The Meltdown

Our Cartoon Shack

Could it finally be? A sound I've not heard for many months! Nope, not DX but the sound of running water! We do have indoor plumbing but the water I'm referring to is outdoors. The sound of water dripping into our gutters as the snow melts off the roof. We saw a high temperature on the 19th of 37.9° followed by  a high of 46.2° on the 20th! And if that was not enough, we saw a high of 44.7° on the 21st! I think (as I knock on wood) that spring has sprung! The meltdown is here! Our driveway is already beginning to look like a lake during the day and an ice rink during the night. We are in that thaw and freeze cycle now. Our weather station is showing some dramatic temperature changes though out the day. And believe me, I'm a happy camper!

More Sunshine than DX this past weekend!

And speaking of a happy camper, with such balmy temperatures, I moved our travel trailer batteries from our garage back to the trailer. It's plugged in and the batteries are once again fully charged ready to go. As the bands continue to be a bit of a struggle up here, it's easy for me to be distracted and head outdoors to catch some arctic rays, especially now that we have over 17 hours of daylight! The photo shows the view from our front deck and sunglasses are once again a requirement with all this sunshine and reflective snow giving us a double dose of solar emission. 

Our cluttered shack KL8DX / KL8SU

This was a busy weekend for radio. Several QSO Parties and a few HF contests. I managed a few CQMM European QSO's and even fewer Michigan QSO Party QSO's. I also wanted to make an appearance in the Feld Hell Sprint and the poor conditions only yielded a few Hell QSO's as well. I think the highlight for me was working Dan, W8CAR and Jim, K8MR who were mobile in the Michigan QSO Party. Dan lives only a stones throw from where I used to live in Ohio. I won't be able to make Dayton this year but you can sure bet it will be on my agenda for next year! Since we officially received our EOD date (Enter On Duty) to our next assignment in 1'land, I'm now focusing my efforts on getting ready for our move. We have LOTS to accomplish between now and then but I still have some time to enjoy radio. I need several inches of snow to melt yet before I even think about dropping my antennas and towers. That will probably be one of the final projects but in the mean time, I have plenty indoors to keep me busy. 

My logbook is fast approaching 53,000 QSO's since moving to Alaska in 2003. I used a vertical antenna for the first few years and I can still remember how the world opened up when I got my Mosley TA-34-XL in the air!  It has operated from two QTH's (locations) and has served me well, proving itself in this very harsh arctic environment. So until we make our way back to Alaska, it will once again be packaged up and taking a long rest. I don't expect to have much of a station back east as we are looking to rent. I'm also looking to hook up with a local contest club or stations to operate with. I've very much enjoyed the experiences I've had at KL2R with the multi crowd and I'd like to continue that fun. But we need to find a place to get settled and survive this move first before I begin thinking of operating. Once the station is deconstructed here, it will be portable operating for me only but I love that, too! My favorite portable operating is when we are boondocking many miles away from any available internet or cell service! Introduced to me by our bestest of friends, Sean KL1SF & Mindy KL1MF, out on the Denali Highway. I've been bitten by the bug ever since. 

Susitna River Bridge by KL8DX

One of my favorite places on the Denali Highway is out along the Susitna River. Lots of fond memories for sure. The photo to the right is one that I took from a previous excursion on the Denali Highway. Some of the bridges up here make you hold your breath when you're crossing them. This one however is my favorite. I love walking out onto the bridge. Like in may other places, not a sign is safe in the Alaskan backcountry. Trying to find one without a bullet hole can be a challenge in this neck of the woods. Me, I've personally never felt threatened by a sign so I never felt the need to shoot one. Those who shoot signs rank as low as the few I've heard who hang out on 14.313. Or at least, I'm sure they are related somehow. 

Nested But Colorful

Sunset @ ARS KL8DX & KL8SU 03/07/2013

In my previous post I mentioned the Chinook that was bringing strong winds to the Interior of Alaska. It has arrived but the forecasted 70 mph did arrive but the highest gust we saw at our house was only 61 mph. The storm is exiting north quickly and I expect that by Friday night we might be back to calm. These wind storms can last for days but thankfully this one is moving through quickly. I'm hopeful to be sending the beam back to the top of my tower in the next 24 hours.

In this photo, you can see our Mosley TA-34-XL nested just above our roof level. I happened to catch a beautiful sunset and was able to snap a few photos before it disappeared. With the wind, there were lots of Lenticular clouds all around us. I love this type of cloud formation and we see it frequently in this area as we receive these strong winds and are surrounded by mountains. We are often treated to colorful sunrises and sunsets here. Just one of the tough parts of living in such a beautiful place. 

Passing a Hamstone & Painful RTTY QSO's

RTTY Weekend

You might be wondering what a "Hamstone" is and rightfully so. A milestone is defined as a significant accomplishment whereas I'm calling my ham related "significant accomplishment" a hamstone! The hamstone accomplished this past weekend was my 50,000 QSO!  I've blogged previously about approaching this number and wondering who that lucky ham was going to be. It was a RTTY QSO during the Ten-Meter RTTY Contest. Now this is from my main logbook as I have worked many more QSO's than that obviously. I have operated during special events, mobile, at other contest stations and portable. But my main KL8DX logbook achieved QSO number 50,000 on December 2nd, 2012 at 2226z. Yes, I know, by some standards this is a small number and by others, it's a huge number. A BIG contest station can rake in 9,000 to 15,000 QSO's in a contest weekend! Now THAT'S an accomplishment. But for my small station, I think it's a pretty big number.

KL8DX statistics thanks to Clublog

I recently wrote about my venturing into the use of Clublog. It's a very valuable website and it allowed me a very nice visual presentation of my activity from here in Alaska. As the chart to the right shows, it gives a very nice detailed overview of my operation by the three standard modes. I obviously did not get serious about operating until 2007. That just happened to be the year that my Mosley TA-34-XL made it back into the air. Going from a ground mounted vertical to that beam opened up the world to my chasing pleasure. I also became involved with the Alaska contesting group and I for the first time had the confidence to take my contesting to the next level thanks to their help and encouragement. I had always been a Search & Pounce (S&P) contester prior to moving here. That all changed with my first CQ once I got my tri-bander in the air. I actually had to work a pile-up, from the receiving side! I'll be honest, that was a bit intimidating and it can still be stressful! Now with reverse beacons and the like, pile-ups happen instantaneously! So, there was a huge learning curve going from chasing to being chased. Being a double multiplier in contests can sure make things crazy. Anyhow, it's no secret from the chart above what my favorite modes are.

KL8DX DXCC totals from Clublog

Even with all that operating I've only worked 203 entities, actually 202, but one has since been deleted. And I've not been actively chasing entities either. I was working hard toward the Honor Roll when I lived in Ohio and had around 306 approved by the ARRL prior to leaving. Quite honestly, I don't have the desire or finances to chase that again. I started all over after moving to Alaska. So, I take em as they come and when I can, I will chase DXpeditions landing a few new ones from time to time. And to top it off, I have yet work all Zones from here! I'm still missing Zones 22 & 34! I did not realize most of this data until I uploaded my logbook into Clublog. If you use it, please consider donating and if you have not, you really should give it a try. When I uploaded my entire log, it was surprising how many of my entities were incorrect in my logbook. I think most of this was due to contest logs & software misidentifying the entity and it fed into Ham Radio Deluxe incorrectly. Either way, I've corrected all the wrong data and I feel statistically refreshed!

A hamstone is not nearly as painful as other stones, like gallstone or kidneystone, but it does require passing lots of time on your Keyster (actually spelled keister, but I think my spelling is more ham appropriate). It can be painful dealing with the hours of "Butt Glue" that is required to stay in the seat and operate. Extreme stationary Gluteus Maximus for Contestmania.  It can also have painful family consequences as many contests are 48 hours in length and take up an entire weekend. But I have a secret weapon! I've never shared this before but my numbers are directly associated to this one thing. That secret is...Arctic Winters! It also helps with the large amount of QSL requests that are directly related to this stationary operating position. I literally had to get a larger Post Office Box at a second Post Office (my Denali did not have a large box available) to accommodate the hundreds of direct requests not to mention the bursting bureau envelopes! 

Arctic Winters are long and cold and with all the Alaska shows on TV, I don't think that's a secret! Even though I live a nice jaunt from the Arctic Circle, at times I would not know it with the temperatures and weather we experience here. Our winter actually begins in late September when our first snow normally arrives and it runs through basically mid May. What is there to do outdoors when the outdoor temperature is -40F or colder? Well, to many who live here, the cold does not stop them. People camp, ski, snowmachine and more when it's that cold. Yes, I have spent plenty of time outdoors at those temperatures but I prefer to enjoy the warm confines of my igloo. It just so happens that Arctic Winter Season corresponds to Contest Season!! With that said, I find it very easy to spend hours at a time in my shack working contest weekends. My activity drops dramatically during the summer months (almost NIL) as most Alaskan's are outdoors enjoying 24 hours of daylight and temperatures that are 125 degrees warmer than their coldest winter day! Do you blame us?

High Ground

Okay, enough about Alaska and my hamstone, time to get back to the weekend activities. I played around a bit in the Tara RTTY Melee but I had my heart set on the 10-Meter RTTY Contest. Let me tell you, 10 Meters was extremely disappointing and painful this past weekend. The indexes did not support propagation at all and I only ended being able to make 55 QSO's! From those 55 contacts, 9 were unique State & Provinces and I managed 4 DXCC entities! It left me wondering what we can expect for the upcoming ARRL 10 Meter Contest next weekend? I can only hope that conditions are much better next weekend. The photo above shows where I had parked and called CQ. The band was so rough with so much QSB, I did not want to interfere with anyone so I ended up in what I like to call the nosebleed section. I had a handful of JA's call in Saturday night with respectable signals but Sunday was a bust for the most part. Some welcome surprises were LT0H, LW5ER and HC2UB. But my path to Central and South America is actually pretty good here often times opening before I hear the lower 48. 

So much talk of the Fiscal Cliff in Washington but it appears like I will be purchasing 4 new tires for our truck in the next few weeks approaching my own Fiscal Cliff. They have a 2-3 week delivery time so I've decided I won't have them installed until after December 21st. No reason to pay for them if the world might end, right? So, assuming we are all here and survive that weekend, I expect to once again be broker than broke after having to purchase tires and all the Christmas presents that will have to be shipped. Hopefully the gifts will arrive 3,000+ miles to their destination before Christmas. And if 10 Meters does not come back to life this coming weekend, I will begin to think we are feeling the effects of a Propagation Cliff. Maybe the Solar Cycle peaked last year and we didn't know it, catching us by surprise.   I'm already experiencing my Twitter Cliff as of late. I'm following so many people on Twitter that I can't keep up with the timeline! 

Hopefully things will settle in Washington and propagation will return. Ham radio is a great escape from what seems to be endless bad news coming from media outlets. Thankfully, I've found the ham community world wide is very friendly and it's a great escape from our daily grind. I'm thankful for all that I have, all that I've done and for all those that have made it possible. 

Oh, and in case you are wondering, NG6S gets the prized #50,000 QSL card for our RTTY contact in the 10-Meter RTTY Contest. I know there won't be a 100,000 from this QTH but I've sure enjoyed each and everyone I have had so far and looking forward to many more.