This weekend brought great weather and so it was out and about with Julie, but I did find some time for radio on Sunday evening. The bands were busy with contests and not wanting to get involved with them I skipped up to the QRP watering hole on 20m. I started calling CQ as I could not hear to much action. In a very short time W5TM came back to me and I was only 449 but it was a contact and that was good enough for me! Our QSO did not last to long as I was very much in and out I did send Edwin an email thanking him for the QSO. During my next CQ calling a G station came back to me but they were down in the mud. I switch on the APF and we did try over and over again to make contact but things just did not work out. It was pretty cool that my QRP signal was somewhat making it into "G" land. My last contact for the evening was with KA5KMS and this was a long QSO with a solid contact at both ends. Terry was running a Ten Tec Century 21at 25 watts into a dipole. It was a good evening on the radio! They all were short QSO's but it will help keep me in the hobby, keep my code up and help me become more and more aquatinted with my rig. I have found that I can easily get lost in my ham programs, antenna issues and PC hiccups that involve radio. Bottom line it's great to put all that to the side and get on the radio and make some good old contacts.
6 comments:
Good to get on the ham bands the old fashioned way. The high-tech peripherals can sometimes get in the way. 73 Dick
Hello Mike, fiddeling around with all the equipment, shack, antennas and software-computers can take much time indeed. In the end there is only one thing that counts, making contact with other individuals. Great you did some QSOs just for that. 73, Bas
Good afternoon Dick, it was very nice to get on the radio and even though they were just states side contacts it sure was a nice evening.
Mike
Hello Bas, yes you sure can get caught up in all the ice cream and miss out on the cake of ham radio. It would had been real nice to had made contact with the "G" station but maybe next time.
Mike
Hi Mike, I like the Ten Tec stuff. I got one (30 y ago) and I regret that I sold the rig. How is your Alex Loop doing? Still using it? Or do you prefer the MFJ loop? 73 Paul
Good afternoon Paul, I do have the Alex Loop still and it's a great antenna and my plans for it are to use it as my portable outdoor antenna. Now that the weather is warming up and we are right on the lake here with some very nice places to operate from that I have already scouted out.
Mike
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