The Santa Rosa Plateau...

Today Robbin and I finally visited the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Preserve. It's only 4 miles from our home, but in the 12 years we've lived here we haven't visited :)

It's over 9,000 acres. In late spring (after we get some solid rain) several large "vernal" pools form. A unique shrimp, found only in this area, hatches during this time. Perhaps we'll go back and watch the action!

The trails are well maintained, and there are many of them, so seasoned hikers can spend all day (from sunup to sundown) and still not see it all. After Santa Rosa we took the back roads to Temecula, then south to Fallbrook for lunch and shopping. With weather in the 80's, it was a beautiful day indeed.

DXCC Honor Roll Sticker

It may not look like much, but this little sticker is valuable -- at least to ham radio operators. Today I received the much coveted DXCC Honor Roll sticker, confirming that I've worked 331 entities (countries). They offer a nice bronze plaque, but it has a $60 price tag, and guess I'm too cheap to buy it!

There are several hundred hams (out of over a million) who have reached Honor Roll status. Many of them have large antenna systems, and amplifiers, and make Honor Roll in a matter of a decade or so.

My station is only 100 watts with a small vertical antenna so the effort took a little longer -- 50 years to be exact. In reality, I only started "chasing" the DXCC award when I got back on the air in 1985.

DXCC Honor Roll... Finally!

Just received an email from the ARRL DXCC desk, confirming that I've finally made the DXCC Honor Roll, with 331 current entities (countries) confirmed!

This is a life-long effort in my ham radio career that started over 50 years ago! So, if you don't mind, I'm going to give myself a big pat on the back!

The chart above shows Total 339 and Current 331 (some countries/entities have been deleted over the years). The screen capture shows the email from ARRL confirming my award.

The New Look...

Using the miracle of PhotoShop, the K6CU Blog page has been updated. It also makes the page load much faster than the old design.

Let me know what you think... good? bad?

By the way, this is the same photo that ran in QST magazine, February 2012 issue.

DX Contest A Success!

Last weekend I participated in the ARRL DX Contest. This is a contest where stations in the USA try to work as many foreign stations as possible. I enter this annual contest almost every year as a casual operator, and not as a competitive station. My only goal is to try and improve on my previous scores.

The 2012 contest score was the best ever, with 362 contacts and 186,792 points. That's almost double my score last year of 95,066 points!

Some of the more interesting countries I contacted include Madeira Island, Ascension Island, Senegal, Antarctica, Surinam, Aland Island, Svalbard, Palau, plus numerous countries in Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and the Pacific.

The contest lasts 48 hours, but I only actually operated for about 20 hours.

All the logging is done with a computer program called WinTest, which saves a whole lot of time, plus it prevents working "duplicate" contacts, which can lower your score.

VP6T on Pitcairn Island...

Another great DXpedition is currently in operation -- this one from Pitcairn Island in the south Pacific, and home to "Mutiny on the Bounty" fame.

So far I've worked them on 4 bands. I'll probably end up getting them on 20, 30, 40 and 80 meters as well as the lower bands are usually easier to work that area from this location.

Below is a map showing the location of Pitcairn Island, and a chart showing the contacts I've made. The photo (above) shows the island. Very interesting place, but somewhat difficult get to.

K6CU In QST Magazine

The new issue of QST magazine (the largest magazine for this hobby) has a nice little article that includes my station, and a brief quote from me. Guess I'm almost famous?

To see the image enlarged, click on it. Then right click on the photo and select "View Photo" and then click on the + sign.