I finally processed 7 months of incoming QSL cards for OQ5M. That’s 1014 QSOs confirmed, good for about 750 cards sent via globalQSL. So my card is finally heading your way! Glad I don’t need to print labels and stick ‘m. That’s the good news. The bad news is: I still have almost as many cards to process for my other calls (OO5ZO / ON5ZO). My current stock still counts a considerable pile of QSL cards so I’ll be printing labels until they run out. I hope to get that job done before the end of the year…
On my daily scan of the latest eHam reviews I saw a review for two NY guys (W2RE + WW2DX) owning a tower works company. There’s a video on the website (direct link) where W2RE shows off his three towers with multiple stacks. Very nice stuff that makes guys like me (and probably you too) drool. What struck me is that when W2RE shows his 10m stack he says "I can’t wait for ten meter to open up again".
That’s an observation I come across a lot these days. I read a lot of amateur radio pulp literature every day (blogs, 3830 comments, reflectors) and I think we’re all monitoring the SFI closely to see it climbing out of the "Propagational Valley of Death". Read last week’s WAE SSB comments on 3830 or look at the 15m numbers of the claimed scores… K3WWP even has a poll going: "So email me your guess as to what date you think I’ll post a SF number of 70 or above again. No prizes other than if you win, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you guessed better than everyone else.".
My on air activities are still very limited. I am waiting for better propagation too. Contesting on 28MHz. Working DX on 12m. I never had the chance to do that from here with reasonable antennas. Although I must admit that it’s starting to itch again. Any (CW) QSO is better than no QSO at all…