It’s so easy to get out of the habit! I got real tired of the Project365 application on my iPhone. About half the time it wouldn’t upload the picture to Facebook. I tried different methods, none of which were nearly as successful. Then the creator came up with a “pro” application which would upload the pictures to a website (his server, though). So, I bit and bought ($0.99) and found it has a MAJOR bug … you can’t sign in. He’s been promising an update Real Soon Now for a couple of weeks. I’m beginning to become a bit skeptical.

Today I got up with intentions of doing some things outside. Then I turned on my ham radio.

About a week ago I was tuning across one of the Ham Radio bands (the 20 meter band 14.225 – 14.350 mhz) and heard a station out east announcing that he was a Special Events Station. I gave him a call on my radio, and by golly, he answered! Over the next few days I found several other special events stations and was able to contact them. I’ve sent off QSL Cards (confirmation of contact information) and hopefully will be getting some in return. Special Events Stations usually have very fancy and nice QSL cards that ham radio guys like to collect.

Then, I heard a station in Pennsylvania that said he was part of the Original 13 Colonies Special Event and that there would be one or two stations in each of the 13 colony states on the air between July 1st and July 6th. That sounded like a real challenge. While these stations were going to be available on a variety of radio bands using a variety of operating modes (morse code, single sideband, RTTY, PSK31, satellite, and others), I only had one antenna available for one band only … my trusty 20 meter hamstick dipole in the back yard. I also had a number of other things to do, such as visit mother in Soda Springs and go to Church, which would increase the challenge. By the end of the period, I had contacted 8 of the 13 colony stations. In addition, I had also made contact with stations in Cuba, Russia, Hawaii, and Brazil.

Generally the process is to put my QSL card into an envelope with a self-addressed stamped return envelope and send that to the other station. They’ll use the return envelope to send a card back. For stations overseas, instead of a stamped return envelope, I put in an envelope without a stamp and buy an International Reply Coupon (IRC) from the post office, which costs $2.10, and put that in the envelope. The receiving party can then exchange the IRC for postage back to the US. So, I made up all the envelopes and went to the post office.

The lady at the counter knew where the IRC’s were located, but couldn’t figure out how to charge me for them. She’d never sold one in her 13 years working at the post office. The fellow at the neighboring counter had never sold one, either. So, she had to go back into the office and find a manager, who brought out a book of instructions. After several attempts, they finally managed to get me charged for the three IRC’s I needed. I decided if it was that much work, I’d buy 5 more so I would have them on hand. They only had 3 more available. So, I bought the post office out of IRC’s. They think they’ll have more in next week. According to the manager, they haven’t sold an IRC in more than a year. Interesting!

So, this morning I turned on my radio … and heard a station calling for contacts for the contest going on this weekend. I looked up the contest on the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League … the US amateur radio association) website and found that it was a full blown, world-wide contest on the shortwave frequencies. My radio and antenna work in the sweet spot of shortwave! So, I returned his call, along with several dozen other people. In ham-radio-speak, this is called a “pile up”. That first contact was in Texas. It took about 5 minutes, but I eventually got through.

Making a contact in this contest is a very brief conversation … He calls for contacts. I answer. He gives me a signal report and a location code. I return with a signal report and a location code. He calls for contacts. The whole exchange went something like this:

CQ CQ CQ Kilo Charlie 5 Hotel November Hotel CQ Contest…. (He’s asking for contacts using his call sign KC5HNH spelled phonetically)

Kilo 7 Oscar Juliet Lima…. (I answer with my call sign, K7OJL spelled phonetically)

Kilo 7 Oscar Juliet Lima … Five by Nine Zero Seven… (my signal good and strong and he’s in zone 7)

QSL QSL Five Nine Zero Six… (Acknowledged the report, his signal is good and strong, I’m in zone 6)

Kilo Charlie 5 Hotel November Hotel QRZ… (He’s asking for contacts and going on to the next person)

I wrote him down in the log and started tuning around the band. Lots of people looking for contacts. So far today I’ve made 25 contacts. Some in the United States, but others in Germany, Sweden, Croatia, Brazil, Italy, Northern Ireland, Russia, and Latvia.

So, I’m going to post this and turn the radio back on. I should be hearing folks from Asia….

This is fun!