Contacting Sasquatch...

Week before last, the PODXS 070 Club gained its 1,000 member. *Congrats!* In celebration, they arranged a 3 Stage contest that was to last for, to sum it up, a week. In stage 2, we were required to "find" certain things - you may have seen my previous post seeking assistance for items on the list. I found them all, but my number 6 (a fur-bearing creature) was by far the most interesting.

While hunting around the waterfall in search of someone with a fur-bearing creature in their name, call, or qth, I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if I contacted something like Sasquatch?" I promptly typed Sasquatch into the QRZ.com search box, and to my surprise, it actually pulled up something!

N6CRO, it said. Sasquatch Amateur Radio System, it read. I literally jumped for joy when I seen they had an email address. I knew it was a once-in-a-million shot, really, but I decided to try anyway.

I sent them a message telling them what I was up to and asking if any of them worked PSK31. In a few short hours, I received an email back. Yes, there was one person that was willing to try to work me with the club call N6CRO. Jim Shryne, N6DHZ, agreed to meet me at a certain time on a certain frequency. I knew it would be difficult, him being in California and me here in Tennessee with a cloud-burning dipole and bad propagation -- but I had to try.

When the time came, there was no Jim on the waterfall. I had him via email, but the bands (20 and 40) were dead where he was. At this point, Jim was even nice enough to call me at home, and we discussed power, location, frequency, and yet still, after adjusting it all, could not see one another. I think Jim was just as disappointed as I was, but he wasn't ready to give up yet (and neither was I, but I didn't want to waste his time). Jim decided to try again in a few hours, if only I was going to be up past 11pm. That's not late for me, so I promptly, and excitedly, agreed.

We talked a little longer on the phone - him discussing his dx club, and me discussing our 070 scavenger hunt. He thought that was a grand idea, and I really enjoyed our conversation. He was a very nice 6-lander. We ended the call, and I went in search of other items on the list while I waited, impatiently, for time to go by and propagation to improve.

Twenty minutes until time for us to retry contact, and the bands completely died out here. Not a single signal on the waterfall. I felt so destroyed. I have a terrible habit of getting my hopes up. So, I waited anyway. I wasn't ready to give up. 11:00 pm hit the clock, and promptly there was an email from Jim. He was on 20meters and was waiting for me there. I sent a quick email back to him and called out... and called some more... and sent about 75 watts of signal... and nothing. He couldn't see me -- although he did mention that dx was rolling for him now.

So, we opted for 40 meters. It was better. Propagation was booming on his end, and it had actually come up from nothing on my end to a little something. At least there were 3-4 signals on the waterfall now. I emailed him where I'd be... threw out a call for him... and nothing. Again called... and nothing. I told him to try calling me, via email, and I could see him - at least enough to get bits and pieces. So, I tried to reply -- once -- twice -- and by the third time, he picked up my signal. I was picking his up, too. The band picked up long enough for us to exchange a hello and an RST -- and then BAM, 40meters was dead for me again. It never picked up any more that evening - unless it was after I went to bed. But we both got a good clean copy, long enough to call it contact.

So, I want to send out a SPECIAL and HUGE

-- THANK YOU!!! --

to Jim, N6DHZ, for contacting me... even though it took a ton of effort. Jim, you'll never know how much I appreciate the help and the contact.

A Little Humor Never Hurt Anybody...

You know... the funniest thing happened to me. After contesting in the PODXS070 3 Day Weekend for what seemed like 4 days straight (utc time can do some strange things to ya, people), the oddest thing occurred.

I went to bed, finally, and my room looked like this:



You think maybe the waterfall should come with side effect warnings????

AJ4IJ :)

Three-Day Weekend Comes to an End

First, I want to thank EVERYONE who contacted me, or entertained my contact, during this contest. The PODXS 070 Club hosted a Three-Day Weekend PSK31 contest over the weekend, and we've (the OM and I) had a wonderful time.

*Well, I have to be honest in saying it was a little long for me. I have a hard time sitting through a two hour movie, much less a three day contest*

I ended up with 166 qualifying contacts, 106 member numbers, and 1000 bonus points. *woot* Seeing how it is late, and I'm exhausted, if you're interested in my final point count, then you'll have a nice little math problem to entertain yourself with. :)

Overall, I was happy with the contest. I was afraid that the CQ CW contest was going to interfere, but it wasn't too much of a problem. I think we both did well with the bands we have and the conditions we were blessed with. Unfortunately, 10m and 6m never opened for me, so I made no contacts there. And we don't have 160m here, so I was left to work 80m, 40m, 20m, and 15m only (which is pretty decent I must add!).

I guess the next PODXS 070 contest is in July. I don't know if I'll be making that one or not, being 4th of July and all --- but anything's possible.

Again... Thanks to everyone and Good Luck to all who worked the contest.

BTW -- if I contacted you, you should be confirmed via LoTW and eQSL. :)

31 Flavors - Upcoming Contest

Ooooooooooh... digi-contest.

The PODXS 070 Club is hosting their 31 Flavors contest THIS weekend (Saturday, April 11th, 09). You don't have to be a club member to participate. Hours of ops are from 12:00pm - 18:00pm YOUR LOCAL time. The rolling start gives everyone a fair chance!

Try your hand at many PSK modes -- BPSK31, QPSK31, BPSK63, QPSK63, and BPSK125. According to the site... The wise contester will use as many variants as possible!

Unfortunately, you probably won't see me working this one... *boo hoo*

I worked the Valentine Sprint, had a wonderful time making TOP YL! But I have to take turns, and it's my OM's turn to work this one. So please look for AJ4JD (member #865)!

For official rules, visit here.

Good Luck!

Paying Homage...

The April 2009 QST arrived the other day. Just like every month, Tim beat me to it. It usually ends up in a place that I am least likely to read it (i.e. the "QST Room"). I had a chance to steal it away this evening, and it was already opened to an article that caught my eye:

"PSK - 10 Years On" by Steve Ford, WB8IMY

Yup Yup... It's the big 1-0 for PSK31, and I'd like to send my thank you's out to Peter Martinez, G3PLX for inventing it. And Mr. Ford, you did an excellent job with the article.

See, I got my license back in 1994, so I remember a time when PSK31 was nonexistent. When Tim started studying for his tech license, and the testing information started talking all this PSK31 stuff, I was awfully confused. I didn't remember any of that on my test years ago.

(Now, you have to remember, I took an 11-12 year break from ham radio, because I was a kid... and kids know it all... and I had more important things to do, like chase boys instead of dx.)

I took a little time to read up on PSK31, and got most of my answers from my daddy. But what really got me hooked was actually seeing the digi signals on the waterfall, being able to click on them, and actual words started printing on the screen. I made my first contact to a ham in Florida sometime last year. I'd look up the details, but ya'll know how lazy I am. Anyway, that contact was the icing on the cake.

Speaking of cake...

I really hated that I missed Pi day(3-14), because we had planned some wonderful things. Just the world got away from me and I forgot. So, this evening I thought... why not have cake? Only, we didn't really have a reason to have cake (and I only say I need a reason because if I don't, I feel terribly guilty for indulging myself). So... Happy Birthday PSK31. I devoured a nice large slice of three-layer triple chocolate fudge cake with cream cheese icing just for you! Yum!

No... I didn't eat that much cake by myself! I had a lot of help.

Update to Olivia Post

Well, the dressing is in the oven, and it's almost time to start the 'Bird.' The pre-cooking is done, and the house smells of Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, and poultry seasoning. And all the while, I still wish I had an HF radio to sit down to this morning and wish everyone I can speak with (whether they celebrate it or not) a Happy Thanksgiving! This will have to do for now.

I also want to mention something that I... quite literally... stumbled upon. I was taking off my tennis shoes the other day, when I lost my balance, caught myself by placing my hand on the counter top, and as I did, I looked down. I had placed my hand upon December's QST magazine, which just so happened to be opened to the Olivia article I spoke about previously. And as coincidence seems to happen, my finger was pointing right at a name and callsign that I was familiar with. Gary L. Robinson, it said.... WB8ROL, it said... I stood in astonishment for a moment, then picked up the magazine to look. Sure enough, Gary had written the article about Olivia... the one that had us anxious to use it. Why is this important??? Gary was the nice OM I spoke with for my first Olivia contact! I couldn't believe my eyes....

I ran to living room, stumbling over the shoes again, and pointed out this anomaly to Tim. Now, it's either a very small world, or I'm one of the luckiest Ham women around... 'cause these coincidences keep happening to me!

Well, Gary -- I'm sorry I didn't realize before. I'm glad we had the conversation that we did, and the article (in my opinion) was great! Very informative, well written, and captivating. Thanks again, for the contact -- and another chance happening to add to my growing log of flukes!

To OLIVIA, With Love

I just love dabbling in digital modes. Some I find to be boring, some too fast for my hand, and some just utterly confusing. Last night, I tried OLIVIA for the first time. We went over to visit Daddy, and he was playing around with DM780 and had OLIVIA all set up. He was really wanting someone to try it, and being the brave soul that I am... I gave it a shot.

I probably called CQ for nearly 45 minutes before anyone came back. Apparently, there's not a lot of Hams working it -- or maybe it was just a bad night for it. I was on 80m around 3.577 and, FINALLY, I got a response. Thanks goes out to Gary, WB8ROL, for making that my first OLIVIA contact. Gary was very nice, and taught me a few things I needed to know. Being as slow as it is, it took us nearly an hour to complete our conversation, but I had fun nonetheless!

I really really like how I can type everything out (I'm a quick typer -- nearly 70 wpm) while I'm reading their response back to me, and then hit Auto-Send and get up -- stretch, have a break, go to see "John", etc... all the while, transmitting my response. I really had fun "talking" with OLIVIA.

Tim gave it a try, too. I'm sure he'll blog about it over in his neck of the woods, if you're curious. He's usually more thorough and technical about things than I am. HAHA I hear there is a nice article about OLIVIA in December's QST magazine. So, if you're interested, check it out!

It's slow, but it's tons of fun!