Last weekend was the IARU HF Championship. It’s a 24 hour contest with HQ stations in the different zones. My new call is a zone 7 call but I am in zone 8. Some logging software automatically populate the zone number so I had to correct quite a few people. I was wondering if that was going to be an issue. A couple other people said they really liked my callsign as well so it evened out. Some people heard the first A in AA0O as Papa or Delta, I think I might have missed getting a full contact with LC5K in Norway because of this. He faded out pretty…
13 Colonies Special Event
There’s a 13 Colonies radio special event celebrating the 4th of July. I’ve enjoyed it so far, there’s 13 stations, one in each state with short K2x calls and a couple special event stations. They’re on all different modes and they all have pileups going, some really deep(Rhode Island). I’ve got 9 so far. http://13colonies.net/
New callsign, AA0O!
I’ve been applying for shorter, easier to say call-signs. I feel like I’m talking forever saying “Kilo X-Ray 4 Hotel Lima” and I received AA0O, Alpha Alpha Zero Ocean rolls off the tongue better. I’ll be updating the domain name at some point but for now its staying at kx4hl.com
Field Day 2018
Rare QSL’s
Received these two QSL cards yesterday. Kosovo is #30 most wanted DX location, Cameroon is less rare at #124, it took awhile to get through to the operator to get the QSO but I got him(and the card to prove it!)
First CW Contact!
I made my first CW contact. It was with my instructor Pete from the CW Academy. I think it went well, it was a little nerve-wracking in the class sending morse code with 4 guys watching you, it’s a different kind of pressure when its going out over the air. It’s like you can almost feel the power of the key once you hit the BK-IN button to go from practice mode to transmit mode. I talked with a guy, NN7CW, at Hamcation in Orlando after he was done taking the CW speed test and he suggested once I know the code to try to do at least once…
New QSL Cards
I received some interesting QSL cards this week. I made my first contact with Norway so I sent out a card and got one back pretty quick. He even included a letter explaining how postal costs have gone up but since it was my first LA contact he’d cover it and sent back my green stamps. Also got cards from Liechtenstein and Ascension Island which seem like pretty rare places so I sent out for a card.
Antenna Party
I went to help members of the SPARC club take down Doug, KB0SDQ’s 50ft tower since he’s moving. He had a hexbeam on the top, he said it worked really well, I bet it did up there. We had a little issue with the rope as we lowered it down with a truck and one of the hexbeam support poles broke. Quite a few people there so we made quick work of the project.
Completed CW Academy Level 1!
I made it through the CW Academy level one Skype course. 4 of us met with the instructor twice a week for 8 weeks via Skype, typically for 45 minutes or so. It’s not easy but I definitely feel like I have a better handle on the code now. I studied between 30 minutes to an hour each day. I like that the class keeps you accountable as there’s some pressure to perform well in front of the other guys, you need to do the homework. They felt it too and that helped build a good sense of camaraderie between us. It’s a good mix of sending and receiving building…
POTA Camping
Activated 2 parks in north Florida while camping this week. K-4472 Osceola National Forest from the Ocean Pond campground and K-1902 Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park. Not too many contacts but the state park was mostly DX. Both spots had good views.