well, it's been a bit windy here for a few days.

and today I got a text at work from my lovely XYL telling me that my fibreglass fishing pole holding up my Windom and long wire baluns snapped and came down onto my neighbour's roof.

No way of offering advice from inside a meeting I couldn't bail from so I suggested that my 18 yearold loosen the wires and let it down.

He (and the 15 year old) struggled manfully in awful conditions to get up a ladder and loosen the U bolts to get the pole down.

its too dark to really look at it now, but the weekend is coming......

I suppose I could take it as a sign that it's time to try that open fed  horizontal loop that I have all the bits waiting for......

so, carrying on the same format as last month, the middle column is last months totals, the right is today's.

80m = 18 = 33
60m  =  3 = 4
40m  = 36 = 50
30m   = 7 = 21
20m  = 116 = 116
17m  = 55 = 55
15m = 26 = 40
12m=  44 = 51
10m=  53 = 69

total DXCC count at 134, and total slots (inc 2m & 70cm) 443

I've been concentrating on my less used bands, so avoiding 20 & 17m....

My US state count is creeping up too, with Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota & Wyoming still to get.

I've also got a new antenna.

a Carolina Windom CW80 Special.

it's an off centre fed dipole with a radiating vertical feed section so that it will tune to 80m even though it's only 66 ft long.  15m still a dead loss, and below 40m is all clogged up with QRM from Christmas lights (GRR!)

Its working well, even though i don't have it mounted in the best position, with the shorted leg coming down at 45 degrees along the eves of the house.  I INTEND to get it up horizontal when I get the chance......

new countries?

Chile
Uzbekistan
Curacao
Bahamas
Liechtenstein
Madagascar
South Sudan

so in the last month.....

I've got my FT747GX back from the Dr, and as 10 & 12m have been bouncing like a puppy, I've been up there a lot. and ironically, I've been tinkering a bit on 80m too as the s9 static has finally eased (at least some of the time) so I've had a few contacts down there too.

so to give an idea how things have progressed in the last month, middle column is LAST month, right column is this month......

80m= 10 = 18
60m= 3  =  3
40m= 36 = 36
30m= 5  = 7
20m= 116 = 116
17m= 53 = 55
15m= 22 = 26
12m= 7 = 44
10m= 27 = 53

total now standing at 126 dxcc entities with 363 slots filled.

New countries recently include:
Puerto Rico 12m  RTTY,
Cape Verde 12m SSB,
Armenia 10m CW,
Uruguay 10m SSB

so yesterday marked a year since I got my licence.

in that time, 3838 QSOs logged on HF
120 DXCCs
285 slots filled, spaced:

80m= 10
60m= 3
40m= 36
30m= 5
20m= 116
17m= 53
15m= 22
12m= 7
10m= 27

I've used a 1/2 sized G5RV and a long wire, attempted and abandoned a windom and a slinky spring dipole.

for HF I've used a FT101B and a FT747GX

I've made a touch key for CW and killed a PC by plugging in a home made datamode interface.

I've also made a 4 way antenna switch from a biscuit tin and a light switch.......

for 2m I've used a baofeng and a tinkered with PMR set to work the local repeater.

36 US states worked (plus DC)

AL AR AZ CT DE FL GA IA IL IN KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MT NC NE NH NJ NY
OH OK PA RI SC TN TX VA VT WI WV WDC HW

Canadian Provinces
NB NS ON PE QC SK NL

I've dallied with digimodes, and now that my FT747GX is sick, I'm back to the FT101B and a straight key for CW.

SO MUCH LEFT TO DO!!!

PSK31 on a budget.

I googled a bit and found that you need an interface to connect the PC to the rig.

so I bought a kit, and built it, and when I connected it to the PC it killed the USB circuit.

Oh Poo

so i then decided to do it the easy way.

a cable from the AF out to the sound card mic socket.

a cable from the speaker out on the soundcard to the mic plug.

a cable from a switch to the ptt socket.

download some free software, tune to the correct frequency, switch to USB and THAT's IT.

after a week,250 or so QSOs  35 DXCCS worked, mainly on 20m but a couple on 17m and one on 40m.