A Shipyard in Germany

The rain started yesterday evening, and this morning, it's coming down in buckets . I'm now hearing thunderstorms in the valley. Band conditions have downgraded to "poor" again, so I felt fortunate to work DL6BBT in the very early morning hours. At a little over 4,000 miles, I thought it was a decent catch. Bremerhaven is one of the largest container shipping ports, in not only Germany, but the entire world. They ship a tremendous amount of "cars" from this port.

It seems every time the weather changes now, I have a horrible nights sleep. I'm sure the arthritis in the lower back has something to do with it, and it's further aggravated by the problem with what I think is a bulging disc pressing the sciatic nerve in my right leg this time. I was up several times last night and hobbled into the radio to put on the headphones and listen on the bands.

Tomorrow morning I'm scheduled for a MRI at the Huntington Veterans Hospital and I'll leave here no later than 9am. It takes an hour to drive there from Charleston. Depending on what the test indicates, I'll make a decision about the cure. My gut feeling is to have surgery as soon as possible to correct this problem since it's my second bout with this nearly intolerable pain  in the last 5 years. I'm being forced to live a much too sedentary life right now. I haven't had a good nights sleep in well over a month.

I was also able to work CO8LY in the early evening. I've worked him before from the Outer Banks of North Carolina. That was a few years ago and was a 40 meter contact. Last night I worked this Santiago Cuba station on the 17 meter band. The Bremerhaven station marks my 34th contact into Germany.

It will be the afternoon before I return home. I may not make the effort to work anyone on the bands tomorrow. It depends on how I feel after the trip and the MRI scan.

A New DX Country # 82

I've several causes to celebrate today. The first is working a new DX country and the second is a plateau I've reached with the readers of my blog.

My first reason to celebrate is that I'm always happy when I work another NEW country, so when I heard Z3OU calling from Macedonia, I answered immediately. As with many of the really good DX countries I work, he was NOT spotted on the cluster.

This station was transmitting from the city of Kocani, which has been cited as the "cleanest" city in Macedonia. It seems they take great pride in being tidy and neat in their daily lives. As with all cities, that chore can demand hours and hours of work. I commend them for their efforts!

Macedonia is also the home of "Mother Teresa" who was born in Skopje. She was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

My second reason to celebrate is that when I checked my "stat" counter this morning, it registered a little over 100,000 "hits".  I'd like to say that I  appreciate all those who read my blog regularly and hope you will continue to do so as I share my thoughts and feelings about this wonderful hobby. Remarkably, I feel more enthused about the QRP hobby today, than I did when I got my first Technician license over 20 years ago. I don't think many hobbyist can make that statement but I really mean it. I think Amateur Radio is truly the greatest hobby in the world!

Today also marks my 103th day of working a DX station with 3 watts of power and a 50 ft piece of random wire for an antenna. Every day I continue this "streak of good luck" amazes even myself.

My May contacts, so far, are looking like this: 

Omitting only one contact on 17 meters, all my contacts this month have been on 30 meters. This band seems to be my very best band, not only in volume but also in distance.

First Class CW Operators Club

I worked several stations last night but found this one to be especially interesting. This year is the 75th Anniversary of the "First Class CW Operators Club". I found N8FOC working a lot of stations on the 30 meter band and since he was practically right beside me in, Wooster Ohio, he was an easy catch.

This is a prestigious club of CW operators who can send and receive Morse Code comfortably at a minimum of 25 wpm. To be a member, one needs to be nominated by current members, and, of course, to have that happen means you've had a 25 wpm QSO with at least two of their members. Although I can catch a repetitive call sign at this speed, it's quite another thing to actually carry on a QSO. I'm definitely not there yet. hihi

Other stations in the log book last night were EA8URL/P in the Canary Islands. I'm not sure what he was using for a transmitter, receiver, and antenna but I do know that he was "portable". I've worked a station previously who was actually QRP from a vacation resort in this area.

I heard and worked HA1AD in Hungary; who always has an incredible signal into North America. I've worked him before. I've sent another E-QSL card and am sure he will return it in a few days.

I also worked my first "UU" station with UU0JM from the city of Kerch in the Ukraine. This is an interesting area situated between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azon. It's on the upper Northern portion of the Black Sea and North of Turkey. It has a fascinating geological history, as well as significance in World War 2.

I find the possibility of catastrophic flooding here a real possibility. History is full of event's like this and there is significant archaeological evidence to support it.

Club Numbers on QSL Cards

My back pain got me up early again this morning, and as always, I turned on the radio and listened for some  of those "long distance sunrise stations". When I scanned the 30 meter band, I heard a familiar station on the Island of Guadeloupe, but this time, it  wasn't my "regular" contact, which I've worked at least a half a dozen times since the first of the year. I've heard only two stations on this island. This station was the "other one".

I particularly like QSL cards that have their "club numbers" posted on them and I quickly discovered that  Jean (FG8NY) is a member of several of my favorite clubs. Also by looking at his biography on the QRZ site, I could tell in an instant that him and I were both members of the North American QRP CW Club.

The NAQCC club is my favorite club because all it's members are not only Morse Code operators, but also QRP operators. Jean (FG8NY) is club member # 6180.

You should take a close look at this club if your forte is Morse Code and QRP operations. I have a link to it on the right side of this blog under the caption of "Ham Radio Club Sites". There's some excellent operators in this group of CW QRP enthusiasts. You will find every imaginable incentive to challenge and improve your Morse Code skills on their website. Be sure to read the current "newsletter" while you're there.

I hold several of their awards like the "Friendship Club" of which I'm member # 13.

BTW/---- I easily worked another Russian station (RN3GL) last night, and was about to work 4X4WN before he appeared on the cluster. You can imagine what happened almost instantaneously. I have no doubt I could have worked him. He had a fantastic signal from Israel.

100 Days of DX

I met my goal of working One Hundred Daily DX Stations last night.

LZ3ZX in Sofia Bulgaria

Since the beginning of this year, my decision to experiment with an "indoor random wire" antenna has been a good one for me. I'm at a disadvantage (in radio terms) living in a historic area, because I can't string out exterior "wires" of any kind; so I decided to use 50 feet of 14 gauge "speaker wire", around the perimeter of my "radio room". It's routed around wooden "curtain rods", across the hall and across the top of a closet door, and down an  upstairs "stair railing". It's in the shape of a somewhat awkward and large "question mark". This "random wire" antenna, which is fed into a small tuner, has allowed me to operate 30 and 17 meters with an almost "flat" standing wave ratio. My tuner meter shows around 3 watts output.

There's been several times, since the first of the year, when the bands have gone nearly "dead" and it's been a real challenge to make a daily DX contact; but I've been miraculously saved by relativity short contacts into the Caribbean and South America. I had feared the bands would continue to be "terrible" for the next several days and I would be limited to another short (under 2,000 miles) contact towards South America for my 100th daily DX contact. I was spared that disappointment when, almost magically, the 30 meter band improved from "poor" to "fair" last night.

Although Bulgaria is in my log book eight times now, I heard a very weak LZ3ZX sending CQ "out in the open and all by himself" and to my advantage, not spotted on a cluster. That created a tremendous opportunity for me.

I answered several times before he sent the familiar "question mark" back to me, and even after several more attempts on my part, he couldn't get my call sign correct and I didn't have his. I was in the middle of around the fourth attempt when a "four land" station mashed me down into the noise and I thought I would be lost forever. Paradoxically, when he moved upward a bit to work the "four" station, and completed the exchange, I was in a good position to try again. This time, I was finally successful and I had him in the log book!

I'll continue to try to work another DX station every day now, but  after meeting my immediate goal of working a DX station for one hundred days, I don't feel as tense about those "bad propagation" days. I'll focus on listening for, and working "new" DX stations.

I'm at 81 now.

I worked another station in Mexico this morning. (XE3ARV) The bands are "fair" now with the SFI at 159, the A index at 21 and steady, and the K index at 2 and falling. Sunspot numbers for today are 159.




 My total contacts since I started my log book are now 1,981 stations. 
Since the beginning of this year I've worked 282 stations.

My total DX contacts are now 488 stations.

I don't do many (almost zero) contests because I don't have extra filters in the rig. My QRP station is about as simple as it gets. I'm very happy with it, considering that almost all of my operations are carried out with "indoor antennas" and mostly 3 watts of power.

Poor Propagation Again

For the second time in a brief few days, I've been saved by one lone Caribbean Island station (actually the Leeward Islands) on the air. This call sign (V44KAO) has always been a stumbling block for me because of the "single dit" difference between the V and the two 4's. At around 25 wpm, it's always difficult for me to decipher the correct letters and numbers. I had to ask for, as always, a repeat on the call, but managed to log him.

I felt fortunate to work this station on the St Kitts and Bevis Islands. 

Oliver (V44KAO) had a good solid signal into West Virginia but is only 1840 miles, in a straight line, from me. As yesterday, that's about the maximum distance I've been able to work in these poor propagation conditions.

Should I work another DX station tomorrow, it will be a mile marker for me. I'm hoping I'll be able to list my 100th daily DX station.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Very Poor Propagation

Bad solar propagation today makes it tuff for QRP ops. The A index is 7 and stable, but the K index is 4 and still rising. The forecast for the entire radio spectrum is "very poor", "poor", and "poor". I had thought my daily DX contacts might end today but I "squeaked" by with "one" contact; just before sunrise.

Not hearing anything previously, I had decided to send my call from the "memory keyer" on the rig. I used the 30 meter QRP frequency of 10.106 MHz. After 15 minutes or so, I heard a familiar "question mark" and I made an attempt to follow up with a the contact.

I was very lucky when  Bolmar (HK1MW) answered me from Columbia South America.  

I'm not sure what antenna he was using this morning, but I thought he had an interesting 3 element- have wave- vertical Yagi. This antenna is in a field about three miles from the ocean.

This isn't the first time I've had my DX run "rescued" from a South American station. Since the beginning of the year, I've also found familiar stations in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

I worked other stations earlier in the GMT day, with contacts into Bulgaria (ON8VP), the Slovak Republic (OM3SX), and Germany (DL7RKK) .