With Christmas coming around the corner that also means a new year is set to dawn. Ham radio wise it has been an interesting year. Since April when I got my TS120 I have managed 346 contacts. The bulk on 20M but, the other bands have also been equally interesting to work. It should be noted that the QSO rate is really much higher when contests are added in but, I am not adding them in, although some contacts received on EQSL are contest related and they are counted in but, as regular QSO's only. Confused, put it this way the actual contest logs are not counted but, there is a mix of regular and contest QSOs in the regular log. There that should clarify things a bit more. When the contest Season ends, which for me is Field Day 2011 I will probably upload those stats at that time.Speaking of contests I just submitted my log for the RAC Winter Contest. 40 contacts not a lot then again not bad for me. In general I am trying to work a contest each month. The nice thing is that the call is getting noticed by other ops during the tests, for me a good sign as I want to establish myself among those in the contest community with a solid reputation as a strong competitor. I have yet to win one under the VA2UTC call but, I hope I will soon.
On the QSL side of things I have worked many countries that should be easy to get cards from but, have not gotten cards back from as of yet. It seems that electronic QSLing has not taken off as it was supposed to. However I have to say that the response is not horrid. To date 135 contacts have been confirmed. That is 38% give or take a point. No
t bad really of course getting some rare ones in would be nice like the HV0A contact I got 2 months ago. Hey the Vatican is a big deal you know. I have also worked some spec event stations and a couple of stations in Greenland. I dug out a card from the IRB days. The EQSL comes from a contact via VK3UR remote base out of Ballarat Australia. The base has since gone off the air but, man did I have fun with it. The card to the right is one of the nicer ones I have in the collection from those days. I do have to admit that I miss the rem ops but, having an HF rig on the air makes up for it big time. Speaking of DX look for BV100 a special call issued by China to celebrate Taiwan's 100Th birthday. The station will be active until the end of 2011.Speaking of stations, a refit of VA2UTC is coming. My goal in the spring will be to add to the station. HF wise, I am looking to add the FT450AT to the lineup I am also hoping I can put an amp and raise the antenna up higher, I may also add an external auto tuner. My dream station would be FT450AT, TS120, which I have already, TS130, TS440 and VHF/UHF base with the antenna up at 30FT. Shhh don't tell my XYL yet, I promised her more snowmen figures, her Mary Kay and candles. So I kinda have to deliver on those before I can spruce the shack up.
73, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year DE VA2UTC Cliff
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