I had great plans to participate in this contest and so practice my CW skills. But other chores came up and my time was consumed faster as I hoped for. I could only be on air on Sunday evening for about 2 hours. In the end I made 51 QSOs. I've only been active on 10, 15 and 20m. Interesting DX: (20m) ZM1A New Zealand, B1Z China, (15m) NF6A CA USA, 9M2J West Malaysia, ZD7BG St.Helena, YV4ABR Venezuela, (10m) CX2BR Uruquay, 5Z4A Kenya, ZD7BG St.Helena. Always nice to work DX in such a short timespan. I also met fellow blogger VE3VN Ron with strong signals on 15m. I had problems to copy numbers at high speed especially the long ones like D4DX keyed. I probably have a few numbers copied wrong. I doubt anyone cares...
At least I was active with CW and did it without the use of decoding software like I used in previous years. A huge step forward. I wish I was a bit faster in decoding. 20-25 Wpm is managable, but at higher speeds I got difficulties to copy.
Unfortunately I'm not able do make a nice overview map from my contacts anymore. DL4MFM's simple QSO analyzer map tool is off line because of higher costs of Google maps APIs. According to his site it will be back online this month. I've been searching for another QSO to map possebility. The only alternative is QSOmaps.com. This is not for free and too expensive for me as a hobbyist. There are other sites and software that can do this. Like the old V4 version of HRD and K2DSL QSO mapper. But these need coordinates which are not always available.
(Last update 27-May-2025)
3 comments:
Hello Bas,
Although it is probably not what you planned, you did what you could. And remember, just look what you can do now and the progress you made! You did a great job not using any decoders. That is really great.
Keep up the good work and keep us posted 😃
Vy73, Vin PE2V
Good morning Bas you have made huge strides forward with CW and copying numbers at 20-25 is great. As you said taking part in the contests is always good and helps you move upward. I hope DL4MFM get the logger map program up and running soon. I too read his site and he did say it would be more simple when it is up and running. I was not able to take part in this contest as Julie and I headed back to Ontario to see family for a few weeks.
73
Mike
VE9KK
@Vincent and @Mike, tnx both for the comments. It is very encouraging when people say I have to go on with CW and I'm on the right path. If only things went a bit faster... 73, Bas
Post a Comment