It was a great day… the weather was really good, great temps and not much wind… Even with that great weather I didn’t get out and work the yard but did accomplish a few things…
In the past everyone asks about retirement, and all that “spare time”… well, since I am not much on watching TV I generally stay pretty busy. That was today… Got up and put a load in the washer , moved a load to the dryer… forgot that last night? oh well… I then folded one load that came out of the dryer and put it all way… with that done before 7:30 I made my trip in to use the Wellness center… since I paid for the semester , I should use it more, but just haven’t been into it. But today, got in, walked the treadmill for 2.3 miles and then worked a bit on lifts and curls… I got back home and had a lite breakfast… I usually have a granola breakfast bar and juice… and that was the menu for breakfast… not much there but hold me till lunch time and limits amount of intake… and get some fiber…
I actuly folded and put away a load before I grabbed my bar and juice and headed out to the Ham Shack /Shop… I had a feeling that maybe today would be a good day to “attack” that special DXpedition on Navassa IS.. (K1N) . In reality I had little hope that my “peanut whistle” would ever crack the pile-ups trying to make contact with the “most wanted DX” according to several rating systems… I think I wrote earlier that they are only allowed to operate from this island maybe once very 20 years or so and it had been 20 years since the last operation there… but none the less I did a little thinking and knew that my CW was no good enough to break in to that end and with out a lot of power you just aren’t making many SSB contacts in a pile of voices… so I figured to work on the RTTY portion of the group and would work any band possible when they were on RTTY… I got fortunate today that one op was on 15 meters hitting RTTY hard all morning and if he hung in long enough the Europe and Asia groups would be cut out… middle of the day we just don’t get much real DX and that island is close enough to us to be like another state… so that would reduce some of the competition to hang on till about noon… at about 9:30 I started calling when ever he finished a call and he was still hitting Europe pretty good but at about 10:30 it seemed to reduce some and was mostly North America and Central America… I kept at it and didn’t move the TX freq, so as to , hopefully, wait till he slide across my call as he moved up and down the band… in a DX and pileup situation the station will usually either listen “up” or “down” away from his TX so we can hear him with out as much noise but there is always a lot of operators that either don’t know, don’t understand, or just don’t pay attention and they will tune up , and TX on top of his signal and ruin a lot of chances… but no matter… I got real lucky… see below… Dark is my TX and light color is what I was hearing from K1N…:
10:51:20 AM> Main
WDØAJG WDØAJG WDØAJG
P F8ATM 599 F8ATM
10:51:33 AM> Main
WDØAJG WDØAJG WDØAJG
F8ATM TU K1N
10:51:46 AM> Main
WDØAJG WDØAJG WDØAJG
WDØAJG 599 WDØAJG D
10:52:00 AM> Main
599 DE WDØAJG TU
WDØAJG TU K1N
–
WAØROI 599 WAØROI
What a kick that was… the persistence of the “peanut whistle” came through… now , I need the confirmation from his end and I will be double happy with that one… although it is just one more in the list of places I would like to see but haven’t… ha!
With that done, I was happy enough to quit for awhile and went for lunch… “eat fresh” … with that done, I folded another load and put it away from the dryer and went back to the radio… had some software things and research , reading to do… but since the radio was on… I noticed that another call was popping up from Guantanamo Bay…? hum… generally the same area so why not and sure enough with a little persistance I grabbed that one as well, although not near as big a pileup as the other… but two new locations checked off the list… just like 350 more to look for… or maybe that is a few 1000 m ore? not sure but there are a lot of entities out there and a lot change every year…
At bout 4pm I went in and started fixing up some potatoes for the grill (those crispy parmesan things) and got the smoker going… We had a “stuffed” pork loin we had gotten some time ago that has some Jalepeno, cream cheese , and shrimp? in the middle… not much but enough for some great taste, and of course it is wrapped in bacon… the wonder wrap… so I put that on at about 5pm and by 6 we had some great pork loin and grilled potatoes…
Just went on the grill… and got a good start…
Finished and ready to carve…not much better than that…
Well, I thought it couldn’t get much better but tonight was a “fast turn around” game for the #Okstate men’s team… and they were at Baylor… but as I listened to it they got better and better and won that game as well… some kind of record .. they have beat 3 teams in the top 20 in 3 consecutive games… the new defensive effort they are putting out is showing up… Maybe the total crash against that other team woke them up to extend some better effort…? not sure but they are on a roll, but really need to hold it together…
So it did get better to end the day with several big wins… mine and theirs…
WD0AJG