49 Contacts, 3 Continents (Africa!), Greatest Distance: RK4FF at 5523.1 miles.
Saturday was the Straight Key Century Club "Weekend Sprint." A sprint is an operating event where you make as many contacts as possible within the alotted time. Points are tallied and praise is showered upon the top ops. It's a fun way to spend some time on the air, and if nothing else, it's a good excuse to log some "Q's." I knocked out several over the course of the day.
I also got a confirmed QSO with a station in Africa, so I have now worked all continents except Antarctica.
Sunday saw me rushing home from church to change my clothes and run out into the feels-like-99 to try out the Cricket 40. I got an end-fed wire up in a tree and stretched out the 66 feet to a place where I could sit and play radio...and the sun burped, throwing a wet blanket on all the HF bands for me. Monday wasn't much different. Another flare errupted and sent a radio blackout towards earth. Some days are like that. Interestingly, while most bands went quiet, 10 meters was pretty workable during Monday, at least domestically.
Tuesday I worked W1AW, the club station at the American Radio Relay League HQ in Newington, CT. The ARRL is the NRA of Ham Radio, naggin members for cash, lobbying congress and the FCC, compromising on things we don't thing should be compromised...lol.
The week has seen a lot of solar shenanigans. How does the sun affect radio ops? Click here. Basically, Sun Spots are good for radio. Solar Flares are bad. Flares release magnetic storms which are cool for the Aurora Borealis, but squelch radio. We've had a few "radio blackouts" this week. The bright spots on this picture of the sun show the flares erupting. Looks cool. Sounds terrible on radio. lol.
Built this filter for taking KFAB down a peg on my Delta Loop. They are a 50KW Unrestricted Clear Channel station with their antenna site just 6 miles away. That put a damper on my Delta! I would hear their signal on pretty much every HF band. Not anymore! Here's a video of it working:
And wrapped up the week with a nice long rag-chew on CW with a guy who turned out to be a Navy vet who was an officer on Sturgeon class nuclear subs. He'd served for 27 years and retired to a horse farm in Western North Carolina. We had a fun time reminiscing about various things we had in common.
Thanks for reading! If we QSO'd, thanks! If we didn't, I hope we do soon.
73!
"This week [...]" is a summary of Radio-related activity from Saturday through Friday.
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