This week marks 3 years for me on HF. Time to review!
Operate with my new 2nd antenna at the remote QTH...Get to know how it works for me on 40, 80 and 160..... Attempting to fill out WAS as much as I can on 80 and 160 this winter, and see what DX I might be able to pick up for more band slots. I've got WAS on 40, 30, 20, 17 and 15m, but missing 3 states on 12m and 1 on 10m.
Well, I still don't have WAS on 12m, and actually lost one state due to someone re-uploading QSOs to LoTW with different locators. But I did get all 50 states on 80m, picked up the one I needed on 10m, and reached 48 on 160m. So now I've got WAS on 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15 and 10m. I still need two on 160 (AK and HI) and four on 12m. Not bad, I think!
I was also able to get up to 9 DXCCs confirmed on 160m and 26 on 80m. I'm quickly finding the DX limits of my Inverted Vee, but I knew that going in. That antenna got me on the low bands and helped me get WAS on 80m, so it's done its job.
I'd be happy to get 170 DXCC confirmed by this time next year...probably ½ of which I already have, just waiting for confirmation/need to initiate QSLs.
Up to 185 confirmed, including two via cards only, with three more ATNOs worked this past month waiting for confirmation! I got QSL cards made this year and sent out several. Some were in response to cards I'd received over the last couple of years, while others were attempts to get confirmations for older contacts.
The pace is slowing. Between Cycle 25, some station downtime, and less operating, I'm not surprised. I'm hoping to pick up a few more this winter, but I've made progress!
I'd also be happy to get to 750 band slots confirmed. I've worked over 800, so should be doable. The accumulation pace is slowing, I think.
The pace is definitely slowing now, but I'm up to 889! Many of the recent ones are returned QSL cards and paying for OQRS on older contacts. Still, I'm thrilled to have gotten this far in another year!
Continue POTA/portable/travel operations. Probably will be less than 2025, but I've enjoyed it, and will continue that. Might be able to travel to a CEPT country in 2026, in which case I'll plan on operating from there.
Well, it wasn't less than 2025! I actually did more portable operating this year, with more POTA activations than last year. I've now got 19 activations at my "Home" POTA entity, so I need just one more this year to reach the 20-activation award.
The big success here, though, was putting together a portable kit for travel and taking it to two CEPT countries. I activated three times in Portugal and once in Spain while there for an afternoon. A big win!
The biggest one to me right now: Build out the portable amplified QDX transceiver project I've been noodling on since March. <-- This (scope creep!) has turned into a very complex project with a lot of facets, but I think all the design problems have been solved, so we'll see if I can execute.
This project is complete!
It doesn't work quite as well as I'd hoped in a couple of areas. The output power is a bit more sloped across the bands than I'd like, and efficiency at lower drive levels isn't quite what I was hoping for. But overall, it works as needed and expected.
I now have an easily packable, digital-only (FT8/FT4) transceiver that's about 3/4 the size and 2/3 the weight of a G90, while putting out about the same power (24–17W on 40–10m on LiFePO4). It has onboard SWR and battery amp-hour metering, and retains the simplicity of operation that makes the QDX so appealing.
I've used it on 18 activations this year, along with a couple of other portable operating sessions. Pretty happy with how this one turned out!
Other notables for year 3:
First big 6m DX with a QDX-M for 6m: Portugal to Wisconsin on 3W and an attic dipole!
Operated in the ARRL Digi contest in the 8-hour category this year, and finished in the top 11% for the US and the world. I was thrilled with that result, and really enjoyed the strategizing involved.
Year 4 Goals:
Hardening the Cabin station remote-ability, as well as the home station needing some...fixing. Also add fully automated lightning disconnect. I've had a couple issues in the last year related to this, a couple failures, etc. The remote station is functional, proven, etc. It's time to start making it more reliable before I look at any more expanded capability. I need a better vision for what is or isn't needed in the future for this QTH, but I need the foundation to be a bit more stable first.
Play on 630m with a QDX. I want to try this band out some, and I have some thoughts of doing a POTA activation with 630m involved. 630m QDX is ordered.
Possibly explore a backpacking/more minimal portable setup. Maybe doing the 8xBS170 mod on a QDX with a fan added, use an ATU 10 for tuning/SWR; and FT8 on Android... The combo would provide 40-15m at 6-9W, I think, and would be much smaller and several pounds lighter. Not as convenient as a laptop or as sensitive, but operating with an EFHW while backpacking would be neat!
Start looking at Linux for shack PCs. Not sure if this is where I'm going or not, but I need to look into this with Windows 10 support coming to a close.
Work on a design for a low band vertical for the cabin station. Presently, considering replacing the inverted Vee with an Inverted L, possibly multi-element. I'd probably use the same location/tree support (with a pulley at 56 feet), but I need some bracing/frame to keep the wire away from the trunk, and some way to multi-element it. And laying down radials will take some time.
Continue DX'ing. I think this coming year I might apply for some of the DXCC awards, and/or WAS too. I want to work my way to the DX Challenge over the next few years. Not sure I have a specific goal for the next year as far as confirmed DXCCs or band slots; hard for me to predict what's possible. Hoping to catch a few more on 80 and I'd be thrilled to get another 1-3 on 160. Other than that, a lot of it is when the opportunity arises.
3 years in, what do my contacts look like?
13,106 logged QSOs/contacts
880 contacts as POTA activator, 3547 as a hunter.
99% are digital (FT8/FT4).
DXCC/WAS:
WAS on 80-15m, and 10m. 48 on 160, 46 on 12m, and 23 on 6m.
DXCC: 185 confirmed overall.
100+ DXCC on 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10m, with 139 each on 20m, 17 and 15m.
26 on 80, 9 on 160.
DXCC Challenge: 889 confirmed, 160-6m.
We'll see what year 4 brings!
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