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Called the net as scheduled at 8PM, We had four of us aboard tonight: W5ODJ (John), KT9N (Chris), K3WD (Bill), and KE4S (Dave). The band was not real good, but workable – lightning storm about 15 miles away. We chatted about the weather, our keying, and my finally getting a wire antenna back in the air after a couple months of withdrawal symptoms from lack of CW. Closed the net at 8:34. Please join us next week at the regularly scheduled time. 73 de Dave KE4S.

It’s fun to search out each of the states on the various bands and modes and make contact with the volunteers that help everyone make contacts in the contest. The bands have been in reasonable shape this year if you can dodge the occasional storms that are drifting by.

This year I was able to get the “Clean Sweep” in the 13 Colonies event in the first three days of July. I’ll submit the following log and get a certificate later in the year:

Date     Time   Freq   Mode MyCall       RST  Call            RST

20190702 0215   7223.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2L              59
20190702 0217   7198.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2A              59
20190702 0220   7217.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2C              59
20190702 0221   7182.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2H              59
20190702 0502   7218.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2Z              59
20190702 1508   7210.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2J              59
20190703 0248   7185.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2M              59
20190703 2302   7225.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2B              59
20190703 2304   7180.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2E              59
20190703 2305   7193.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2K              59
20190703 2308   7245.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2G              59
20190703 2313  14247.0 USB  W5ODJ         59  K2D              59
20190704 0200   3865.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2F              59
20190704 0204   3986.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  WM3PEN           59
20190704 0206   7174.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  GB13COL          59
20190704 0211   3803.0 LSB  W5ODJ         59  K2I              59

I am also volunteering to operate the K2B station on 40 meters. So far I have managed to make 1,523 contacts working a few hours each day the last three days. It’s a crazy time on the receiving side of making contacts for the event. At times the QSO rate is well above 200 contacts per hour. I liken this to listening to air traffic control during a “push” in a busy time of the day. Its very busy and fun to work to manage all of the inputs from the day.

I’ve heard two familiar voices on the air while I’ve been operating. N0JSD and K8SYH reached out to me at some point. It’s nice hearing people we know.

Spotting is easy using DXSummit. Using this tool makes short work figuring out the band and mode for the operators in each state. At some point it’s just about getting into the fray and working the pileups which are very high at times.

Although I’ve done all of the above using SSB I hope to make some time outside of my K2B operations to use other modes to reach out to each state. In particular, I want to see how digital modes work this year.

73!

John
W5ODJ

Good Evening.

Net started at 20:35 and ended at 20:40. Check-ins are as follows.

WB9RXJ, Tom

WA4TXE, Dave

K4FW, Jim

N0JSD, John (NCS and NM)

Have a great week!

John, N0JSD

Field Day has been a journey! I made a lot of contacts, and some new skills. I operated from two places this year. The first location I operated from was the Clarke County Fairgrounds with SVARC (W4RKC). I operated CW and SSB with them. I recorded one of the contacts and it can be found here.

I also operated from the shack. I operated SSB and CW also here. Funny enough, John, W5ODJ is in my log. I also recorded a contact here, but I guess it did not record. I’ll just keep it here, because I do not know how to remove videos.