Operating Notes: Saturday, September 19, 2009

I had kind of a busy day operating today and made some great contacts, so I thought I’d write a bit about them.

I got to WA2HOM this morning about 11 am and fired up the rig. 40m was in fine shape, and I made several CW contacts in quick succession. Then, for some reason, I got it into my head to see what was happening on phone. Tuning up to 7215, I heard a KF4 working the SC QSO Party and worked him. I tuned around a bit and heard another, so I worked him, too. I thought I’d try to see how many SC contacts I could log, but after tuning around a bit, I couldn’t find any others, so I kept tuning.

It was then that I ran across W4CA, operating from near the Buena Vista exit of the Blue Ridge Parkway. He and a bunch of other stations were operating the Blue Ridge Bonanza. I worked this special event either last year or the year before and had a blast doing it. The stations in VA all use the callsign W4CA, while the stations in NC use the callsign W4NC. I have bicycled several segments of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and it’s just a wonderful ride.

While I don’t bicycle much anymore, I still have it in the back of my mind to do the entire Parkway one of these days. I used to figure that I could do it in seven days, but since I haven’t biked much at all since getting back into ham radio, I rather doubt I could accomplish that now.

I also worked another special event station, W1ORS, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Sikorsky VS-300 helicopter, America’s first practical helicopter.

About 1:30pm, Stuart, KD8LWR, and his mother visited the station. Stuart is the guy who visited the ARROW Field Day site this June. Since then, he’s gotten his ticket, and is now KD8LWR. We’re still working on getting him set up with an HF station at home, but aren’t quite there yet. Stuart was able to make four or five contacts, then he and his mother had to leave. I buttoned up the station and headed home myself.

This evening, I decided that I hadn’t had enough for one day and headed down to my shack. I made a couple of contacts on 40m, but then decided to see what was going on on 30m. I should have tuned up sooner. 30m was really hopping with DX.

I first work OQ5M, Franki. Franki is a regular reader of this blog (thanks, Franki!). Next, I had a nice QSO with Romeo, IK2DJV (see QSL card below). I looked him up on QRZ.Com, so I knew that he spoke English, and we had a nice chat. Doesn’t Varese look like a great place to visit?

After signing with Romeo, I called CQ a couple of times, without an answer. Since I wasn’t having any luck, I decided I’d better clean my bowling ball. Whilst doing that, I left the radio tuned to 10114. After a couple of minutes, I heard VK6HD call CQ. That was a stroke of luck. I was the first to call him and he heard me right off. What a cool way to end a full day of operating.