T H E 6 T H F L O O R

Life in 6 Land

A Visit from the Church

Today was the first day I can recall being visited by two Elders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That’s the Mormon Church for those not up on their religion. Needless to say I was quite excited to open the door and extend a welcome to them. Hard to believe it has been some 23 years since I have been to Utah and the BYU campus in Provo. Thankfully I have many fond memories and seeing these two young faces brought many memories back.

I made it known quite early I would not be a convert to the Church. I talked about the hours I spent listening to the lessons that missionaries teach those who want to listen and learn. Being at BYU, it was really difficult to NOT see missionaries, even on campus, some of whom were my dorm mates at one time. I ended sitting through their lessons about 7 times in a 2.5 year period. For me, it was more of a learning experience, since I did not grow up with any form of religion, nor was I asked or forced to go to church, even on “special” occasions.

Thankfully I was raised in a good environment with loving parents who taught me right from wrong and raised me well. Maybe that is why it wasn’t a real culture shock when I applied and got accepted to BYU as a non-LDS student. I recanted some of my stories that are vivid in my mind about my experience at BYU, with the Mormons and why I chose that school over any others.

I extended an open door to the two young men, one from Wyoming, the other from New Caledonia. I figured it’s the least I could do. I would welcome them into my home and talk with them, feed them if needed. To me, if felt like the right thing to do. Maybe  it’s one of those “good deeds” or maybe it was “destiny” but why? I don’t know.

Regardless of why they rang my doorbell I am glad they did because the LDS were a big part of my life for 2.5 years while in college. Many of the people I met, experiences I had were good ones, even though I never finished out my education at that institution. Hopefully the Elders return for a future visit.

Winner!

Very surprised to see a manila envelope from the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) today in the mailbox. I figured it was my ARRL Triple Play Award I had finally achieved. When I opened it I was surprised to find I had taken first place in the 2011 ARRL International DX Phone Contest. That means I just might have to taken to March 3 off to participate in at least half the contest.

Intimidated by Veggies

I get a sense that some people, friends, co-workers and even family (excluding my wife) are a bit intimidated when I talk about”McDougalling” and how it affected my lifestyle. As I have said previously, this is NOT a diet. While my physician begs to differ, this is a lifestyle change. I’ll agree with you, the reader that this is lifestyle not for everyone, but arguments could be made that it should be.

By no means do I feel as if I am supporting a cause. I don’t consider myself “vegan” or “vegetarian” rather I eat a plant-based, whole food diet. Yet many I talk to seem to be rather narrow minded when the words “vegan” or “vegetarian” are spoken. Many conger up images or sitting in front of a big plate of salad and eating tofu for your sustenance rather than meat. It seems I am asked on a regular basis, “What do you eat?” I tell them, anything I want that is not meat, dairy or oil based. More importantly after nearly 30 pounds of weight lost, I have not been hungry since living “plant strong.”

But it’s not about weight loss alone, I have seen wonderful results internally, as my blood work numbers were trending in the correct direction. Meaning my total cholesterol was going down, my LDL (bad) cholesterol was down, my HDL (good) was unchanged and my Triglycerides were down. Toss in about 45 minutes of weights or exercise a day and it’s just a matter of time before my appearance begins to change. That is MY goal, as they say, “lead by example.”

Men especially seem to puff out their chests, being the “manly” thing to do and start to make jokes and be humorous when it comes this way of eating, backing the call of “I need meat!” in order to survive. In what I have experienced, no you don’t. Much like not supporting a vegan cause, I don’t lobby for PETA or think someone who does eat meat is a bad person. Each one of us my decide for ourselves what is best. It has taken 42 years, but going plant-based has been the best move for my health. Why would I want to change?

 

2012 ARRL DX – CW

Contest: ARRL DX
Date: February 18-19, 2012
Mode: CW
Period: Starts 0000 UTC Saturday; ends 2359 UTC Sunday

BAND/QSO/DXC
20 / 82 / 39
15 / 210 / 61
10 / 48 / 19
TOTAL: 340 QSO / 119 DXC
SCORE: 120,666 (TIME ON: 12 H 00 Mn)

SOAPBOX: Some questions going into the contest since I am without an antenna for the low band, do I run SOSB or SOAB? I decided on a SOAB, low power operation this weekend and was shooting for 450 QSOs with 150 MULTS. I figured those were appropriate given the time I would have for operating, none of which would be on Sunday when I shut the shack down (0144z). I decided against a SOSB based on what I experienced in CQ WPX RTTY last weekend. It was a long and arduous contest and at the least I would increase my DXCC counts on 10M and 20M.

Overall I had a GREAT time, probably one of the most enjoyable contesting experiences I have had in the past 12 months. Why I have not been able to work a full contest in about 18 months, I do the best I can and also aim high, looking to pull something positive from all contests I enter. These 12 hours I operated don’t compare to my SOSB effort last week on 15M. While 15M was the “money band” this week I was still able to make some good headway on 10M, especial over the poles, while 20M was somewhat of a let down. That based on my limited experience and the fact that 20M since I got into contesting has usually been my best producing band with my hex beam at 40 feet.

I had some early questions as to where to start the contest, since rate is not my driving factor, I figured I would search & pounce to start on 10M, but it was short lived. It was no more than 7 minutes later and I moved to 15M, where I spent a majority. While rate for contesters is an important factor, being at the level of experience I am at with Morse code, I aim for a 30 QSOs/hour when in search and & pounce. For all CW contests that is all the time, so my rate suffers when compared to that of a more competent CW operator. A 30 rate will usually help me attain my goals, obviously duration plays a factor. Realistically I should have decreased the number of hours I was going to operate from 16 down to 12, or even 14 hours. I still stuck with a 30 rate and was hoping I would have a few hours over 30 and close to 40 or 50, but those gains were offset by a few very down hours as well, including one 60 minute break.

I operated just over 2 hours at the start of the contest, all but 7 minutes were on 15M and dominated by JAs. I usually rely heavily on QSOs with Asia in most of the contests I participate in. The numbers tell a different story, where 37.9% of my contacts were from Europe, while Asia accounted for 35.6 with Japan at a 29.4% of my total contacts dominating all other DXCC entities. I was disappointed with the number of JAs on 20M, I had hoped that more would move to 20M by 00z or 01z on Sunday but in that never appeared to happen while I was operating.

What was even more surprising were the 10M openings to EU via the poles. I made a number of 10M QSOs with Europe including ES5RR, OH0Z and SK3GM. On Saturday 15M still dominated the log by a big margin mainly from Europe. My best 60 minute rate was 49/hour from 1606-1706 and it was not JAs I was logging. I found that somewhat surprising. Search & pounce was rather slow and from 1900-2200z things got very slow. I couldn’t find a suitable band to be on bouncing from 10m to 15M to 20M in a vicious cycle that didn’t see activity pick up again until 2300z.

Thankfully when the sun came in Asia/Oceania 15M was great! Many loud stations, some of which I had not worked at the start of the contest, but I had hoped more JAs would move to 20M but only 13 QSOs with JA were made on 20M (out of 121 total). I was also pleased with the activity I found on 10M running 100 watts.

While I did not achieve my goal I had a very enjoyable 12 hours participating. In total I worked 275 unique call signs and 70 DXCC entities. Now, if I only had more confidence to run a frequency that 30 QSO/hour rate would increase. This was only the second time I had participated in the ARRL DX CW contest, the last time was 2010 with only 99 QSOs made.

ARRL International DX CW Goals

I’ve spent the past 75 minutes or so going over previous contest results and looking at the most recent propagation charts prepared by Dean, N6BV and Stu, K6TU. These charts were actually for WPX RTTY last weekend, but solar conditions are shaping up much the same for this week, so the information contained within these charts should be relative. The ARRL International DX Contest is a 3 point per contact contest, so I will be trying to work all contacts that are not in the US or Canada.

I was planning on another SOSB (single op, single band) effort, but after further consideration I think I will work all the high bands (10/15/20M). This should give me many more operators to work through out the time I have set aside to participate. If this weekend is like last weekend 15M was probably the best band, based on what I read on the 3830 Reflector. My hope 20M is strong for me, which has usually been the case in many prior contests.

Looking at my time, I am going to hope for 16 hours of operating, which would be 4 hours to start the contest and then 12 hours on Saturday (6am-6pm), maybe a bit longer if possible. Based on my 2010 resulted, I averaged 22 QSO/hour. Not great by any means, but I hope to keep a 30 rate but will knock it down just a bit shoot for 450 QSO, 150 MULTS and a final score of 202,500 points.

My CW skills have improved, but are still not at a level that I feel comfortable attempting to run a frequency, which would equate to a rate of over 30/hour. Even though all my contacts will be in search & pounce I feel confident I can achieve my goal with a bit of work. Over the last few contests I have entered, CW has become my strongest mode. I wish I could say it was more proficient at this point, but it’s still a learning process, one that I am improving every time I use the mode.