15m Digital WAS Achieved!

 Worked the last two states on 15m today - LA and IA!  Did a submission to the ARRL for it and the FT4 WAS that I have been sitting on for a long time, just waiting for another band to fall.  All that is left on HF are 80m, 12m and 10m!

6/25 Edit:
I picked up AL on 10m for a new one and LA for a rework this morning which gives me 46 worked on that band.  I plan on operating from home during field day and hope to work the rest of what I need on 10m FTx.  I also plan on working on my Phone WAS Mixed Band to get me just a bit closer to the Triple Play WAS.  

BREAKING NEWS

 Just received LotW confirmation for my 200th grid!  Still waiting for the 150/175 endorsement sticker.  Won't be sending in another endorsement until the 250 grid level.

Eulogy For WPX Award

As I have lamented in the past - the CQ WPX Award is dead and buried.  It doesn't seem to have any chance of being revived in my opinion.  Why the ARRL didn't "acquire" it when CQ Magazine folded is beyond me.  LotW is already set up to verify confirmed prefixes.  If they made it an LotW only award, the administrative overhead would be minor.  

I do like the premise of the award as it is a never-ending pursuit.  Same thing with grid squares, but with a lot more combinations.  Fortunately, there are some reasonable replacement programs available to fill this need, at least on FTx modes.  The FT4-Digital Mode Club and the FT8- Digital Mode Club both have WPX (and Grid Square) Awards that are tracked online and emailed certificates when you reach the threshold to get the specific award (like POTA does).  Check them out - I have provided links to their main pages and links to the awards that I have achieved.

Another Good Day On 6m & Future 6m Plans

 Another day with a lot of band openings - some very strong and some weak.  Seven new ones worked today with four already confirmed.  But that isn't the best part - I have now confirmed 201 grids on 6m!  If I can get just 2 more LotW confirmations, I will have the 200 needed for the next endorsement via LotW.

It appears that I did get 200 confirmed before I got the 150/175 endorsement stickers for the VUCC!  Totals are now 217 worked and 201 confirmed.  

I think I will focus on 6m for the foreseeable future and hope to his somewhere around 250 confirmed by the end of the season in August.  So, with that, I will start up a "cycle" of how I handle 6m.  

For new ones in May, I will wait until the first of July to give the station time to upload to LotW.  I will then check the date of their last upload, and if it was before the QSO date, I will send a card direct.  If they have uploaded after the QSO date, I will assume that it was a NIL contact.  Of course stations that are not using LotW will get a direct card.  This will be done in August for June contacts and September for July contacts.  August ones will be done in October.

I won't send in any more endorsements until around October/November unless I hit the 250 LotW confirmed before then.

Over the fall/winter I will work on developing/devising some type of better antenna (dipole?) that will improve my capabilities for the next season.  

Fantastic Opening On 6m Today

 6m has been basically open since (at least) 0700 Local today.  Still open somewhat at time of posting (1700 Local).  Band has been all over the place - East Coast, Southeast, Intermountain West, Northern Plains, and the Midwest.  Sometime really strong, other times really weak - but the signals are in there.

So far, I have worked 11 new grids and 1 new state (RI).  So far 7 of them have confirmed by LotW!  This now gives me 207 worked and 193 confirmed.  That breaks down to 190 on LotW and 3 paper confirmations.  I am getting really close to the 200 confirmed via LotW level - very close.

For WAS I have 46 worked and 43 confirmed (need to confirm CA, OR, and RI).  I have to work LA, MS, and NV - and HI.  I feel that I will eventually get LA, MS, and NV - but HI will need to be F2, and I think that that opportunity won't be there for the foreseeable future give the power restriction and antenna system I have.  But one can only hope!

UPDATE:

Less than 2 hours after I posted this, the band opened to LA, and worked two new grids plus the state.  One of them confirmed on LotW within minutes of logging them.  Now at 47 states worked / 44 confirmed -and- 209 worked grids with 194 confirmed.  Is it possible to hit 200 grids worked before I get my 150/175 endorsements?

Major VUCC Milestone Reached!

 Woke up this morning to a strong Es 6m opening (still going strong as I post this).  I just hit 200 worked grinds!  All FT8 and all QRP!  Will give a better report later.

Nice 6m Opening

 Had a nice opening on 6m this evening to the Pacific Northwest and Upper Great Plains.  Worked 7 new grids (three already confirmed) and a new state - Oregon!  Signals were pretty good too.  Been a bit since I have been on.  Did confirm three older contacts for three new ones confirmed as well today.  Been a very good day for 6m and VUCC.  Still waiting on the endorsement stickers - hope to get them this week.

Now at 196 worked with 184 confirmed!

VUCC Endorsement Finished

 Looks like my VUCC endorsement was approved and processed within the last couple of days.  Should be getting the endorsement stickers sometime next week.

2025 ARRL Internation Digital Contest

 I operated the ARRL IDC this weekend, and it was a decent contest.  The band was somewhat soft, but I did, IMHO, a decent showing.  10m was really poor with only 23 contacts made.  I did check it frequently, but most of the time it was closed down.  15m was just "OK", with some decent DX contacts made.  I made 38 contacts on that band.  While conditions were acceptable, there just wasn't a lot of signals to be heard there.  On 20m, I made 133 contacts and some decent DX contacts.  And 40m yielded 79 contacts and a couple really nice DX contacts as well.

Overall, I finished with a score of 1,375 which was down from last year.  My total number of contacts was almost identical, but points were down.  In 2023 my PPQ (Points per QSO) was 4.8, in 2024 it was 6.1, and this year it was 5.4. 

I do enjoy this contest, and the next event will be the World Wide Digital DX Contest in August.  I hope that the band will be in better shape then.

Update To June 3 Opening

 I did confirm Michigan and North Dakota from that opening as well as working New Mexico and Louisiana the next day on 10m.  I need to be patient and wait for the Es to open up to get the close in ones.   

Blog Changes & Changed Focus

As of posting this I have been QRV from this QTH for exactly 2 years, 1 month, and 10 days.  During that time, I have logged in total 9,984 QSO's on HF and 6m on all modes.  Of those QSO's 84% of them have been either FT4 or FT8.  I have worked 152 DXCC entities and confirmed 137 of them on the FTx modes.  I have worked WAS on FT4, FT8, and on 40m, 30m, 20m, and 17m via FTx.  And I am very close to 80m, 15m, 12m, and 10m.  I note this not to brag, but to illustrate that most of my activity is and has been on the FTx modes.  So, it makes sense to me to focus 99.9% on FTx operation for Contesting, DXing, and POTA for the foreseeable future.  I will still run SSB in the November SS Phone Contest - which will account for the rest of my operating time.

I do this for the basic reason that given my living arrangements, it is the most logical mode of operation where I can be somewhat competitive on the air.  If the FTx modes didn't exist, then I would probably be doing something other than ham radio.

Very Nice 6m (And 10m) Opening

 Got back around 1130 local and got set up on 6m, bands was just opening up.  East Coast had a great EU opening and worked a few new grids.  This opening went on for hours, and signals were pretty good - but there was one major problem.  The waves of European DX coming into the eastern third of the US.  I can understand why they would focus on that, I know I would have.  I did make a few contacts and worked three new grids.  

After around 45 minutes of seeing that I had "reasonable" signals to the east coast, but not a single reply to CQ's or even direct calls.  I decided to see if 10m had Es - and yes, yes it did.  And I profited greatly from it.

I started out with my 10m Digital WAS totals at 30 states worked, with 28 of them confirmed.  When the band finally closed around 1900 local on 10m, my total now is 43 states worked and 38 confirmed!  What was a poor showing on 10m digital is now pretty reasonable IMHO.  I worked the following:

GA - CONFIRMED
IN - CONFIRMED

KS - CONFIRMED
KY

MI

MN - CONFIRMED

NE - CONFIRMED

ND

SC - CONFIRMED

SD - CONFIRMED
TX - CONFIRMED
WI - CONFIRMED
WV - CONFIRMED

The last three new ones - KY, MI, & ND - all are LotW members, so I hope that I will get them soon.  The other 2 states - IA & UT - in the worked but unconfirmed column are older contacts, so they will need to be reworked.  I did hear an IA station today but wasn't able to snag it.  I will definitely spend more time during the day on 10m looking for another fantastic Es opening.   

New State Confirmed

 Confirmed AR today on 15m, so now sitting at 48 worked and 48 confirmed - need IA and LA to get Digital WAS for that band

Submitted 175 Grid Endorsement

 Got my 175th LotW confirmation this morning, so sent off for the 150 and 175 Endorsement stickers fore my 50MHz VUCC.  Actually have 177 confirmed - 2 of them are paper QSL's.  Currently at 186 worked with 4 of them two-year-old Q's that will require me to rework those grids plus one from this year who only confirms on QRZ.com.  That leaves 4 from this season so far that I have worked but not confirmed.  May need to send some cards at the end of June.