Peter Dougherty .......

That's what I was until a few months ago (now 600W and a dipole).
After I wrote that article last night I spun the VFO around 20 metre
phone, and I heard two ZLs and a VK3 between midnight and 1 am, so
they're still possible. I don't get out too well on 30, nor am I a big
CW fan, so I can't say for sure how that band is now.

Right now, 30 is noisy. Very noisy. Almost as bad as 40 at night.
Nothing like the summer to get the static going on the lower bands.
But, this is typical, so I'll wait it out. No big one. 30 was good
to me for most of the winter/spring, getting me some good, if fairly
common DX like VK5, 3B8, 3B9, JY9, HF0, and KH6. Missed the XF4 and
T33C on 30, but picked them up elsewhere.
Most of the time, I'm on 30, 40, or 20 CW, and RTTY wherever I can
find it.


I actially just restarted my station in December, after a few years of
being off, and a few months of indecisiveness. I started the
country/state/zone count clean-I only took 4 contacts from my old log
from the mid/late 90's and carried them over into the new
logbook/logfile. The couple of entities I worked and didn't know if I
would see again for a long time (E44, HK0/m, R1MV, and OJ0) I kept-the
other few years worth of stuff was disregarded. So upon getting back
on the air, I was wondering where all the Asian stations are! I guess
that was the whole "point" of the topic. Being on the downward slide
of the cycle doesn't help, but I guess we all have to make do for now.

So, in the 6 months or so since then, I put up about 130 countries on
the board and have most of the WAS done and WAC is finished as well.
For a minimal station and sporadic operating times, not bad. Just
have to get the cards for them. Work in progress, as per usual. Its
been nice being back-nice ragchews in addition to the DX/contest stuff
going on. That reminds me-have to prep and submit my CW/WPX log. The
hustle never ends.....

3's,
Ken/ZN