Openings, Improvements, and Anniversaries

Yesterday was the first big opening to Europe I’ve experienced in ages. I made voice contacts with stations in Russia, Sweden, and multiples in Hungary. Everything on 15 meters. Included in that was HA5JI, who 369 days earlier was my first ever HF contact. I got the same signal report - 56 - I got from him a year ago. The difference was that first contact was with 5 watts, yesterday’s 100 watts. The heartbreak of a declining solar cycle.

I had a long running list of other European stations I was hearing. I called a few without breaking through their noise. Others were too weak to call, and while I monitored them hoping they would fade up, that never happened.

Nice to get some regular, non-contest DX into the log.

With the bands (Maybe? Perhaps? Hopefully?!?!) improving, I’ve begun using a combination of old school and new school tools to focus my DX chasing time.

On the old school side, I bought a daily planner - one of the universal ones that aren’t tied to specific years - and began jotting down every DX tip I come across, most from DX-World. Callsign, DX entity, and dates of activation.

On Monday mornings I review that week’s activity and build a Ham Alert trigger for each entry.

At first these triggers weren’t all that helpful, as I had them build so broadly that I would get flooded with alerts for particularly active stations.

Over a couple weeks I’ve dialed the triggers in, adding specific bands, modes, and spotter locations.

The refined results don’t always reflect what I am hearing. Some of that is propagation and my local noise issues, of course. However, I believe some of it is because even while I have each trigger limited to pull from spotters in my CQ Zone, Zone 4 is so large that it isn’t always an accurate reflection of what signals are making it to Indiana.

So some flaws, but as the DX season picks up, I’m interested to see if I get better results than I did a year ago staring at DX cluster sites. The biggest benefit is I don’t have to be at the shack computer to know that people near me have worked the Solomon Islands or wherever.

Finally, perhaps my biggest radio news: I’m dipping my toes into learning CW. I’m not committing to any particular system yet. I’ve read a lot about the various positives and negatives of Long Island CW, CW Ops, etc.; watched YouTube videos of operators who are mostly self-taught; and examined some of the free online tools like LCWO.net and morsecode.world without making a decision on which platform best suits my needs.

This week I’ve been using the MorseMania app on my phone. I’m four days in and doing OK(-ish). Or as OK(-ish) as you can be doing for learning perhaps the eight easiest letters in the morse language. I purchased a straight key and keyer, but have not practiced sending much beyond tapping my phone’s screen.

I will continue working through the alphabet on the app through the next month or so. Augment that with one of the free on-line sites, and go from there.

My goals? Obviously master CW enough to use it. I would like to begin chasing POTA sites in early 2027 and be ready to activate by next spring. Those seem realistic. And, if my middle-aged man brain can absorb the sounds quick enough, even a little conservative. With sunspots fading, adding CW to my radio arsenal seems like a good use of my free time.

A year ago I had just made my first HF contacts. Since then I’ve upgraded to an Extra license, added too many radios to my collection,1 discovered digital modes, done a couple POTA activations, qualified for WAS on two modes and DXCC on digital, built an antenna, and now am stumbling down the CW trail.

Let’s hope year two is as exciting.

  1. I’ve been eyeing something new, but only after I subtract. ↩︎