Imabug's journey into electronics and amateur radio as AB4UG and VA6BUG
This past weekend was the Georgia QSO Party, a 2 day affair that I only played for a few hours in. The only activity I was hearing was on 40m again, like with the other nearby state QSO parties I’ve participated in.
Made 19 QSOs in 18 counties tuning up and down 40m over the two days, including one who was using an /AG suffix as a new General class ham.
Band QSOs Pts Mul
7 19 19 18
Total 19 19 18
Score: 342
Came across the NC QSO party while tuning around a bit on 40m. Like the TN and SC QSO parties, all the activity I was able to hear was on 40m. Heard a few non-NC stations calling for NC contacts on 20m, but couldn’t hear the stations they were working.
Tuning up and down 40m a few times over the course of the afternoon netted me 23 QSOs and 18 counties including the W1WD bonus station which, according to N1MM logger, was worth 882 points.
Results for the 2013 Tennessee QSO Party were waiting for me in my mailbox today, along with a very nice award for the top score (760 points) from South Carolina in the Low power Phone category. My first contest award!
Ok, never mind that I was the only submission from SC. It will make a nice decoration for the shack. The certificate also notes that I was a first time entrant to the QSO party.
Thanksgiving (US) is coming up in a few weeks and we all know what that means (besides stuffing ourselves with turkey).
It’s the weekend for the 3rd annual Worked All Twitter!
Take a break from the food during the week(end) of Thanksgiving (Nov 27-Dec 1) to get on the radio and work all your ham friends on Twitter. Get those last few QSOs you need for WAS. Take a break from the lightning exchanges during the fall ham radio contest season for some nice leisurely rag chewing over the air. Share those Thanksgiving dinner stories/disasters/successes instead of the regular OM stories we always hear on the air.
As usual, all bands and all modes. For maximum participation, make use of the parts of the HF bands that are available to the most people.
Spot yourself on Twitter using the #WATwitter and #hamradio hashtags.
Have fun, get on the air and make those contacts!
Saturday I played in the SC QSO party for a few hours. Started in the early afternoon and spent some time tuning around 10m, 15m and 20m listening for activity, but like the TN QSO party a couple weeks ago, the only place I was hearing any SC activity was on 40m.
Dropped down to 40m and started hearing a few stations here and there that I managed to get. Later on in the evening things started picking up and I was hearing a lot more SC stations. This QSO party marks the first time I found a frequency and called out CQ, rather than operating in seek and pounce mode (which I also did). Sitting on a frequency and calling out is a bit of a different experience. I didn’t get any pileups or anything, but did end up making 16 contacts over the course of an hour or so. It was pretty fun.
Ended up the day with 30 contacts in the log and got 11 SC counties, including AA4XX in 3 counties.
Had lots of fun playing radio over the weekend. Definitely need a more comfortable chair for the shack.