First QSL Card!

I got my very first QSL card in the mail yesterday, it was for the special event station for the 3rd anniversary of the 7.272 rag chew, K1R!
Very nice card!I'll try to post a picture this weekend!

Hope everyone is having lots of HAM fun!

The Weekend is Gone!

Well, I was kinda disappointed with the whole thing really. The weather on Sunday wasn't the best. I didn't do so great in the Mid-Atlantic QSO contest, I don't know if it was my timing or what but I only got like five contacts and couldn't find another soul out there. I know there had to be because the contacts I mean had already gotten 50+ contacts but maybe they sat for the full 12 hours. Sadly, I couldn't.
Hope everyone else had a good weekend though and if you participated in the QSO party I hope you did really well.

Happy Hamming.

The Weekend is Nearly Here!

Okay folks,
It is almost the weekend, I am lucky enough to have tomorrow off. (our office is closed for the Jamestown 400 Celebration) And the Mid-Atlantic QSO party is this weekend! I am going to give it a shot. It is my first time, I have some pretty realistic expectations for my performance, but you have to start somewhere! Why not just go ahead and jump in feet first!
I am trying out some different logging software to see which is the best for me. I have had some great advice and tips on which ones to try, thanks to Bill NR4C, Joe, KI4XLT and George K4GAM. I need to work on it tonight and tomorrow and hopefully have one in place for this weekend. Perhaps this weekend will be a testing ground for the software as well.
I have ordered some more supplies and an LDG 250Pro automatic tuner that should arrive today. Plus some jumpers and a couple of books on contesting. Pretty exciting stuff this weekend.

For all participating in the QSO party this weekend, good luck! Don't forget that the special event station W4J will be operating from Jamestown this weekend!
Happy Hamming!

Productive Weekend

Well you probably know that 20 meters was wide open this weekend especially on Sunday. I made 13 contacts and they included Serbia, the Czech Republic and Spain!
Lots of contacts in the New England area.
so my little barefoot rig is working great. I was running 100 watts on my Icom 718 into a 20/40 Hy Power dipole mounted in my attic at about 20ft.

Hope everyone else had fun this weekend!

First International Contact

I am having a productive weekend. I have worked several stations in the U.S, so far the furthest is Michigan, but today I worked two stations in Italy.
I walked in the shack about 6pm and thought I would see what was happening on 20M, I didn't even have to search the frequency I had stopped on this morning had a station calling CQ. I tuned him in and responded. It was part of a contest in Italy. I moved down the band and worked another station in Italy. It was awesome!
I also worked the Indiana and New England QSO parties.
And a special event station for the 7272 rag chew.
And there is still tomorrow!

73s

One of my antennas arrived!

The 20/40M dipole arrived on Wednesday. I got it set up and the hubby did the actual hanging of the antenna in the attic.
So last night I worked two stations one in New York City and one in South Lyon, Michigan (outside Detroit). I was pretty excited about my first contacts.
Jose in NYC (N8LRB) was great we had a nice chat for a few minutes!We were running similar equipment and set ups.
I worked these two stations on my IC 718, on 100w on 40Ms.
Can't wait for this weekend to try and work some more stations!

Happying Hamming!

They're Here!

My 20/40M dipole just arrived here at work. I can't wait to get home and open it up. I will have to take some measurements to night and tomorrow run by the hobby shop and get some coax for feed line.
Still waiting on the 10M but I really wanted this 20/40M sooner. My random wire antenna hasn't been working too well. I didn't even try it last night, was just too tired when I got home from work and cut the grass and trimmed the dog and such.
But tonight I will certainly be prepping things for hooking up the antenna tomorrow.
Bonus! I'm off tomorrow!