Nice to see 10m open.

 

 I dipped my toes this weekend in California QSO party. I entered as low power, CW, non assisted. Conditions were good and I was shocked how good 10m was. It was my highest scoring band for my part time effort. 

 

The Pi is cooked

 

Ham Clock setup page 

A very long time ago I purchased a Raspberry Pi3 and at the time I was excited about experimenting with it but work got in the way, and it was put on the self. About 4 years ago and retired, I blew the dust off it and loaded Ham Clock on it. I have been using it ever since and found it has some very handy information for when I am contesting. The other day I turned on the Pi3, and it started to load, but I was then met with a black screen and the message "unable to load". I turned it off and back on and this time everything loaded except Ham Clock and for some reason it reverted to the setup page. I tried again to reboot, but Ham Clock still showed the setup page. I entered all my information again and was good to go...until I started the Pi3 the next day, when I booted the Pi3 nothing appeared on the screen and the LED lights on the Pi3 were flashing on and off very erratically. I changed out the SD card, reloaded the OS and after some investigation, I concluded the Pi3 was done. I now have a Pi4b on its way here and should be here on Sunday.

Things are looking up

This past weekend, I participated in the FOC (First Class Operators Club) event known as the Bill Windle QSO Party. It’s a relaxed, 24-hour gathering that I found thoroughly enjoyable.

What stood out most wasn’t just the event itself, but the surprising band conditions. For the first time in quite a while, 10 meters was in excellent shape, which was a welcome change. The band was open to the U.S., Europe, and South America, making for a diverse range of contacts. In fact, I made nearly as many contacts on 10 meters as I did on 15 and 20 meters, which is unusual and exciting to see.

DQRM of E44OM

 

 I have been checking DXHeat DX cluster for E44OM and this morning I saw them spotted on 10 meters at 28.005 to be exact. I double clicked on NA5B Web SDR to see if I could hear the action, if so then hit the shack to see if I could break the pileup and get E44OM in the log. When tuned to the frequency I was very disappoint to hear a solid carrier being transmitted on the exact frequency for E44OM. Some folks have way to much time on their hands.