The First 100 Years Are The Hardest

While 15M is not as packed as the other bands for the CQ WPX Contest, the reach is much broader.  This is what I was able to hear in past 5 minutes from WX7V/5 RBN spotting node.  The hex beam pointed North from Texas.     Condx: Kp: 1 (Quiet)  A: 5  SFI: 130 Sunspot: 105 73 Y'all - Chris de WX7V

  The CQ WPX Contest is still going strong as 21:55z.   The states heard by my WX7V/5 RBN Node for past 5 minutes is unbelievable!  While I didn't join in this contest is great to see the airwaves alive with the sound of CW!   73,  Chris de WX7V Condx:  Kp: 1 (Quiet)  A: 5  SFI: 130 Sunspot: 105

 This is the 10M opening as heard from my RBN spotting node WX7V/5 for the past 30 minutes.   The Hexbeam is pointed about 120 °  SE from Dallas.   The signals are FB on 10M band as we reach solar maximum for Solar Cycle 25, which began in December 2019.   We're midway thru the current phase of the sun's 11-year cycle of activity.  Solar Cycle 25 is expected to reach its peak, or solar maximum, sometime around 2025.  While this is my 54th trip around the sun, this is my first time to experience the solar cycle as a Ham. I got my ticket in May 2020.    73, Chris de WX7V    Condx:  Kp: 1.67 (Quiet)  A: 7  SFI: 122 Sunspot: 122

Tonight 40M is alive with CQ for the annual CQ WPX Contest.  CQ WPX CW is the largest “everyone can work everyone for points” CW operating event in the world.  At of 2:39 UTC this is my WX7V/5 Spotter node for past 30 minutes. Condx:  Kp: 2 (Quiet)  A: 7  SFI: 120 Sunspot: 99 Check out the panadapter on my Flexradio 6600! The waterfall looks awesome!  73, Chris de WX7V

Activated US-3001 Copper Breaks State Park in northwest Texas again with my Dad, who turns 80 this year! I used the new HAMRS Pro v2.37.1 for the first time with flrig 2.0.05 for rig integration which worked perfectly with the  Yaesu FT-991a,  ATAS-120a. Combo of CW and SSB.   Bands were very challenging to say the least.    73,  Chris de WX7V

After being dead most of the day for the SKCC Weekend Sprintathon (WES) 20M finally opened up on Saturday afternoon between US and Europe.  Running 80 Watts with Hexbeam pointed NE / abt 45d from TX Made some FB contacts Bob F6EJN /FRA, David CT7AUP / POR, and Paul G4AFU /ENG.   Also got Alan KL3E / AK.  .   CondX:  Kp: 2 (Quiet)  A: 12  SFI: 134 Sunspot: 70 73, Chris de WX7V

Had some FB QSOs this morning with Take-San (JR2IUB), Masa (JH4XVN/0), Mark (VK3MJ) and Kev (VK3KEV).  My key this was the W1SFR Slater which is my favorite cootie / sideswiper. Rig Flexradio 6600 running 80w; Ant Hexbeam up 35ft/10m, beaming 270d west from Dallas.  Condx: KP 2.33 (Quiet), A:5 SFI 154 SN 134.  Temp 23C / 73F.  Rain expected later today. The bands have been in great conditions past few days.  73 Chris de WX7V

You can set up chrome to automatically open Gmail to create emails directly from any mailto: link.    This configuration makes it convenient to compose emails from other weblinks and applications you might need to use to compose emails with the email address, subject and body of the text populated automatically. Follow these steps to set up gmail as the default email protocol handler in chrome browser. Close any open Gmail tabs. Type chrome://settings/handlers into your address bar and press enter. Remove any entries shown here. Make sure "Allow sites to ask to become default handlers for protocols" is enabled. Close this tab. Launch Gmail and you should now see a diamond icon at the right of the address bar. Click that to set Gmail as your default email handler. If you don't see the diamond icon to the right if the address bar, you may need to quit and relaunch Chrome for the change to take effect.   You should see this if the email protocol hander has been set up ...

I had a FB QSO with Tim Hale K5OHY from Midland TX the other day, and browsed his QRZ page as I normally do.   Amongst the pictures of activations, rigs and keys I found a link to the the RBN Analysis Tool he created that allows you to input a callsign, grid, and choose a date for the tool to analyze.  The result is an interactive map that is fun to play with and visually appealing.  You can also download the results for viewing offline.    Tim is hosting the application on Streamlit's cloud based hosting/application development platform.  You can find more information on his home page on QRZ. Here's the link to my signal report from 3.27.25.   https://first100years.blogspot.com/p/k5ohys-rbn-signal-mapper-wx7v-32725.html

 I had a lot of fun working 12M today.   Many good DX contacts as you can see from my log below.   KP 1.67 (Quiet), A:25 SFI 180 Sunspot: 147.    We're at the height of Solar Cycle 25  which is expected to peak in activity in 2025.   The solar minimum between Solar Cycle 24 and 25 - the period when the sun is least active - happened in December 2019, when the 13-month smoothed sunspot number fell to 1.8   Solar maximum is expected in July 2025, with a peak of 115 sunspots. QSO Map RBN Spots on 12M calling CQ WX7V

Spring is nearly here in Texas.  I was able to get in another quick activation yesterday at US-4423 Spring Creek Forest State Preserve.   Located in Garland and just 14 miles north of Dallas, Spring Creek is very accessible.   As noted in  Wikipedia ,  the existence of virgin forest within city limits is highly unusual, as the 19th Century settlers in the area typically cut down the forests for use in construction or to clear land for farming. Noise is usually a problem since the park is right in the middle of the Dallas metroplex, but 15 meters was open and the signals were very good.  I was able to get 22 CW contacts in 30 minutes using my Yaesu FT-857d and ATAS-120 antenna.  I did not try SSB.  Once I got home,  I was happy to see this was my 60th activation at 43 unique parks.   I’m a long way from a KILO, but with 314 QSOs made at US-4423 I should make this a priority! The park contains about 230 acres of land, preserving some of th...

I was away for another business trip to India from 2.13.2025 thru 2.21.2025.  The CTR2-Dial and Smart-SDR iOS solution on my iPhone again worked flawlessly.  Was able to make a few contacts most days both from calling CQ and Search and Pounce.  The Lynn's controller is a nice solution that's really robust! The work schedule was very hectic, usually 7am IST to mid-night, but it was really nice to get in a little radio time!   I have yet to work VU (India) DX stations from US!   73, Chris de WX7V

This week I received the new CTR2-Dial, a new MIDI controller for remote ham radio operations from Lynovation (Lynn Hanson NU7Q) with support for RHR, Thetis and Flexradio.    This new controller is enhanced version of CTR2-MIDI but features a color touchscreen display.  The dial is completely programmable and support dozens of buttons and dials which simulate Mode, Band, VFO, RIT/XIT functions, etc.   The platform is still very much under development so I flashed the firmware to the latest version (1.00.04).  I loaded the default map into SmartSDR iOS and updated Trigger Straight Key (98) and PTT Push (99) configs in the map file.    The controller is connected via USB to my iPhone via an OTG adapter to power the Dial and communicate with SmartSDR.  The straight key connects to the TRS jack onthe dial.  I made a few test calls and RBN spotted me right away which is always the best part of the test.   The Rest of the controls (...

First activation of the new year, and it took two attempts to get NM US-2701 Hyde Memorial State Park activation in the books.  No internet or cell service, and valleys and deep canyons make this park a challenge to activate QRP.   I chose 17M for both attempts.  I could hear many stations on 17M and 20M but 17 was less crowded on both days. During the first outing, I used a ground mounted vertical  (MP1c Super antenna) and only got 1 QSO (from KS) over the course of an hour.   I checked RBN when I got back to our lodging and confirmed my KX3 was definitely getting out.  However most of my RBN spots were < 20db and many were less than 10db SNR. Not accepting defeat, today I went back for a second try the next day and set up in the same location, at the same time of day.   But time I scheduled the activation on the POTA spotting page before I headed out,  and switched to to an EFHW up about 15th in an inverted V configuration....