WB4SON

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Goals for 2021

Posted: 01 Jan 2021 01:56 PM PST
https://wb4son.com/wpblog/?p=4259


What a great way to start 2021 I was on the air from the Charlestown
Breachway State Beach, POTA K-7717, this fine New Years day.Â* Parks On The
Air will be a major goal for me in 2021, but here is the full list:

Teach a Technician Class
Reach 1500 Band-Points in the DXCC Challenge
Complete DXCC on 160-Meters
Reach a total of 50 park activations in RI (thats all the current ones)
Add 1,500 QSOs to the log


I believe both the DXCC Challenge and 160-meter items will be a stretch.Â*
Hopefully the others will be in the bag.Â* At some point I need to get back
on the Satellites as well.




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Goal Review 2020

Posted: 01 Jan 2021 01:49 PM PST
https://wb4son.com/wpblog/?p=4252


Despite the lingering smell of a burning garbage, 2020 is finally behind
us.Â* Like most of the planet, I found myself wishing the year would just
end.Â* In my case, Im quite blessed, as my immediate family is healthy and
safe, along with my friends, although the number of people I know
personally with COVID has grown far too large.



Despite global woes, 2020 was a pretty successful year for me in terms of
ham radio.Â* The goals for 2020 we

Teach a Technician Class
Reach 275 Confirmed Countries in DXCC
Reach 90 Confirmed Countries on 160-Meters
Reach 1450 Band-Points in the DXCC Challenge
Reach 40 confirmed states on satellite


All but the final one was accomplished.Â* While completing a physical class
that began the prior year, I also held two online classes in 2020.Â* They
were actually much more popular than the in-person classes.Â* Over 60 new
hams were minted.Â* At this point, Ive personally instructed over 15% of the
ham population in RI.

My DXing was down somewhat this year due to other interests and simply
waiting out the bottom of the solar cycle.Â* That said I did complete my
goal of having 275 confirmed DXCC entities, as well as 1,452 points toward
the DXCC Challenge.Â* I also finished with 93 confirmed countries on
160-meters.Â* Im hoping I will complete this for 9-Band DXCC by the end of
2021 (I already have 9-Band WAS)



Where I fell short this year was Satellite operation.Â* This was partially
due to the pandemic as it was not possible to setup my gear in a park this
year, so I missed my goal to have 40 states confirmed via Satellite (Im at
37).Â* I did manage to convince a friend of mine, Kurt K1SEA, to get active
on the birds, and gave a couple of presentations virtually as an AMSAT
Ambassador.



While I wasnt as active as some years, I did finish 2020 with 12,000
entries in LotW (exactly 12,000).



Thats a pretty good confirmation rate, too, of 71%.Â* Of course the LotW
thing is sort of silly, as I have a few duplicate contacts in there, but I
still keep track of it (my actual log stands at 11,924, so I guess that is
76 duplicates).

Other things that stand out in 2020 was my introduction by John K1JSM, and
Willy W1LY to Parks On The Air.Â* Ive been bitten hard by that bug (so hard
that it will put other 2021 goals at risk).Â* I activated 13 different parks
in RI and managed to work 129 unique parks as a Hunter so far.

Thank you radio gods for a fine 2020, along with the many wonderful folks
Ive met during the year.