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I was able to have a quick lunchtime QSO with W8NZW, Ed from Grand Rapids, MI. A real A-1 operator. I wish I had more time to chat with him.

Copyright © 2006 Robert Alexander Wallace W1MQV / W1HH

Oh, I’m winning the war with a telegraph key,
Thought I as I finished a “stack”.
I hope this is not all the action I see
Just wearing my pants out in back.
I idly shuffle the blanks in my hand
And glance at the five letter groups.
I think of my brother in far foreign land
Fighting up front with the troops.
I check with my watch – where the heck’s my R.J.?
I’m getting as hungry as sin.
An eight hour trick is enough for the day,
And I’m practically deaf from the din.
The “trick chief” gets up from the teletype chair
And says that he has one for me.
“Get your key oiled up, get that rig on the air,
Here’s a honey – a long one O.P.”
My relief gets a curse on his unknowing head
For his tardiness costs me my chow.
And this is a hell of a time for a sked,
The net’s QJZ about now.
But I slip on the cans and I rattle the key
And the rig is again on the air.
I give with the dits and the dahs just to see
If the station I’m calling is there.
A couple of calls and he sends “QRU?”
So I tell him I have an “O.P.”
He sends me a “K” and I start a tattoo –
Pounding brass on my telegraph key!
I pass the first fifty, then wait for an sec,
While he starts the next block on the sheet.
I’ve found if you don’t make an op break his neck
You get fewer requests to repeat.
A hundred, and fifty, and then fifty more.
She’s long, I’ve a thousand to go.
My head’s getting tired, my wrist’s getting sore.
Can’t use “bug” for this guy is too slow.
I’m passing a thousand, my fist is near beat,
Do I want an R.J. from T.C.?
Not a chance, Chief, you know once my sign’s on the sheet
No one’s sending that message but me.
We finally clear and I send him “AR”
And get one from him with his “ack”.
The look that I give my relief leaves a scar
As I grab for my hat on the rack.

Later:

I read how a shipment of arms saved a corps
Because it arrived there in time.
The corps that it saved was my brother’s. What’s more,
The message that sent it was mine!
Oh, I’m fighting the war with a telegraph key
But as long as they want me I’ll stay.
It may not be combat but now I can see
How a message can help save the day.
_______________________________________________

The above was written just after the “Battle of the Bulge” in 1944.

Glossary: Ack = acknowledgement
AR = End of transmission
Bug = semiautomatic telegraph key
O.P. = Operational Priority
K = Invitation to transmit
R.J. = relief operator
QJZ = on stand by
QRU = Have you traffic for me?
T.C. = trick chief

[From eHam: http://www.eham.net/articles/15064]

I now have the contacts for DXCC, time to get the QSL cards. My focus during the CQ WW DX Contest was to work those DXCC entities that I had not yet worked. Here’s the results:

67 logged QSOs

DXCC Entity	Callsign	Band
Aland Is.	OH0X	20
Antigua & Barbuda	V26B	15
Argentina	LR2F	15
Argentina	LT1F	20
Aruba	P40W	15
Aruba	P40A	20
Australia	VK4CZ	20
Azores	CU2/OH1VR	15
Azores	CU2A	20
Azores	CU2DX	80
Barbados	8P2K	20
Bonaire, Curacao	PJ2T	10
Bonaire, Curacao	PJ2T	15
Bonaire, Curacao	PJ2T	20
Bonaire, Curacao	PJ4E	40
Bonaire, Curacao	PJ2T	80
Brazil	PY2YU	10
Brazil	PP5NW	20
Canada	VE7SV	10
Canary Is.	EA8AH	15
Dominican Republic	HI3TEJ	20
Ecuador	HC1JQ	20
Finland	OH8A	20
Grenada	J3A	15
Grenada	J3A	20
Guadeloupe	FG5JK	15
Guyana	8R1EA	15
Hawaii	KH7U	15
Hawaii	NH6JC	15
Honduras	HQ9R	15
Iceland	TF4M	20
Ireland	EI7M	20
Ireland	EI7M	20
Isle of Man	MD4K	20
Jamaica	6Y1V	15
Jamaica	6Y1V	20
Kaliningrad	RK2FWA	20
Liechtenstein	HB0/HB9AON	20
Macedonia	Z35T	20
Madeira Is.	CT9L	20
Madeira Is.	CQ9T	20
Madeira Is.	CT3YA	80
Madeira Is.	CQ9T	80
Martinique	FM/K9NW	15
Moldova	ER0ND	20
Montserrat	VP2MHX	15
Montserrat	VP2MDY	15
Morocco	CN3A	15
Morocco	CN2ZR	20
Morocco	CN2R	80
New Zealand	ZL6QH	40
Nicaragua	YN2EJ	20
Paraguay	ZP5MAL	20
Peru	OA4WW	15
Portugal	CS2P	40
Revillagigedo	XF4DL	15
Revillagigedo	XF4DL	15
Scotland	GM2T	20
Trinidad & Tobago	9Y4NZ	20
Turks & Caicos Is.	VP5DX	20
Turks & Caicos Is.	VP5T	20
Uruguay	CX5BW	15
USA	WD8RTW	30
Venezuela	YV4A	20
Virgin Is.	NP2KW	15
Virgin Is.	WP2Z	20
Virgin Is.	NP2B	80
Wales	GW4BLE	40

Highlights include QSOs with Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Morocco.

Also plenty of contacts with places that I previously had no idea where they where: Aland Island, Guadeloupe, Madeira Island, Martinique, Montserrat, and Revillagigedo.

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: AD7MI
Operator(s): AD7MI
Station: AD7MI

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Hampton, VA
Operating Time (hrs): 8

Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
——————————
160: 0 0 0
80: 6 4 5
40: 4 4 4
20: 31 13 29
15: 21 10 19
10: 3 2 3
——————————
Total: 65 33 60 Total Score = 6,031

I snuck in a quick CW QSO before work with Kerry, K5KS, on 80M. 80M was pretty rough. I was able to understand that he was in TX and after a repeat I got his name. But we wrapped up the QSO after that.

I had two short contacts during lunch on Wednesday. The first was with a station in Slovak Republic and the second was with a station in Croatia. Both gave me good signal reports. I also believe that the Slovak Republic is a new country for me.

I’ve started to try and count up my DXCC contacts – and it looks like I have maybe 60. Which is kind of dissapointing. Lots more work to try and reach 100.

When I got home last night, I tied my feedline off to the rain gutter above the radioshack window which raises it off the ground between the house and the tree where the center point and feedline are at. This will ensure no one trips over the feedline.

I didn’t get on the radio last night.

At lunch I was able to work a station on 15M from Pisa, Italy, IK5MEJ. I noticed some SWR issues on that band as well as 17M. But the contact went through.

Shortly after dinner I was tuning around a found CE/VE7SV from Chile operating on 20M. There was a bit of a pile up, but I was still able to work him fairly easily. I think this is my first contact with Chile. I then jumped up to 17M and was able to work Javier, XE2EX, operating from Ensenada, Mexico. This is my second contact with Mexico, but first Phone contact. The final DX contact was with Larry, V31LL, also on 17M and oeprating from Belize. A nice solid contact and Belize is a new country for me.

Just before bed, I jumped on the radio to get in a CW QSO. I heard KB2MBC calling CQ – I replied and he came back to me right away. It was Bill in NY, who I’ve talked to twice before. We exchanged RST (599 on both sides) and then commenced a 40 minute slow speed CW ragchew. Bill told me that it was currently raining and windy were he was at and was worried about his antenna comming down in the wind. He also told me about all the snow Bufflo, NY had received a few days earlier. It was nice departing from the standard RST, name, QTH, rig, WX exchange to a more free flowing conversation. Needless to say, I really enjoyed our QSO.

From : K2JXW
Sent : Tuesday, October 17, 2006 1:30 PM
Subject : K2JXW’s Hex Beam

A few have been asking about the new Hex Beam that I just installed. I purchased it from Trafie Technology (see web site at http://hexbeam.com and was able to assemble it in less than an hour from a sitting position in my WHEELCHAIR. Mine is a 20M monobander, but 5-band models are available, albeit a bit pricey ($900 or so). The construction is supurb — every part fit exactly and went together exactly as described. Light weight (a pound or so) and compact (9-ft turning radius), this thing went up easily on a 30-ft fiberglass mast, again whilst in my wheelchair.

Now, if you dont want to buy the commercial version, construction of an easy and cheap homebrew 5-band version is described at http://www.leoshoemaker.com/hexbeambyk4kio/general.html

C U on the air with a signal about 3 S-units stronger than previously.

73 from K2JXW and the
Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society,
with 1400 members and over 10,000
subscribers, the largest lighthouse
society of its kind in the world!

I jumped onto to 80M CW around 10pm eastern and received a reply to my CQ from Shawn, KB1CKT up in Sutton, NH. His initial reply to me was very strong, but on the second go around, his signal dropped down quite a bit. He said the same of my signal. So it ended up being a short QSO. I still was noticing that 80M had less noise than before. I’m also getting better at getting the callsigns on the first go around. I used to have to ask for a QRZ but am lately getting the callsigns right away. I still have a lot of work to do, but it is encouraging to know I am slowly improving my CW skills.

Instead of trying to knock out a quick CW QSO, I decided I’d try to tune around 20M to see if the new antenna was picking up any DX. I was rewarded with a brief QSO SSB with Mike, RX6AM. I believe that was my first SSB contact with Russia, up to now I’ve only had a few confirmed PSK31 QSOs. The next station I heard was Abdula, 9K2GS from Kuwait! That marks a first – up to now, I’d never heard an amateur station from the middle east. I was unsuccessful in breaking the pileup and had to head back to work. All this is helping to build my confidence in the new antenna.