There are two school radio clubs in the Charleston area that aim to encourage kids to get involved in amateur radio: Dubose Middle School (K4DMS) in Summerville and Palmetto Scholars Academy (K4PSA) in North Charleston. I know K4DMS has connections with CARS, and I think K4PSA might have connections with TARC.
I haven’t worked with either club, but I do hear bits and pieces of some of the activities they participate in, and I occasionally hear them active on the radio. I’ve heard about the clubs doing high altitude balloon launches and operating during the ARRL School Club Roundups.
It’s pretty cool that there are schools with radio clubs around here.
The log check for the 2015 CQ WWcontest landed in my email a few days ago. Only one busted QSO due to NIL (Not In Log). Not bad, although 0 would be better. That brought me down to 108 contacts and a final score of 24119.
Looking forward to being back on the air in time for the next CQ WW.
************************** Summary ***************************
109 Claimed QSO before checking (does not include duplicates)
108 Final QSO after checking reductions
280 Claimed QSO points
271 Final QSO points
59 Claimed countries
59 Final countries
30 Claimed zones
30 Final zones
89 Claimed mults
89 Final mults
24920 Claimed score
24119 Final score
3.2% Score reduction
0.9% Error Rate based on claimed and final qso counts
0 (0.0%) calls copied incorrectly
0 (0.0%) exchanges copied incorrectly
1 (0.9%) not in log
0 (0.0%) duplicates (Removed without penalty)
0 (0.0%) calls unique to this log only (not removed)
********************** Results By Band ***********************
Band QSO QPts Zone Cty Mult
Claimed 160M 0 0 0 0 0
Final 160M 0 0 0 0 0
Claimed 80M 0 0 0 0 0
Final 80M 0 0 0 0 0
Claimed 40M 1 3 1 1 2
Final 40M 1 3 1 1 2
Claimed 20M 24 59 13 17 30
Final 20M 24 59 13 17 30
Claimed 15M 0 0 0 0 0
Final 15M 0 0 0 0 0
Claimed 10M 84 218 16 41 57
Final 10M 83 209 16 41 57
Claimed All 109 280 30 59 89 Score 24920
Final All 108 271 30 59 89 Score 24119
************************* Not In Log *************************
28532 PH 2015-10-24 2139 AB4UG 5 LT0H 13
******************* Multipliers by band ********************
160M multiplier total 0
80M multiplier total 0
40M multiplier total 2
OK
15
20M multiplier total 30
CM EI FM HC HI HK HK0/a KG4 KL OH
P4 PJ4 PY SM TF VE YV
1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 11 14 15 40
15M multiplier total 0
10M multiplier total 57
9A CE CN CT CT3 CX D4 DL EA EA8
F FG FJ FM FS FY HK HK0/a HP IT9
JA K KP2 KP4 LU OA P4 PA PJ2 PJ7
PY TI V2 V4 VE VK VP2M VP2V XE YN
YV
3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 25 30 33 35
Following in the footsteps of my regular blog to WordPress, I’ve done the same with this one.
Rather than just starting fresh, I also migrated the posts (but not the comments…too difficult) from the previous incarnation to this one so that everything is all in the same place.
Not sure if everything still works yet, but I’ll probably find out eventually
This past Saturday was another Charleston Hamfest. Pretty good hamfest this year with some cool but nice weather for the morning. Pretty decent sized crowd showed up, and I had a chance to make some eyeball QSOs with some of the Twitter hams that I follow, including Andrew/KK4DSD and Beverly/W3BRB. It’s always a little bit weird to have random strangers come up and say stuff like “hey, I know you”, but I’m glad to have the chance to meet them.
Lots of busy tables at this year’s hamfest, which is good. Saw lots of nice radios and a lot of Heathkits that I wouldn’t have minded taking home with me.
Early hamfest crowd
Quite a few nice door prizes being given away this year too, including a donated Elecraft K1 and a couple of quadcopters. One of them was given away to the youngest ham present at the hamfest at 1PM.
Donated Elecraft K1 door prize
Donated quadcopter door prize
Makelab Charleston had a table there, which was nice to see. I know there are a few hams in the Makelab.
Makelab Charleston at the hamfest
This year I spent some time at the front of the room helping out with making announcements and giving away some of the door prizes.
With no active projects going on, I didn’t really have much of a shopping list. Still managed to leave the hamfest with a bag of goodes though including this gem that Bryce/K4LXF was going to put on the free table, but gave to me instead.
WB6NOA morse code course on cassette
I’ll see how well (or if) it plays in the car. Could be useful for the drive to and from work.
Also picked up a couple of Mini-Circuits low noise amplifiers, some tools and supplies for the workbench, and a couple of PoV (persistence of vision) kits the Makelab Charleston guys were selling.
Another good hamfest this year, and looking forward to the next one.
From Todd/VE7BPO/@QRPHB of QRP HomeBuilder is the K3NHI sweep system that he built. He put out a call asking for people to host a zip file of his build and I offered to stash them here for him.
Inside the zip file you’ll find a description of the sweep generator, schematics, build notes and lots of pictures by Todd.
