It Has Been A Moment.....

 I have been spending a fair amount (actually, almost all) of time on 6m as HF has been pretty soft with all of the solar activity.  I have upped my grid count (17 new ones confirmed so far) on 6m to the point where I am almost ready to send in for my 175 grid endorsement.  I do legally have 175 grids confirmed, but 2 of them are via paper QSL's and I would rather wait until I have 175 on LotW to submit.   

I have also been somewhat neglecting POTA, but that is also because of the soft HF conditions.  I may be getting a bit of an "antenna upgrade" here Monday.  My car with the antenna is parked literally under a big tree.  And vertical antennas and trees don't coexist very well, or so I am told.  On Monday the tree is coming down, and hopefully that will increase both RX and TX capabilities.

ARRL IDC is next weekend, and I plan on hitting that one hard!  Will run QRP with the FT-818 this year and run all of the bands 80m - 10m.  I hope that the bands are in good shape!

I will not be posting Weekly Updates anymore as it is more convenient for me to do a quick post when something occurs.  I will update the stats weekly if needed.

Weekly Update - 5/10/2025

DXCC Challenge

847 WKD / 741 CNF

DX Marathon
117 Entities / 35 Zones – Score 152

New DXCC Worked

#	Date	Band	Entity	QSL
1	5/3	15m	FO-A
2	5/4	30m	LA	Yes
3	5/6	30m	V2	Yes
4	5/6	30m	FM
5	5/8	30m	HC	Yes
6	5/8	30m	ER	Yes
7	5/8	17m	OZ	Yes
8	5/8	15m	SM
9	5/8	15m	TA	Yes
10	5/8	17m	EA6
11	5/9	40m	UA9

Project RETRO
No Update

WAZ
No Update

New WAS Worked

#	Date	Band	State	QSL
1	5/8	10m	VA	Yes
2	5/8	10m	MD	Yes
3	5/8	15m	WV	Yes

• Posting early as have an event this evening that I will be attending plus this is a “POTA Day”, so won’t be hunting DX!
• Nice surprise to work some new states (and confirm them) on 10m & 15m.
• Looks like I may be adding other DXCC awards to the wall later this year besides 12m. Currently the 40m, 30, and 17m confirmed totals are in the mid 70's.  The worked totals are in the mid 80's for 30m and 17m, and mid 90's for 40m.  While I may add a few to them all this spring/summer - next fall will probably put me over the top on several of them.  I could now do enough OQRS to get over the 100-entity mark for 12m but would rather do all of them at once.  If I was to bet, I would say that 30m will be the next one to hit the mark after 17m.

Received Endorsement Today

 My Mixed DXCC is now endorsed for 200 entities!

Weekly Update - 5/3/2025

Here is the take for this week:

DX Marathon
Entities - 115 / Zones - 35= Score 150

+3 Entities / +1 Zone From Last Week

DXCC Challenge
Worked - 836 / Confirmed (LoTW) - 733

+3 Worked / +8 Confirmed From Last Week

New Ones Worked 

(*Indicates LoTW confirmed as posting date)

4/27    10m    PJ2    Curacao*

4/29    30m    EA9    Ceuta & Melilla

4/30    30m    C5     The Gambia* (Plus Digital ATNO)

4/30    20m    VK9    Norfolk Is.

4/30    17m    UA0    Asiatic Russia 

   

Project RETRO Removals

4/29    17m    TG (Guatemala)

WAZ

New Zone (18) Worked

New Zone (35) Confirmed

Now at 35 Confirmed Zones

WAS

No Updates

Comments:

Been working a bunch of unconfirmed entities that I have worked within the past year or so, which is good as I may be able to finally cross the off of the list.

HF was in horrible shape Friday - only a half dozen stations on the waterfall around noon time!  Band is a bit better Saturday, but not by much.  the first part of the week was decent, but it tapered off quickly.