The first month of the new year is almost over so I better move on…
Not much to look back to actually. I don’t even make graphs this year for 2017 wasn’t very productive when it comes to ham radio. I missed a few events because of stormy weather. I missed a few events because just not giving a damn. I missed a few events because of a big renovation project in the house. I can’t even blame propagation. In short: not much QSO, almost exclusively CW and not many days that show contacts in the log.
I was able to do some of the things on the agenda for December: 9ACW and RAEM. I planned to do Stew Perry (160m) too, but I had to lower the tower after Christmas for some stormy weather and the WX remained foul to the end of the year. For 160 the tower really needs to be up all the way.
Before that I managed to do some DXing too. I remember a 40m long path QSO with W9KNI in Oregon. It was my sunset and about his sunrise. I told Bob I love his books (I really do!) and I quickly learned that my CW ragchew capabilities are very rusty. That’s what you get when only doing contests.
I processed a batch of direct QSL that had been lingering too long. Sorry for that chaps. And I’m trying to keep the huge pile of unanswered ‘buro cards’ out of sight. When you’re busyyou’re your operating time is limited, who wants to spend hours on end going through cards for 5NN contacts that happened three years ago or longer? Maybe 2018 is the time that even I can say it out loud: NO MORE PAPER QSL PLEASE. Except maybe for really special stuff? For which I’m willing to chip in a few dollars or euros.
Last Friday I put the RX loop back up. It was a case of better safe than sorry so I let the fishing pole down too for the storms. Yes we had a couple of severe storms during the past three weeks. One of which made the tribander slip even more off north. Last Sunday I tilted the tower over and set things straight. A half an hour job. Even less if you don’t count the visual inspection. I’m fed up with all the wind and rain so I’m really counting the days to better weather so I can finally do some antenna work that I delayed last summer. One of the jobs is to finally fix these clamps on the tribander but I need good WX for the morale and a scaffold not to break my neck.
I ended 2017 by winning a quiz from PileUpDX dot com but I didn’t win a prize:
I have no expectations or big plans for 2018. I just hope to get on the air as much as I can and have fun…