Hit 2600!

 Neglected to post that I hit 2600 confirmed units a couple days ago.  Had some other "life stuff" to deal with the past couple days so wasn's active on HF or this.

Morris State Park Activation - 9/22/2025

 Decided to do a last minute, ad hoc activation of Morris State Park - one of my two "home parks".  Ran 20m FT8 and did 29 QSO's in about an hour.  Was a bit on the warm side, but still not bad.  I will be doing more in the coming months.  Signals were pretty decent too.

Strategic Re-alignment

 I have come to the conclusion that I was trying to do too much given the limitations that I have to work with in regard to my station configuration and limitations.  I looked at the results that I have achieved and the potential for future advancements.  I have had great luck in the DX realm, but it is getting more difficult to work the ones that I need due to the limitations on antennas that I can install.

The one area that I have excelled is in POTA - with close to 2600 confirmed parks, POTA WAS, and 20 entities confirmed - I am what you would call "competitive" in the POTA ecosystem.  Given that I do most of my hunting on FT8, I am very happy with my level of results.

So, from this point on I will be focusing mainly on POTA, but will still snag the DX counters when I can.  Same as with the WAS band states that I need on 80m, 12m, and 10m.  Of course I will go after the 250WAS after the first of the year!  I am putting 6m VUCC on hold for the immediate future as well as the FT8-DMC, etc. awards.

Contests will be used as opportunities to fill in needed slots for DXCC and WAS.  I have begun to integrate all of the existing web pages into one page.  

I do this so I can focus all of my effort in one direction that will provide the most return on my time and effort.  With a few exceptions, I can always find POTA station to work on the bands every day.  And I will be doing activations as well.

DXCC for 30m Achieved (Technically)

 This evening, I confirmed my 100th DXCC entity on 30m!  I have 99 confirmations in LotW and a paper QSL for number 100.  I would like to get at least one more on LotW so I don't have deal with sending in a card and the extra fees that would be included.  I am sure that I will get one before the month is over, but I won't be sending it in until I have at least one more DXCC to send in at the same time,

Contesting Placed On Standby Mode

 I have decided to put contesting on the back burner for the time being.  I will still participate during them in order to pick up counter for my awards I am pursuing, but I won't be mounting an effort to run up a score.  This is part of my re-focus on DX and operating awards.

Yesterday Was A Good & Bad Day For DX

 Yesterday was definitely a mixed bag for DX 9and HF in general.  Band conditions were in the proverbial toilet! Weak overall signal strengths, lots of noise, and really deep QSB.  I shut everything down around 1300 local it was so bad.

On the good side I got JT, EW, and YN all confirmed in LotW.  As far as LotW is concerned, that now gives me 97 confirmed on 30m, 148 confirmed on 20m, and 85 confirmed on 17m.  12m is still showing 97 confirmed.

New Standings Information

 It is now the beginning of the traditional "DX" season - and since this is the last one near the peak of cycle 25, I will be focusing on DX this fall and winter.  The goal is to get DXCC's for 40m and the WARC bands.  I am close on all of them as well as a 150-entity endorsement on the Data DXCC.

So, the standings will be updated the 1st and 15th of the month, and the standings will show worked, confirmed, and confirmed in LotW.  The main reason is because of the wild discrepancy in my Phone DXCC.  I show 28 more entities confirmed according to my logs versus what LotW shows.

The reason is that I submitted a 10m DXCC application well before LotW was even a thing.  When my DXCC record was integrated into my LotW account, they did not have records of the specific mode, so all of the confirmation were included in both the 10m and Mixed categories.  Even though all of the cards submitted were Phone contacts.  Also, I have a few paper QSL's that confirm band and/or mode entities that will have to be submitted separately.

Here is hoping that we will have an excellent DX season!!

"This Week In DX" Is Now "2 Week DX Synopsis"

 As part of the streamlining of this blog, I have replaced the weekly review of DX activity with a two-week running listing of new ones as well as newly confirmed ones.  There will be a fixed post at the top of the posting section of the blog that will have the date, band, prefix, entity name, and what the entity did for my numbers.  If the entry is still on the listing when the QSL arrives, that will be indicated by the entry being highlighted and the date of confirmation appended to the end.

I have removed all of the other data from the post as it was duplicated by the stats on the rightmost column on here.  I was going to start this on September 1, but decided to start it now.

This Week In DX - 8/17 Thru 8/24

• Have trimmed this posting format down for this week and the next.  Starting in September, there will be a running post pinned that will run for the entire month.
• Working the T8 was a very nice surprise Wednesday morning - given the poor solar numbers.
• Two new ones confirmed on 30m as well - now at 114 worked / 96 confirmed on that band.  30m has basically caught up with 12m based on the numbers worked / confirmed.

DX Worked
8/19    30m    Western Kiribati (T30)

8/19    30m    Wales (GW) CONFIRMED

8/19    30m    Ireland (EI)

8/20    20m    Palau (T80) ATNO

8/20    17m    Hungary (HA)

8/22    10m    Samoa (5W) CONFIRMED

8/23    30m    Trinidad & Tobago (9Y)

8/23    30m    Azores (CU)

8/24    30m    Latvia (LY) CONFIRMED

8/24    30m    Ceuta & Melilla (EA9) *

*Previously Worked

This Week In DX - 8/12 Thru 8/17

Getting this back on schedule where I will be posting this Sunday afternoon so the info will be from Sunday afternoon through Saturday night.  Have tightened up the FTx DXpeditions page as well.

Redid my Status Board and cleaned it up and will now only update it a couple times a week.  Trying to write on it when it is on the wall and having to reach across a desk does not help my poor handwriting one bit! I can take it off the wall as I used Commander strips to secure it.

The bands were pretty darn good Friday night and Saturday morning.  Worked 4 new ones Friday night/early Saturday morning on 30m - including an ATNO for the Digital DXCC.  20m was really good after sunrise on Saturday morning.  Copies several JA and YB station well into the early morning hours and actually work a KL7 around 0845 Local!  I normally don't see them on 20m until evening gray line propagation.

Saturday night and pre-dawn Sunday morning were good as well.  I worked an ATNO that I thought I would never work - Iran.  Very, very pleased with that one.

DX Needs Worked
8/13    30m    Suriname (PZ)
8/16    30m    Serbia (YU) CONFIRMED
8/16    30m    Scotland (GM) * CONFIRMED
8/16    30m    Guyana (8R) Digital ATNO
8/16    30m    Balearic Is. (EA6) *
8/17    30m    Iran (EP) ATNO

*Previously Worked

WAZ Needs Worked
None

WAS Needs Worked
None

DX Marathon
Zones 36 (-0-)
Entities 136 (+1)
Score 172 (+1)

DXCC Challenge
Worked        888 (+3)
Confirmed     782 (+5)