Tonight the SKCC was hosting their Straight Key Sprint from 00:00 to 02:00 UTC, I was able to get on for a bit and I have worked two different stations.
First up this evening was Tom WZ4M from down in Mecklenburg County NC. Tom is a SKCC member and holds number 10827T and he is hard at work trying to earn his "Senator" designation. Tom has also been very active in the SOTA events using his old callsign of W4TZM. Based on the pictures I saw in his QRZ biography page, Tom likes to work his Elecraft KX-3 in the outdoors, quite a bit. He gave me a good report and I had him 599 until the QSB just brought the QSO to an end. He was pretty surprised at my 2 watts and the HW8.
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WZ4M's Setup |
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After I worked Tom, I bailed out in hopes the shortwave broadcast interference would die down, so I built a HW-8-LM386 Audio board kit while I waited. I am going to add this to the HW8 so I can use 8 ohm headphones and even a small speaker. My adapter didn't come in yet for my Norcal Keyer so I am still hammering away with the Nye Viking Master Key.
I got back on the air about an hour later, sent out one CQ on 7113 Khz and Bill WA4FAT came right back from down in Alabama. We exchanged the SKCC info (RST, QTH, Name, SKCC #) and then he asked me if I was on the HW8. We're getting famous! HAHAH I told him I certainly was and the SWBC interference was strong as ever. Bil has a pretty cool amateur radio blogsite, I have added it to the list. Bill has been a CW op since 1962 ( I was 2 in 1962) and he prefers hand keying. Hey Bill..me too!
So thanks to Tom and Bill for hearing my QRP signals tonight. Every contact I make is almost DX and just feels great. There are a LOT of great fists out there, try to work them all!
Mailman brought these today!
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N4IDH QSL Card |
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N3YUG QSL Card |
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That's it for tonight, and as always, thank you for reading my blog.
de KB9BVN