I finally processed 7 months of incoming QSL cards for OQ5M. That's 1014 QSOs confirmed, good for about 750 cards sent via globalQSL. So my card is finally heading your way! Glad I don't need to print labels and stick 'm. That's the good news. The bad news is: I still have almost as many cards to process for my other calls (OO5ZO / ON5ZO). My current stock still counts a considerable pile of QSL cards so I'll be printing labels until they run out. I hope to get that job done before the end of the year...

On my daily scan of the latest eHam reviews I saw a review for two NY guys (W2RE + WW2DX) owning a tower works company. There's a video on the website (direct link) where W2RE shows off his three towers with multiple stacks. Very nice stuff that makes guys like me (and probably you too) drool. What struck me is that when W2RE shows his 10m stack he says "I can't wait for ten meter to open up again".

That's an observation I come across a lot these days. I read a lot of amateur radio pulp literature every day (blogs, 3830 comments, reflectors) and I think we're all monitoring the SFI closely to see it climbing out of the "Propagational Valley of Death". Read last week's WAE SSB comments on 3830 or look at the 15m numbers of the claimed scores... K3WWP even has a poll going: "So email me your guess as to what date you think I'll post a SF number of 70 or above again. No prizes other than if you win, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you guessed better than everyone else.".

My on air activities are still very limited. I am waiting for better propagation too. Contesting on 28MHz. Working DX on 12m. I never had the chance to do that from here with reasonable antennas. Although I must admit that it's starting to itch again. Any (CW) QSO is better than no QSO at all...

Last week the official results came out for the UBA DX CW contest 2008. Great: another win in the 12h HP class. To put things in perspective: mine was the only log submitted in this category. Nonetheless: I won both SSB and CW in 2007 and 2008. So 5 UBA plaques on the wall in total (2006 CW or so? I'm not in the shack right now).

I have a slightly higher score in 12h than the winner in the 24h class. I really hit it hard in CW. I tried that in the SSB part but that was a painfully slow contest. My CW score (about 850 QSO) was almost double than the SSB part (460 QSO). Same conditions, same setup, only 4 weeks apart. Main difference is the mode. The UBA CW contest coincides with CQ 160 SSB. The UBA SSB coincides with CQ 160 CW. Contesters prefer CW - period.

UBA CW in 2009 might be a problem. The usual date (last full W/E of February) is the same weekend as ARRL DX CW. That would kill UBA CW for sure. Since it's unlikely the ARRL will move dates and the fact that those weekends are jam packed with contests (2x ARRL, 2x CQ 160, 2x UBA, 2x REF etc), I pointed this out to the UBA HF Manager a few weeks ago. I hope the UBA will move their CW DX contest.

Last weekend was SSB fieldday. I set the alarm to wake me at 6AM on Sunday to visit locals ON4BHQ and ON4ALY. They did a joint effort with 2 of the local clubs. When I arrived on the scene (about 10km from here) another familiar face arrived (ON4AFU). They had a nice setup with two big construction cranes to support the antennas. One of the cranes was illuminated making it a visible landmark. Their /P shack was a touring car. It's for sale  HI.

Other than that again nothing to report.

It's been 10 days since my last posting but I got a sudden and severe case of flu. The little time I spent on the bands showed daily openings to KH6 in the morning on 20m. I worked a KH6 in RTTY for a new one in that mode. The opening at my sunrise on 30m to W6-land is still there. But the W6-guys weren't. I only worked 2 or 3 Californian stations on the mornings I was QRV. One afternoon I had a short run of JA on 20. And I made 200-and-a-few QSO's in the YO DX contest last weekend.

I'm half way through the box of QSL cards. That's over 600 QSO's. I don't count the cards but the logging program says I marked +600 contacts to QSL. When the other half is done, I can process the ADIF export and upload to the GlobalQSL system.

Yes, it's really calm here. I enjoyed the "It's not a job" part N0AX wrote in his biweekly ARRL newsletter (link). It might as well be written for my 2008 contesting...