This is an image my son Isaiah built for me in Mindcraft.
I participated in my first contests for the year. It was the British Columbia, Minnesota, and Vermont QSO Parties. I only had contacts on Saturday. 20 meters was not working well to BC. I had 8 contacts with BC, 19 contacts to Minnesota (3 on 40 meters, the rest on 20 meters, good enough for the cert below), and 3 to Vermont.
My soapbox comment made it into the BC QSO Party Report: Wish I could have heard more of the great hams of BC. The band was too long for 20m and 40m and 80m weren't too cooperative. K1LOK
I participated in the ARRL International DX Contest. I worked from at home, and in the field at the nearby junior high school. I had 20 contacts total in three continents. My farthest was ZW5B on 20 meters in Brazil.
I participated in these three QSO parties. I had a 20 meter contact with Idaho, which meant the band was really short at that time. Most of my contacts were on 20 and 40 with just one on 80 to Idaho.
Highest Score from Utah, Wisconsin QSO Party
Certificate from the Idaho QSO Party
I think I like this one better than the ARRL DX contest. I had a total of 47 contacts. 19 were in the continental US, all on 20 meters. I had contacts in Africa, Europe, North America, South America and Australia. The contact with VK4KW in Australia was my first with that country and also my furthest ever at 12387 km (7697 mi). That was on the 15 meter band. In fact, 15 meters was working really well. 10 of my contacts were on 15 meters.
Portable setup for the CQ World Wide WPX contest near my home QTH DN40cj
The SPDX is a contest out of Poland. The band was not working there on Saturday. However, for the last half hour of the contest, I was able to make 2 contacts. The furthers was SO9I at 8783 km Between Wroclaw (Breslau) and Krakau. I had two contacts in to Louisiana and six to Mississippi. All contacts for these contests were on 20 meters.
I operated an amateur radio station on battery power at Fluke Calibration in American Fork for the Great Utah Shakeout. It was operated just as if we had lost power, and cell phone service was impeded. The equipment included a VHF radio with a J-pole antenna and a HF radio with a dipole antenna. All operations were done outside.
A total of 7 contacts were logged. This included checking into the Skyline Net in Sanpete County on the 146.66 repeater from my QTH in American Fork. I also did some work on HF. I checked into 4 nets with net controls in Oregon, Washington (x2) and Colorado, all on 40 meters. I also had a QSO with a station in Oklahoma on 20 meters. I passed a traffic message to AJ7M in Everett, Washington.
That evening I checked into the Utah RACES Net.
| Time | Freq | Mode | Call | Dist / km | Dist / mi | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:23 | 146.66- | FM | KB7K | 118 | 73 | Skyline Net |
| 10:36 | 7.2835 | SSB | N7LRA | 1159 | 720 | Noontime Net |
| 11:39 | 7.24 | SSB | N7GES | 570 | 354 | High Noon Net |
| 11:51 | 14.305 | SSB | KE5MXF | 1400 | 870 | Oklahoma |
| 12:32 | 7.272 | SSB | W7ARR | 865 | 538 | Beehive Utah Net |
| 12:35 | 146.62- | FM | N7IE | 47 | 29 | Message #1 |
| 13:03 | 7.204 | SSB | WA7DUH | 891 | 554 | Jefferson Noon Net |
| 20:56 | 147.12+ | FM | N7GTE | 44 | 27 | Utah RACES Net |
Portable battery power from DN40ci for the Great Utah Shakeout
The 20 meter band wasn't too good and I only operated for 2 hours. I had 5 QSOs with Michigan and 1 with Ontario.
This year I went with the Skyline Radio Club to their normal location up Ephraim Canyon (DM49gh). I camped out overnight Friday and had fun making 20 meter contacts in Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic.