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Greetings in the New Year. I hope everyone had an enjoyable time over the holiday season. I had great plans to use my FT-107 (30 year old radio) for straight key night, but during initial tests, discoverer that had a chirp and drift. (gotta either move or get my address changed). Also found the problem in my FT-857 on receive audio. Common occurrence with the FT-857 is the breakdown of the ceramic filter in the AM Filter. Found a replacement from Vertex Standard ($1.19) so now all I need to do is find someone to do the delicate work of installing it. I have 10 thumbs and do not have any experience with delicate soldering.
Since winter is about to set in (well, spring is just around the corner – er maybe around a few blocks –) and the weather is not conducive for antenna work; it is a good time to stay on the shack and do some operating. Maybe you want to try working all the states on a single band or all bands. Now is a good time to do it, especially on TEN since the sunspots have finally returned and the band is open. I am trying to complete 6 Band WAS.-CW. Need one on 80 (NV), 8 on 15 and 5 on 10. Maybe I will even try 6 meters to see what I can get. Have 16 states and 6 countries confirmed so I have a lot of work to do.
Or you can work on your DXCC. There is a lot of good DX on 10 meters. I have 161 countries confirmed (158 on CW) on Log Book of the World. If you don’t use LoTW, I would suggest that you sign up for it. It is a free service and you can get many QSOs confirmed for all different sorts of awards. If you need help getting your LoTW account set up, I would be glad to help you.
Thought I was in the running for Scott’s WATV award the other night. My wife’s TV quit working. Checked it out and could find nothing wrong so thought I would go out and check the dish – yep in the country satellite is the only option. Discovered the dish coated with a half inch of snow. Wiped it off and voila – TV worked again so still have to work on WATV. We only have the one and if I mess it up, I am in BIG trouble.
I hope you all get involved in the big plans DELARA has for this year. Field day is going to be really great this year due to the excellent endeavors of Sandy and Gary. The VE team is being set up and the club is going to be promoting amateur radio to get some of the younger generation involved in the hobby. Hopefully, we will be able to maintain our grasp on the club first place finish in the Ohio QSO Party and maybe even set a new record. And listen for K8H the second week of September. He should be racing toward the finish line. Also, don’t forget to look for contest on weekends. There are many on all the modes (CW, SSB, RTTY, PSK), both HF and VHF. Good way to amass states and countries for awards.
Hope to see you all at the club meetings and on the air.
73 and good DX Larry N9AUG
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