Sorry for silence

It suddenly dawned on me I hadn't posted in weeks. Sorry.

That reflects a little on my radio acitivity -- it hasn't been that high.

Two weeks ago I spent a little time running the CQ WorldWide DX contest. The first day I was plagued by high noise level and poor conditions, so did very little. The second day my noise disappeared and I could hear Europe and Asia on 40 and 80 meters, so I spent some time running both bands. Not a huge effort, but that was fun.

Last weekend was one of my favorite contests, the ARLL 160 meter. But I was travelling last weekend, so never got on the air. After all, this is just a hobby, so you do miss some contests.

This weekend is the ARRL 10 meter contest, but so far I've heard two signals on 10 meters. Hopefully it will pick up this afternoon and I can work a few stations. On 10 meters, you are entirely at the mercy of propogation -- the radio gods. It doesn't matter how good your station, etc, if the band is dead, it's dead.

In the meantime, I've reorganized my station one more time. I think I've got it set up how I want it. It's a big ergonomic improvement from past setups. Now all I need is a good contest weekend and an open band.