Mon, September 26, 2022 1:01 pm
Enjoyed the Party. Over five Parties, I have steadily increased my contacts as I’ve learned and improved my antennas and the sunspot cycle has improved. I operated “Field Day” portable for about twelve hours total in a nearby campground with dipoles I could use in my backyard or another location in an emergency. Saturday/Sunday morning until 10:30 AM I used a 40 meter NVIS dipole about 25 feet high. On Saturday until 6:00 PM I was getting mostly Texas counties with a few nearby states. Then my forty meter signal started skipping and I got California, Washington, and Rhode Island before shutting down at 9:00 PM.
Sunday morning on forty meters until 10:30 AM it was mostly Texas counties again, for a total of forty-eight counties. After getting my twenty meter dipole in the air, for the rest of Sunday it was all other states, including California, Washington, the Rhode Island station again, and Florida, for a total of twenty-two states.
Next, I plan to try a 40/20 meter skeleton sleeve antenna (October 2011 QST) using 450 ohm twin lead for the radiators to avoid the hour taking down the 40 meter and putting up the 20 meter dipoles. I also want to get my center support about 30 feet in the air. I may also make a 15-10 meter skeleton sleeve antenna and put it up about twenty feet to see how it does.
I know some of the distant states may have amplifiers with beams pointed at Texas, but it is still fun to pick up seven new states towards WAS HF SSB with 100 watts and homemade dipoles.
Thank you to the volunteers for putting the Party on. I know it takes a lot of out-of-sight volunteer hours to get something like this done including processing the logs and putting together the results report. The parties get a lot of people on the air so there is a lot of opportunity for improving my equipment and proficiency.
73, Bob Hill K5TY
Sun, September 18, 2022 3:08 pm
Hi, this was my first Texas QSO Party. I operated FT8 and the Exchange is very difficult to manage. It would seem that unless the station is mobile, the regular station information could be used. There is input to the FT8 8 software providers for more flexible messages as other states have similar issues.
I was a bit disappointed in that I did not hear a lot stations participating. I don’t know why this is but for as many folks as we have in our state, I would think it would have been supported better.
I stayed on frequencies available to Technicians to help encourage our local Technicians to get on HF. I thought the band did quite well keeping me busy the entire first day and fairly busy the second.
I liked the multipliers and actively sought them out. It is more exciting to see that score jumping so fast unlike Field Day.
Thanks to all the persons that work in the background to make this happen.
Wayne, AC5V