I”m certainly no history scholar, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this time of year is a good one for independence struggles. Our own Independence Day is, of course, celebrated on July 4, even though I recently learned that the Continental Congress actually decided to declare independence on July 2, and Samuel Adams always thought that it should be celebrated on that date. Canada Day, the day they celebrate their independence is on July 1, and Venezuelan Independence Day is on July 6.
These events are being celebrated by amateur operators in these countries by either special operating events or contests.
U.S. independence is being commemorated with the Thirteen Colonies Special Event. Since I’m mostly a CW operator, it’s more difficult for me to work all thirteen than it is for the phone ops, but even so, this year I bagged six of them. K2H was actually QSO #13,000 in my computer log.
On Monday, July 1, I got sucked into operating the RAC Canada Day contest. This year, I made 59 contacts in an hour and a half, and quit when my score exceeded 1,000. (My final score was 1,032.)
Tonight, I got sucked into the Independence of Venezuela contest, when I first the first station, 4M5IR on 7027 kHz. Not hearing any other YV stations on CW, I actually went up to the phone band and worked some stations on SSB. After working five on phone, I did manage to work another on CW, so I’m up to seven at this point. It’s getting late, though, and I might just call it a night after I finish this blog post. Seven is respectable, I think.
LOTW update
This afternoon, I uploaded my contacts from the last three months. The file was processed pretty quickly, and I was please to find that I’ve added two more entities to my DXCC total. I’m now at 120 total, with 117 on CW. On 30m, my best band, I’m up to 88 total confirmed.
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