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Click for more detail... ATTENTION ALL AMATEURS: It has come to my attention that the ARRL has eliminated the Assisted class from the EME Contest. This is a very bad decision in that it severely drops the efficiency of the smaller stations, and in a lot of cases will wipe them out completely. For more information please view my blog here: http://www.kc8qvo.com/2009/08/mistake-by-arrl-eliminated-assisted.html I urge you to write to the ARRL and notify them that their decision was bad. It essentially goes against what the League stands for. Sincerely, Steve D'Amico KC8QVO \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ kc8qvo [a.t.] yahoo [d.o.t.] com ATTENTION EVERYONE Please DO NOT send E-QSL's. I will not respond to them. If you are QSLing for my VE3 operation PLEASE send me an SASE. I logged 8 pages of QSO's this year. If I send cards out to everyone that will add up to a lot of money. F.I.S.T.S # 9411 SKCC #5666 The picture is of my 2009 operating position in EN39 - that is the inside of the main cabin looking South down Sabaskong Bay. ----------------------VE3/KC8QVO in EN39ad------------------ My family's island out on Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Canada is where I operate from.
2009 trip info: This year's trip is done! We left Thursday June 25th. I had a radio and a buddistick antenna running on 6m until about 20 minutes before hit the boat. Flipping the rig off the last time was pretty tough, I had a lot of fun! I didn't work as many band openings as I wanted to. I got two real good openings with thick pile-ups. The other contacts I made I had to work pretty hard for - CQ's for what seemed like hours on end and then QSB that shot down a few QSO's. If 6m just opened real nice and stayed open that would have been awesome, but they don't call 6m the magic band for nothing... I did put up all 3 bands. At times when the bands were dead and I was just repeating CQ's I ran 6m on my FT-857D and 2m on my TS-2000. Both rigs do 100w on those bands that is why I did it that way. Then I hit the PTT on both rigs and used two mics so I put out my CQ's on both bands at the same time. I never had anyone answer a CQ on 2m. I worked a guy south of me a couple squares on 6 and thought we could make it on 2 so we tried and got right through. That was my only 2m QSO the whole time. 432 had no activity at all. QSL information - send a SASE to my posted adress and I will gladly get a special card out to you. It will be made from pictures taken during the trip as was last year's (the picture here is the front side and the antenna array/cabin from out on the lake is on the back). NOTE: NO SASE, NO CARD I have been busy recently and have not paid much attention to my QSL'ing. Bare with me here. I have more SASE's. I will hopefully get some more cards printed up so I can reply to them. (Sept. 8) I have sent cards to the following: AA5AM, KS4YX, K4PI, N9DI, AF4MW, K5RLA, W4HLR, KE5K, WA2KBZ, K0XXX, N4LI, W5THT, NJ7A, W7KNT Batch headed out tomorrow: I have SASE's from the following: KG4RWO, W9DRB, NJ5O If your call is not listed above I have not received anything in the mail from you as of 9/8/09 If you are QSL'ing from 2005 or before: I had the grid wrong in those early years. The grid is EN39, not EN29. I appologise for any inconvenience. I am only a few hundred feet inside EN39 and the map I used to find the grid was not detailed enough to tell me that. I figured out the right grid once I had a GPS HI. PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK THE DATE OF OUR QSO. I have had a couple cases now of dates not matching up with what I have in my log. IF YOU LOGGED A QSO, SENT ME AN SASE, AND DO NOT RECEIVE A CARD WITHIN A REASONABLE TIME (SAY A WEEK) AFTER THE CARDS GO OUT, E-MAIL ME. I have had a couple cases of SASE's getting lost in the mail or put in never-never-land on the desk somewhere. Please let me know if you haven't received a card so I can make sure to get one to you. Here is a link to my photobucket site for pictures of 2007's trip: http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o117/KC8QVO/EN39/ Equipment: Kenwood TS-2000, FT-857D, RCI-5054dx, Hustler 5BTV antenna (80, 40, 20, 15, 10 meters, maybe 30/17/12 also), Cushcraft A50-5S 5 element 6 meters, Cushcraft 13B2 13 element 2 meters, M2 440-21ATV 21 element 70cm, Yaesu G-800SA rotator on home made mast bracket, Masts - 20 feet surplus aluminum tent poles for lower mast and 18 feet 3 section telescoping upper mast Coax is WireMan 106 "super 8" for 6m and 2m, Heliax LDF4-50A for 70cm. -----------------------------------------------------------------
Current home station: Current mobile station:
I finnished my first log book 8/19/07! I have been logging QSO's since June 1, 2002. The only reason I started then is because I found a 10m linked repeater in Dayton (146.985) and was making some contacts on 10m FM across the country and in to Europe. That was before I upgraded to General. Some QSO's in my log are on EchoLink, which now, looking back at it... I wish I didn't put in there. Since I can get on HF now EchoLink really doesn't appeal to me - it is not ham radio, its the internet. My first HF contact under my General ticket was W5NN on 8/17/02 on 20 meter USB. I have in the log that it was a contest, Im not sure which one. My first HF CW contact was on 9/12/02 with W0ZQJ, also on 20 meters. Its been a LOT of fun! The magic is still there, as strong as ever. I just wish all the sun spots would cooperate. I see my station like I see technology - never finnished, it always advances. Something new is always just around the corner. Therefore, my station will never be complete. You can NEVER have too many radios and related gear! **I operate from both Dayton, OH (EM79, Montgomery County) and Columbus, OH(EN80, Franklin County).** VHF/UHF contesting - Operated KC8JPZ/R in 2007 June ARRL VHF contest with Jim, KC8JPZ. Lots of fun! QRV QRP, QRPp, and QRO (up to 100w right now) CW (90%), SSB and Digitals QRPp with Kenwood TS-2000 - power reduced by carrier level, down to 50mw (carrier level on 1, 0 won't put out any signal) SETI League member You can catch me on QRP CW calling frequencies, mainly 40 and 30 meters (7.040, 10.106). If you call CQ, I will answer!!! I slow down to ANY code speed, for ANYONE on ANY band I am QRV HF-6M digital - QPSK, BPSK, MFSK16, Hellschreiber, MT63, WSJT, and a few others. Skeds welcome! I have all HF capabilities, 6M, 2m, 70cm all modes. TARHEEL SCREWDIVER ANTENNAS ARE THE BEST!! I own a model 200 and love it!!! ( http://www.tarheelantennas.com ) This one is installed on the truck and has netted me Japan on 17m CW, as well as all over Europe and South America. Current operating equptment list: HF Rigs Main : Kenwood TS-2000, Secondary: Icom IC-718; Mobile/portable/grab'n'go backpack rig - FT-857D (used in the truck for 90% of my radio time these days) HF antennas: Attic 40m dipole (also loaded as a T against a counterpoise), hidden random wire (1/4w on 80) fed with short coax to tuner and gutter system counterpoise all bands, 80-6m screwdriver; horizontal loop wrapped around attic perimeter inside fed with ladder line to the tuner HF impedance matchers: Main - Palstar AT1500CV, Secondary - MFJ 971 SWR meter: Mighty-Fine-Junk 864 tuned to meter QRP; Cables: Many assortments of RG-8x, RG-8, as well as 1/2" and 1/4" Heliax. Equiptment not being used: 6m All Mode: Ranger RCI-5054dx; 6m beam: Cushcraft A50-5s; 2m beam: Cushcraft 13b2; 70cm beam: M2 440-21ATV; Dual band beam: Cushcraft A270-10s; Masts: Surplus tent poles, 1 30' telescoping mast, 1 18' telescoping mast; several hundred feet of RG-8 and RG-8x coax; tons of wire antennas; 160m rx gear: K9AY loop, ICE preamp I really enjoy ham radio. I like to experament with different antennas and I have built several dipoles, quarter wave verticals, and attempted to build a few yagis. I built a tape measure 3 element yagi for ARDF on 2 meters and it works real well (http://home.att.net/~jleggio/projects/rdf/tape_bm.htm). I even got one of my younger friends interested and he is now KC8UIJ (general). I like CW, but I am not very good at recieving. I used a morse code decoding program for the computer pretty much up until I got my Extra in December 07 and ran around 20-30wpm. I know that is cheating and that has always bothered me. So, out went the computer all together and I am running CW the way you are supposed to. I have slowed down to about 13wpm (15-20 character speed spaced out), but I am getting better! I have to say, being able to hear what someone is saying in Morse code is a very powerful feeling. Even though I am going much slower than I used to with the computer it feels 100 times better! One day I hope to be able to carry on a conversatioin somewhere around 30wpm. As of right now (September 09) I have been running CW without a decoder at all - even Field Day and the Ohio QSO Party. I passed my code test by a fraction when I got my General back in 2001. The air conditioner kicked on in the middle of my first attempt and I totally lost copy of everything I was hearing. I wasn't doing too good in the first place, the AC just demolished my chances. Ham radio is a very interesting hobby. I have had a lot of fun with it so far, I also have a lot more fun to have in the future with it! Ham radio will be my biggest lifelong hobby. I got into ham radio a fairly interesting way, but thats a nother story! Lets just say I was trying to do something else and "accedently" stumbled upon something "much bigger and better than I had imagined". I am interested in engineering, design, and building things. I have been around electronics and a do-it-yourself type father all my life, so I know a lot about a lot. I went to Sinclair Community College for 2 years on an engineering scholarship. Currently I am at the Ohio State University. My major is Technology Education and minor is Agricultural Systems Management. My goal is to get in to the Precision Agriculture industry as I want to get out of the city and agriculture is a good way to do it! I have also taken some Photography classes. Right now I have a Canon S2-IS and a Nikon N70 w/Tamron 28-300 lense. I took a b/w film course spring 08 and shot a Nikon N80 and Tamron 28-300 lense. Fun stuff! I am IPC and PACE certified for hand soldering, got that through the High Reliablilty Soldering course at Sinclair. 73 DE KC8QVO Last modified: Wed Sep 16 11:49:02 2009 Does this page contain inappropriate content? If so, Report this page... |
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