Back at it on 40m

This evening I got home at about 4:40PM, ready to jump on the air and make some contacts when I was reminded that I had promised to cook dinner this evening.  So I scared up a Wok full of pork loin stir fry and enjoyed a healthy dinner with my wife Ann. She announced that she would clean up and I was free to fire up the radio and see what I could see...so to speak.  To the BAT CAVE!!

My first contact tonight was with Mike NK8S, Mike is a fellow ham that I have been chatting with on QRZ.  He is in MA and although we have tried making the connection a few times, we were unable to make it go until tonight.  Trading 559's in the QSB and the QRN it was a hard fought battle but we did it. Mike is a fellow QRPer, and also belongs to FISTS, NAQCC, and the SKCC. 

Band conditions at this time of day could be better, (SSN:11 SFI:72 A:26 K:5), but I suppose they could also be worse.  The next contact I had was Hank K1PUG, from a new state for me, CT.  Hank is a SKCC member and we traded numbers and RST's, I got a 559 which is becoming pretty standard lately.  Hank has over 50,000 lookups on QRZ and I have worked him several times in the past few years.  A great fist and easy copy.  Thanks Hank! 

At this time I moved away from 7067 and headed up to 7117 or so.  According to the Reverse Beacon network I was coming in pretty well to the east and I was on 7117.1 or 7117.2 depending on which skimmer you were paying attention to.  

RBN 03062017

Next up was ANOTHER NEW STATE, Rick N8XI from up in Michigan. Rick is also a SKCC member so we traded numbers and RST info. I got another 559, which makes me happy that my HW-8 is at least consistent.  Rick is working on a WAS for 6m, and he's a QRP guy with an Omni VII...nice radio collection per his QRZ bio page.   If you hear him on 6m give him a shout.  Thanks for state #21!

I was elated, I've been about half sick since last Thursday...between allergies, and a monster head cold, I was hoping that tonight I could relax with the HW-8, make some QSOs and gain a new one.  BUT WAIT!!! THERE"S MORE!!.

Just as I was about to hang it up for this session, I heard Dave KD0DK calling me for my SKCC number.  Dave is in IOWA....another new one for me. So the antenna was working east AND west for me tonight.  Nothing like coloring in three states!  Dave got a 579 and gave me a 559.  Dave got his ticket in 2013 and in 2014 became a CW operator.  Great to work you Dave, maybe we'll meet again in the NAQCC sprints! 

So that's about it for tonight.  I need to fill out the cards and get them in the mail. Oh I almost forgot, MAIL CALL!! 

K1ARR QSL Card

WB4IEA QSL Card

Thanks for the QSL cards, I love getting them in the mail, the old fashioned way.  So now I am 22 down and 28 to go! 

73 de KB9BVN