RA3EG QSO

Tonight I found 20m open, and worked Vlad, RA3EG on CW. I was pleasantly surprised, upon looking up his callsign on QRZ, to learn that he's 16 years old! Maybe ham radio isn't just a bunch of old guys after all.

P.S. After I worked him, another Russian ham started calling CQ almost dead-beat with Vlad (obviously, was in the skip zone and couldn't hear him). I sent "QRL" after the CQ, and got a "SRI" back. Considerate ops are still on the air.

Ogasawara

Tonight I worked Steve Culp (K8QKY), an old W8UM friend operating as JD1BNQ from Ogasawara:



40 meter CW, 100 watts to my inverted vee at 60 feet. Thanks, Steve!

South Africa, 40m

I've been hearing ZS stations on 40m in (my) mid-evenings, and tonight, I finally worked ZS1JX. I could swear I've worked South Africa before, but I don't see it in the logbook, so maybe this was a new one!

ARRL DX CW 2010

I put in a limited effort in the ARRL DX CW Contest this weekend. I was planning on making it a "get to know 40m better" effort both Fri and Sat nights, but a flu bug made me go QRT after Fri night. I did manage to stick my groggy head in the shack on Sunday morning and catch a nice opening into Europe on 20m. 40m on Friday night was really great. I even worked a couple of EUs there, which was a nice surprise.

Final tally:

Call: KM6I
Operator(s): KM6I
Station: KM6I

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Mountain View, CA
Operating Time (hrs): 3.5

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
160:       
80:       
40:  57    30
20:  16    11
15:  4      4
10:       
-------------------
Total:  77    45  Total Score = 10,395

Rig: K3 + Hercules @ 400w on 40m, Inv vee @ 60 ft.

I'm now up to about 122 countries worked. Also, this puts me at an even 100 countries worked from California, which is pretty satisfying. Those evenings tuning around 40m for dxpeditions are paying off.

Heathkit SB-610 on "Bones"

I got a chuckle out of the latest episode of "Bones" when they pull a receiver out to monitor a pirate radio broadcast, and it's actually a Heathkit SB-610 monitor scope:

Now that's a transformer!

Yesterday I drove up to K9YC's QTH to pick up a used Ten Tec Hercules amplifier. When I got home, I opened up the power supply to see how much trouble it would be to rewire the AC primary, and my, that's a big transformer (pen sitting on top for size reference).


One thing I forgot to do is swap out the AC line fuses when I re-wired the amp to run on 120 volts. It *will* draw more than 10 amps when run full tilt, and the manual specs a 20 amp fuse when running off 120.

Having said that, I don't have sufficient power in the shack to run the amp right now. I had a talk with an electrician about running 220 out to the shack, and it doesn't look too hard - run some SO cable, which is rated to be out in the elements, bring it to a junction box, and install a wall outlet.

CQWW CW 2009

I spent a little over 8 hours playing in the CQWW CW contest this weekend:

Band    QSOs    Pts  Cty   ZN
1.8        1      2    1    1
3.5       16     41    7    9
7         81    209   31   19
14        13     35    5    6
21        20     53   11   10
28         2      6    1    1
Total    133    346   56   46
Score: 35,292

Most of my operating was overnight, when the kids were in bed, but I did get to spend some time on 20, 15, and 10 during the day. I got six new countries, which brings my DXCC worked count to 114:

Barbados: 8P5A and 8P9SS
East Malaysia: 9M8YY
Costa Rica: TI5N
Mongolia: JT1C
Nigaragua: YN2GY
Grenada: J39BS

And, although this wasn't a new country for me, as I have it confirmed from 1977, I worked Senegal, 6W1RW on 40m.

I'm just amazed at how many of the stations along the east coast of Europe and Africa were able to copy my 100 watts and a dipole (Madeira Island, Canary Islands, Senegal, Galapagos Islands, Portugal)

Here's the complete list of all the different countries (34 total):

Alaska
Argentina
Aruba
Asiatic Russia
Barbados
Belize
Bonaire, Curacao (Neth. Antilles)
Brazil
British Virgin Is.
Canada
Canary Is.
Chile
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominican Republic
East Malaysia
France
Galapagos Is.
Grenada
Hawaii
Jamaica
Japan
Madeira Is.
Martinique
Mexico
Mongolia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Portugal
Senegal
Turks & Caicos Is.
United States of America
Venezuela
Virgin Is.