As I was uploading my contacts for the 2010 IOTA contest I noticed that LoTW was showing exactly 10,000 confirmed QSLs so I snagged a picture of it.
From the numbers it looks like I’m running at an overall QSL rate of 52.5% on Logbook of The World. Thanks for all the contacts!
73,
K2DSL
I didn’t realize it but 2 weeks ago I celebrated by 2nd full year on HF. I documented my first year in amateur radio on HF in a series of posts:
K2DSL’s first year on HF – Part 1
K2DSL’s first year on HF – Part 2
K2DSL’s first year on HF – Part 3
K2DSL’s first year on HF – Part 4
K2DSL’s first year on HF – Part 5
I don’t think I’ll be as verbose this year but here are some of the more interesting stats covering my 2 years in ham radio…
I logged a total of 17,956 contacts in 2 years with 7,500 being logged in the first year which means in year 2 I logged a whopping 10,456 contacts!
The top stations I have logged over 2 years are N2BJ with 67 contacts, WA5ZUP with 65 contacts and AB4GG with 57 contacts. I can usually count on those 3 fine folks for at least one contact in any contest and usually more then one.
I show a total of 169 different logged DXCCs which is 24 more then last year. I looks like I have 159 of those DXCCs confirmed. I looked at the top DXCCs based on the number of logged contacts and the top 6 match the top 6 from last year – US, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain & then European Russia.
Looking at the contacts by band over the course of 2 years, 20m is still the most logged with almost 8900 contacts followed by 40m with 4249 & 80m with 3475. 10m jumped from 29 in the 1st year to 162 now. I didn’t have any 6m or 2m contacts logged in the 1st year and now I have 78 contacts on 6m and 69 contacts on 2m with most of those during some VHF contests.
Looking at the contacts by mode, RTTY is still the top for me with 9106 contacts logged. SSB is 2nd with a total of 5213 contacts and then CW in 3rd with 3518.
I continue to send out more QSL cards then I get back, but they are starting to come in a bit more now that I’m hitting 2 years and the bureau usually takes at least that long. In paper QSLs, I’m not up to 538 received which is a bit better then a 1/3rd of the 1433 sent out. For LoTW, all contacts are uploaded and I currently show 9510 QSLed. That’s pretty good at 53% confirmed. A lot has to do with a lot of RTTY contest contacts and they are the best at confirming via LoTW. eQSL shows I have 4854 confirmed which is 27%.
I continue to enjoy so many different aspects of the hobby, but contesting, and specifically RTTY contesting, is what I currently can’t get enough of. I’ve done pretty well too for a single station running 100w and nothing more then a G5RV wire antenna. In the 2010 ARRL RTTY Round Up I finished first in the Hudson Division LP category winning my first plaque. In this months CQ magazine I see in the 2009 CQ WPX RTTY contest I ended up 9th overall in the entire US in the LP class. I can’t wait for the next contest and for my next year on HF.
73 and good DX!
K2DSL
This is an in-between weekend – after the VHF contest and before Field Day next weekend. I got on the radio various times this past weekend and made a few contacts. On Saturday I was able to log my first contact with a station in Mongolia participating in the All Asia CW contest. There was a lot of QRM but I am sure he was coming back to me. I also worked a Japan station and a couple of Asiatic Russia stations participating in the Asia contest. There was also an extremely strong station in Turkey that I previously worked on RTTY that I worked on CW. There were 2 IOTA DXpeditions that I was able to work in Scotland and Greece. I’m not a big IOTA chaser but might as well log them.
Also on Sat & Sun I worked a few 6m stations though nothing out of the US. I have a fellow ham nearby that has a nice 6m beam and amp and it’s interesting for me to just listen to him work 6m stations when the band is open. I think it is one of his favorite bands to be on. He was working some stations out west in openings though I either wasn’t on the band when they were around or I can’t hear them, which isn’t unusually when I’m just on a G5RV wire antenna.
I also found out from my daughter that her boyfriends dad is a ham. I’ve only met him once but next time I see him we’ll have something to chat about.
73,
K2DSL
I had off from work yesterday and spent a little time on the radio starting in the late afternoon. One of the hardest areas for me to make a contact with is with Asia and the Middle East. Yesterday I was able to log 2 Middle East countries for the first time. I also worked some other DX as well.
E4X is the call for a DXpedition to Palestine. They have been on the air for a few days but if I heard them at all, they were weak and the pileups were big. Yesterday I just tuned to various bands/modes as they were spotted and listened until I was able to hear them just enough to make out my call if they came back. 17m SSB seemed like a good shot yesterday but they never heard me before I couldn’t hear them any longer. On 20m CW I spent a lot of time sending my call and when I heard DSL come back over the noise at 2137z, I sent my call again and heard K2DSL completely so I returned with TU 5NN K2DSL and heard TU back. They weren’t strong and there is a lot of QRM from stations not transmitting up the band as they should so I couldn’t be sure until I woke up this morning and checked the online logs and sure enough K2DSL is shown as working them on 20m CW. Woohoo!!! I will try and work them on phone and RTTY too if I can over this weekend as they start to wrap things up.
A couple hours later I saw a spot for JY4CI in Jordon on RTTY and I could hear him ok so I started to send out my call. He had a pileup as well and he was working stations but I could hear him well enough on 20m. After a short while I saw K2DSL come across the screen so I sent back his report and saw his TU which also contained K2DSL. I emailed him at his QRZ.com address to make sure before I sent so $ to him for a QSL card and short time later he confirmed via email I was in his log and that he was running 35w. I’ll be sending off a QSL card to Rafiq for sure!
Besides these 2 new DXCCs I worked VP8LP in the Falkland Islands on 17m SSB and FO8RZ in French Polynesia in the South Pacific on 12m RTTY. I caught FO8RZ just before he said he was QSYing to 17m so I flipped to 17m, found him and was his first contact after he switched bands.
Definitely a good DX Day!
K2DSL
Friday night I got on at the start and conditions were pretty lousy. I decided to try Fldigi along with DM780 to help in decoding the incoming morse code. I ended up staying with DM780 since it seemed to do a little better job. I really would like Fldigi to work because it is better integrated with N1MM and would allow a bit more point/click like in a RTTY contest using MMTTY. I put in a little time before picking up one daughter from her friends house and ended with 36 Q’s on Friday. I needed to head to bed a bit early because we had our clubs spring hamfest the next morning and it starts early.
Saturday morning I woke up before 6, got ready and then zipped off to our clubs hamfest which is pretty popular in the area. As for me, no real ham radio purchases but I did pick up some Rescue Tape which seems pretty cool. I also grabbed some screw on caps for unused PL-239 connectors on my rig to keep them covered. I was at the hamfest until about 2pm when I got back on the radio and worked stations for a few hours. Conditions were still not good and when I called it quits on Sat evening I was at 150 Q’s.
Sunday morning I got back on the radio and it seemed conditions might have been a bit better but not too much. I ended up spending a bit more time hunting and pecking for contacts on 15m and 10m then just knocking out more 20m contacts. I had made some 10m contacts on Saturday but there was more 10m activity on Sunday. I worked 38 contacts on 10m which isn’t easy for me on my G5RV. I ended with 4 10m contacts to Brazil, 1 to Columbia, Martinique & Puerto Rico and 31 in the US. From NJ I had the most 10m contacts with FL at 12, 4 with TN, 3 with AL, 2 with CA & 1 with AR, GA, IL, MN, NJ, OK, SC, TX & WI. I already have some new states on 10m confirmed via LoTW since the contest ended. Any time I can hear a 10m station they can hear me so I must be stronger on TX then they are on RX.
We had a BBQ to go to Sunday afternoon so before 3pm (1900z) I finished things up and that was the end of the contest for me. I ended up with 255 total Q’s with the breakdown as follows:
Band QSOs Pts WPX 3.5 7 13 5 7 40 157 31 14 116 192 83 21 54 85 25 28 38 50 14 Total 255 497 158 Score : 78,526
73 & good DX,
K2DSL
In the mail today from the NJDXA which handles the incoming 2 call area was a large Priority Mail envelope stuffed with 67 QSL cards. It might not be as exciting as finding out you won the lottery but it sure beats having bills in the mail!
On initial inspection I noticed 1 returned card with an Iceland operator via a LX manager indicating he wasn’t a member of the LX bureau. I looked online and the QSL info which is now over a year later then when I sent it indicates to send direct only. I also had two cards that are for other 2 call area operators that I’ll hand back to one of the guys in my club that handles cards and he’ll get them directed to the proper ham radio operator.
Looks like the QSL cards received today provided me with my first QSL confirmations for Chile, Angola & Namibia. Chile is surprising but I guess none of the hams from Chile are using LoTW and it has taken this long to receive a QSL card via the bureau. I’ve only had 1 contact with a amateur station in Angola via D2NX and it is now confirmed. There were a bunch of really nice looking QSL cards in the batch that were great to look at. If the report is correct I’m up to 159 confirmed DXCCs. This leaves just 6 DXCCs i have worked that I don’t yet have any QSL for.
73 & good DX!
K2DSL
I had emailed back and forth with KJ6AMF, a ham radio operator from California, where Ray was looking to log a NJ contact on PSK-31. As I was about to head off the computer for the evening I got another email from him indicating he was on the radio if I was around and able to make a contact. I fired things up and we had an easy contact on 20m. After we finished the QSO, across the screen comes “K2DSL Dave de WD5EAE WD5EAE”. I immediately recognized the call as Stephen is the developer of Ham Radio Deluxe Utilities (HRDU) and we have exchanged emails many times. HRDU is an invaluable tool if someone uses HRD for logging.
Stephen had a great signal from Texas and we chatted for a few minutes. He indicated he hasn’t been on the radio since November so I can’t imagine a bigger coincidence then him being on for the first time after half a year off and me being on PSK-31 for the first time in a long time AND him seeing & recognizing my call on the waterfall. I’m sure glad it happened. Thanks to KJ6AMF for needing NJ and contacting me. Both KJ6AMF and WD5EAE are already confirmed on LoTW within a couple mins of both QSOs, thanks to HRDU of course!
I also have 2 new DXCC’s confirmed the past 2 days. The first was on LoTW by 9K2MU in Kuwait. I had made a SSB contact with Murtada back on April 11th and now have it confirmed. I also received a direct QSL card from YB0PAH in Indonesia for our RTTY contact during the BARTG Contest back in March. That brings my DXCC count to 157.
73,
K2DSL
I noticed that today, via LoTW, my only 2 contacts with Andorra were confirmed. Both contacts were made with C37URE during the CQ WW RTTY contest in Sept 2009. The ham radio RTTY contacts were made on 20m and 40m. I sent off for a QSL card but it’s nice to have this one confirmed via any QSL method.
This new one puts me at 155 DXCCs confirmed.
73,
K2DSL
A25NW was a DXpedition to Botswana South Africa in Nov 2009. I had 2 CW contacts with them on 20m with the 2nd being during the CQ WW contest a couple days after my initial contact with them. Yesterday I received a nice QSL card in the mail.
Thanks for the contact and a new DXCC for me to add to the list.
73,
K2DSL
I was casually making contacts in the Georgia QSO Party while watching The Masters on TV (congratulations Phil or a 3rd green jacket!). I switched to 20m to see if any GA stations were there and on the 20m frequency I switched to was 9K2MU booming in and making contacts. After a few attempts he picked me out of the pack and gave me a 57 report. He asked my name and location and indicated he uploads all contacts to LoTW so no need to send a paper QSL card.
A nice treat on a Sunday afternoon! Thanks for the new one Murtada!
73 and good DX,
K2DSL