Daily Archives: 27/03/2011

2011 CQ World Wide WPX – SSB

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Contest: CQ World Wide WPX
Date: March 26-27, 2010
Mode: SSB
Period: Starts 0000 UTC Saturday; ends 2359 UTC Sunday

BAND/ QSO / PFX
20 / 39 / 29
15 / 76 / 60
10 / 28 / 24
TOTAL: 143 QSO / 113 PFX
SCORE: 36,286 (TIME ON: 4 H 21 Mn)

SOAPBOX: I will consider this 4 hour effort a success, as I surpassed my 2010 totals across the board, which was all I shooting for. Only put in few hours on Saturday and Sunday from about 1900z until 2359z completely missing out on the 40/80M.

Propagation seemed to be very good everywhere, now I wish I would of had more time to put into the contest, but I must reserved my days off for contests that I enjoy a bit more than WPX SSB. Nonetheless I had a great time operating, especially on 10M and 15M. For the second contest in a row, 15M had more activity (for me) than 20M. Part of it was not wanting to battle the pileups and splatter on 20M, so I really only spun through the bands a few times in 4 hours.

As expected SA dominated 10M! It was rare I could not make a QSO with Brazil or Argentina, even got Chile and Uruguay this time around. 15M and 20M were dominated by NA. Usually 15M has been very good to JA, but due to limited operating time I did not spend much time with the antenna pointed that direction. EU came in very well on 20M, which was somewhat surprising given the time. Biggest surprise of the contest came when i worked 6V7D on 15M with a great signal and D4C long path when I was beaming JA. Chalk one up for Sol!

I debated running low power, but already being disadvantaged by the 20? high mast for my 5-band hex beam I did not was to add further frustration to my operating. I did however run unassisted this time. In the past I have used the cluster, but this time going purely S&P I figured I would give it a shot and see how well I could do.

All in all I had a great time, only wish I had some more time off from work or a more conducive work schedule that would allow me 20-30 hours to participate. Regardless I continue to improve each contest and hopefully it will all come together in due time to allow me to put in a real effort resulting in a good score.

The Sunday Update

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These are posts I should not have to be writing, as a web site transition and hosting should be seamless to the end user. With that said I seem to have got my hosting issues under control for the time being. Last thing I want to do is have to change hosts or correct broken image links in some 1000+ posts I currently have in this database. But, with that said I have decided to remain with IPOWER as my host but will use a redirect my domain name, the6thfloor.com to WordPress.com where I have my “blog” currently.

I have not had good luck using the WordPress.org software that IPOWER has to install any version (or theme) for my site. I ran into issues with image hosting and redirecting the domain name, as well as an FTP to upload the 6th HamCAM to. As I my site set up now is how I intent to keep it. I can use my FTP while retaining the services that WordPress.com has.

The only problem I face now is going through all my posts and editing all the images I currently have on my FTP. While somewhat tedious, it should be done in a week or so. All the pages (Ham Radio, Antennas, 1968 Cougar, About & For Sale) have already been corrected to include the images I previously had.

The only remaining issue is that of my radio logbook that is currently hosted at HRDLog.net uses Javascript, which not allowed on WordPress.com hosted sites. So I am continuing my search and have a few possibility, but I will continue have a link pointing to HRDLog for hams who want to confirm they have made my log after a QSO.

I would love to update my web cam software and get a streaming video or updated images going on the site. I have not really explored my options there. I am just pleased to have the 6th HamCAM up and running on the site. The only way to update the image is to refresh the page. Again, not ideal but what the hell it works!