KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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Operating Notes: This weekends QSO Parties, A25RU in the log, Ohms and
Voltas, but no Amperes

Posted: 04 Apr 2021 11:17 AM PDT
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There were two state QSO parties this weekend, the Louisiana QSO Party and
the Mississippi QSO Party. The good news is that operations allowed me to
qualify my participation for the State QSO Party Challenge, although just
barely.Â*The bad news is that there didnt seem to be much activity from
those states.

I made eight MS contacts, but only two LA contacts. Im not sure if it was
band conditions or maybe my antenna orientation, but there just didnt seem
to be that much activity.

Having said that, I hope that you will all consider operating the MI QSO
Party, which is coming up in less than two weeks, on Saturday, April 17,
from 1600Z 0400Z. Im still hoping to activate one of Michigans more
sparsely-populated counties, but my plans arent settled yet.
A25RU in the log

When A25RU, the Russian DXpedition to Botswana, first got on the air, they
created some pretty big pileups, big enough that I knew that Id be calling
for a long time with no guarantee of success. As Ive noted before, I dont
really have the patience for that, so I passed on it.

A couple of days ago, though, I heard them on 40m CW. There didnt seem to
be a big pileup, so I joined the fray. Zooming in the panadapter on my Flex
6400, I could see where there were open spots in the pileup, and could see
the stations that A25RU was replying to. This made it easy to find a
frequency to call on, and I worked him on the tenth call. Wayyy before I
lost patience.
Ohms, Amperes, and Voltas

After working the contests last night, I settled in for a little
ragchewing. One of the hams I worked happened to have the surname Ohm. How
appropriate I thought.

That got me curious as to how many Ohms are amateur radio operators.
Searching the QRZ.Com database, I counted 18 Ohms. Next, it occurred to me
to count the Amperes and the Voltas. I could find a single Ampere, but
there were 45 Voltas!

The next name that came to mind was Marconi. There are lots of Marconi
clubs and Marconi special event stations. In among all those call signs, I
spotted 45 hams with the surname Marconi.

The post Operating Notes: This weekends QSO Parties, A25RU in the log, Ohms
and Voltas, but no Amperes appeared first on KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.