DX Contest Award...

Today I received a nice award from the 2007 CQWW CW Contest. This award was for the Single Operator, Low Power category on 20 meters. I was the #1 station in California.

With my small station set-up, I don't win many awards these days!

Hamming From Fallbrook...

Last night (Saturday, Oct. 18) xyl Robbin and I spent the night at our daughter's home, Carrie Ann, in Fallbrook.

This gave me an opportunity to test out my portable, battery operated station. Made contacts with Washington, Utah, California, Canada and and JA1NUT, located in Japan, on 40m cw. Equipment consisted of a 1970's era Heathkit HW-8 transceiver running 4 watts into a Hamstick mobile whip antenna. Power was a small gel-cell battery and solar panel.

Four watts of power is about the same as a night light!

The antenna can barely be seen in the picture below. It's about 6 feet tall on a tripod. You can click on the pictures for a larger view.

Night time in the backyard...

No special reason for this posting, other than I just thought this shot of our backyard at night was kinda neat with the lights shining on the trees.