K3WWP's Diary

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 7:09 PM - Some feedback will take care of my diary entry for today.

First long-time visitor Chuck W8LQ says, "John..... I checked "Once a week or more" in your poll, but FWIW I'm here nightly, just before I check the Astronomy Picture of the Day. I'll bet there are many "regulars" that get their K3WWP fix almost every day. I get my daily CW booster shot right after you and APOD!! I'm sure your efforts are quite time consuming. With your varied interests it's surprising you have kept up for so long. We fans would feel lost without our Kittaning Komrade!!! Thanks for never calling your diary a "Blog"!! What a horrid word! Vy 73..... Chuck W8LQ"

And good friend and NAQCC member Dick K1IEE says, "Hi John Just want to pass a few comments about your web site. I check it Dailey. Your comments are extremely helpful and provides some comfort sharing things like sending QSL cards, the call sign system, operating techniques, band conditions and much more. I still do a paper log and look forward to reading how you kept track of QSO's made without a computer log. Making duplicate QSO"s and not knowing it really bothers me at times. Going digital is a big step for me and someday with some help I'll do it. So thanks for all that you write about it is very helpful. 73 K1IEE Dick"

Unfortunately I still haven't found the info I'm looking for, but since Dick and perhaps others who don't use computers will benefit from it, so I will continue my efforts to find it, and if I don't, I'll try to reconstruct it from memory, at least.

Paul N0NBD also had this to say about my latest trivia question, "Hello John, I did not cheat and look at Bing or Google and did not know the answer so I sent no response..... Hope all is well in PA. The weather has been great this spring so far. I have been doing some fishing and hooked a few nice ones. have a good one de Paul N0NBD"

I hope to get back to fishing again soon as soon as my back is back to 100% again. A lot of back's in that short sentence. -30-

Monday, May 14, 2012 7:15 PM - I didn't get a chance to look for the material I mentioned in yesterday's diary entry, so that will again be put off.

Back in the mid 1990s when I started this web site, it was one of the very few web sites relating to ham radio, and the number of visitors per day increased rapidly to the point where the average was just over 150 per day. There were seasonal variations as Internet activity waxed and waned with the weather, but that 150 average was pretty stable for several years. When Alltel changed to Windstream with a resultant change of URLs, the number of visitors dropped by some 33% or more to just under 100 per day. Ever since then except for occasional peaks, the 150 mark was not reached again. Currently the number is hovering just above 100 and seemingly slowly dropping off. That has caused me to think of making some changes in the web site, and I'm starting a short series of polls to help me decide what to do. I've just posted the first of those polls in the usual spot on the main page of the web site. I hope you'll take the tiny bit of time it takes to vote so you can help me with my decisions regarding the web site. Thanks. -30-

Sunday, May 13, 2012 10:56 PM - At the moment I am sitting here with Mike KC2EGL watching the first ever episode of Hogan's Heroes on DVD. We just finished a session chasing DX which was not as successful as our previous ones. I didn't work any DX, and Mike worked LY2J on 20 meters. My streak QSO was with K4RNV on 30 meters. Of course before that we had a pizza.

I did have what I thought was a new idea for the diary tonight. I was going to show how I kept track of who I worked when before computers came along, but I forgot where I had put the info I needed for 'show and tell'. Maybe tomorrow I can find it and put it in tomorrow's diary entry. -30-

Saturday, May 12, 2012 9:21 PM - Not even a guess to my trivia question. Mike took a look at it and he had no idea. He and I had a great time last night taking advantage of the superb clear sky to get in about 3 hours of stargazing. We looked at as many of the Messier objects as I could think of with the exception of the overabundance of galaxies in the Virgo and Coma Berenices galaxy clusters. Also about a dozen NGC objects that I could remember. Then of course the three visible planets, Venus, Mars, and Saturn. As many times as we've seen Saturn, it still brough expressions of delight to look at it again. Venus in its thick crescent phase was awe-inspiring also. Mars was also nice, if less spectacular. Then we examined several double stars including Castor, Gamma Leonis, and my favorite of all - blue and yellow Albireo.

Mike stayed overnight since our observing session lasted till well after midnight. Then this morning we spent a few more hours together mostly looking at astronomical things on the computer. The Voyager planetarium program I have features some great tours or 'settings' as they call them. They show events in the sky in the far distant past as well as in the future. There are too many to describe here, but I'll mention a couple of my favorites. One shows the sky back in 400,000+ BC when we had two bright pole stars - Aldebaran and Capella. Others show the times when one planet occulted another or when two planets were extremely close together as happened with Venus and Jupiter which were so close in 2 BC they looked like one object and many think that could have been the 'Christmas Star'. They also show spacecraft trajectories, comets, and as I said, just too much to list here. Voyager is a free program which is a somewhat limited version of their paid program (which I have) which costs somewhere around $100.00.

After we had something to eat at Wendy's and Mike headed home, I did some walking to enjoy another very beautiful day.

This evening I got an easy QSO from HP1/IZ6BRN on 20 meters, and hung around a while longer to also work KB6NU in MI on 30 meters. -30-

Friday, May 11, 2012 6:25 PM - Since Mike and I plan to do some stargazing later tonight, I think I'll get my diary entry done early.

I haven't presented a trivia question lately, so here goes. From what song by what artist is the following phrase: "whose one big ambition was to play second base". I'm sure you can find it by doing a Bing search on the Internet, but I'd like to know if anyone really knows the answer without doing any research. So let me know how you got the answer if you do.

Today was one of those days you'd like to bottle and have it available all 365 days of a year. Perfect blue skies with a few summertime cumulous clouds, just a light breeze, a temperature of 72-74 degrees, very low humidity - ideal! 9.5 miles on the pedometer so far tells the story. I got some nice pictures of the late blooming flowers and blossoming trees around town today. This is usually the time when a lot of flowers bloom and trees blossom, but with the very warm month of March and normal month of April, a lot of that has already taken place. -30-

Thursday, May 10, 2012 10:13 PM - I spent a lot of time writing today - our NAQCC newsletter - my QRP column for the next FISTS Keynote - answering a lot of emails - so I'm not going to write much here in the diary tonight.

My QSO this evening for the streak was with my friend Woody WD9F who answered my 40 meters QSO after a few minutes of calling.

It looks like if it is clear tomorrow night, Mike KC2EGL and I might do some stargazing which we haven't done for a while. -30-

Wednesday, May 09, 2012 9:39 PM - Just got home from a good computer club meeting and got a quick streak QSO from PR7AR on 20 meters. The bands seemed really good again in the 0100Z hour. The usual big pileups on 20 and 30. I guess from 706T and maybe the PY0F station. I didn't bother trying to see who it was since I could never have the patience to try to break that big a pileup. -30-

Tuesday, May 08, 2012 9:04 PM - A rainy day today with almost an inch and a half of rain totalling almost 2 inches since yesterday. I guess we really need it though, so no complaints. It did raise the river and made it muddy so I probably won't be fishing for a few days. Maybe I can get on the air during the day and finish the May NAQCC challenge by working a station from the W5, W6, and W7 call areas. I worked a W7 this evening, but he was in MA, not the W7 call area by any means. I also worked a bit more DX with a QSO from XE2MVY on 20 meters. Sounded like two separate huge pileups taking up most of 30 meters this evening - 7O6 and PY0F??? Just a guess as I didn't listen to see who the chasees were. Sure were a lot of chasers though. -30-

Monday, May 07, 2012 10:48 PM - Another fun day with Mike KC2EGL. He showed up late this afternoon for a scheduled visit. First of all we got all caught up on the NAQCC prizes. So if you've won something in any of our NAQCC events, you should be receiving your prize shortly. After that we went over to see my neighbor Nancy for a little while. Then one of our favorite activities - eating. We ordered two pizzas, one pepperoni and one sausage. After that we talked about and planned out a Messier Split Marathon. Since because of various reasons, it has been and is going to be, hard to do a full marathon in March, we've been thinking about doing it in two separate sessions a few months apart. That way we should be able to observe all 110 Messier objects well before midnight by splitting them up that way. We ran a simulation on the Microsoft World Wide Telescope and found it is very feasible to do it that way using a day in June and one in November. So we may just give it a try in the real world providing we can find clear nights when Mike doesn't have to work the next day.

Then we decided to give a go at working some DX on 20 meters as we did a couple nights ago. That turned out to be a lot of fun. We both worked the same 5 stations. I worked 4 of them first and Mike worked them right after me. The fifth he did first, then me. Here's the list:
E71A - Bosnia - 30 meters.
RP67R - Russia - 20 meters - our 3rd RP67 station worked.
OK4RQ - Czech Republic - 20 - Pavel.
RA9KY - Asiatic Russia - 20 - Nick.
R2KW- Kaliningrad - 20.

Mike enjoyed it a lot also. We both had a little trouble with the R2KW station getting our calls right, but he finally got mine. Then when it was Mike's turn to try, It took quite a while for him to get Mike's call right, but he finally got his also.

We also heard a Kazahkstan station. Mike hadn't worked Kazahkstan before so I gave him first shot, but the station just disappeared or signed off. There was also an Austrian station, and Mike wanted to work him. We waited for several minutes for the Austrian to finish his QSO, but then when he did, he said he was signing off for the night. So a couple of disappointments, but still a lot of fun. If you're around your shack in the 0100Z hour, be sure to check 20 meters. It has really been hot lately in that hour and maybe other times as well. -30-

Sunday, May 06, 2012 9:24 PM - My back was a little stiff again today so I didn't do a lot out of the ordinary computer work, walking, eating, etc.

I did want to mention that I received my NAQCC tee shirt yesterday, and they look really nice. If you are reading this and are a NAQCC member, I urge you to check out the NAQCC web site via the link above and take a look at the shirts pictured there. Then I hope you'll seriously consider purchasing one to wear anytime you get together with other hams to show your pride in the NAQCC and perhaps to recruit some new members for the club.

I worked someone this evening in the NEQP. I thought it ended earlier today, but I could be wrong. However he was the only station I heard calling CQ NEQP, so I don't know. Anyway, I later worked WB8AJR whom I will list as my streak QSO of the day. I listened a while on 20, and it was good again this evening, just like last night. I didn't really hear anything I needed though, so I passed on working what I was hearing to let others have their shot at working the stations. I heard one of the RP67 stations again. I'm guessing the 67 stands for 67 years since the end of World War II, but I haven't really had time to check for sure. I may do that after I post this entry, as I need to know just where in Russia they are located anyway. You used to be able to tell simply from the structure of the call sign just where in Russia the station is located, but just like the USA who ruined that system years ago, Russia has now done so as well. As Bob Dylan sang, "The Times They Are A'Changin'".

Mike is dropping by again tomorrow for a visit. We're going to get caught up on the NAQCC prizes, and who knows what else. Last night we wound up in an interesting discussion of the history of baseball teams, etc. So anything is possible tomorrow. It's nice to have a friend with whom you share so many varied interests. -30-

Saturday, May 05, 2012 11:43 PM - Mike KC2EGL dropped in for an impromptu visit this evening and we just closed out about a 4 1/2 hour visit. As you see from the time stamp on this entry, it is now quite late, so I'm not going to write a lengthy entry. We did have fun working some DX on 20 meters as it was in great shape till quite late. I worked RP67W and IQ0PG, and Mike also worked both of those. I also worked R0AA, 5B/RN3QO, RP67MC and K1GGI. I also had a nice rag chew type QSO with Leif SMDBU. That was a lot of fun. Now I've got to move on. More tomorrow. -30-

Friday, May 04, 2012 9:33 PM - My streak QSO this evening was with Liechtenstein - HB0/DL2SBY whom I worked easily on 20 meters while everyone else in the world was chasing 7O6T either on 20 or on 30. I can't recall the last time I've worked Liechtenstein as it is not all that common a country. I'm going to check and see just how many times I've worked it and when. Back in a minute.... OK, it's so easy with my Microsoft Access log, it didn't even take a minute.

I've had 19 QSOs with Liechtenstein including the latest one tonight. Every one was from a portable operation. I've never worked a native Liechtenstein ham. The first of the QSOs was back on June 22, 1994 when I worked HB0/DL8HWA on 30 meters. The last QSO before tonight was way back on November 3, 2001 when I worked HB0/HA6NL on 10 meters (remember 10 meters? HI). Only 4 of the 19 QSOs took place in a contest. -30-

Thursday, May 03, 2012 9:38 PM - I picked up another call area for the NAQCC May challenge tonight. NB1N was # 7, with W5, W6, and W7 yet to go. I don't work those areas too often in the 0000Z hour so I may have to juggle my schedule to complete the challenge. One member already completed the challenge. He lives in MN which means it is much easier since that is closer to the center of the country where both coasts and the rest of the USA are more easily worked, especially on 40 meters which seems to be the most popular CW band recently.

I also worked W0EA who was using a K3 and I got his serial number for the Elecraft CC award. He was going to switch to his K1 and give me that number also, but the band changed on us before we could make it. Anyway in my slow climb to the award, I'm at 17 numbers now.

Let's see, what else happened today. I went for some nice walks in our beautiful June type weather. It hit 90 degrees for the first time this year after almost making it back in March when we reached 88 degrees. It sure felt good. I also planted out my two tomato plants, the one with the inch plus tomato on it, and the one that looks like a dwarf tomato plant without even any buds on it yet. The two pepper plants went out also. One is about 10 inches tall, and the other which started much later in the same pot is about 4 inches tall. Hopefully tomorrow, I'm going to plant some bean seeds including some given to me by Ron K5DUZ which are Speckled Butter Beans, a type of Lima Bean according to Ron.

Right now, my washer just quit, and I've got to put the clothes in the dryer. Then I'll be back to close out this entry if I think of anything to add. I'm back and can't think of anything I haven't covered. -30-

Wednesday, May 02, 2012 10:20 AM - Here's an early morning follow-up on the March/April story. It did happen in Pittsburgh as well. That's the third time in 142 years of record that March was warmer than April there - 1907, 1946, and now 2012. The difference there was even slightly greater: March mean-51.5, April mean-50.4 for a 1.2 degree difference. That must really confuse the heck out of Algore and the global warming cult members. -30-

Tuesday, May 01, 2012 9:21 PM - Here's the lowdown on the March vs. April temperature competition. It boiled down to a close race with March taking the warmness prize by a nose. That's the first time ever in my 54 years of readings here. As I said a couple days ago it happened twice in 142 years of records at Pittsburgh. If it also happened there this year, it would be 3 times. I'll have to check the Pgh records later.

Anyway here it stacked up as follows:
March: Min-38.7, Max-64.8, Mean-51.7
April: Min-37.5, Max-64.3, Mean-50.9

So March was warmer as follows:
Min +1.2
Max +0.5
Mean +0.8

An early spring to remember, for sure. Meanwhile May started off the month today just about normal or slightly above. With a high of 78, it was a great day to be outdoors, and I took advantage with some walking (7.6 miles on the pedometer right now), a little work in the yard, and just sitting on the porch for awhile. That last is something I don't do very often as I'm not too fond of just sitting and doing nothing.

I'm expecting a call from Tom WY3H shortly, so I'll close this for now. -30-

Monday, April 30, 2012 9:18 PM - 30 meters this evening was like feeding time at the zoo after the animals hadn't been fed for a week. Everybody and his brother, sister, mother, father, cousins, etc. were chasing what I think I heard as 7O6T which I believe is Yemen? Without the 15+ kHz wide pileup, I think 7O6T was strong enough here for me to work, but against that pile-up? No way!

Instead I started on the NAQCC May challenge by working K9EEI for the 9th call area and K0TC for the 10th call area. Only 8 more to go now to master the challenge.

Also K0TC was using a K3 and I got his serial number to add to the list building (slowly) toward 100 S/Ns for the Elecraft CC award.

Other than that not much out of the ordinary today. I walked some 7.5 miles today and may go for another mile inside the house before I put the pedometer to bed for the night. I also got a good head start on all my end of month - first of month processing. Except for actually going to the bank in the morning and doing it, all the financial stuff is taken care of. I'll be entering April's weather records into the computer before long, and so forth.

Right now though I just remembered I need to call Tom WY3H to check to see if has gotten our NAQCC table reserved for the Butler hamfest in June. -30-

Sunday, April 29, 2012 9:08 PM - A pretty nice day today. Almost made it to 70 under mostly sunny skies. A good day for walking, and I did. Just under 10 miles on the pedometer as I type this. A very dry day too. I saw a humidity reading of 16% on the weather station I got a few weeks ago which I believe is the lowest I have seen in that time. The high humidity for the day though was 86% which occured during the night, probably toward dawn.

My QSO came pretty easy tonight when W3CUV in Erie, PA answered my CQ after just a few minutes, and Neal and I talked for 32 minutes. That's another rag chew QSO towards the Elecraft Rag Chew Award. I haven't been keeping track for a while now. I'll have to go back through my log and get that updated. It still amazes me how few Elecraft rigs I seem to work now since I started using my K2 here. It may take a long time to get the 100 Elecraft rig serial numbers for that award. And I still need Nebraska for the Elecraft WAS award.

I had a good time tonight when I got back from one of my walks. My new next-door neighbor (no, Nancy didn't move - this is on the other side) was outside with his 3 year old daughter who was riding her little tricycle. I hadn't really had much of a chance to talk with him, and we had a 'rag chew' for about a half hour while little Chloe was riding her trike. She's a real little doll, and seems very smart. -30-

Saturday, April 28, 2012 9:02 PM - I decided to get a quick QSO in the FL QSO Party for my streak QSO this evening, and I worked N4S on 40 meters. It was nice not to have to go looking for an O this evening for a change.

It was a chilly day again today with a low of 31 and a high of 47. More like March than April as we continue our reversal of months here. It will be interesting in a couple of days when the average for April can be computed to see if indeed April was colder than March. If it does turn out that way, it will be a very rare happening, although not unprecedented. It has never happened in my 53 years of records here starting in 1959. However in looking through the Pittsburgh historical records I find two years where March was warmer than April - 1907 March 46.2 April 43.8 and 1946 March 51.2 April 50.0. The Pittsburgh stats go back to 1871, some 141 years.

A couple of folks have asked about my back, so I'll report briefly here although I don't really like to talk about such things. I'm coming along pretty good and almost back to normal. A little stiff when getting up in the mornings, and improving all day till it is quite good late in the evening. Still it's quite discouraging to not be my usual active 100% always busy doing this or that. -30-

Friday, April 27, 2012 9:08 PM - As the title of the beautiful old Etta James song says - At Last. Yes, AT LAST I got my O to finish the NAQCC April Challenge. I heard K9OZ K on 40 and hoped that was the end of a CQ, so I waited a few seconds, and it was a CQ which he repeated, I answered and got a QSO with someone with an O in their call. So it wasn't quite as exciting a finish as last month when I had to get something like 3 letters on the very last day of the month.

Today was a pretty good day, weatherwise and for my back as well. At times today, I felt close to 100% again, but still not there consistently yet. I did take 3 medium length walks outside today which I think helped. Let's see, I have 7.5 miles on the pedometer and a good deal of that was outside, not just walking around the house.

Oh, before I worked K9OZ, my QSO for the day was with NAQCC member John N8QY who answered my CQ. That may have been the first time we worked outside one of our NAQCC sprints.

I also finished up and put on-line our latest issue of the NAQCC newsletter today. There's a very interesting article by G0EML about the history and evolution of keys. Although I've read a lot of key history info over the years, I found a couple new things in there I had not known. You're welcome to take a look at the newsletter, and if you're not a NAQCC member, this would be the ideal time to join. Go to http://naqcc.info/ and look in the Newsletter section. Oh, by the way, we just crossed the 6,000 member mark yesterday when KK4IAJ signed on. So if you join, you can help us get started on the way to 7,000 members. Mention you heard about it from K3WWP and we'll give you a half-price membership. HONEST! Regular membership is FREE, so we won't even lose anything in the deal. HI.

-30-

Thursday, April 26, 2012 9:40 PM - I got on the air sometime early this afternoon and tuned around the bands looking for that elusive O. Would you believe not only did I not find an O, but I didn't hear a single station anywhere on 40 through 12 meters - not one! What is happening?

There was more activity this evening, but why is it when I find a station with an O in the call, they always are in a never-ending long QSO. I never hear one calling CQ, and never get an answer from one. My QSO this evening came from Art K4TP, a ham for 65 years. I wonder if that's an original call. I didn't think to ask him. It's not his only call though, as he said he lived near here in PA over half a century ago.

Many years ago I was always in awe when I worked a 1X2 call as I knew it was a real veteran operator I was working. Then the FCC decided to mess up the licensing system, and now a call sign means absolutely nothing. You don't get any idea whether you're working an old-timer, or someone who just was licensed last year. You can't even get an idea of where the ham is from his call as you once could. Oh well, that's what they call progress, I guess. SIGH! -30-

Wednesday, April 25, 2012 9:09 PM - My back is getting back to normal now, and I took a couple medium length walks today.

Still looking for the O to finish the April NAQCC challenge. I'm just going to have to make time during the day to look for some DX with an O in their call. Not having much luck finding anyone in the evening. I did get my streak QSO fairly quickly this evening when Ed KK4BMB answered my CQ. When I heard the first part of the call, I thought maybe it was NAQCC member KK4BOB, but not so. -30-

Tuesday, April 24, 2012 8:59 PM - Not much to write about today. Except for going to vote in the PA primary election, I mostly just did computer work today.

My streak QSO took a bit of time to get this evening, but finally Doc NV4T answered my CQ, then as soon as we finished, Alan WB6THE called me. Sort of a BOGO deal, I guess. HI. -30-

Monday, April 23, 2012 9:23 PM - Let's start this entry with a picture of the big snow storm we had today. It was really something.

What's that? You don't see any snow? Funny, neither do I, yet the National Weather Service, AccuWeather, Intellicast, etc. all say there should be anywhere from 5 to 9 or more inches on the ground. Very strange indeed. I guess they all figure predicting a big snow and having it not happen is better than predicting no snow and getting dumped on.

Enough jabbing and kidding around. It was just one of those cases where the track of the storm is everything. We happened to lie on the Western edge of it, and in just the right position where we were in a little warmer sector so we got rain instead of snow. About .80 inches of rain which had we been in the cold regime, could indeed have produced 8 or 9 inches of very wet snow. So for a few degrees, all the weather forecasts were wrong - THANK GOODNESS.

At least you can see my recently painted thermometer shelter in the picture along with one of the recently painted posts. And the recently cleaned sundial although it doesn't show all that well in the picture.

Mike KC2EGL dropped by for a short visit today and we took care of a couple of NAQCC prizes and had a meal at Wendy's.

It took all of one CQ to get my QSO this evening when Rick KC4KNN answered me. Then after looking around for an O and not finding one, I decided to try a CQ again, and Ken WA8REI answered me for a short chat. -30-

Sunday, April 22, 2012 9:08 PM - That final O to complete the NAQCC April challenge continues to be elusive. I heard a friend of mine on 30 this evening who has an O in his call, but he was engaged in an interminable rag chew, and was still going when I had to QRT about an hour later. I also heard one other station with an O, but I worked him earlier in the month and used his letters already. In between searching and waiting for an O I made two QSOs for the streak - Daryll VE3LFN and Marty KW1C.

It looks like we're getting Winter here finally - some 4 months late. A Nor'easter is supposed to bring 5 to 8 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. But at this time of year it won't last more than a day or two at most as I said in yesterday's entry and repeat here tonight. I guess that's our payback for the very very warm snow-free winter from November through March.

The back is a little better today, and hopefully will be just a memory by Tuesday or so. -30-

Saturday, April 21, 2012 9:26 PM - This was not one of my better days. I had muscle spasms in my back. That's something I seem to get once every year or two since I had my back problems in the mid 90's. Anyway it was a miserable weather day also, so I didn't miss much by just hanging around indoors and resting and exercising.

It looks like winter might finally get here the next couple days with some forecasts predicting as much as six inches of snow mostly Sunday night and Monday morning due to a nor'easter storm. Anyway at this time of year, even if we get that much which is unlikely, it will all be gone in a couple days for sure.

I just got a quick QSO in the MIQP for my streak QSO. Never did look around for the O that I need to complete the NAQCC April challenge. Maybe tomorrow if my back feels better and the weather is as lousy as predicted. -30-

Friday, April 20, 2012 9:13 PM - Another fairly busy day today. I did some more painting in the back yard. Went fishing, but didn't get nary a nibble. Helped Ange resurrect the very last fig tree - one at one of his friend's house. Did some walking. Did a little sanding on my sundial that I built a few years ago preparing to re-finish it a bit.

Took a bit of time off to get on the air this afternoon to hunt for letters for the April NAQCC challenge. Worked CO6RD which gave me 2 Os and 2 Rs leaving me needing 4 letters for completion. Then this evening for my streak QSO I worked HA9RT which finished off the Hs and Rs leaving me needing 1 O for completion. Hopefully I can find an OK ON CO etc. station tomorrow sometime. I don't want to go down to the wire like I did last month.

I've said this before, but it bears repeating for those who haven't heard it. I find it helps a lot if you are having QRN problems to switch to another antenna for copying. Antennas have vastly different signal to noise ratios. I often can barely pull out a station on 40 meters using my attic random wire, but switching to my 10 meters dipole will pop the signal right out in the clear for easy copy. Give it a try, but don't forget to switch back to the correct antenna for transmitting. That often doesn't really make much of a difference though. I've worked some good DX using the 'wrong' antenna after forgetting to switch antennas when changing bands. -30-

Thursday, April 19, 2012 11:01 PM - I had one of those stem to stern busy days today, and I was going to go into a little detail about it here, but then I got involved in two long phone calls and here it is 11PM already and I'm just starting my washing so....

A brief summary of today. I painted my thermometer shelter this morning. Went fishing after I finished that and caught a 23 inch carpsucker which is #5 for the year - the earliest I've reached the 5 fish mark. Came home and fixed supper, then got my lawnmower from the neighbor who had borrowed it a few days ago and cut the grass in my back yard. Did a few other little chores until it was time to get my streak QSO(s) - got two KC2ZBZ and W4OGZ. The latter took me down to just needing 8 letters to finish the April NAQCC challenge. That brings me to the two phone calls and ends this diary entry.

-30-

Wednesday, April 18, 2012 4:03 PM - After a couple of glitches along the way, I received my Elecraft DX Chaser Award today.

I'm surprised that my award is only # 16 after the Elecraft rigs have been available for so long now. Either Elecraft owners aren't that interested in awards or perhaps they don't know about the several awards Elecraft issues for accomplishments using their products. Working 100 countries with my K2 at 5 watts only took a couple of months with 93 of the countries coming in the November CQWW DX contest.

I'm doing the diary entry early today since I mainly wanted to show off the Elecraft award. HI Otherwise I went for a couple walks and a shopping trip with Nancy so far today. I needed some ink for my printer, and she needed to take some things to a rummage sale so we helped each other out there. It's great when you have neighbors that you can help and who can also help you.

Now I think I'm going off for another walk. It's a nice although bit cool day today. Finally the wind has dies down somewhat. I thought it never would for awhile. It's not calm, but much better than it has been. -30-

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 9:33 PM - Tonight I'll present a little email exchange between Gust ON6KE and me.

ON6KE - "Morning John, I have a question; you're long enough in ham radio, just as I am. (Since 1974) In the old days before the internet it was turning the dial over and over again in search of the DX. I'm still very much into chasing DX, absolutely love it. I've LOST quite a lot of DX because of the internet hordes appearing within seconds after a spot, but on the other hand also worked really NICE DX because of the spots. My question to you is how you run into your DX, do you get alarms or monitor the clusters or do you still turn the dial in search of? Or do you do use the DX clusters and in the mean time on and on keep turning the dial? How often do you run into for you worthwhile or new DX that isn't spotted yet? In other words, is turning the dial paying off for you? 73, GUD DX."

K3WWP - "Hi Gust, Good question. I may discuss it in my diary sometime. I have 15,011 DX QSOs worked since I started my streak back in August of 1994. Of those, ONE QSO came from a spot - V51AS. A friend and I were talking on the phone and he mentioned V51AS was on such and such a frequency - 30 meters I think, and we were both just curious to know if I could work him. I did. The other 15,010 came from sitting down at the rig and tuning the bands. I believe working DX from spots is like going fishing into a very small overstocked pond - or - going hunting at a game preserve where the poor animals are paraded past to shoot. There is NO challenge in those two things, just like there is no challenge in using all the assistance including spots involved in working DX today. It's just an example of society in general where no one wants to work to earn anything. They want it all handed to them on a silver plate. Not me. If it is worth having, it is worth working for. That is just my opinion and the way I do it here."

ON6KE - "Thank you for your swift reply John. I can't agree more with you and I must admit that I should be paying more attention to finding the DX myself. I'm now even more than before impressed with what you achieved, 200+ countries 36 zones all QRP with low profile antennas without the clusters, I'm nothing less than in awe for you did. 73, good DX."

I thought that stated my feelings about the current state of ham radio in regard to DXing as well as the current state of society in general. I have always believed, and will always believe that anything worth having is worth working for - whether it be working a new DX entity, catching a 30 inch carp, getting enough money to buy a new computer, raising vegetables in my garden to make a tasty salad...... You get the picture. I've never taken a handout or gotten anything that I didn't earn in one way or another. I'm proud of that. -30-

Monday, April 16, 2012 9:13 PM - Another day today like yesterday. I played around with my weather station a while today, and while I was looking up some info on the Internet I ran into the following web site which explains that a good portion of the 1100 or so official weather stations around the USA are not up to current exposure standards, and are reading temperatures higher than they should. So I'm not alone here with my un-official station. It also shoots a big gaping hole in the "Global Warming" theory espoused by Algore and his liberal cronies. Here's the article. Looks like there are some other very interesting articles there as well that are right on target. I'm going back and read some when I have time.

Now I better get started on cross-checking our record-tying number of logs (135) and record number of QSOs (2,542) from last week's NAQCC sprint. Hope there aren't too many errors, or it's going to take a long time. -30-