It’s been over 14 days since my last posting. Not a lot happened on the ham front and that’s the only thing I care to write about.
I did finish the installation of the KRX3 into the K3. It took 3-4 hours at an easy pace and it worked without any problems. Now the real question is: what am I going to do with the second receiver? I’ve never had access to this feature so I’ll need to look into that. I must express my amazement over the mechanical engineering of the K3 and all its options. Everything fits. And I take my hat off to the people editing the assembly instructions. It’s so clear and well documented, you just can’t go wrong. Superb rig, perfect design and customer care you can only dream of. I can’t wait to replace the remaining TS-850 with a new K3.
A couple of days after I finished the assembly I had to be in the shack to pick up some papers. I looked at the setup and I was really in the mood for some DXing. A split second later I thought: it’s in the middle of the afternoon – with these conditions, what are you going to work? And I went downstairs. Tree N6TR recently wrote on the CQ-Contest reflector: "Contesting is something that many hams find annoying". At least in contests there are hams to be worked. What else? Apart from the G’s and DL’s selling genuine BS on 40/80 SSB – that’s what I find annoying!
Last weekend I tried to play on 20m in the WPX RTTY contest but it went soooo sllloooooowww that I threw the towel. I’m not really an RTTY lover but I can take it for some time IF there is rate. There wasn’t any so I quit. I finally submitted my CQ 160 CW contacts as checklog. And there is some "QSL direct" to be replied to. A card from Nevada thanking me for the contest mults on 20m in both CQ WW’s last year. And I got a QSL from Vermont: "Almost DXCC on 30m now". Great! 30m is my own Magic Band. I love it so much. About eight years ago it was me sending off cards with a note like "TNX for new DXCC". How time flies when you’re having fun. You could have some fun then, working USA 24/7 on 20m and working K6 on 15m with a simple wire and barefoot rigs. Come on sun, you’ve been bugging is for too long now!
This weekend ARRL DX CW. I always do that one casually. It will be a nighttime affair once again. And then UBA DX CW. I’m really longing for some good contest action (read: run stations at +100/hr in CW). Let’s hope…