KC9QQ Station

If you drop by my site once in a while, I’m sure you have realized that my ham activity has been down the past several months.

Much of my time the past 9 months has been consumed by the construction of our observatory.  I have still been getting on the air to work an occasional DX station.  Last week I even managed to spend a few hours participating in the SSB National QSO Party to support my contest club, The Society of Midwest Contesters.  It was nice to be back on the air.  I have several hobbies, but I always gravitate back to Ham Radio.

I am starting to look forward to contest season.  I like to operate in the CQ WW (CW and SSB) I also enjoy operating in the ARRL Sweepstakes.  I suspect a Clean Sweep will not be in the cards this year since the 10 and 15 meter bands are have not been open much with the current drop in the Sunspot Cycle.  Hopefully, this will improve before the CQ WW contests.

I have also corrected a few problems with my station.  I had to replace one of my Ameritron Remote Antenna switches because a couple of the relays were not making good contact.  With the new switch installed everything is working well again.

I have also spent a few hours trying to catch up on responding to Bureau QSL cards I have received. I tend to put those off for rainy days in the shack!   I use GlobalQSL to send

DX Lab Logging Program

Bureau cards.  This makes the process pretty painless, once I get everything loaded into DX Lab.

DX Lab is a fantastic logging program.  It has helped me get a handle on my DXCC progress.  It also really simplifies the QSLing process.  It can handle paper cards, LoTW, eQSL and QSL services such as GlobalQSL.

I Hope to see everyone on during SS or CQWW this fall.

73,

Fred, KC9QQ