Watches, Warnings & Advisories for Sunflower Co.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

K5JAW Operating Notes - 2014 Week 4 (Jan 19-25, 2014)

On The Air: 
Twenty-eight new contacts were logged for 2014 Week 4, including some made while away from my home station on a work trip.

Monday, January 20, was a Untied States holiday, which gave me an opportunity to enjoy daytime HF propagation that I don't normally get.  A number of DX contacts were made, including a new DX for England. 

For the 2014 QSO-365 challenge, I'm up to 152 contacts logged from January 1 through January 25.  However, I did fail to make an on-air contact on the 25th, which is the first day this year I've missed being on the radio.  A confluence of personal and family schedules took priority over the hobby.  But that highlights the fact that amateur radio is indeed a hobby, and one that shouldn't interfere with other commitments.  However, January 25 was the date of the Capitol City Hamfest in Jackson, Mississippi, which I attended.  While no on-air contacts were logged, I was able to enjoy a number of face-to-face "QSO's" at the hamfest.  We hear so many voices on the air, it is always good to put a face to those voices heard.  So, even without an on-air contact in the log, it was still a good day.

Top 5 Distances Covered this Week
HA8IE - Hungary - 5460 miles
LY5A - Lithuania - 5160 miles
IW2HAJ - Italy - 5040 miles
OH4MDY - Finland - 4980 miles
G0DBE - England - 4315 miles

International
Countries worked: Bahamas, England, Finland, Hungary, Isle of Man, Italy, Lithuania, Puerto Rico

National & Regional
States Worked: California, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Texas, 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:
I was out for a good portion of the week on a work-related trip, but was able to schedule two meetings with fellow amateurs while I was away. 

The first was to have six DX QSL cards checked and verified for the Worked All Continents award.  Many thanks to John, KC5LK for helping me make sure everything was correct on the application, and for checking the cards.  The WAC application is in the mail, so now I wait!

The second meeting was to discuss two projects.  The first, and original reason for meeting with Frank, K4FMH, Assistant Division Director for the ARRL Delta Division, was to discuss amateur radio and MESH networks in Mississippi.  To keep from re-writing a lot that has already been said about MESH and ham radio, visit http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/.  The second topic of our meeting was to discuss forming a group to explore building an amateur radio repeater network and backbone across the state, with the goal of providing a statewide linked repeater network.  Certainly a laudable concept, there will be many issues to work through, including technical, procedural, legal, financial, and operational considerations.  However, I'm glad to be on-board with such an idea.  Hopefully, there will be more to come!

Active Bands at K5JAW this Week
2 meters - 5 contacts
10 meters - 1 contact
12 meters - 1 contact
15 meters - 1 contact
17 meters - 6 contacts
20 meters - 2 contacts
40 meters - 9 contacts
80 meters - 3 contacts

QSL Cards Received
KD0WRR - Colorado
KC4NJX - Tennessee

QSL Cards Going Out in the coming week
***Due to work and family needs, I haven't prepared any outgoing QSL's this week.  I plan to catch up this week!

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