed with only 2 dupes, (yes two) all weekend!!!! I did more from a parked and calling position than search and pounce, so I was tickled to have only a couple. Not bad with over 1,100 QSO's in my humble opinion. I was a bit windy on my S&P macro and for that, I do apologize. I was reading through the 3830 score postings, which I try to read each and every one. K7IA did an outstanding job outlining macros and RTTY operating during this (and any) contest in his comment area.  Look Dan up on QRZ where he mentions RTTY contesting. Of course Don, AA5AU has some outstanding detailed information available as well on his site. I'm sure there is more out there but it did make me realize my S&P macros needed a bit of refinement. Contesting is about learning and you learn by doing. I've made many mistakes over the nearly 25 years I have been playing radio and I'm sure I'll make more. We are human, just be gentle when bringing it up or complaining as with this contest (and many others) there were several newbies getting their feet wet. We want them to come back!

I took a few minutes out of my weekend schedule to give John, WD1V an Alaskan QSO on CW. We tried 20 meters but John was not hearing my weak 100 watts. Turned out we made it on 10 meters a few hours later. I saw John post on Twitter that he was looking for a contact with AK. Another successful venture and it was a fun break from the weekend diddle to work a bit of CW handing out a new one to someone. 

My very detailed breakout is below. October is lining up to be a very busy month for me but I'm looking forward to the contest season. As normal, I did not get much of my external work done but I did accomplish some!!! I will make do but at the end of the day, a bad day on the radio is always better than a good day at work. I think that saying goes for fishing as well, replacing radio with fishing. Thanks for the contacts and I'm looking forward to reading the results overview in CQ magazine next year. Diddle on my friends, it appears to be shaping up to be another record breaking year for contesting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Cabrillo Statistics           (Version 10g)           by K5KA & N6TV
http://bit.ly/cabstat

CALLSIGN: KL8DX
CONTEST: CQ-WW-RTTY
CATEGORY: SINGLE-OP ALL LOW
OPERATORS: KL8DX

-------------- Q S O   R a t e   S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour     160     80     40     20     15     10    Rate Total    Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
0000       0      0       0       0       0      0      0      0        0.0
0100       0      0       0       0       0      0      0      0        0.0
0200       0      0       0       0      50     19    69     69       6.1
0300       0      0       0      25      35     0     60    129     11.4
0400       0      0       0      72       0      0     72    201     17.7
0500       0      0       0      22       4      0     26    227     20.0
0600       0      0       0       0       3       1      4    231     20.3
0700       0      0       0       0       0      0       0    231     20.3
0800       0      0       0       0       0      0       0    231     20.3
0900       0      0      0        0       0      0       0    231     20.3
1000       0      0      0        0       0      6       6    237     20.9
1100       0      0      0        0       9      9      18   255     22.4
1200       0      0      0        0      21      1     22   277     24.4
1300       0      0      0        0       6      6      12   289     25.4
1400       0      0      0        2     10      1      13   302     26.6
1500       0      0      0        0      2       0      2    304     26.8
1600       0      0      0        0      0       0      0    304     26.8
1700       0      0      0        0      3       7     10    314     27.6
1800       0      0      0        0      1      33     34   348     30.6
1900       0      0      0        0      0      64     64   412     36.3
2000       0      0      0        0      0      80     80   492     43.3
2100       0      0      0        0      0      35     35   527     46.4
2200       0      0      0        0      0      51     51   578     50.9
2300       0      0      0        0      0      33     33   611     53.8
0000       0      0      0        0     30     12     42   653     57.5
0100       0      0      0        0     95      0      95   748     65.8
0200       0      0      0        0     40      0      40   788     69.4
0300       0      0      0       31      0      0      31   819     72.1
0400       0      0      0       35      0      0      35   854     75.2
0500       0      0      0       14      3      0      17   871     76.7
0600       0      0      0        0      7       1      8    879     77.4
0700       0      0      0        0      0       0      0    879     77.4
0800       0      0      0        0      0       0      0    879     77.4
0900       0      0      0        0      0       0      0    879     77.4
1000       0      0      0        0      0       0      0    879     77.4
1100       0      0      0        0      0       0      0    879     77.4
1200       0      0      0       15      4      1     20    899     79.1
1300       0      0      6        6      5       0     17    916     80.6
1400       0      0      0        6      1       2      9    925     81.4
1500       0      0      0        0      0      28     28   953     83.9
1600       0      0      0        0      3      11     14   967     85.1
1700       0      0      0        1      5       2      8    975     85.8
1800       0      0      0        0      3       0      3    978     86.1
1900       0      0      0        0      7      13     20   998     87.9
2000       0      0      0        0      0      40     40   1038   91.4
2100       0      0      0        0      0      36     36   1074   94.5
2200       0      0      0        0      0      30     30   1104   97.2
2300       0      0      0        0     23      9     32    1136  100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total      0      0      6       229   370   531   1136

Gross QSOs=1138        Dupes=2        Net QSOs=1136

Unique callsigns worked = 905

The best 60 minute rate was 97/hour from 0048 to 0147
The best 30 minute rate was 104/hour from 0120 to 0149
The best 10 minute rate was 114/hour from 0350 to 0359

The best 1 minute rates were:
 3 QSOs/minute    3 times.
 2 QSOs/minute  224 times.
 1 QSOs/minute  679 times.

There were 40 bandchanges and 6 (0.5%) probable 2nd radio QSOs.

----------------- C o n t i n e n t   S u m m a r y -----------------
                 160     80     40     20     15     10    Total    Pct
---------------------------------------------------------------------
North A       0        0        2     161    197   384    744    65.5
South A       0        0        0       7     19      20      46     4.0
Europe        0        0        0      46     79      77    202    17.8
Asia           0         0        3      12     71      47    133    11.7
Africa         0         0        0       2      3        2       7       0.6
Oceania      0         0        1       1      1       1        4       0.4
--------------------------------------------------------------
Total              0      0      6    229    370    531    1136

Number of letters in callsigns
Letters  # worked
-----------------
   3         4
   4       486
   5       368
   6       272
   7         2
   8         1
   9         2
  10         1

------------------ C o u n t r y   S u m m a r y ------------------

Country        160     80     40     20     15     10  Total  Pct

-------------------------------------------------------------------

5B               0         0      0       0       1      0      1    0.1

9A               0         0      0       1       3      2      6    0.5

CE               0         0      0       1       1      1      3    0.3

CM               0        0      0       2       4      1      7    0.6

CT3              0        0      0       1       2      1      4    0.4

CU               0        0      0       1       0      0      1    0.1

DL               0        0      0       7      13     13     33    2.9

EA               0        0      0      0        2      7      9    0.8

EA8              0       0      0       1        1      1      3    0.3

EI               0        0      0       0        1      1      2    0.2

ER               0        0      0      0        1      1      2    0.2

ES               0        0      0      2        2      1      5    0.4

F                0        0      0      0         1      4      5    0.4

FM               0       0      0      0         0      2      2    0.2

G                0        0      0      0        2      3      5    0.4

GI               0       0      0      0         1      1      2    0.2

GW               0      0      0      0        0      1      1    0.1

HA               0      0      0      2         2      3      7    0.6

HB               0      0      0      1         0      0      1    0.1

HI               0      0      0       0        1      0      1    0.1

HK               0      0      0      1        2      1      4    0.4

HL               0      0      0      0         1      0      1    0.1

I                0      0      0        1        5      6     12    1.1

*IT9             0      0      0      1       1      1       3    0.3

J3               0      0      0       0       0      1       1    0.1

JA               0      0      3       2     62     44    111    9.8

K                0      0      2     142    168    360    672   59.2

KH2              0      0      1      0      0      0      1    0.1

KH6              0      0      0      1      1      0      2    0.2

KL               0      0       0      1      1      1      3    0.3

KP4              0      0      0      1      1      0      2    0.2

LA               0      0      0       2      2      0      4    0.4

LU               0      0      0       1      5      8     14    1.2

LX               0      0      0       0      1      1      2    0.2

LZ               0      0      0       1      1      1      3    0.3

OE               0      0      0      0      2      2      4    0.4

OH               0      0      0      3      6      2     11    1.0

OH0              0      0      0      1      1      1      3    0.3

OK               0      0      0      0      5      5     10    0.9

OM               0      0      0      1      2      2      5    0.4

ON               0      0      0      0      0      2      2    0.2

OZ               0      0      0      1      0      1      2    0.2

P4               0      0      0      1      1      2      4    0.4

PA               0      0      0      0      2      2      4    0.4

PJ2              0      0      0      0      0      1      1    0.1

PY               0      0      0      3      9      5     17    1.5

S5               0      0      0      4      3      4     11    1.0

SM               0      0      0      0      0      1      1    0.1

SP               0      0      0      1      7      3     11    1.0

SV               0      0      0      0      1      0      1    0.1

UA               0      0      0      6      7      0     13    1.1

UA9              0      0      0      8      6      2     16    1.4

UN               0      0      0      2      1      1      4    0.4

UR               0      0      0      5      2      4     11    1.0

VE               0      0      0      15     22     15     52    4.6

VP9              0      0      0      0      0      1      1    0.1

XE               0      0      0      0      0      3      3    0.3

YL               0      0      0      2      1      0      3    0.3

YO               0      0      0      1      0      1      2    0.2

YU               0      0      0      1      1      1      3    0.3

YV               0      0      0      0      1      0      1    0.1

Z3               0      0      0      1      1      0      2    0.2

ZL               0      0      0      0      0      1      1    0.1

ZP               0      0      0      0      0      2      2    0.2

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Total            0      0      6    229    370    531   1136

------------ M u l t i p l i e r   S u m m a r y ------------
Mult     160     80     40     20     15     10  Total      Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------
04         0      0      0        60     77    136    273     24.0
05         0      0      0        42     43    158    243     21.4
03         0      0      2        55     70     82    209     18.4
25         0      0      3         2     63     44    112       9.9
15         0      0      0        21     42     33     96       8.5
14         0      0      0        12     25     37     74       6.5
16         0      0      0        11     10      5     26       2.3
11         0      0      0         3      9      7     19         1.7
13         0      0      0         1      5      8     14         1.2
08         0      0      0         3      6      4     13         1.1
09         0      0      0         2      4      4     10         0.9
17         0      0      0         5      3      1      9         0.8
33         0      0      0         2      3      2      7         0.6
20         0      0      0         2      3      2      7         0.6
18         0      0      0         4      1      1      6         0.5
19         0      0      0         1      3      1      5         0.4
06         0      0      0         0      0      3      3         0.3
12         0      0      0         1      1      1      3         0.3
01         0      0      0         1      1      1      3         0.3
31         0      0      0         1      1      0      2         0.2
27         0      0      1         0      0      0      1         0.1
32         0      0      0         0      0      1      1         0.1
------------------------------------------------------
Total      0      0      6       229    370    531   1136

Multi-band QSOs
---------------
1 bands     707
2 bands     166
3 bands      31
4 bands       1
5 bands       0
6 bands       0

------- S i n g l e   B a n d   Q S O s ------
Band    160     80     40     20     15     10
----------------------------------------------
QSOs      0      0      2    111    223    371
    

A1 to RTTY, It's All About How You Operate

2012 CQ World Wide RTTY WPX Contest 

Receiving a large white envelope in the mail will normally catch my attention. One of those attention getting envelopes arrived today. I was excited to receive the certificate seen to the left for my WPX RTTY effort this year. And I was reminded today during a QSO that next weekend is the CQ World Wide DX RTTY Contest!!! I'm hopeful that the bands cooperate and I will have the time to operate more than a few hours. I know I will be getting a late start at the very least but once home, I plan on firing up N1MM and getting started with my low power effort. And in the contest this coming weekend, Alaska (KL7) counts as a country multiplier, not a state. I always have to check as sometimes we are a country, sometimes a state. 

I had some fun today operating JT65 on 10 meters! I made one CW contact and also a handful of PSK31 contacts on that band as well. With 10 meters showing some signs of life finally, I'm even more excited about next weekend and the many other contests looming on the 2012-2013 contest calendar! 

I have had a few folks over the last few months comment (and congratulate) about me being an A-1 Operator. I've never received a formal notification of this honor but two generous hams felt I was worthy of such an honor and nominated me. I ventured to the ARRL A-1 Operators page and there my name was with all of the others who were granted the same honor!  I'm not sure who those hams were that nominated me but I'm deeply honored and forever thankful.  I always strive to operate to the best of my ability and I know I've had the honor of helping many with giving them a new country, state, county, prefix and more. The A-1 Operator Club is managed by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) and I plan on doing my part in identifying those who I feel are just as worthy. I promote our hobby each and every moment I get and anyone who knows me, knows I'm a "Ham!" I'm approaching my 25 year anniversary for being a part of this great hobby. I've made life long friends and many I have never met, and might not ever meet. 

As far as the RTTY contest, it's obvious I must have busted some callsigns as my score is lower than what I submitted. But, with each and every contest, I will continue to strive for that "Golden Log" and hopefully achieve it more times than not. Contesting is about honing your skills and getting better with each and every contest. Now that I've had a summer off from radio, it's time to buckle up and get to working on my code speed again. It's also time to start working the digital modes and getting in some much needed practice for winter. But as the snow that accumulated on my lawn today reminded me, winter is here and I'd better get a move on, soon! 

 CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: KL8DX
Operator(s): KL8DX
Station: KL8DX

Class: SOAB(TS) LP
QTH: Alaska
Operating Time (hrs): 24:34

Summary:
Band  QSOs
------------
  80:    0
  40:    7
  20:  250
  15:  410
  10:  73
------------
Total:  740  Prefixes = 371  Total Score = 628,103

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

My low power effort as I have not yet had my amplifier repaired. 
Obviously, 15 meters was the money band for me however, 20 meters
produced only 15 fewer multipliers for nearly half the QSO's! This
was due to better than fair conditions into Europe on 20 meters in
the mornings.

We once again are experiencing Chinook winds here in the interior
with gusts over 40 mph for most of the weekend. I had much more
QRN than normal, especially toward the lower 48. I just lowered my
beam as we are supposed to have 65 + mph gusts for the next 24 to
36 hours. My Hazer crank is approximately 4 foot above the ground
and I had to dig snow out from around the crank so I could turn it.
This is due to lots of drifting snow on the north side of my home
where my tower is. These winds are bittersweet. It has been well
above freezing so my heating bill should get a reprieve but the
warmer temps make things very slick outside not to mention it's
hard on the antennas. 

I'm pretty happy with my effort however, I slept in both mornings 
so I left 5.5 hours of available operating time on the table. I
was hoping get a 3am-4am start both mornings but it just did not
happen. Rough week I guess.  

I'm looking forward to next weekend as I once again continue my
pursuit of low power contesting. Two things are very apparent 
with low power;

1. A much lower score
2. Shack is 20 degrees colder than normal

Lots of stations with great receivers and thanks much for pulling
out my weaker than normal signal. I did put a bit more detail from
this contest in my latest blog entry.

73!

Phil - KL8DX
Denali National Park, AK

Blog - http://kl8dx.blogspot.com/
Website - http://www.livingindenali.net/
Work - http://www.nps.gov/dena/index.htm

From Guys to Brackets

Main Tower Bracket 

If you have followed my blog for any length of time, I write frequently about our weather, both local atmospheric and space weather. During a past wind storm, my fabricated bracket which held my tower to our house was heavily damaged. Taking advantage of some warmer days here recently, I was able to complete my bracket project and once again secure the tower to the house. This bracket is made from angle iron so I'm not expecting a repeat of my last project which was made from aluminum. I also began changing out my guys, which are Dacron. I use Dacron for several reasons and it holds up very well. The guys I am currently changing out are attached to my Hazer, which normally gets lowered when the local winds begin to exceed 50 mph.

After having my antenna nested just above the roof for the last few weeks, I have been looking forward to getting it back into the air. I completed the repair of the reflector and I wanted to make sure all was well with SWR and it was ready for the up and coming contest season. It just so happened that today I was getting texts from Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) which I have running on the shack computer, that Europe was hearing Alaska on 10 meters! I had to take a break from working on the tower this afternoon when the winds began to gust upwards of 40 mph. Once that subsided, I was able to get back to getting the antenna ready to make the trip back up the tower. By the time I was able to raise the HF beam to it's normal 43 foot level, I was only hearing a few beacons and stations on 10 meters. But, I should be ready for the next opening! Let's hope 10 meters is open this winter like it was last winter!

I still have plenty to accomplish outdoors and I'm hopeful that we will have a few more days like the last few. We did receive lots of rain recently and it has many of the rivers in Alaska running very high. Many places are experiencing flood conditions and just down the road from where we live, the Nenana River was chewing away at the Parks Highway, reducing it to one lane of travel. Many places south of here received much worse damage, places such as Talkeetna. So much of the lower 48 has experienced drought conditions for months and we just broke the record at our QTH for being the wettest summer since we moved here. 

I've winterized our travel trailer and my QRP operating will now be from the shack. I'm looking forward to having the IC-703Plus hooked up in here again and hopefully participating in a few QRP contests this winter. With the computers running in the shack along with the radio equipment, I can usually expect a furry visitor or two when I'm operating. Seems on those cold winter days and nights, our shack is a pretty popular place to take off the chill. 

Wallpaper to Wind Gusts

2011 CQ World Wide RTTY DX Contest Certificate

Nothing gets me more excited for the up and coming contest season like some wallpaper reminding me of what a great season last year was! I received this certificate in the mail this week and it will be proudly displayed on my wall with my others. Winter is fast approaching here and temps are below freezing over night these days. It won't be long before snow starts to accumulate in the yard and the days become extremely short. Thankfully, contest season warms the heart and the shack! It will be time again to get out some "butt glue" and stick to the chair in front of my HF rig for hours on end. I'm hoping this contest season is even better than last!

Reflector missing part of an element

Alaska recently experienced some early season Chinook weather systems and the wind storms did a bit of damage in Anchorage and left hundreds without power for days. Here in the interior, we had our share of wind and rain. I happen to be working on a window project during the last blow and heard a loud crash from the back of the house after a 63mph wind gust. I looked out the window in time to see part of my beam go crashing to the ground. I immediately went outdoors and I found a portion of my reflector element missing from my Mosley beam! It appeared the screw that was used to secure the elements together worked loose and the element fell to the ground as my antenna bounced around from the wind.

Only damage from hitting our metal roof

I inspected the section of my antenna closely and I could only see this dent in the trap from where it struck our metal roof. Everything else appeared okay and a search for the missing screw was in vain. I was just leaving for a short vacation so I tossed the element in the garage to repair it upon my return home.

After enjoying a week in Seward with friends, I returned home to an ever growing "to do" list. I managed to clean my wood stove chimney this evening and since I was on the roof, I decided to go ahead and get the beam back in working order. 

Penetrox working as it should

I was once again excited to see that the Penetrox I had used was working just as it should. There was no sign of oxidation on the element and it looked like the day I put the beam up. I can't speak highly enough of this great stuff! I've used it for years on the recommendation of an elmer of mine and I will always have it handy for any and all antenna projects. It has proven itself to me for many years now and has helped extend the operating life of my antennas. Good stuff and I'll leave it at that.

HF beam nested

My HF beam is nested for a few more days. I need to replace my guys to my Hazer and then I need to replace my broken house bracket. I just need a few more dry days to get that done and I can once again put my antenna up to the 43' level and start chasing DX.  And yes, if you have been following my blog, you will see that my Hazer has yet to find a place on my small tower. I need to make a run to "town" and get a 1¾" mast pipe. Once I have that, I can get that thing in the air as well. I'm looking forward to having a beam on 17 & 12 meters!  When it comes to tempting fate with Mother Nature, she tends to always win. At least that seems to be my luck anyhow.