This weekend was a special (event) weekend here at KB6NU. It all started out by working K2I (NJ) and K2A (NY) Friday evening as part of the 13 Colonies Special Event. I had participated in this event before, but never worked very hard at it, and as a result, always failed to work all 13 colonies.
This year was different, though. This year, I was determined to work all of them, and by Saturday afternoon, using a combination of phone and CW contacts, I had.
I kept going, though. I had already worked several of the stations on both phone and CW, so I figured that if I kept at it, I probably could work all of them on both phone and CW. When I called it quits on Saturday evening, I needed only seven contacts—four on phone and three on CW—to complete the dual clean sweep.
I picked up a couple more Sunday morning, then went to visit my in-laws. When I returned later in the evening, I settled in to finish off the clean sweeps. An hour and a half later, at 0318Z, I worked K2D (CT) on 75m phone, completing the job.
Overall, I’d guess that I spent about six hours accomplishing this task, and it was great fun. Thanks to all the operators that worked the K2* stations.
Here are a few observations:
- The event has become very popular. Some of the stations generated huge pileups, especially when they first came on the air. Generally, I joined the pileups, but if I failed to make contact after a couple of calls, I tuned around for other stations that I needed, then came back after a half hour or so. That strategy worked a couple of times—when I returned, the pileup was a lot smaller and it was easier to get through. Sometimes, though, there was still a huge pileup.
- Some of the K2* operators were really good. Some weren’t. This isn’t a big complaint, but the phone operators should be advised to call by call areas when there is a big pileup. Several of the guys did this when they were innundated with stations calling, and it made a lot easier for them and for the guys trying to make contact with them.
- None of the CW stations that I contacted worked split, even when there was a big pileup. I know that split operation might not be a skill that many ops are familiar with, but many W1AW/p operators, including me, used it and it really is the way to go to efficiently work CW pileups.
- I discovered a new DXSummit.fi feature that really helped me. I don’t know why I didn’t know about this until just now, but you can search the spots on DXSummit by callsign. This was especially useful as I was getting down to the last few K2* stations. I guess that you can also include mode in the search, but I didn’t take the time to figure out how to do that.
But, wait! There’s more!
Saturday afternoon, while searching for the 13 Colonies stations, I ran across three other special event stations, including two NPOTA stations:
- K4RC operating from TR23, Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail.
- W3GKN, operating from the Gettysburg National Military Park.
- W1G, also operating from Gettysburg. This appears to be a labor of love by Bob, WO4L, and an attractive certificate that includes the text of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is available. Bob will be operating until July 10, so there’s still plenty of time to work W1G.
Special events are just that. Thanks to all the operators who made my weekend special.