Painting to Propagation - A Colorful Weekend

Woke up to fresh snow this morning! 

I knew my weekend time for radio would be very limited. I'm still busy doing some projects at home and the paint brush and roller kept me focused on the big picture. I did however play a bit or radio. Bands still seem a bit rough these days. I had a bit of insomnia on Saturday morning and enjoyed a few European RTTY QSO's on 15 meters shortly after 1130z! My 100 watts was making it over the pond. I had spotted a European station on 15 meters and I received a twitter request from Marc, DO4DXA to try a RTTY QSO. Marc needed Alaska on 15 meters. Once I set up and was on frequency, I printed Marc with no problem! Marc and I made our contact and after Marc spotted me, a few others fell in behind him. 15 QSO's later, I headed back to bed for a few more hours of rest.

This past weekend was SKCC's Weekend Sprintathon (WES) I fired up the rig and straight key for a handful of contacts, balancing calling CQ and doing a bit of search & pounce. I found Sunday propagation to be extremely challenging so needless to say, I put much more paint on the walls of our living room than I put QSO's in my logbook. The highlight for me during the WES was being called by TF3DX who was mobile in Iceland! Villi had a great mobile signal into Alaska on 15 meters. I've operated from Iceland before and I love that country! I'm looking forward to a return trip someday. Seems I have this attraction to arctic environments. 

We woke up this morning to a fresh coating of snow. The weather has been pretty nice with some temperatures pushing 50 degrees this past weekend. Seeing snow this morning was a bit depressing as I'm hoping most of the winters accumulation melts from our yard in the next two weeks. We have lots of mud and water laying atop the ground at the moment so hopefully things will dry up soon. It's nice having nearly 24 hours of daylight right now. 

One of my recent Twitter posts

2013 ARRL RTTY Roundup Overview

Spectrum Scope after RTTY Contest Sleep Deprivation %-)

This past weekend was the annual ARRL RTTY Roundup Contest. This is a 30 hour long contest (operators can operate no more than 24 hours) and in my opinion, the perfect length. Locally, that started the contest at 9 AM Alaska time on Saturday and ended up at 3 PM Alaska time on Sunday. It's one of those "Everyone Can Work Everyone" kinda contests, which is awesome as well. And, the other neat part about this contest is, multipliers only get worked credit once, regardless of band. So now we fall into even more strategy especially if a multi-band assault is on hand. When I did a bit of research on my previous year efforts, I realized I had not officially submitted a score for this contest since 2009. I did however make several contacts in 2010, a handful in 2011 and none in 2012. 

KL8DX RTTY - Keyboarding On The Move

One of the things I wanted to do differently this year was in setting up N1MM a bit differently. I was going to take the plunge and utilize the "Logthenpop" macro. I waited to just hours before the contest to take this plunge (yeah, I know) and I watched THIS great video by Larry, K8UT. Now mind you, I'm in contests to have fun as I don't have a station that is truly competitive. For that, I need many more antennas and much more height, and a little extra horsepower would not hurt either. I send my callsign after every QSO and my run macro has the callsign of the station I'm going back to listed twice. The exchange or my report is sent 2-3 times, depending on band conditions. Often times (IMHO) it wastes less time sending an exchange one more time rather than a full exchange a second time. I adjust this on band conditions. I also send "TU" and maybe a 73 before calling CQ once again. But anyhow, I wanted to be able to stack callsigns using the "Logthenpop" macro. More on that experience in a bit. 

KL8DX N1MM Macros from the ARRL RTTY Contest

I squeeze my run and S&P macros in the first twelve F-key assignments. Macros are always a controversial subject and I'm not going to hit that bees nest. I made several mistakes getting used to the Enter Sends Message (ESM) mode with N1MM. I've been an F-key abuser for years but now I need to retrain myself to use the Enter key and trust the software. As I found out, Enter does in fact send the message but at times, not the message I wanted it to send! I set up the program but what I failed to realize was that if I started to stack calls, what was the best way to clear a call from the stack and move on to an awaiting callsign? This is what caused me to send KT6D and K7TQ (sorry, as it's a perfect example of operator error on my part) a macro (my F8 which is shown above cleared out) that sent something to the effect, "Alaska is DX in this contest but if you want it, my state is Alaska." I had this macro because some people don't read the contest rules prior to the start of a contest. Alaska is not considered a state in this contest but a DX country! And for that very reason, our report includes a serial number and not "AK" for Alaska. I was getting asked enough that I created a macro to address that very question. 

Anyhow, I experimented on the fly with call stacking and for the most part, it was successful. I have more reading to do before the next contest to see how I need to handle changes to my call stack as I previously mentioned. The other issue I discovered is that call stacking is a great feature but you need callsigns to stack! Not that I'm anything special, but I can normally get a few people calling me at the same time when I'm running stations. The issue with RTTY is, when everyone calls, they call at the same time and unless they purposefully call off frequency a bit, you end up with a jumbled mass of letters and numbers that don't mean squat! At the very best, you might get a partial callsign. So, the problem I had, when I decided to wait an extra few seconds in an attempt to decode another station to "stack", others would get impatient and start calling and I'm back to square one. But, when I was able to decode more than one callsign, I found this hugely efficient at keeping rate. I'm sold on it's use, I just need to perfect it.

CBS Stats for ARS KL8DX

There were many highlights during this contest and I'm pretty happy with my result. I'm not sure how the other Alaskan stations did outside of our local contesting group here. I know my Alaska low power effort beat the  previous Alaska low power effort held by AL7BB from 2002. I also know that this year, Rich, KL7RA beat AL7BB's high power effort, which he held from way back in 1999. My effort is far from plaque worthy but some of that new ARRL redesigned wallpaper would make a nice addition to my shack! I know there were several Alaskan stations operating so I just will have to wait and find out. I'll let you know in about 12 months, hopefully less. 

What really helped my score was the good conditions into Europe on 20 meters during Sunday morning. Our beagle had me up a few hours earlier than expected (I had the alarm set for 0500 local but I ended up at 0300 local) and that worked to my advantage for those juicy European multipliers! I snagged my first EU contact at 1201z and I worked Europe steady until shortly after 1700z. No rate to speak of, just some good steady contacts that inflated my log by 100 QSO's and 15k points or so. Well worth dragging my butt out of bed early and that's all part of the strategy. Taking advantage of propagation and the bands when they yield the best potential for contacts to certain parts of the world. 

Just a few notes from this contest. It was great getting the RTTY heavy hitters in the log, Don, AA5AU and Phil, GU0SUP! Anyone who has been researching anything about RTTY has seen these callsigns before! I had several people sending my callsign before they sent theirs, when I was running stations. This takes up lots of time and I had one station send his callsign at least 5 times before stopping. I had a zero station work me twice on 15 meters and then tell me I was a dupe when I called him on 20. For the record, I work dupes! He now lost one QSO (not that it will or will not break the bank). I had one station even send, with his callsign, his grid square and state when calling me after my CQ. But you know what, in the end, I appreciate every QSO so I really don't care how you call me, just call me. It would be nice if a few would streamline their macros though. I'm saying this after I had such a macro challenged weekend, which I'm sorry to the handful of stations I sent extra bandwidth to. Oh, and one pet peeve I will admit to, are those stations who call me when I'm running and then ask me for my callsign before sending me their information! Excuse me, but why call me if you don't know who I am? It's almost as if they joined the pile-up and were hoping to find out who I was before they were called but managed me on the first call. 

Conditions were above average and other than some horrible QSB, the bands ended strong. 15 & 20 meters reminded me of stadium bathrooms during the halftime show. Standing room only and everyone was to close for comfort. I could not image running AFSK with such crowded bands! 20 meters alone was full from just above the PSK31 frequencies to 14.140!! 15 meters, just as bad! 10 meters never produced the many Central & South American contacts that it's known for up here. But, I managed a few for sure. And oddly enough, I managed a few last minute state multipliers on 10 that I could find anywhere else!

KL8DX's Score Summary for ARRL RTTY RU 2013

In the end I was still missing North Dakota for my Worked All States in this contest. Of course, I always get skunked on the Canadian Provinces. A clean sweep is just out of my reach with my station. After medication and therapy, I've come to terms with that. "Small tower, low power leaves my contesting fate in the hands of a higher power."

Our weather has been unseasonably warm due to wind so I experienced yet again more QRN which made the weak (599 :0) signals harder to copy at times. 

I had fun chatting on Twitter (as I will normally due during slower portions of contests without breaking any self spotting contest rules, etc) with many friends and several of those went from my timeline to my contest log, by chance.  Also, congratulations to Sean, VA5LF for his potential VE5 SO/HP new record! 

I also enjoy (and do not promote) listening to music while I'm working a RTTY contest! I love music and have a pretty broad playlist. My play list from this past weekend consisted of the following bands (this from a guy who is still stuck in the 80's);

• Daughtry
• Fireflight
• Halestorm
• Nickelback
• Sick Puppies
• Theory Of A Deadman
• Skillet

KL8DX's Tweet After Surviving Another Year

So the ARRL RTTY Roundup ushers in a new year and the current contest season is about half over. I'm excited to see what 2013 brings and I myself, am suffering from acute cabin fever. I'm looking forward to camping and the return of the midnight sun! I want to wish all of those reading here a very healthy and DX filled new year! I hope DX falls easily into your logbooks and you achieve all you want to achieve this year. Like I mentioned before, I think this will be a year of change for me and my family. We welcomed a new grand daughter in 2012 as our grandson turned 1. Thanks for reading and for those following, I appreciate it. I'm just a small station living the BIG dream in Alaska, which I enjoy sharing with friends and family. You won't find an Alaskan reality TV show with me in it but you will find me on the bands enjoying one of the greatest hobbies in the world! 

2012 Year in Review - Out Like a Lion, In Like a...Ham?

NOAA Denali Forecast 

The weather for our part of Alaska has been pretty quiet for several weeks. Or at least, until recently. We have been effected by a Chinook system moving in from the south and it not only brings strong winds, but much warmer temperatures. The warmer temperatures are a welcome break from -20F to -40F that we have been experiencing. But as ham radio operators know, high winds are not ham friendly. That being said, my HF beam has been nested just above my roof level as we were forecasted to receive 80 mph wind gusts, as seen in the forecast listed to the left. Thankfully we did not see gusts that strong but anything above 55 mph has me lowering my antenna. The latest system is exiting but there is another system on it's heels that will bring strong winds once again for New Years day and probably into the night. Since my strongest gust today was only 45 mph, I took advantage of a snow blown roof and warm temperatures to tighten my driven element and then crank my beam back to its 43 feet normal operational level. 

Cell Photo by KL8DX

The view to the right is from the 25 foot level or so (standing on my roof getting a beams eye view) looking ENE from my QTH. As you may notice, the trees around here are not very tall. Also, just visible are the two overhead power lines that cut through the heart of where I would run many of my wire antennas, if I could. Not only do I have these lines which run to a neighbors house to contend with, I also have my own service line which is not seen in this photo. In looking back, placing my tower on the south side of the house would have been a much better choice, for various reasons.

Cell Photo by KL8DX

The view to the left here is looking south toward Mount Healy. Denali National Park has a great information page detailing Mount Healy (Unit 24) and in the top photograph on that page, you can see Otto Lake, or the reverse of what you are seeing to the left. My home is on on side of this mountain and my office is on the other. I took these photos just before noon and as you can see, there is no direct sunlight. This time of year, I can tell by the clouds the sun is there but we won't see direct sunlight here at this QTH until February. The happy thought we keep is that the sun is slowly making its way back toward Alaska and the midnight sun will once again be filling out days with warmth and funshine!

Club Log Stats for KL8DX

When looking at my 2012 statistics available to me using Club Log, I've worked 106 different entities and had a grand total of 8,184 QSO's. As you can see from the graph to the right, I'm not a big SSB operator however, I do find my microphone from time to time. As mentioned in a previous blog posting, I did hit my personal milestone of 50,000 QSO's recently operating from here in Alaska. I've accomplished DXCC but have yet to apply. I've managed to work 203 towards my 2nd ARRL DXCC Award and 177 of those Entities have wonderfully been confirmed via Log Book Of The World (LOTW). With US postage rates climbing again in January of 2013, I'm a firm believer in electronic QSL'ing with LOTW. I will always maintain hard QSL cards. I enjoy receiving them and will return QSL for those who follow my instructions on QRZ, but my days of sending direct for each new Entity worked are long gone. Especially if it requires the always rising return postage fee, typically running $3.00 USD or more nowadays, from outside the United States anyhow. I don't chase new ones like I used to either. After moving to Alaska, my focus has changed to more of a contesting perspective than DX'ing perspective. Not that you can't accomplish both of these at the same time but basically, I spend less time "on air" during the weekdays chasing, and more time on the weekends being chased. Life of a double multiplier can be stressful but fun!

Twitter QSO with Martin, W3MLK today

Bringing in the New Year like a Ham is simply getting on the air and operating and for me, Straight Key Night (SKN) is just the ticket! I love CW anyhow and I've really grown attached to my Navy Flameproof keys. And heck, my Icom 756PRO, by today's electronic standards, is nearly vintage! I don't own anything that will chirp or has tubes that give off a warm glow. But that's what I love about SKN, hearing all that manually generated Morse Code and hearing those old radios come to life. Martin, W3MLK asked me what SKN stood for as I had mentioned it in one of my previous "Tweets". This was my personal explanation to him, highlighting the festivities about to begin in a matter of hours. I had worries of missing it this year due to high winds and a 24 hour bout with the flu bug. Thankfully, it appears I will be making contacts and enjoying a fresh new year enjoying the hobby I'm still addicted to after 25 years! 

In a day of live news feeds that seem to carry mostly bad news, ham radio is a way to escape all that, for me anyhow. Sharing bandwidth with those all around the world who enjoy the same, fun through ham radio. I don't know what 2013 will bring, but it will have its ups and downs I'm sure. We can hope for more ups though, nothing wrong with hoping! I appreciate those who read my ramblings on with this blog as I sure don't do it for me. As long as someone is interested, I will continue to detail my Alaskan radio adventures as I experience them. Thanks for all the QSO's and I'm hopeful for many more in 2013. I'm not sure on a theme for 2013 yet, but I have a few hours left to think about it. Not only does the wind around these parts bring warmth, something tells me change is in the wind as well for next year. Happy New Year my friends!       

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. 

   

CQ World-Wide DX CW Contest - The Morning After

Comparing CQ WW CW 2011 / 2012

This past weekend was the annual CQ World-Wide DX CW contest and from the perspective of many, is the biggest contest of the year. From Multi-Operators to Single, many plan for this past weekend months in advance. Many operators in the US,  still feeling the effects of large amounts of good food on Thanksgiving followed by breaking their bank on Black Friday, hit the airwaves in anticipation of logging many contest QSO's. I for one, wish my holiday calorie to QSO count were much closer to one another. Sadly, it never fails that I consume many more calories on Thanksgiving Day and the days following, than I can put QSO's in my contest log. On the positive side, Thanksgiving leftovers work wonderfully at keeping the body fueled for countless hours of VFO turning and the keyboard pounding fun of this contest. 

ARS KL8DX Claimed Score & Summary

In my previous post, I mentioned working the November Sweepstakes as part of the Multi-Operator effort at KL2R. In looking at how Larry, N1TX had Win-test set up, the previous years effort in the Targets Tracking Window was a great motivator (photo above). I know, I'm one of those operators who is not using my complex software to full advantage and I had never used this function before. It did help me keep focused. I spent a little extra time setting up Win-test the night before (I know, the night before, really? When will I learn?) but I still need to get into using ESM (Enter Sends Message) mode with this software. But, I'm getting there. I'm still an F-Key abuser and it would save time and I'm sure would increase my rate. 

My score breakout summary is listed directly above and it just so happened that I beat my last years effort although, not by much! My claimed score last year was 792,396 and logging 1,852 QSO's. The main difference last year was that 10 meters was my money band but this year, that turned out being 15 meters. Had 10 meters come to life, my numbers would have looked very different. The CME that impacted Earth must have sent 10 meters packing (see graph below from HAARP's Magnetometer). I'm not a propagation guru but I do know 10 meters did not provide a fraction of the contacts it did for me last year. Last year, I worked 971 QSO's on 10 meters alone!

Magnetometer from HAARP

In speaking of the CME that shook up the Ionosphere overhead, it made for a bittersweet weekend. It obviously effected the propagation and it made the polar path on Friday night extremely tough and Saturday night was no picnic either. I'm running low power these days as I have yet to afford getting my AL-1500 repaired. Shipping to and from the lower 48 alone would be costly and that does not include the repair. It just means I have to pass up more multipliers or try harder and longer to get them, or wait until Sunday. Regardless, it was memorable working European stations on Friday night while gazing out my shack window and watching the auroral display dancing overhead! Now mind you, I've experienced the aurora overhead for several years but I still get excited and enjoy photographing it. Friday night was no exception, I had to stop what I was doing in the contest, costing me valuable 3 point QSO's with Europe (surprising we had a path with aurora being so active) to head outdoors at -17F to snap some photographs! I was outdoors for well over an hour just enjoying the light show overhead. I'm easily distracted and I needed Bonnie and Fannie here from team KL2R to keep me focused. 

Auroral display CQ World-Wide DX weekend © KL8DX

Like many hams, I have more than one hobby. My second favorite is photographing our adventures here in Alaska. I love sharing it with friends and family in the lower 48, many of which have never been to Alaska. We arrived in Healy at our friends house (KL1SF & KL1MF) on the 25th of November, 2003. We moved into park housing during December of 2003, and a few months later, we purchased our current home. Now mind you, I did experience the aurora from Northern Ohio and even photographed it a few times but such events were rare. Here, the "Northern Lights" are viewed nearly all winter long. This alone helps ease the pain of winter however, it's normally very cold outdoors during the prime viewing times. 

Auroral display CQ World-Wide DX weekend ©KL8DX

If you dress warm and have an understanding camera and tri-pod, it's not hard to capture these breathtaking events. The photo above and to the left, are those I took on Friday night showing the auroral display over our QTH. Now mind you, this is after it had subsided a bit. Our shack window (shown illuminated in blue on both photos) is the best viewing window for the aurora as I keep the shack mostly dark. I'm not one for enjoying copious amounts of light both at home or at the office. My office for years has been nicknamed, "The Cave." My wife made a rare appearance in the shack over the contest weekend to enjoy the light show to the north while I was chasing European stations on 15 and 20 meters. If only I could get her to upgrade and be interested in a Multi-Single effort. Nah, more fun for me! All kidding aside, her support and supplying necessary nutritional needs goes without saying, these contest weekends would not be successful without her support and understanding. Like many a ham, I'm lucky to have an understanding spouse. 

Now getting back on track with the contest, my goal was to log over 2,000 QSO's and beat my previous year score. I did beat my score (claimed) however, I did not break the 2,000 QSO mark. As I had mentioned before, had 10 meters been great, I would have easily manged that goal. As it was, attempts to get a run going on 10 meters was in vain and it worked out best for Search & Pounce only (S&P). The 3 point contacts were nice but I wanted more. But like with any contest, there were highlights and low lights. Me complaining about 10 meters was a low light but I'm thankful for my 199 QSO's on that band. Lots of radio friends encountered along with so many familiar callsigns. My low band antenna's stink and to those who pulled my signal out on 40 and 80 meters, hats off to you and your station! I took some notes during the weekend contest and here are a few unedited I had listed -

• Getting to hate Saturday and Sunday mornings. I can't seem to get the attention of anyone on the East Coast as they are still pointed to Europe.
• My morning strategy, chasing "Bleeps" on the Spectrum Scope while consuming copious amounts of decaf coffee. Yea I know, I get more out of the bleeps than I do the coffee. 
• Saturday morning, 10 meters opened up briefly but then closed back down. 
• Gray Line propagation working well and added some much needed multipliers.
• Seriously PY3DX, I've been on this frequency for well over an hour! If you want it that bad, go ahead and take it! I'm working PY's right and left so I know you can hear me! Ugh!
• Full break-in is a bit tough to get used to but necessary with as quickly as some stations call when I'm CQ'n.
• Sunday, the return of propagation (somewhat), thank you!!!!!!
• Is it me or does it seem like CW ops increase their speed by 50% on Sunday? Tryptophan must be wearing off, goodness!
• EL2A, on 15 meters and logged?!! What just happened? That did!
• Aurora is beautiful and I'm still able to work Europe? I must be dreaming!
• Trying to understand why DX stations don't ID more frequently. If you work more than 5 stations and don't ID, I'm gone! If I was Assisted, I might know who you are but for now I don't, and really don't care.
• Well, here come the DUPES so someone must have spotted me as something other than my callsign. Probably as KL7DX again. Surprising how many click on the band map and pull the trigger!
• EF8M, you want me in your contest log but just don't know it.
• Seriously Sunday? Normally I can work these multipliers today and they are no easier than Saturday! WTH?
• Enjoying Twitter and the #WATwitter Hashtag spearheaded by Connie, NR4CB. She is the Bionic Nerd!  
• 10 meters, where are you??
• Pile-up's...I'm trying everyone, please have patience! I'm drinking decaf, remember?
• It's 1655z and I'm at 1,355 QSO's and 554,222 points! I think I can, I think I can...
• Damn, there are some strong stations out there! Size does matter!
• I wish my score could count towards NCC!
• Contest is over, I need Motrin!!!!!!!!!!!!
• LOTW will probably need life support after this weekend...and next...and the weekend after that...LOTW might need Motrin!

That is my 2012 summary of the CQ World-Wide DX CW Contest as I experienced it. It was tough but enjoyable. My fellow Alaskan's were out in force and from the preliminary posts on 3830, not many should be missing Zone 1. I on the other hand, missed Zone 1 on 40 meters. I could not break the KL7RA pile-up. A huge thanks to all those that make this contest (and all of them) possible. I would write more but the 5 day deadline for log submission is here and I gotta get to my soapbox and log submission! Thanks for all the contacts, sorry to those I missed, and I appreciate everyone's patience as I still am learning pile-up management. Add many calling at the same time and the effects of the aurora washing out their signal, it can be extremely tough to just get a partial callsign, let alone a full one. I'm thankful for each and every contact and if I'm running and you don't get me the first time, please come back! Like my paycheck, my pileups are normally short lived.