Imabug's journey into electronics and amateur radio as AB4UG and VA6BUG
Another Field Day is coming up in a couple of weeks and once again I’ll be playing radio with fellow WA4USN club members on the USS Yorktown with CARS. I hope to spend a little more time operating this year.
I’ll also be paying closer attention to the generator and battery hook ups to learn how to set up the rig in the shack on portable power. Hopefully the weather is nice and the propagation is good.
My ARRL Worked All States Phone certificate arrived in the mail!
Now to find a frame for it and put it up in the shack.
With W1AW/7 (Nevada) finally showing up in Logbook of the World, I’ve now unlocked the Worked All States(Phone) achievement!
WAS wasn’t something I was actively chasing until the ARRL Centennial QSO Party started up. While chasing the W1AW/n portable stations, I took a closer look at my WAS status and saw that I was getting pretty close, so I decided to start chasing states and working towards the WAS certificate.
These are the calls that helped me get to WAS/Phone (some of you people from Twitter are in here!).
| State | Call | State | Call |
| Alabama | K5WP | Alaska | KL7KY |
| Arizona | K9WZB | Arkansas | K5PO |
| California | W6TK | Colorado | K0EU |
| Connecticut | W1BXY | Delaware | W3MLK |
| Florida | AJ4RW | Georgia | W4TBJ |
| Hawaii | NH7A | Idaho | W1AW/7 |
| Illinois | K9CT | Indiana | W9PA |
| Iowa | W0EA | Kansas | KS0MO |
| Kentucky | NW4J | Louisiana | KG5VK |
| Maine | K1IMI | Maryland | W3LL |
| Massachusetts | WD1S | Michigan | KD8PZO |
| Minnesota | KD0QEA | Mississippi | W1AW/5 |
| Missouri | WB0LCW | Montana | N9RV |
| Nebraska | W1AW/0 | Nevada | W1AW/7 |
| New Hampshire | N1KWF | New Jersey | K2DBK |
| New Mexico | WA5ZUP | New York | N2GA |
| North Carolina | K4OV | North Dakota | KD4POJ |
| Ohio | WU8R | Oklahoma | K5CM |
| Oregon | NT7S | Pennsylvania | AA3B |
| Rhode Island | W1XX | South Carolina | W4LVH |
| South Dakota | K0VVX | Tennessee | K4EDI |
| Texas | WR5O | Utah | K7CDX |
| Vermont | KT1J | Virginia | W4ML |
| Washington | K7RL | West Virginia | W8MLS |
| Wisconsin | AA9A | Wyoming | KA7PNH |
Now to start working on WAS/Digital. Only 9 states left for that one.
Final scores for the CQ WW 2013 contest are available and the 60 828 points I racked up in the Single Op Low Power All Band category got me #819 in the world, #280 in North America and #49 in the US 4th call area. With the Rookie overlay, it puts me at #55 in the world, #19 in North America and #4 in the US 4th call area.
For my first big contest effort, I’m pretty pleased with that.
There were a bunch of QSO parties happening this weekend: MI, ND, NE and ON along with the ARRL Rookie Roundup (SSB). I didn’t have a whole lot of time to spend playing on the radio this weekend, but I did spend a few hours juggling log files tuning around for QSO party contacts. Caught handful of MI stations and a few ON stations, but didn’t hear any ND stations and only a couple very faint NE stations.
Michigan QSO Party
Band QSOs Pts Mul
7 3 3 2
14 5 5 4
Total 8 8 6
Score: 48
Ontario QSO Party
Band QSOs Pts Mul
14 3 12 3
Total 3 12 3
Score: 36
Tuned around for a little bit during the last half of the Rookie Roundup, but didn’t hear too many stations playing. Found four stations wandering around 20m. This will be my last year as a “Rookie”, so I figured I might as well take part in the Rookie Roundups while I can.
ARRL Rookie Roundup (SSB)
Band QSOs Pts Mlt
14 4 8 4
Total 4 8 4
Score: 32