It is again time for our annual 2014 Year Amateur Radio highlights post. First, I’d like to thank our readers for their continued interest in our Blog. Our blog was viewed about 100,00 times in 2014 from 165 countries worldwide. You, our readers, have made 2014 our busiest year yet, and this provides Anita (AB1QB) … Continue reading
I have continued to make progress on my operating award goals and have recently received a few interesting new awards. The first one is the Worked All VK CALL Areas. This award is issue by the Wireless Institute of Australia and requires confirming a number of contacts in all 10 VK call areas on the … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
2015 has continued to be my best year for working new DX in my relatively short 4 years as an Amateur Radio operator. I have been trying to reach a personal goal of working my 300th DXCC for several months, and I’ve been just one All-Time New One (ATNO) short for a few weeks. I … Continue reading
The Thirteen Colonies Special Event begins today! The event runs from July 1st through July 6th, 2014. Anita and I will again be operating as K2K, New Hampshire as part of the event. There will be thirteen stations on the air (K2A-K2M) plus two bonus stations during the event. Working one or more will earn you … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
Every since our DXpedition to Bora Bora Island (OC-67) in French Polynesia in 2012, we have been interested in the RSGB Islands On The Air (IOTA) program and the associated awards. I believe that our presence on a medium-rare IOTA while were in French Polynesia contributed significantly to the success of our operation there. Anita … Continue reading
I’ve been continuing to work on several operating awards and have recently completed a couple of interesting ones. The first is a Worked All Europe (WAE) Top Plaque. This award is from the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club (DARC). It required me to work and confirm 70 of the 72 entities in Europe and 300+ band-entities … Continue reading
I did quite a bit of operating at QRP power levels (5 Watts) in 2013. It is great fun to make contacts at low power and it is truly amazing how far one can communicate on only 5 watts of power. QRP operating is also a great way to improve one’s operating skills. I recently … Continue reading
