Watches, Warnings & Advisories for Sunflower Co.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

K5JAW Operating Notes - 2014 Week 3 (Jan 12-18, 2014)

On The Air: 
Forty-eight new contacts were logged this week, which isn't bad considering work schedules and less-than-ideal band conditions on HF in the late afternoons and early evenings.

The North American QSO Party (SSB) was held this weekend.  Normally when it comes to contests, I'm glad to dial around and answer CQ's to give other operators the points they're working for.  It's very rarely that I participate in contests as a true contestant.  For a few hours on Saturday, 1/18, I made about two dozen contacts for the NAQP.  Good luck to those operators!

I was happy to have a QSO scheduled with N4SAX in Florida, so he could complete his Worked All States award checklist.  If you need Mississippi, please get in touch with me, and we'll work out a schedule.  If you're in Oklahoma or Montana, I need your states confirmed in Logbook of The World for my WAS as well!

For the 2014 QSO-365 challenge, I'm up to 124 contacts logged from January 1 through January 18.

Top 5 Distances Covered this Week
HK3C - Columbia - 2250 miles

AE7KI - Washington - 1730 miles
KD7ATL - Nevada - 1480 miles
K1NYK - Connecticut - 1145 miles
N2CJO - New Jersey - 1000 miles

International
Countries worked:  Canada, Columbia, Mexico

National & Regional
States Worked:  Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia

Local
If you're around the Mississippi Delta and in range of the N5LRL Repeater 147.285+ 107.2Hz tone, join the Delta Amateur Radio Emergency Services Net on Sunday nights at 8:00pm local time.

Around the Station:
This month has been one of the most active months I've had in a very long time.  I'm trying to keep up with sending domestic QSL's out on a weekly basis.  I've found that bracketing my station operations into a week (based on UTC time, which means the week ends on Saturday evening, local time), helps me keep better track of the comings and goings of QSL cards.  I haven't yet decided on a good timeframe for sending international QSL's out to the Bureau, but think I will do those on a quarterly basis.  That idea may change, depending on the volume of international contacts I accumulate.

Speaking of QSL's, I've made the determination that for stations I've contacted during contests, such as this weekend's North American QSO Party, I won't initiate a QSL.  However, if those stations send one, I'll be happy to return the courtesy.  I'm not trying to be a QSL snob here, but you can quickly burn through a stack of QSL cards for a lot of contest contacts.  It's just a practical matter, to me.

What do you think?

Active Bands at K5JAW this Week
2 meters - 10 contacts
10 meters - 1 contact
17 meters - 2 contacts
20 meters - 21 contacts
40 meters - 7 contacts
80 meters - 7 contacts

QSL Cards Received
KC8JFP - Ohio
KA2UFP - New Jersey
KG4RWO - Florida
KA3VFW - Pennsylvania
KI4NSP - North Carolina
KD8RFQ - Michigan

QSL Cards Going Out in the coming week
AE7KI
KC9NVN
N4GUY
N4SAX
KD7ATL
KJ4UEK
N2CJO
K8BZ
W4V

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