That's Just Ridiculous

The Amsterdam Island DXpedition is out of the gate, and the results on the bandscope last night made me sick to my stomach.  Almost 20 kHz choked with callers.  Disgusting.

Gee, That Was a Lot of Fun!

If anyone had told me a week ago I could have this much fun running QRP from Alaska, I'd have said they were nuts.  I started the ARRL 10 meter contest at 5 watts just to test the waters, thinking I would soon grow frustrated and go with a LP entry. 

Encouraged by the initial results, I stuck it out at QRP.  NL7YL's CW QRP AK record has stood since 1991, and I crushed it.  Another KL QRP might beat me this year, but the basic score was very gratifying. I could work just about everyone I could hear.  I even had some brief runs.  Conditions were far from spectacular, especially lacking EU.  

Laboring under some disadvantage with tri-banders no longer horizontal after a month of back-to-back ice and wind storms, it's good to know the station still has some competitive standing.  The QSO count exceeds my lifetime QRP achievement by two orders of magnitude.  I can't complain about that.

Call: KL2R
Operator(s): N1TX
Station: KL2R

Class: SO CW QRP
QTH: KL7
Operating Time (hrs): 10.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  333    68
  SSB:           
-------------------
Total:  333    68  Total Score = 90,576

A New Slant on Radio

The weather has been wild for the past month or so.  Nov 13-14 brought freezing rain at +15F followed by heavy snow, more freezing rain, and then wind.  It was fierce, frightening wind, which toppled huge spruce trees, leaving thousands of people in the area without power for days.  KL2R didn't have juice for nearly five days.  As the temperatures plummeted to 0F and below, it became a full-time job just to keep warm.

Most of the antennas survived.  The only true casualty was the 80m delta loop.  The tri-banders at 55 and 75 feet were tilted 45+ degrees, but they still work.  In fact, a subsequent wind storm several days ago pushed the higher one aimed at Europe to vertical polarization.  Repairs will have to wait until warmer weather. Nevertheless, their survival of estimated 70 mph winds and ice with no damage is a real testament to the Force12 engineering behind the C3s.

I had a feeling the ravens flying past were mocking me.

ARRL Sweepstakes CW 2013

KL2R was on the air in a good form for Sweeps CW as SOHP UNLIMITED for about 17 hours during the weekend.

 BAND   QSO DUP SECT  POINTS 

-----------------------------

  160     0   0    0       0 

   80     6   0    0      12 

   40    89   0    3     178 

   20   128   1   12     256 

   15   201   2   10     402 

   10   281   1   58     562 

-----------------------------

TOTAL   705   4   83    1410 

=============================

    TOTAL SCORE : 117 030

Operators       : N1TX

I resolved to work no more than 12 hours, but the conditions were just too good to pass up. 10m was phenomenal at the start, and you can see it was a real money band. I had worked 70-odd sections early on, many of them usually difficult, and I decided to go for a CLEAN SWEEP. Achieved with hours to go thanks to N7IV in ND. I thought I would NEVER get a QC, but I camped on VE2AWR for over an hour before conditions permitted. The 80m dipole project didn't make it up the tower, but it will be ready for phone SS.

I nearly forgot to mention one guy -- a willy billy five? -- who called me in the heat of 110+ per hour and then sent me 5NN signal report. WTF?!? I then asked him for his details, and he sent me his name was Tom and his QTH was East BF (or whatever). One of the guys patiently waiting in the pileup sent HI HI. Ugh!!! NOT IN LOG YOU RAT BASTARD QRZ?

Keep Looking Up

Today KL1AZ mustered me and quite a few other folks to erect his tilt-tower. Using a small John Deere tractor as well as some good block and tackle, AL7F, N1TX, WL7GK, KL1NU, KL7EDK, KL3SP, WL7TV, KL3RP, and KL1SG managed to do it with ease. It was an incredibly warm fall day (55F). This evening, the sun was shining on the KL2R tower during JARTS.

Let the Fun Begin Again!

Contest         : CQ World Wide DX Contest

Callsign        : KL2R

Mode            : RTTY

Category        : Multi-2 (M2)

Operators       : N1TX, KL1JP, AL7ID

Band(s)         : All bands (AB)

Class           : High Power (HP)

Zone/State/...  : 01

Locator         : BP64KU

Operating time  : 25h53

 BAND   QSO  CQ DXC DUP S/P  POINTS   AVG 

------------------------------------------

   80     7   3   3   0   5      15  2.14 

   40    76  12  18   2  28     174  2.29 

   20   592  23  63   6  38    1701  2.87 

   15   531  29  72   3  48    1376  2.59 

   10    60  14  16   1  20     143  2.38 

------------------------------------------

TOTAL  1266  81 172  12 139    3409  2.69 

==========================================

         TOTAL SCORE : 1 336 328

This was the first trial run of our full-up M2 configuration.  Although N1TX lost half Friday night troubleshooting a network problem with one of the PCs, and we only had two ops here briefly on Saturday, it was a resounding success. Conditions were phenomenal, and all systems were stable throughout.  Loads of fun.  Welcome to new op John AL7ID!

Whispering on WARC

Of late I have been focusing a bit on working Europe on the WARC bands to close the gap on Worked All Europe first class award (WAE I).  I have also boosted the numbers slightly on 40m. JT65 has made it possible to work pretty reliably into EU most days and evenings on 30 or 17. While experimenting with WSJT-X 1.1 this weekend, I finally saw Cliff VK2CCJ working KH6OO on JT9 in the 12m band.  We eventually connected with this exciting new mode.