Happy New Year!

Christmas, 2011...

Mother Nature cooperated by providing near 70 degree weather for our Christmas 2011 in Murrieta!

While the individual families had their Christmas gift exchange on Christmas eve or early Christmas day, we all gathered at our home in Murrieta to celebrate, open gifts and enjoy a wonderful dinner.

Families attending this year included the Cordray's from Murrieta, the Davis' clan from Hemet and the Duffy's from Riverside. Altogether it was a pretty large group. The dinner was a potluck affair, with plenty of great left-overs to be taken home.

In the photo above Steve, Kayla, Haylie, Kristopher, Colston and Quinton show off their new bathrobes from the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas -- courtesy of our son Matthew. What a fun gift!

2011 CQWW DX Contest...

After a wonderful Thanksgiving (see post below), I participated in the 2011 CQWW DX contest.

This is a contest where ham radio stations from all over the world try to contact each other. It's held the 4th weekend of November, which is usually right after Thanksgiving.

I've operated in most of these DX contests over the past 15-20 years. This is the first year that I decided to do a "single band" entry, instead of working on all 6 ham bands.

As the chart shows, I contacted 144 stations in 72 different countries and 29 Zones on 10 meters (28mc). The world is divided into 40 ham radio zones, so working 29 of them on a single band is pretty good.

Christmas Time is Near...

A busy week for the Albrant family in Murrieta...

On Thursday we had Thanksgiving dinner at our house.

Everyone brought an appetizer, which included bacon wrapped shrimp, meatballs and gravy, a cheese/meat and cracker plate, Robbins famous cream cheese with Raspberry topping, plus lots of other good eats!

Instead of turkey for the main course we opted instead for a giant Rib Roast, served with all the trimmings.

Daughters Carrie Renee and Kristen came with their families, plus Robbin's sister Patty and her son Kelly and his family also attended. It was nice to have everyone here for most of the day and well into the evening! Daughter Carrie Ann and sons Bill Jr. and Matthew couldn't make it (Bill Jr. and his family were in Palmer, Alaska while Matthew and a friend went to Las Vegas to celebrate his birthday).

Kelly was the designated chef this year so I was pretty much standing around looking for something to do. Forgot to take any pictures :O(

The day after Thanksgiving I burned off some calories and put up the Christmas tree while Robbin started decorating throughout the house.

We wish you all Happy Holidays and good fortune in the coming year!

T2T, Tuvalu Island... Another Ham Radio Expedition...

During the past week I've been working T2T, a ham radio expedition to Tuvalu Island, out in the Pacific. They're pretty easy to work from my California location.

Tuvalu Island may disappear! It is only a few feet above sea level. Recent events indicate that Global Warming is causing the sea level to rise and, at some point, the island may actually disappear. Also, the ham operators are reporting there is a very serious fresh water shortage, which is another issue facing this very small country.

The video above was shot by BYU and shows some of the beauty, and some of the problems, this island and it's people are facing. It's worth watching!

Here is a chart showing the bands I've worked them on so far. I added 10 meters today and expect to work them on 30 and 40 meters -- if they don't go underwater first!

TX7M DXpedition to Marquesas Islands Worked

TX7M is the callsign of another big ham radio dx-pedition, this one going to the Marquesas Islands, out in the Pacific Ocean near Tahiti. I've worked them on 8 bands (see chart at right) using CW (morse code).

This is a major effort is being put on by a group of Russian radio operators.
In recent years it's been difficult to work foreign stations on the higher bands (10, 12 and 15 meters) due to a lack of sunspots. With the 11 year solar cycle coming into full bloom, these bands are now open and stations all over the world can be contacted.


The photo shows one of their antennas used on the 10 meter band hanging from some palm trees.

T32C, Kiritimati Island Worked On 8 Bands!

Below is a chart showing contacts I made with T32C during the past week.This is an Amateur Radio DXpedition to Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in the Northern Line Islands, a part of the Republic of Kiribati.

The chart is from their on-line log, which they uploaded daily, and shows I worked them on 8 bands using CW (morse code). The only band I have not worked them on is 160m because I don't have an antenna for that band.

This was a HUGE operation, with 15 stations set up and 41 operators participating, mostly Europeans. The map above shows the island. They located their stations at the top right part of the island.

Christmas Island is a very isolated, but interesting place.

Here's a link to Wikipedia with more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiritimati