Saturday, February 28, 2009

Back to DX

It’s been a few weeks since my last update, and in the interim, I’ve moved my radio focus back from earning the Triple Play Award to working DX. As most DXers know by now, a Dxpedition to the very rare Desecheo Island was on the air for around two weeks as K5D, and I was fortunate enough to make quite a number of contacts.  The contacts (all showing up in their online QSL log) were:

 

160

80

40

30

20

17

15

Phone

X

X

X

X

X

CW

X

X

X

X

X

RTTY

X

X

 

My first contact with them was on 40m phone barely 12 hours after the operation started. While I’d expected to make a few contacts at some point towards the end of the operation, I hadn’t expected to make contact so soon. But, as a number of my friends told me, even with the huge global pileups Desecheo, which is just a few miles from Puerto Rico, is a “chip shot” from my home. That did turn out to be the case. My goal was to make at least one contact on each of the three modes, and to work them on at least once on each band where I could hear them.

I tried to be a good “ham radio citizen”, so while I did work pretty hard to get each of the modes, and to make a single contact on each band, I did hold off a bit on the bands where I’d already made a contact (to work them on a new mode) until later during the dxpedition when the pileups had died down considerably. I hope that by doing this I allowed others to make perhaps the only contact they had. That being said, when the station isn’t busy, I’ll certainly try to work them. I did wind up with one duplicate contact (75m phone) since when trying to make my contact a couple of guys decided to have a rag-chew essentially right on top of the K5D station and I wasn’t sure that K5D had correctly logged my call. I tried again a few minutes later and that contact was definitely OK, and it turned out that both contacts showed up in the K5D online log.

I am very pleased to have made a 160m (or “Top Band”) contact with them. I don’t have a real antenna for 160m, and although my G5RV does load with the tuner, it neither transmits nor receives very well. However, my persistence paid off, and after five or six nights, trying for an hour or so each night (perhaps even longer than that), just a day or so before they ceased operations, the 160m was very quiet and I did manage to make a contact with them.

On a final note, I did receive my Triple Play Award certificate this week:

TPA

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Triple Play Award #152!

I did it! I made and confirmed all 150 needed contacts for the ARRL's Triple Play Award! I applied for the award yesterday morning and got confirmation via the Logbook of the World system last night that I'd received the 152nd Triple Play Award. (The awards are serialized, so it's pretty nice to have such a low number.) They've published the list of awards handed out in numerical order on the awards page, and it's really fun to watch folks who you've been contacting start to show up on the list.

Like contesting, this is a cooperative effort. No matter how good you are, no matter how big your station is, no matter where you're located, you can't make contacts on your own. Sure, there are things like the K3UK LoTW Sked Room (click on LoTW in the menu) and the "hangout" frequencies (3.618Mhz at night, around 14.290Mhz +/- during the day) that are great tools to get folks together, but without the people helping each other, the award would be impossible to achieve. Also, as I previously mentioned, the bands might not be quite as bad as some say they are. All of these contacts were made using 100watts to a G5RV antenna at about 35 feet (10.5m).

Below is the list of the folks with whom I made the officially credited contacts, but this list doesn't tell the whole story: There are others who tried to make a contact with me but were unable to do so (despite valiant efforts), and others who made contacts with me who don't show up here because someone else confirmed the contact first. I am equally grateful to all of them, and I am also proud to know that I've helped some of them (as well as others) on their way to the award.


EntityCWPhoneDigital
AlabamaKC4HWK4ABWX4TM
AlaskaAL1GAL1GNL7V
ArizonaK6LLK9WZBW9NGA
ArkansasW5QPN5ZMWB5AAA
CaliforniaK6RBK6FWW6YX
ColoradoK0EUW0KITKT0DX
ConnecticutW2JUNN1NK1ZZ
DelawareK1RYWW3DEK1RY
FloridaN4BPWT4YN4AOE
GeorgiaWF4WK4KVWB4MAK
HawaiiAH6RRNH7OKH6MB
IdahoW7ZRCKC7KZN7ESU
IllinoisKK9HN2BJN7US
IndianaK9WXKB9AXAC9X
IowaN0NIK0NOK0WHV
KansasAB0SWV0TK0FJ
KentuckyKS4VAB4IQAB4IQ
LouisianaKF5ERW5RIK5JRW
MaineK1LOGK1LOGAC1O
MarylandK3WIKR3EK3WI
MassachusettsW1TOK1YAK1JE
MichiganK8MADN8FVW8RIT
MinnesotaK0TGK0TIAA0AW
MississippiWQ5LKE5MOZNA5DX
MissouriK0OUKU0GN0HIO
MontanaKB7QK7BGKE7X
NebraskaN0OBN0OBWN0L
NevadaNX7FNX7FN7TR
New HampshireK1DGK1DGK1RO
New JerseyW2YCK2DLSKR2D
New MexicoN2ICWA0SXVWA5ZUP
New YorkNP3D/W2N2WKK2PAL
North CarolinaW4KAZN4HNK4FX
North DakotaW0TUPW0TUPW0TUP
OhioK8AJSW8CZNW8HF
OklahomaK5UVW5IFNX5O
OregonN6TWK7ZSN7QU
PennsylvaniaK3SVW3KBW3TNU
Rhode IslandK3IUN1HRAKI1G
South CarolinaN3ZLK4JPGK4RW
South DakotaKD0SKE0WMK7RE
TennesseeW9WIK4EDIWA4OSD
TexasWO5INV5HN5NA
UtahK7UAWA7YAZWA7YAZ
VermontK1IBK1LPSK1LPS
VirginiaK1KOKJ4DHFNU3H
WashingtonW7OMW7VPW7VXS
West VirginiaAJ1MAJ1MW8AKS
WisconsinK9IMMWW9RAA9RR
WyomingWY7FDWY7FDWY7FD

Monday, February 02, 2009

More about the Triple Play Award

I'm not quite sure how many contacts I had toward the Triple Play Award that I discussed last week, but I've made some nice progress since then. In fact, as I write this late Sunday night (or rather, early Monday morning), according to the Awards page within Logbook of the World, I need only a handful of contacts to complete the award. The "slots" left are:
  • CW: Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, South Dakota
  • Phone: Idaho, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming
  • Digital: Hawaii, Utah
Actually, by morning, I hope to have South Dakota confirmed on CW; I've uploaded my logs to LoTW and am waiting for them to process. In any case, I'm under a dozen left, and I'm very pleased with my progress.

Although I mentioned it last week, what's really struck me is how incredibly helpful and friendly everyone has been. People will gladly move to another band or mode when asked if you need a contact, and it's certainly contagious. I don't think I've heard anyone yet say that they wouldn't accomodate a fellow award-seeker with the possible exception of asking them to wait a few minutes while another contact is completed.

What I think is really special is that many of the folks who've already received their awards (you can see the current list on the ARRL's Awards page) still hang around to "give out" their state to others. Some have even posted information about their TPA efforts on their web site, like this one from Tom, N9DD which has pictures of the some of the folks that he's met along the way, including yours truly.

The award has served as a focal point for a informal community of hams, and I find that very gratifying. As I've mentioned in the past, I see ham radio as a way to relax and have fun, and it's really great having a new bunch of friends to "hang out" with.

So, as I mentioned last time, why not drop by 3.618 LSB most evenings and say hello (and it's looking like 14.290 or 14.292 USB is becoming the daytime "hangout"). You might just be that #150 that someone needs.

Oh yeah ... if you happen to be located in any of the states that I've mentioned, please drop me a line or leave a comment ... I'd really like to work you so that I can finish up my award!

Update: The South Dakota confirmation did come through, so I now have 9 left to go.