2015 13 Colonies Special Event Operations Summary

July 9, 2015 by fkemmerer

Summary of K2K NH 2015 Operations

Well, the 2015 Thirteen Colonies Special Event is history and K2K New Hampshire had another record year making 10,292 contacts during the event. We had a great team of operators this year – Layne AE1N, Ed K2TE, Dennis K1LGQ, Dave KM3T, Anita AB1QB and myself.

K2K NH Contact Details for 2015

We improved our contribution to the event in almost every area this year. We had a great balance between SSB and CW with some 28% of our contacts using CW! We also had a better balance of contacts outside NA – 15% being DX. Another interesting stat is that we worked about 1/2 of all of the Counties in the United States.

Interesting K2K NH Contacts in 2015

Operating in a major Special Event like 13 Colonies always produces some interesting contacts. We worked some pretty interesting DX stations including a QRP to QRP CW contact between New Hampshire and Japan. You can see from the concentration of our contacts around the world in the map above (click to enlarge).

2015 Thirteen Colonies QSL Cards

In addition to the really nice certificate for working the event, there is a very nice collection of QSL cards available for working each of the Thirteen Colonies and the two bonus stations. Many states, including New Hampshire, redesigned their QSL cards this year which adds to the fun of collecting them. You can find QSL information for the event here.

K2K New Hampshire QSL!

The QSLs are rolling in! We are using the DXLab Suite to automate the printing/QSL’ing for K2K New Hampshire this year and this allows us to keep up with the incoming QSL requests on a daily basis. We are also providing QSL’ing via LoTW, eQSL, and ClubLog.

I hope that everyone enjoyed the event! We certainly did. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone again next year!

– Fred, K2K/AB1OC

The 2015 13 Colonies Special Event Begins Today!

June 30, 2015 by fkemmerer

2015 K2K QSL Card

The 2015 Thirteen Colonies Special Event begins today! There are stations in each of the states that grew from the original Thirteen Colonies plus two bonus stations – WM3PEN in Philadelphia, PA and a GB13COL in the United Kingdom. We have redesigned the K2K NH QSL card this year as part of the 2015 event theme – Patriots and Founders of the Republic. we have a great team of operators for the New Hampshire Colony this year. You can check them out here. You can find where the event stations are operating by using the 13 Colonies Spotting cluster.

2015 13 Colonies Special Event Certificate

In addition to collecting the QSL cards from each of the state and bonus special event stations, there is a very nice certificate available for working one or more of the 13 Colonies stations. See the event website for details.

I hope that our readers will take some time and participate in the 13 Colonies Special Event this year. It’s great fun for all involved. Happy July 4th, United States of America!

– Fred, AB1OC

HF Mobile – Planning A U.S. County Hunter’s Tour

May 2, 2015 by fkemmerer

Planning a County Hunter’s Tour – 2015 Dayton, OH County Route

Anita (AB1QB) and I have been having a lot of fun with our Mobile HF station since we completed it several months back. We’ve been working quite a bit of DX, and we make contacts whenever we are doing errands or taking other trips. We are planning to attend the Hamvention in Dayton, OH again this year, and Anita suggested that we use the trip to activate some most wanted United States Counties along the way.

CQ US-CA Award

U.S. County Hunters are Amateur Radio operators seeking to work and confirm all 3,077 U.S. Counties. CQ Magazine has an awards program for U.S. County Hunters. Quite a few Amateur Radio operators work all U.S. Counties – some do this using multiple modes, and several have done it multiple times. To find out more about the US-CA Award, see the excellent County Hunter Dot Com site.

The Mobile Amateur Radio Awards Club (MARAC) is a support group for county hunting and mobile activities with members worldwide. This is a great organization to join if you are interested in County Hunting. MARAC provides additional awards center around County Hunting and mobile operating.

You can also view WY7LL’s video on YouTube for a nice introduction to County Hunting, MARAC, and the tools the group provides to help County Hunters.

Anita did the planning for our County Tour to Dayton, OH, and back. She began by looking at the County Hunter’s Web most wanted page to determine which counties lie along potential routes between our home and Dayton, OH were most needed by County Hunters. Based upon this information, she created the route shown at the beginning of this post. As you can see, we are taking different routes going to Dayton, OH and back to allow us to activate as many U.S. Counties as we can. We are also taking a few side trips off our route to activate a few of the most needed Counties near our route.

Date	States	Counties
SundayMay 10	MA	Middlesex, Worcester
	CT	Windham, Tolland, Hardford, Litchfield, New Haven, Fairfield
	NY	Putnam
	NJ	Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Somerset, Hunterdon, Warren
	PA	Northampton, Lehigh, Berks, Lebanon, Dauphin
MondayMay 11	PA	Northumberland, Montour, Union, Snyder
TuesdayMay 12	PA	Cumberland, Fulton, Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Indiana, Westmoreland, Fayette, Greene
	WV	Marshall, Wetzel, Tyler
	OH	Monroe, Washington
WednesdayMay 13	OH	Athens, Meiga, Gallia, Lawrence, Scioto, Pike, Ross, Greene, Montgomery
SundayMay 17	OH	Clark, Madison, Union, Delaware, Morrow, Richland, Ashland, Wayne, Medina, Summit, Cuyahoga, Lake, Ashtabula
	PA	Erie
	NY	Chautauqua, Erie, Niagara, Orleans, Monroe, Livingston, Ontario, Wayne, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaiga
MondayMay 18	NY	Oswego, Madison, Oneida, Herkimer, Montgomery, Fulton, Schenectady, Albany, Columbia
MondayMay 18	MA	Berkshire, Springfield, Hampshire, Worcester, Middlesex

Planned U.S. County Activation Schedule

The table above shows the 86 U.S. Counties that we plan to activate on our trip along with a rough idea of our schedule.

County Finder App

We found a useful iPhone App (County Finder) that will tell us what County we are in at a given time. The County Finder App uses the GPS in our iPhones to provide our current location in real-time.

HamClock Grid Square App

We will also be tracking and logging the current grid square that we are operating from. We will be using the HamClock App on our iPhones to determine our grid square of operation in real-time.

Mobile Logging

Anita and I will be taking turns operating and logging. We are planning to use a laptop computer running the DXLab Suite, and we will connect it directly to the IC-7000 Radio in our truck. This combination, plus the County Finder and HamClock Apps above, should allow us to log all of our contacts accurately. We will also be uploading contracts that we make to eQSL, LoTW, and ClubLog in real-time as we operate.

OpenAPRS App

We will also be running an APRS station so that folks can see where we are located in real-time and follow our progress. We are using the OpenAPRS iPhone App for this purpose. Our APRS callsign with be AB1QB-15, and you can see our position and progress on aprs.fi at any time by clicking here.

N1FD – Nashua Area Radio Club QSL

Anita and I are the Nashua Area Radio Club members, and we will be operating using the Club’s call sign, N1FD/M, during the trip. In addition to the electronic QSL’ing methods mentioned above, we will also be able to provide paper QSLs using the Club’s QSL card shown above. All paper QSLs we send will note the correct County and Grid Square from which the QSL’ed contact was made. See N1FD on QRZ.com for QSL information.

Band	County Hunters Net Frequency (SSB)
20m	14.336 & 14.271 MHz
40m	7.188 MHz
80m	3.901 MHz
17m	18.136 MHz
15m	21.336 MHz
12m	24.936 MHz
10m	28.336 MHz

County Hunters Net Frequencies

We plan to operate on or near the County Hunters Net Frequencies listed above. We will be QRV SSB on all of these bands, and we may also do a limited amount of operating on 160m SSB as well.

Our Mobile HF Station

We hope you will take some time to work us during our trip. If you do and you read our Blog, please let us know. If we do not have other stations calling, we’d like to take a little time to say “hello” and get to know some of our readers better. We will also be attending the County Hunter’s Forum on Friday, May 15th, at this year’s Dayton Hamvention. If you are there, please introduce yourself, and we’ll have an “eyeball QSO”.

– Fred, AB1OC

An Introduction To The DXLab Suite

December 11, 2014 by fkemmerer

Introduction To The DXLab Suite

I recently had the opportunity to do a presentation introducing the DXLab Software Suite for several local radio clubs. The idea was to provide a fairly comprehensive introduction to DXLab and to show how it can be used to make Amateur Radio operations, QSL’ing, and Award Management easier and more enjoyable. There are several good DXLab introductory presentations and web pages on the internet, so we decided to do ours with some “live” demos of DXLab in use within our station.

Why Computer Logging And DXLab?

Not all hams have converted to computer-based operation and logging, so we began by covering the motivation for and some of the advantages of Computer-based operation and logging.

DXLab Suite Components Overview

The next part of the presentation provided an overview of each of the components of the DXLab Suite and some of the basics of how they work together. This was covered via a set of “live” demonstrations using our station. You can view these demonstrations as videos via the following links:

Our station is a fairly complex one. It includes multi-operator capabilities from two operating positions with a total of four active radios and a microHAM station automation system. We also operate under a number of different callsigns from different computers. Finally, we do a fair amount of operating portable and from our mobile HF station. The DXLab Suite’s Launcher program, with its multiple workspace capabilities, easily handles the multiple configurations and equipment interfaces that are required for our station and operating style.

DXLab Use Scenarios

The next part of the presentation covered some common DXLab “use cases” that one would likely encounter when making contacts, QSL’ing, and managing progress toward operating awards.

Casual Contacts With DXLab

The first demonstration showed the use of DXLab to make casual or “rag chew” contacts. The emphasis here is on using the Suite to automate station configuration and logging tasks and to provide information to enhance the quality of your contacts. This demonstration covers the basics of how the components of the DXLab Suite work together to help you make and log a contact. You can view a video of this demo via the following link:

Using DXLab to make Casual Contacts and for “Rag Chewing”

Finding And Working DX With DXLab

The next demonstration showed the use of DXLab to find and work DX contacts. This demonstration uses more components of the DXLab Suite, including the spotting cluster and propagation prediction features. You can view a video of this demo via the following link:

Using DXLab to find and work DX contacts

Operating CW And Digital With DXLab

The next demo shows how DXLab is used to find and make a DX QSO using Digital Modes. A RTTY QSO is shown, including the WinWarbler component and multiple RTTY decoders (MMTTY and 2Tone). You can view a video of this demo via the following link:

Using DXLab to make Digital Mode Contacts

QSL’ing With DXLab

The next demo shows how to use DXLab to QSL and confirm contacts. The demo covers QSL’ing via the Logbook of the World (LoTW) and the eQSL online QSL services, the generation of paper QSLs, and the assistance that DXLab provides to determine QSL route information. You can view a video of this demo via the following link:

Using DXLab to QSL and Confirm Contacts

DXLab QSL Card Examples

DXLab can generate labels to apply to your pre-printed QSL cards, or it can be used to print QSL information directly on blank cards.

QSL Card Label Sheet Example

DXLab can print QSL cards and address labels on many types of standard label stock. An example of QSL card labels is shown above.

QSL Envelope Generated By DXLab

DXLab also generates outgoing and return envelopes for your paper QSLs. An example is shown above.

Operating Award Management With DXLab

The final demonstration shows how to use DXLab to track your progress toward and apply for operating awards. Some of the basics of QSL “aging” are discussed as well. You can view a video of this demo via the following link:

Using DXLab to Track and apply for operating awards

AB1OC Operating Awards In Our Shack

The SpotCollector component of the DXLab Suite is very useful as a cluster monitor. It can be configured to alert you via email or text to your mobile when something is on that you need. More information on how to use SpotCollector this way can be found here. The set of operating awards that DXLab knows about and the features that it provides to manage your progress toward earning and applying for awards are some of the strongest features of the suite. We have used DXLab to help us to earn many different operating awards.

Getting Started With DXLab

The final part of the presentation covers the configuration of the DXLab suite to get it to work with your station. Since every station is different, it’s best to consult the excellent DXLab online help for more information on how to configure the suite.

Useful Information And Links

The presentation includes links to useful tools and information to help you get the most from the DXLab suite. Dropbox is a useful file-sharing tool that can help you keep your logs and DXLab configurations in sync across multiple computers. This allows you to use DXLab to access your current logs or to operate your station from different computers.

I hope this overview of the DXLab suite will encourage our readers to try it. Anita (AB1QB) and I have successfully used the DXLab suite with our station for several years now. It does a great job automating many aspects of our Amateur Radio operations, QSL’ing, and award management. It easily handles the complexities of our multi-operator station, and it also handles logging and QSL’ing for multiple call signs that Anita and I operate under. We also use DXLab for our portable, Field Day, and mobile operations, and it handles all of these scenarios very well.

DXLab was created, enhanced, and maintained by David Bernstein, AA6YQ. He makes this excellent software suite available as freeware for the benefit of the Amateur Radio community. The DXLab suite is available for download here. Here, you can download a copy of our DXLab presentation (without the videos). The DXLab Yahoo! Group provides a good place to seek support and answers to questions about DXLab. I hope that our readers will give the DXLab suite a closer look. For those who already use DXLab, we hope you pick will up some new ideas from how Anita and I use the suite as part of your Amateur Radio operations.

– Fred, AB1OC

Operating Mobile HF – Working DX On The 80M Band

December 6, 2014 by fkemmerer

80M Mobile HF 80m DX – JA4FHE QSL

We have continued to gain experience with our recently completed mobile HF installation in our F-150 pickup truck. We have been working quite a bit of DX from our completed mobile station. Recently, I have been concentrating on the 80m band from the mobile station and have been pleasantly surprised with some great DX contacts on this band. The last two evenings around sunset here in New Hampshire, USA have been particularly good ones for 80m DX via Mobile HF. This evening, I heard Aki-San, JA4FHE, during a short errand just as we were on the grey line. I pulled over to the side of the road so that I could concentrate on the contact and turned on the amplifier (450W). After a few tries, Aki-San came back to me, and we completed the contact! This was my first contact to Japan ever on the 80m band and it was from the mobile!

JA4FHE’s Antennas

Aki-San has a capable antenna system including a 2-element yagi for the 80m band and his antenna system no doubt helped to make the contact possible. My received signal report was a 44 (he was 57 on my end) but the band was quiet and we were easily able to exchange names, signal reports and our callsigns.

OU5U’s View

I have also been working quite a bit of DX on the 80m band from our mobile station into Europe. I recently encountered a nice group of fellows working a team effort on 80m. I was on the light side of the afternoon grey line here in New Hampshire, USA when I worked Henry, OU5U in Denmark from the mobile. It was a bit early for 80m but our signal reports at that time were 55 both ways (I worked Henry again from the mobile later in the evening on 80m and our reports were 59 both ways the second time). I also worked John, G4PKP in the United Kingdom, and Ian, GM4UYN in Scotland during this session. Signal reports ranged from 57 to 59+ both ways.

80m Ground Plane Antenna

John, G4PKP was using an 80m ground plane antenna and he was putting a good signal into my mobile once we were on the dark side of the grey line.

Scorpion SA-680 Screwdriver Antenna

I am quite surprised at what is possible on 80m using a short antenna. Our screwdriver antenna (a Scorpion SA-680) is set up with a 4 ft rod and a cap hat. The 4 ft rod/cap hat combination is electrically longer than the usual 6 ft whip that one might use on a screwdriver antenna and therefore requires less of the screwdriver antenna’s base loading coil to tune the antenna to resonance. This significantly improves the overall efficiency of the combination.

Screwdriver Antenna Configured For 160m

We are moving into the best part of the year for operating on the low bands here in the Northeastern, USA. The days are short, and the 80m and 160m bands are quiet at night. I plan to concentrate on 160m next and see what sort of results we can achieve using our mobile station on the Top Band. I also hope to work more DX stations on 80m via Mobile HF.

– Fred, AB1OC

Operating Mobile HF – Working DX

November 20, 2014 by fkemmerer

ZS2XD Antennas In South Africa

It is still early days for operating mobile HF now that our setup is complete. I am continuing to make adjustments to improve performance. I had a chance to operate mobile from New Hampshire, USA this evening made some interesting contacts. I began by calling CQ on 20m SSB. I was operating with the amplifier on at about 325W output. I had a pileup almost immediately and worked about 20 contacts over about 40 minutes. Early on in the pileup, I had several stations in Europe call me. I also had ZS2XD, Gerry in South Africa answer my CQ! The signal reports for our QSO were 59 both ways and I was able to have a nice conversation with Gerry. We were both surprised that the contact was as solid as it was. Gerry has a good antenna system on his end and I was on the grey line which no doubt helped.

HL5FUA Antennas On Ullung Island, South Korea

Later in the evening I decided to tune across the 40m band where I encountered Choi, HL5FUA on Ullung Island (AS-045), South Korea calling CQ. He was working stations all around the world and had a decent pileup going. I set my drive to produce about 425W out and called him. To my surprise, he came right back on the first try! The signal reports for our QSO were 56 both ways. I believe that he was working the USA long path over Europe. Choi has a good directional antenna and was using some power. This combined with my being just on the dark side of the grey line certainly helped.

With these contacts, I have worked a total of 95 DXCCs mobile HF from our truck. I continue to be surprised at how well a properly installed mobile HF setup works. Our results are also a testament to the efficiency of the Scorpion SA-680 Screwdriver Antenna that we are using. I plan to concentrate on the low bands (80m and 160m) and see what sort of DX is possible on these bands.

– Fred (AB1OC)

Operating as W1AW/1 Part II – ARRL Centenial QSO Party

September 17, 2014 by fkemmerer

ARRL Centennial Celebration Logo

I was fortunate to operate as one of the W1AW portable stations as part of the ARRL Centennial QSO Party again this past week. The first time the state of New Hampshire was on, I was only able to devote a limited amount of time to this operation. This time, I was able to set more time aside and operate about 4 hours on each of 6 of the 8 days that W1AW/1 New Hampshire was on the air this past week. During this time, I was able to make 1,925 contacts averaging a little over 120 QSOs for each hour that I operated.

Mode/Band	QSOs	% Total
SSB Phone	2878	98%
RTTY	47	2%

160m	207	7%
80m	77	3%
40m	379	13%
20m	1103	38%
17m	799	27%
12m	79	3%
10m	281	10%
Total	2925	100%

The table above shows the final stats for my operations as W1AW/1 NH this past week. I mostly concentrated on the SSB Phone mode with a bit of RTTY operations on the last day. As one would expect, 20m and 40m were the most popular bands.

I encountered pileups on all of the days that I operated with the largest ones being on the first evening on 20m We had a significant solar CME event during the operation and subsequent Auroral activity which created some interesting band conditions. In particular, almost all of the 10m and 12m contacts were done on Thursday and Friday evenings using backscatter propagation. I was unable to hear much with my antennas pointed at the folks that I was trying to work on 10m and 12m so I tried pointing the beams directly south to test backscatter propagation. I also asked the folks in the pileup to do the same. This mode of operation resulted in about 350 QSOs on 10m and 12m! This was also great news for the close-in stations as this mode of propagation allowed folks in adjacent states to work New Hampshire on the higher bands.

It was great fun operating as W1AW/1 New Hampshire this past week. I wish there would be another chance to do this but we’ll have to wait awhile for the ARRL’s next big birthday to come around.

– Fred (AB1OC)

AB1OC’s 2014 CQ WPX SSB Contest Results – Another Station Goal Met

September 3, 2014 by fkemmerer

2014 CQ WPX SSB Results

The CQ World Wide WPX Contest is one of my favorites and 2014 was another improvement year for me. This was the first year where I was no longer in the “Rookie” (<3 years licensed) category. I received a nice surprise in my email today – a certificate with a first place finish in Area 1 in the USA, fifth place overall in North America and #20 in the World in the Single Op High Power All Bands category in this contest. This realizes another of our basic station design goals – “to finish in the top 20 in some major contests”.

Contest QSO Summary (from the Athena Tool)

There are several things that worked together to help me improve my score in this contest over the 2013 total of 1,883,448 points. First, thanks to work on operating technique, my accuracy improved considerably to a respectable overall error rate of 2.8% (this is more than a 2X improvement over 2013). Secondly, our work on station automation plus better receiving equipment for the low bands worked together to provide a nice improvement in my results on the 80m band. Band conditions were also very good during this contest which helped to improve my run rates and multiplier counts. I’ve also been working hard to improve my SSB phone operating technique through participation in other contests and on-air events like The 13 Colonies Special Event. I operated for most of the allowed contest period but could have put in a few more hours of “butt-in-chair” and perhaps moved up a spot or two in North America (the difference in the final scores between places #3 and #5 in North America was only 854,958 points).

All this said, I am very happy with my results in this contest and my progress as a SSB contester in general. Anita (AB1QB) and I are continuing to work on both our skills as contest operators and our station and I hope we can continue to improve quickly.

– Fred (AB1OC)

6m VUCC And 9-Band Worked All States

August 30, 2014 by fkemmerer

6m VUCC Operating Award

The 2014 Es Season was my first chance to focus on operating on 6m. To help provide motivation, I set a goal to work and confirm enough Grid Squares on 6m to earn a VUCC Operating Award. After some time to confirm and for the ARRL to process everything, my VUCC came in the mail this past week.

6m VUCC Grids Worked And Confirmed

The 6m Es Season this summer was a good one for me. I worked and confirmed over 150 Grid Squares on the Magic Band including my first contacts with the west coast of the USA and with Europe. The picture above shows my progress on 6m Grid Squares to Date (the green ones are confirmed, map via WG7J’S GridMapper website). I have also completed checking for an additional 50+ Grid Squares and should be receiving my 150 Grid endorsement for the VUCC soon. I guess I’d have to say that I’ve gotten “the bug” for the Magic Band this season.

5-Band WAS Operating Award

The WAS award is often on of the first operating awards that HAMs in the United States pursue. It is a great award to develop some sound operating skills, prove in your HF station and make some new friends. The ARRL Centennial QSO Party with W1AW portable stations operating from each of the 50 US states provides a great opportunity to pursue WAS awards.

I’ve also been working on the contacts needed for a 5-Band Worked All States Award for some time now and I decided to focus on completing the contacts needed for this operating award last week. This probably seems like an award that should not be too difficult for a station in the United States and that is mostly true. There are two things that make this award a challenge – 1) working states that are “close-in” on the high bands like 10m and 15m, and 2) making contacts with less populated states like North and South Dakota, Montana, etc. especially on 80m.

Band Conditions (Or When Not To Operate)

The close in states like Vermont on 10m were some of the last ones that I needed along with a contact with North Dakota on 80m. As usual, I picked one of the worst days this year conditions-wise to complete the last few contacts. Rob, AB1NJ in Vermont helped me out with his state on 10m using JT65 and I worked W1AW/0 in North Dakota on 80m SSB to complete the last one needed for the 5B WAS.

I really enjoy operating on the WARC Bands and I often make 50 or so contacts in an evening on these bands. I have also been operating a lot on the Top Band (160m). At this point, I only need 3 more contacts (Montana on 80m, Nebraska on 30m and New York on 12m) to complete a 9-Band WAS (5B WAS plus WAS on 160m, 30m, 17m and 12m). I am planning to wait until I complete these and for all of the needed contacts to confirm to send in the paperwork for the 9B WAS.

I hope to perhaps someday make it to a 10-Band WAS, working all 50 states on 6m. At present, I’ve worked and confirmed 41 states on 6m but I know that Alaska and Hawaii will be very difficult during this solar cycle unless there is some extraordinary propagation event on 6m.

I find the pursuing operating awards provides good motivation to get on the air and work less common modes (like JT65) as well as to learn about and practice unusual operating techniques like HF Backscatter which I have used to work close in states on the high bands. Another benefit to this effort is that it has encouraged me to upgrade to Joe Taylor’s (K1JT) latest WSJT-X Software for working JT65 on the HF bands. Look for an article on WSJT-X here in the near future.

– Fred (AB1OC)

2014 Thirteen Colonies Special Event Operations

August 2, 2014 by fkemmerer

13 Colonies Special Event QSL Card For K2K New Hampshire

The 13 Colonies Special Event had another record year, completing over 108,800 contacts around the world during the 6 days of the event. This was about 25% more contacts than last year. We added the WARC bands to our operations this year which provided folks a chance to work several US states on these bands. This, no doubt, helped to increase interest in the event. The NH Operators had a good year this year completing over 9,000 contacts. I operated mostly SSB phone on 160m – 6m and made over 6,800 contacts during the 6 days of the event.

Category	QSOs	% QSOs	States	DXCCs
SSB	7182	79%	50	71
CW	1546	18%	48	58
Digital (RTTY + PSK)	293	3%	26	36
160m	3	<1%	3	1
80m	82	1%	28	5
40m	2008	22%	46	32
30m	246	3%	34	26
20m	2936	31%	49	59
17m	1473	17%	49	53
15m	1443	17%	47	59
12m	268	3%	41	15
10m	361	4%	39	9
6m	201	2%	31	4

2014 13 Colonies QSO Statistics for the K2K NH Hampshire Stations

I thought it might be interesting for our readers to see how an operation like this breaks down in terms of bands and modes. The table above provides these stats for this year’s K2K NH operation. As you can see, the daytime band activity reflects the state of the solar cycle with most contacts being made on 20m, 17m and 15m. Operations on the 40m band are primarily during nighttime and are essential for many folks in the states close to New Hampshire to make a contact with us. SSB Phone is usually the most popular mode in this event with CW also being quite popular. It’s a little hard to grasp the diversity of the contacts that stations make during an event like this. Here are some additional stats for our operation in NH this year:

DXCC’s Worked – 82 (A good portion of a DXCC – not bad for a “US” event.)
DXCC Band Points Worked – 263 (A band point is a given DXCC on a unique band.)
CQ Zones Worked – 27
Unique Callsign Prefixes Worked – 1,061
Worked All 50 US States On The SSB Phone Mode
US Counties Worked – 1,416
IOTAs Worked – 60
6m Grids Squares Worked – 94 (Almost a VUCC! Some DX from EU in here.)
Contacts Made To All 6 Continents

As you can see from this list, the event has become quite popular with folks outside the United Sates. There are quite a few DX operators that complete a sweep, working all 13 Colonies and the two Bonus Stations (WM3PEN and W3FT).

6m Opening During The 13 Colonies Special Event

We had some very nice 6m Es Openings during the event. I worked a couple of these as K2K making about 200 contacts on 6m and working 94 unique grid squares – almost a VUCC on 6m! Amazingly, the conditions were good enough to generate a pileup for the duration of one of these openings. This was the first year that I have had the chance to focus on making contacts on the Magic Band and the 6m openings during the event were a nice chance to make some more contacts on 6m.

AB1QB’s 13 Colonies Sweep Certificate

Many operators who participate in the event do so with the goal of working all 13 Colonies and the two bonus stations for a clean sweep. Ken Villone, KU2US is the event coordinator and he provides a nice certificate each year for folks who work one or more of The Colony Stations. Anita, AB1QB completed her sweep this year and the picture above shows the nice certificate that she received for doing so. If you worked one or more of the 13 Colonies Stations, you can apply for a certificate here.

K2K New Hampshire QSL!

Many folks work the event to collect our QSL cards and for Worked All States Award Credit. This results in quite a few QSL cards being sent! The picture above shows the outgoing QSL response about 1 week after the event. This batch contained about 700 cards. The total QSL’s we will send in response to 2014 operations as K2K New Hampshire will be approximately 1,000 cards. We added ClubLog OQRS, LoTW and eQSL as alternatives to confirm contacts with the K2K New Hampshire Stations this year and many folks have used these to confirm contacts as well.

As the 2014 13 Colonies Special Event and the follow-up QSL’ing draws to a close, I have many great memories to look back on. I am already looking forward to the 2015 event. Ken has created a really great looking certificate for the 2015 event and you can see a preview here. I hope to contact many of readers as part of the 2015 13 Colonies Special Event!

Fred (AB1OC)

Our HAM Station

Notes on the construction and operation of a multi-op Amateur Radio Station

Category Archives: Station Performance, QSOs and QSL’ing

2015 13 Colonies Special Event Operations Summary

The 2015 13 Colonies Special Event Begins Today!

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2014 Thirteen Colonies Special Event Operations

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