Saturday, May 14, 2011

re: 2011 Florida QSO Party

The 2011 FQP is now history. I had a great time this year. I was able to put in about 9.5 hours mostly on Saturday. The conditions were good but 15 and 10 meters never really opened up which would have been great. I ended up with 560 qso's with only 52 on phone. I decided to maximize my score by making as many CW qso's as possible and it was easier on the ears. I had a great run on 40 meters Saturday night with about 140 q's in a run. Lots of Europe on with Poland leading the pack. For some strange reason I had a lot of dupe calls with many coming from well known contest ops. Final score was 201,000 points. Kept the keyer speed about 24 to 26 wpm which is a good speed for me. Well, looking forward to next year with better conditions all across the bands.


73, N4EK
 

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Receive Antenna Project

With the approach of the fall and winter seasons here in Florida, I am getting ready to install a new lowband
receive antenna system. I will be installing a DX Engineering two direction beverage antenna which uses ladder line for the antenna wire. It will be directed towards Europe and  the South Pacific. I have been clearing tree branches that have grown over the last couple of years to make room for the new antenna and additional supports. I hope to have the project done by the middle of October.  

73 and good DX from N4EK!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

New Radio at N4EK

Well, it's been quite awhile since I posted to the blog but it has been really busy here at the N4EK qth. We have done alot of upgrades to the house including new laminate floors which required completely removing all the radio equipment so the new floors could be installed. Shortly after that a trip to the Orlando Hamfest resulted in an upgrade to the main radio from a Yaesu FT1000MP to a TenTec Orion II. I'm really happy with this rig but I am still in the learning mode and finding out more everyday how to better utilize this rig.

73, Ed

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Florida QSO Party 2008

Last weekend the 2008 Florida QSO Party contest was run and I had a pretty good time this year operating low power mixed mode. I made a total of 563 contacts on 40, 20 and 15 meters. 370 of these were on CW. The 15 meter band never seemed to have much activity on when I checked so I only logged a total of 7 q's on that band. If I did not have to loose anytime on Sunday I probably would have hit the 700 q mark. All in all it was a good weekend considering the low sunspot numbers we are now experiencing.

73 ,

N4EK

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Antenna Repairs and CQWW SSB

Well I got the 160 meter inverted L repaired and the trees off the beverage antenna after all the bad weather from a few weeks ago. I did not work the CQWW SSB contest at all this time. I guess I wasn't in the mood and I'm starting too like CW tests more since they tend to be easier on the ears. At the end of March is the CQ WW WPX contest for phone. Maybe I will give that one a go since it is one I have never participated in that I can remember. In the mean time I been making some contacts with Clipperton Island since I needed them on CW. Till next time good DX to all.

73, Ed
N4EK

Thursday, February 28, 2008

CQWW 160 SSB Contest a bust!

Well the 160 meter ssb contest was not to be this year. On Friday afternoon, Feb.23rd we had some strong weather fronts move through which brought some strong thunderstorms. I don't like to be holding a key or wearing a headset when there is lightning in the area. Although the weather cleared up on Saturday I just was not in the mood to get on. On Tuesday Feb. 26th we had more strong weather move through with 60+ mile per hour gusts. A lot of trees broke off on top of the beverage antenna and the vertical portion of my inverted L broke off from the feed insulator on the remote tuning box and is now up in the top of a pine tree. Time for some more repairs. This weekend is the ARRl DX Phone contest. I will have some time to operate in this one except for time away on Saturday and Sunday morning. I will be operating as SOABLP. Hope to hear alot of good DX on with great band conditions.

73, Ed
N4EK

Monday, February 18, 2008

ARRL CW DX Contest

This weekend proved to be a very busy one with lot's of other things happening besides the ham radio contest. I was able to get on a little on Friday night but had an early wakeup call for Saturday morning. I could not get back on till almost 12 noon. The same thing happened on Sunday so operating time was limited. I also was dealing with a high noise level which is very unusual in my area. It was really bad when ever I turned my beams east or southeast. Time to get out the AM radio and do some noise tracking. So i ended up with 185 q's and maybe some new DX countries worked on 80 meters. The beverage RX antenna was playing real well on 80 and countries out of Europe were really banging in on Saturday night. This coming weekend is the CQWW 160 phone contest. Maybe the conditions will be good with no weather fronts moving through the area which should make for quite band condtions.

73, Ed

N4EK