13 Colonies Special Event

I got them all and GB13COL was my last. Being on the east coast I caught him on 40 ssb and got in before the madness followed him. My buddy caught him on FT8 yesterday for his last station in the contest. It is fun, but can get frustrating at times with some of the bad operating going on. I would think that a ham would know what " calling by the numbers " means but I hear many stations identifying for 10 minutes every cq when the op is consistently saying " by the numbers 1 in your call only please " . And many want to ease the testing procedure,,,,,, .

 

Just worked K2M. Now to try for the English station.

 

K2G is a solid 599 on 50.095 CW

 

I had fun working these stations this past weekend. I fixed up an old radio and worked all but need just one station K2D
I will be hunting for the next 2 days to get the contact. No 80 meter antenna which would help me

 

Got all 13 colonies and WM3PEN yesterday (Sunday the 5th) all CW except K2J SSB. Saw GB13COL spotted on 20 SSB, but could hear him. oh well, I've got a couple more days maybe I can still work him
73, Chuck
N0NC

 

Good to still see you lurking about Brad.

 

^^^ THIS!

 

Clean sweep + WM3PEN on 20m CW but no GB13COL. I heard GB13COL once on 20m CW. His signal was not strong, and he was having problems hearing U.S. stations. Split operation would have helped, I believe.

On 40m CW, I need K2I to have a sweep + WWM3PEN there. K2I got on Sunday night, and the pileup was insane. I did not get through before he had rig problems and went QRT. Split operation probably would have helped there, as well. It was easier to work VP6R on 80m and 160m than it was to get through that pileup last night. Of course, we'll be listening tonight.

K2K, K2M, and WM3PEN have been on CW quite a bit.

 

missing my home state need K2L on some 80 meter SSB

 

I tried listening on SDR.org, a station in London,and I feel for those guys trying to hear US stations,while all of Europe is hitting them at the same time....better chance of winning the lottery

 

*LURK LURK LURK* Lol. In between medical school classes I can come up for air briefly.

 

entry in the mail today

 

I can hear GB13COL just fine but they can't hear me

 

I finally just got GB13COL on FT8 (all the other stations, including WM3PEN, I had swept between 07/01 and 07/02).

For GB13COL, I had to run at 100W, with calling for about 10 minutes at a time. They first picked me up but at -24, and after 2 repeats from them (and 4 of my replies) I wasn't seeing them and a few cycles later they moved on to another station. After another round of calling them (for about 15 minutes), they came back to me again with a -16 report, so I thought I had them at that point. Annnnnd, then after my first reply, they called CQ and proceeded to work a few other stations. After 5 more minutes of replying to them with their report (they were -10), they finally gave me the RR73. So, a 100% clean sweep with only 2 1/2 hours to go to the end of the event.

 

I only got 1 station, K2B. I was operating full power (200W voice) on 40M. My station was being walked over by other stations who were running far more power than I had. Either that or they had a better antenna. I don't know.

Complaints or none at all, it's disappointing to me that I didn't succeed this year. I'm pretty sure there are many others in the same boat, but I think it would help out a lot of us if stations could remember to not tune up on a frequency that is being used for a contest (that includes getting on the mic and whistling into it) and operate with stock power levels. Give the QRPers and DX stations a chance.

I know there are going to be pileups. It's unavoidable, but that's the fun of contesting. It shows there are many joining in on the event. And I can accept a DXer from somewhere out west or even overseas using 1 Kilowatt on their signal to get through. But stations with 1 kW in-between me and in a state that's closer to the one I'm also working, they just overpower mine. It gets worse when there are multiples who walk all over you. If you operate less power, it gives us a better chance at a contact.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.

73s,

KC8RLU