... when you don't get to play on the radio?

There is light shining at the end of the tunnel. I've taken a major hurdle this week with an important project at school. For those who don't know: I'm a teacher. The project carried along a bit of stress and some workload. Now on to another major project and rounding up the school year. It's safe to say that after the first week of June, my scholar year is finished and I can pick up ham radio to the full extent. If all goes as planned, my new K3 transceiver will arrive, I've got a new band to explore (50 MHz) and a lot of free time. I can't wait to invade 30m again at night or early in the morning to work some DX. There are some ham related projects taking shape in the back of my mind. One of them is a 6m antenna. Anyone got me a clue? I figured a small 3 element yagi would be nice to start with? I won't put it on the tower though - that is strictly HF territory.

Talk about shining light: it seems like summer outside. We just mowed the lawn for the third time this year. I cleaned the windows and raised a window shield from our biggest window. We keep that down during winter to save on the heating. That means a lot more sunshine in the living room now too. Working on my laptop in the morning will now be much harder due to the light shining. But this sunny weather makes me a happy camper. Next step: get out the garden furniture and the BBQ!

You can tell I'm less active: the flow of direct QSL has stopped. Two certificates came in this week though. I don't have a scanner to digitize them. I'll do that next time I visit my parents. Daddy Boy has got one. Always nice to show off  HI. Next weekend is a 4 day's holiday here. Denis K7GK asked me to join the 7th call district QSO Party (7QP). I just might raise the tower and play on the radio. The time has come to make some CW QSOs. And W7 is DX. It's also NEQP. I like working some QSO Parties. It's a relaxing way to contest without actually being in a contest.

Noticable facts this week:

• Lots of CQ-Contest mails to delete regarding Skimmer. I think that the discussion is useless. If the technology is wide spread and easy accessible for the crowd, it will be used. Is is 'assisted'? I don't know but frankly I don't care. I'll copy my CW by ear which is exactly what makes me tick. RTTY is fun for about one hour. After that I'm bored. If CW contesting would turn into a point-and-click event: no thanks! But a nice CW contest? I'm game!
• L.B. Cebik passed away. Sad to hear that. His site is the electronic equivalent of ON4UN's big Low Band book. Most people feared the site would disappear and started archiving it:

antenneX and its associated companies hosted and sponsored this website for LB for most of those 11 years and it is our desire to continue to make this site freely available for your legitimate use and online reference. The site is designed for online reading only and attempts to mass download the site will abort. A stampede to mass download the entire site has caused the need for controlled access. Plans were already in the works to shift to a login system before LB ascended. The mass downloading accelerated the schedule for this change.

All for now. More later. 73 / take care.

Actually I'm NOT going to PJ2. Last Saturday I woke up and read my emails over breakfast. That's the modern version of browsing the morning newspaper over a cup of coffee. There was this posting on CQ-Contest in which Geoff W0CG of PJ2T fame offered the super duper contest station on Curacao for rent during the IARU contest. My thinking jumped into overdrive. I could satisfy three needs at once:

• I'm badly needing some "operational innovation". I'm bored with current conditions on HF and operating one of my favorite contests from a DX location and piloting a super station could / should be a welcome distraction from working Russia on 20m which contesting has become basically due to the lack of propagation.
• The XYL really wants to go on a holiday. Unfortunately for her I'm not much of a globetrotter (never been outside of EU). Combining nice WX, a tad of beach and an exotic location with some nice radio activity would be good. Take a look at some of the pictures on http://www.pj2t.org, especially the scenes with the terrace and the ocean view.
• Doing a SOAB effort with high rates for the whole duration of the contest is high on my wish list. It can't be done with my setup from ON and certainly NOT with SFI below 70. Powerhouse PJ2T might be it.

I immediately got the proverbial cold shower when I looked up what a flight from ON to PJ2 would cost. For two adults in plain holiday season, the price is prohibitive. Especially since we have some major plans for renovations around the house this and next summer. My mood? *insert foul language here*

Exit radio traveling plans. At least for now. A couple of weeks ago KY1V launched a similar offer (link) that got me drooling / dreaming. That got even worse when Scott W4PA announced he jumped on the case (link). Just like that. Basically I was trying to accomplish the same "accidental arrangement" with PJ2. It wasn't meant to be - at least not for now. IARU 2008 will be done from "ye olde home QTH". Let's hope for sunspots and a surprising 10m band just like last year. I had a ball then so why not again this year?

...makes Jack a dull boy. And since I've reached an unacceptable level of dullness it's time for a U-turn. ON4BHQ (hi there Wim!) is working way more CW DX than I am lately and he leaves no opportunity unused to rub it on my nose. Hence no work this weekend and only play. I chased the YK9G expedition. Easy from here so I logged them on 15, 17, 20 and of course 30m. And yesterday I even worked an all time new one: 9Q1EK on 12m CW. Sweet.

While typing this I'm CQing away on 20m for JIDX CW. It's an utterly useless endeavor. There is no propagation and probably not much participation as a result. Yet again I can't help to reminense over all this stuff in 2001-2002 when the solar flux was high and I didn't have antennas but still worked the world on 20.

I planned to write something about my friend K3WWP's CQ QRP streak of 5000 days in a row with one CW QRP QSO a day. That's over 13 years with at least one CW QSO every single day with 5W and simple wire antennas. Hats off for K3WWP! W2LJ already wrote what I had in mind so I'll just refer to W2LJ's blog.

All for now, catch y'all later!

The claimed scores for both UBA SSB and CW contests 2008 are out. I seem to be the winner in both contests for the 12h HP class. That means, just like last year, I can put up another two plaques on the wall. Am I happy? Yes. But the question is: what is the real value of this victory? In the SSB leg there are only four (4) submitted logs in the 12h HP category. I take the lead with 90k claimed, the runner up claims less than 23k. Hardly a battle fought. But it's even worse in the CW part where I am the only one to have submitted in the 12h HP class. Showing up and submitting a log would do to get a plaque. My ego lets y'all know that my claimed 258k tops the 247k claimed by the winner in the 24h HP class. More points in half the time...

I am very happy with these plaques. I will never win a plaque in a DX contest like WW, WPX or ARRL. I don't have the station nor the location to pull that off. Paper certificates '1st ON' à gogo but a real wooden plaque or a trophy? No. So it seems I need to decorate the shack by focusing on the UBA DX contests. Right now that is fairly easy as you can read in the paragraph above. I'm aching for some competition. But I tell you: the day a competitor steps up and snatches the wood before my eyes, I will be very disappointed. So I'll be happy and proud to nail these two plaques to the wall. I think the UBA DX contests will be more fun when the solar cycle picks up and there will be better propagation. Maybe I should try set some records then?   HI

To close this entry: there seems to be a lot of google'ing on the GU74b tube. My posting on that topic (March 17) seems to be clicked a lot. So I guess the world is really looking for some spare GU74b tubes.

My Easter holiday break ends today. I spent a lot of time looking up things and preparing my courses so it was an all time low for ham radio @ ON5ZO. I don't think I missed much. Worked 9X and 5T and a little bit WPX SSB. Now it's the final stretch to the finish. A good 2 months and the QRL dust will settle. By then my K3 will hopefully arrive and a new era will begin...