I started to play a little bit in the CQ WPX (SSB) contest this past weekend (March 30-31 2024) using the 10m antenna in the attic over the garage. There was a decent amount of activity on the band, mostly from the Caribbean and South America, with a smattering of European stations.
I had logged 6 contacts when I learned that I was making the light on the garage door opener turn on and off.
I’ll have to find some ferrites to put on the wires going into the garage door opener to see if that helps.
Contest: CQWPXSSB
Band QSOs Pts WPX Pt/Q
28 6 16 6 2.7
Total 6 16 6 2.7
Score: 96
1 Mult = 1.0 Q's
Spent a bit of time dabbling in the ARRL DX (SSB) contest this past weekend using the 10m dipole in the attic. In the process, I also discovered that the 30 or so meters of coax running from the shack to the outside, coiled up and hanging on the side of the house, also receives on 10m although not very well.
I was tuning around the band, hearing a few intelligible but faint signals, when I realized I had the radio on the wrong antenna input. When I switched over to the antenna input the 10m attic dipole was connected to, everything got much much louder.
I was hearing lots of DX activity on the band over the weekend. Most of my contacts ended up being on Sunday morning when I managed to work a few EU stations. Tuning around the band and working a few stations in between doing other things got me a total of 14 QSOs.
Not bad for a couple pieces of wire hanging from the rafters. Now I know the dipole works reasonably well.
Contest: ARRLDXSSB Band QSOs Pts Cty Pt/Q 28 14 42 14 3.0 Total 14 42 14 3.0 Score: 588 1 Mult = 1.0 Q's
Got W4BXC on the air again for part of the NC QSO party. Band conditions were about the same as yesterday, although didn’t hear quite as much DX on 10m today as I was hearing yesterday.
As usual, 40m was about the only band I could hear NC stations on. Toward the end of the contest, I started hearing one or two up on 20m, but none I hadn’t already worked on 40m. Did pretty well this year with 58 QSOs, including 4 out of the 6 bonus stations, and 38 counties.
Contest: NC QSOPARTY Band QSOs Pts Mul Pt/Q 7 58 116 38 2.0 Total 58 116 38 2.0 Score: 4,458 1 Mult = 1.5 Q's
The 2024 edition of the SC QSO Party was a pretty fun time. Had some friends over to put W4BXC on the air for the QSO party and we managed to get a few pileups going, which was a lot of fun.
Band conditions seemed pretty decent, and I was hearing a lot of DX on 10m from as far away as Czechia and Slovenia. There was even a ZS1 station that I heard (first time I’ve heard anything from that part of the world from here), but he went QRT before I was able to try for a contact.
Ended the day with 119 contacts in the log (41 more than last year) including the three bonus stations: W4CAE, WW4SF, and K4YTZ. Changes to the scoring means scores will be a lot higher this year than in previous years.
Contest: SC QSOPARTY Band QSOs Pts Mul Mt2 Pt/Q 7 95 274 47 1 2.9 14 19 76 11 0 4.0 28 5 20 2 0 4.0 Total 119 370 60 1 3.1 Score: 26,370 1 Mult = 2.0 Q's
Not sure if the N1MM+ score is accurate but going by the QSO points and multipliers it’s showing, we should have (370*60) + 850 = 23050 points. I’ll have to wait until the official scores are out in a few months.
Kudos to the bonus stations and the mobile/expedition operators who went out to activate multiple counties.
Back in August, I submitted my first amateur radio license renewal (US amateur radio licenses expire after 10 years). Getting a vanity call sign after passing the Amateur Extra test pushed the expiry date from June to November so once I was within the 90 day window of being able to renew, I went forth with renewing my license.
License renewal is easy enough to do yourself, but if you run into problems or just want to offload the paperwork to someone else, any VE team can give you a hand. Since I’m a VE with the Laurel VEC (and a few other VECs as well), this seemed like a good opportunity to learn the process.
If you do the license renewal yourself through the FCC (should be a pretty simple process), there’s no charge aside from the Congress-mandated $35 fee the FCC charges. License renewal through a VEC is also a pretty simple process (the VEC may charge an additional fee on top of the $35 FCC fee).
If you need or want to do your license renewal through a VEC, find a VE team. A local team might be easier since there will be some paperwork to sign, but it doesn’t have to be. Get in touch with them and let them know you want to do a license renewal. They may have you come in to their next exam session, or more likely just ask for your call sign. The VE will look up your call sign, generate a FCC 605 application form with all the pertinent information on it, and have you review and sign the form. If the VE team charges a fee, pay them. Then the VE team submits your paperwork and depending on the VEC they’re affiliated with, you should receive an email from the FCC with instructions on how to pay the $35 fee within a day or two, or a week at the latest (make sure to check your spam/junk folder). Pay the $35 fee (the FCC email contains all the instructions for how to pay), and by the next business day, your license should be renewed! The FCC fee needs to be paid within 10 calendar days of when the FCC sent the email or your application will be dismissed. If that happens, you’ll have to contact the VE team to ask them to resubmit the application.
Along with renewing my license, I needed to make sure my ARRL VE credential was also updated with a new expiry date. This also was a pretty easy process. From the ARRL VE page,
ARRL accreditation renewal is automatic for ARRL VEs who maintain a current address, contact phone number and/or email address on file at the VEC office and have participated at an exam session within the past 5 years.
https://www.arrl.org/become-an-arrl-ve
So you don’t really need to do anything, but you might want an updated expiry date on your ARRL VE credential badge. That’s easy enough to do by sending them an email to let them know. A few weeks later, you’ll get some stickers in the mail that you can stick on your badge. There’s even a sticker that tells you how many ARRL VE sessions you’ve participated in.
New ARRL VE expiry date stickers (personal information redacted)
