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December 26, 2007

Greetings. Name here is Mark, and my call is Kilo Zero X-ray X-ray X-ray. I've been addicted to 6m for 8 years now. It started out innocently enough, a few openings worked on a G5RV. Later I began thinking, "just a small dipole, what could be the harm". Then came that evening that I came to my senses, sitting by the phone with a warm credit card in my hand and a scribbled note describing the four element beam, that I had purchased.

After that I didn't even try to hide it. I was a man possessed. A seven element beam, a nine element beam, converting KW+ HF amplifiers to 6 meters. My wife started finding me, sitting in a room lit only by the glow of a couple of 3-500z tubes and the screen of my IC-746, staring a the 50 MHz Propagation Logger Page.

Then last night, while the family was enjoying Christmas Dinner, and as my turkey got cold, I was drawing an elevation system on a napkin. With a glazed look on my eyes, I was muttering vague references to phasing lines and stacking distances. That's when I knew that I needed to find help. 

Now, you know my story. It isn't pretty, but it had to be told. I believe with your help that maybe I can… wait… I'm hearing voices… I think the band may be opening! 

73, de KØXXX

Lately, most of my operating has been on the VHF Bands. Mary, Terri, and I are active on 6m, 2m, and 70cm SSB, also 6m and 2m Meteor Scatter and VHF+ QRP.  We hope to have the 1.25m band on the air in the not too distant future.

GRIDS: We enjoy chasing grids. On 6 meters I, received VUCC #1255 and have endorsements for 125 and 150 grids. 

My grid totals as of September 29, 2009 are:

6 Meters -  373 confirmed grids and a total of 425 worked. 

2 Meters -  I have 99 grids confirmed and a total of 108 worked.

1.25 Meters - 2 Grids Worked (Don't laugh, they were both worked with a four element, homebrew, hand held antenna from inside my shack. Also, 222 is not the most popular band, here in the sticks).

70 Centimeters - 15 grids worked, 7 confirmed (ok, you can laugh at this one. I've been concentrating on the lower bands).

23 Centimeters - None yet, but soon, I hope.

Mary and Terri are just really getting started in grid chasing, but Terri has 148 worked and around 81 confirmed on 6 meters. Mary (who started working 6m this year) has about 92 grids confirmed and has a total of 222 worked. They will each be sending out a nice pile of QSL cards in the very near future.

SATELLITES: On 17 March 2008, I made my first satellite contact. I worked Al, XE2AT on AO-51. Al had been after me for a while to try a satellite contact. He had only needed EM46 to complete the entire EM field on satellite (what a neat accomplishment!).

I worked Al using my FT-736R and a handheld Arrow antenna, while seated in my shack, in the house. This was not an easy feat, as those who know me can attest. I have a trach tube which requires me to use one hand to cover it, so that I can speak. That leaves one hand for me to push the "push to talk button", tune the radio while adjusting for Doppler shift, AND to hold and point the antenna. At least now I have found my old foot switch, so that's one less thing that I'll need my hands for.

CONTESTS: We have really enjoyed the ARRL VHF contests. Not that we have a competitive station or anything, they're just fun to participate it. Mary, Theresa and Paul (when he's visiting) also jump in and operate. We have even managed to win our Section on occasion, although I think it has been due to other stations forgetting to turn in their logs. Regardless of our score, we always try to submit a log, as a way to support the contest. 

The 2006 June contest was one of our best, as it probably was for many others, due to the enhanced propagation. We operated under Mary's call sign (K5QQQ), and managed a score of 34,563. Certainly not a threat to any of the Big Guns, but it's always fun to beat our previous scores.

In an effort to drum up some local VHF interest, I convinced the local club to participate in the 2008 January VHF Sweepstakes.  We operated from the shack of KE5FWT, Rusty Campbell and used the club call W5SCR. All of those interested had a chance to operate the station and make contest contacts. We had about a dozen first time contesters participate. Unfortunately, the bands were lousy. On the plus side though, we had a great time and decided to do it again in the future.

ARRL September VHF QSO Party : September 12 - 13

Our ARRL VHF Contest Info

Our ARRL UHF Contest Info

* Ok, this is a bit premature as the scores have not been announced yet, but since we were the only station submitting a log from Arkansas.... I guess that I'm safe to make the prediction. It's too bad considering the fact that we only made, ahem, 1 contact during the contest. Almost any other station submitting a log would have certainly won. I wish more stations would submit their logs as a way to support the contest.

Our CQ WW VHF Contest Info

*OTR = Off The Radar (way down the list)

To see the US Grid Maps for K5QQQ, KØQQQ & KØXXX, click the link from the menu on the upper left side of the screen.

KØXXX DX Grids and Countries on 6 Meters

(Grids for Canada, Alaska and Hawaii not included)

Currently, counting Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, and the United Nations HQ, I have 55 DXCC entities worked and 32 confirmed. Not a lot by some standards, however considering that they were all worked from EM46, with 4 elements @ about 30 ft. and with 100w, it's not a bad start.