Bert Craig wrote:
wrote:
I agree, been there, done it and then some, a 48-hour dxcc is
almost
a
no-brainer IF you have a reasonably competitive station, dxing
experience, the sun spots are with you and you stay in the seat.
Those
are all big "ifs" though. If Bert sticks to 40M with 5w and some
air-cooled wire he has a *real* slog ahead of him (years?) I for
one
simply don't have the patience to deal with. All that aside yupper,
his
best shot at new ones per hour by far is during the cw dx contests.
I prefer 20 for hunting DX. The contacts seem to come mush easier and
my 5 W appear to goe much farther, literally.
There's no "appears to" about it, it's absolute fact. 40M rules the
domestic scene and to some extent is OK for working SA and western EU
but when it gets down to working ZLs, VUs and JAs on 40 from the east
coast it gets really gruesome even with 100W. When 15M is open it's
even better than 20 as far as long-haul "big signals per watt" is
concerned, *don't* ignore 15M. If you have a packet spots network up
and running in your neighborhood by all means plug into it.
I can't really do much
re. my antenna situation but I'm increasing my pwr out tho. Anywhere
from 40 W to 100 W should suffice.
That'll be a huge improvement.
I' swapping the Carolina Windom for
an 88' doublet, hoping for favorable lobe placement of the 20 EDZ.
Model it? .
You better believe that you'll find me (Or vice versa, hi.) during CW
contests. Some of my states were nabbed during the ubiquitous "bacon
runs."
Sure. Around midnite during one of the recent Field Day operations not
much was going on on 20M CW so I switched to doing some dxing. Quickly
worked JA, VK, OA, a couple Ws and a DL. Jim was there. If I'd been
able to find an African I would have made a one-hour midnite Field Day
CW WAC. It gets in your blood. Ya can't help it . .
Without the QSL's of course...hi
Boo! No counter!
I have a very good return rate so far. I always include a
self-addressed Air Mail envelope along with the appropriate green
stamp/IRC(s). If a US station requests a SASE, I comply. Life's too
short and I'm havin' too much fun to sweat the $0.37, although I
certainly respect those who do.
It's all an ancient and accepted part of the game. Coaxing QSLs out of
the dx can get expensive and tedious though when done in volume. I've
run into gnats which probably have better clerical skills than I have.
Gathering up the 500+ cards for my 5BDXCC was a bookeeping chore from
hell I'll never forget.
Hey Bert - How many states do you actually have confirmed so far?
Well, I just checked my QSL cards and I currently have 18 "in hand"
with Belarus, The Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Sweden expected in
the mail.
U.S. states confirmed for the WAS?
I'm encouraged by the fact that theses were all casual
"contacts of opportunity" while hunting down the final few states
for WAS.
You're obviously well on your way. If you get yer watts up and pound
the two major DX contests on 40/20/15 I'm betting your dxcc will come
in less than a calendar year. Good luck with it.
Dan/W4NTI
w3rv
73 de Bert
WA2SI
w3rv