2020 Field Day and More

Since the Kentucky QSO Party I stayed off the air for a bit until Field Day. My local club KY4ARC decided to do an at home field day with  1D stations submitting for the aggregate score. I operated for a

FD 2020 Worked Sections

few hours and managed 32 contacts, all digital either FT8 or FT4. I was quite a struggle to say the least. I could not break through any pileups on SSB. I was able to receive the W1AW bulletin on 40m PSK31, my first attempt at trying PSK, I'll eventually get around to trying to transmit and make a few contacts.

In other new I was able to move from my apartment and now have all of my equipment in (mostly) one place! Over the next few days I'll be setting up some of the stuff I brought back so that I can hopefully use the local repeaters via RF.

I tried to work the 13 Colonies event for the second time but seemed to struggle a little (Even with a better radio/antenna setup). I ended up with 10 of the colony stations total. I worked all but K2I on FT8 (8 on 40 & 1 on 80). I managed to K2I in the last 20 minutes on 40 SSB in some of the worst noise I've had on the band. My received report was a 22, I sent a 33, but at least Andrea, K2EZ was able to pull me out of the noise!  I missed both of bonus stations and the stations in VA, RI, and DE. It's a little disappointing considering last year I had a clean sweep plus 2 of the 3 bonus stations (there was one less this year). I've already sent off for my certificate and QSL cards from the stations I did work.

I was finally able to make a QSO with Hawaii (actually two). Hawaii has eluded me since I started working HF, even from W8CUL. I worked WH6S on 20m FT8 and WH6HI on 40m FT4. Not bad considering I usually can't even receive them when they're spotted.

FT8DMC WAC 20 Meter

A few more awards from the FT8DMC were earned since my last post. Including another Worked All Continents award, this time with a 20m endorsement and a Worked Region 2 Silver. You can view all of the awards on the Awards page of my website. In addition to the awards I also uploaded 3 new QSL cards to the QSL Archive (including a K2I card from last years 13 colonies event). 

 

I've also been doing a little work on DMR hotspot. I tried to update it and instead I seem to have corrupted it (Oops!). So I had to re-re-flash the SD card. It seems to be working. I'd like to upgrade to a full-duplex hotspot for home and just use my simplex version for travel. But that's something for later.

My adventure of learning CW came to a stop almost as soon as it started after getting busy. I need to pick it back up. Hopefully soon!

My main desktop is still down and out. I need to start getting parts and build my new one. My laptop with an external monitor will do for now, but I miss the big computer!

I also found out that the Central KY Hamfest and the KY state convention were cancelled. I was hoping to attend at least the one of them this year. But I'll add both to my calendar for next year!

That's all for now.

Hope to catch you down the log!

And remember to wear the damn mask!!