Category Archives: Operating

XMT2XMT ?!?

Posted on by

XMT2XMT — What the heck is that?  Well, it is Christmas Tree to Christmas Tree QSOs, of course!

John, WA1ABI, Rich, KC1ARO, Bruce, NJ3K, and Bob, WB4SON, have all used their Christmas Tree Lights and QRP rigs, and had CW QSOs using the lights as an antenna.

John's KX3 Operating Postion

John’s matching network shown — adjusting it with his KX3

Lights used by John, WA1ABI

Lights used by John, WA1ABI

Bob, WB4SON's,

Bob, WB4SON’s, Christmas Tree Lights with remote tuner feedpoint circled

Rich's station for XMT2XMT QSOs

Rich’s station for XMT2XMT QSOs

Finally an audio recording of the QSO between John and Rich

Turnip Island is OFFICIAL – now CT036R

Posted on by

Congratulations to the Turnip IOTA Crew (Rich, KC1ARO and Paul, N1PSX) for officially activating Turnip Island.  The following is from Paul, N1PSX:

CT036R is official… 30 contacts yesterday including Aruba and Canada, mostly on 20m some on 40m… States ranging from California, South Dakota and Oklahoma to Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia, the Carolinas, and many others… River water was very low, complicating transport with rocky interjections, but we got out there with two radios, two antennas and lunch… The island was official by noonish…

Dyer Island Activation a Huge Success

Posted on by

An intrepid team consisting of John – K1JSM, Willy – W1LY, Pete – W1LAB, and Evan (Call sign pending) traveled to Dyer Island on July 25th.  Their adventure was quite successful, and fulfills the requirements for “Qualified” to make Dyer officially US Islands Award Program RI019S.

They worked a total of 259 stations, 50 of which were DX.  Congratulations guys, and thanks for making a lot of Island on the Air hunters happy!

Erecting the antenna

Erecting the antenna

Setup time

A view of the station from down the beach

New ham Evan at the mic.

New ham Evan at the mic.

BTW: Evan joined us at the GOTA station to see what ham radio was all about — he must have liked it as he just took and passed his General, missing the Extra by a couple of questions.  Nice to see him on the air so quickly.

John - K1JSM, making an IOTA Hunter happy

John – K1JSM, making an IOTA Hunter happy

Willy - W1LY doing what he does best.

Willy – W1LY doing what he does best.

Another view of the station

Another view of the station

Sadly, Pete – W1LAB isn’t in the photos above, as he was behind the lens.  Thanks for the nice pictures, and for the logistical support Pete!

Dave, W2DAN, Completes DXCC

Posted on by

Dave, W2DAN, who joined NCRC last year, has recently completed his Mixed DXCC Certificate.  DXCC is regarded as the ultimate award for DX-hunters, and has been issued for 77 years.  This is an excellent award to chase for those newly interested in HF.  Even though we are on the declining side of the solar cycle, DX will still be plentiful on 20 meters for almost all the day, and for several hours during the daylight on 15 and 10 meters.

DXCC is maintained by the ARRL, and it is well integrated into Logbook of the Year, the ARRL electronic log.  This makes it more easy than ever to get confirmation of contacts.

Congratulations to Dave on his accomplishment!

W2DAN DXCC