I only operate full QSK.  Being a DXer and calling in split pileups, QSK gives me a huge advantage over competition using semi break-in.  I often hear stations keep calling in a pileup not knowing that the DX has already responded to someone else.  QSK lets you stay in synch with the DX and not make wasted calls.  Timing is everything in a pileup.

QSK is nice in a ragchew too, especially with another accomplished CW op.  If you want to comment on something the other party has just said, all you have to do is drop a dit in between words and then he knows to pause for your comment.  Makes the conversation flow like VOX on SSB.

My current two tranceivers are a Ten Tec Orion and a Yaesu FT-1000D.  Both are very good QSK rigs, with the edge going to the Ten Tec.  Other Yaesu rigs I have used aren't so stellar in the QSK department.  I've had an FT-1000MP, a Mark V Field and an FT-920 that all were poor to mediocre.  The 920 in particular was lousy.  I used an Icom 736 that had nice break-in, but wasn't really a DX rig for other reasons.  BTW, the FT-1000D's QSK is ruined by so-called key-click mods.  Listen to your CW on the air and make sure your rig actually needs this mod before ruining your great break-in performance.

I interface my two current rigs with an Alpha 89 or a Ten Tec Centurion and both amps work well with either rig.  The Centurion has a timing circuit with a high speed vacuum relay and the Alpha has a very fast PIN diode switching T/R circuit.  No clicks, no pops, no distraction.

Rich, I would suggest that you try to run down a copy of Monk Apollo's letter to the ARRL demanding that they not accredit Baldur, DJ6SI's expedition to Mt Athos in 1991.  It reveals a lot about Apollo's attitude toward allowing operations from there.  For a while it was available on the internet, but some determined Googling failed to turn it up.  From memory I think it was posted on a DX club website, though I maybe wrong about that.  It's possible that it has been removed now and may be very difficult to find.

http://hamgallery.com/qsl/country/MountAthos/dj6si.htm

Just a historical note:  Chod Harris is went SK in December of 1999 due to a heart attack at the age of only 50.  He is remembered as the editor of the DX Bulletin and CQ magazine's DX column.  I had the pleasure of meeting Chod, (VP2ML and WB2CHO) at the DX convention in Visalia in the late '80s.  The article by Chod is well over ten years old now and a number of things have transpired regarding Mt Athos, Apollo and the ARRL since it was authored.  I think it is likely at the time the article was penned by Chod that he was treading lightly and speaking in generalites and euphemisms in order not to anger certain parties that were inclined to shut Athos down to amateur radio entirely.

A lot has changed since the big gun DXers only had to concentrate on 20m.  The advent of the WARC bands and ARRL's multiband DXCC award got DXers thinking about other bands in a big way.  Used to be 20 was the money band.  That's where the DX and DXpeditions showed up and that was the only place DXers worried about working them.  15m wasn't authorized for CW until 1952 and phone in '53.  Many amateurs were slow to move to 15 just as many were slow to adopt the WARC bands.  10 was something of a novelty, frequently closed and considered by many as a VHF band in the old days.  Sunspot cycle 19, peaking in 1959, got many DXers thinking differently about the higher frequencies as did equipment that worked better and more reliably on those bands.  It's also worth remembering that Yagi antennas weren't in wide spread use until the early 1960's.  Even then they were poorly understood and not often homebrewed.  No computer optimization programs then!

Now it's crazy not to utilize those frequencies as DX signals are often stronger on 17, 15 or even 10m.  Yes, for you guys that haven't had any expience with 10 when solar conditions are good, it does happen.

The lower frequencies were generally considered "local" bands until hams started experimenting with antennas to qualify for 5BDXCC.  Many thought DX was impossible on 80 and 160.  160 also suffered from limitations and restrictions due to LORAN allocations that are absent today.  160m propagation is also much better understood now.  Amazing as it may seem, 160 used to be the band of choice for local low power mobile operation...with all the challenges that implies.

I've been surprised at how little malicious QRM there has been.  I had a QSO with D64K this afternoon on 15 CW that had more than its share of morons, but out of seven Qs between the two expeditions that's really the only one that was a bit frustrating.  Called 9M4SLL this morning on 17m CW. He was right down in the mud and working EU but he came right back.  You just never know...

W1GKK.  He also said "Working DX is just a matter of being there."

Troof be dat.

In fact I built such an antenna.  First configuration was for Field Day.  I optimized forward gain but reduced the F/B.  Pointed the sucker east and never moved it during the contest.  Worked great from CO, east coast, west coast, boom.  We set a 3A record that year.  Later I took the same antenna, changed element length and spacing and made it into a more conventional DX antenna, with F/B as well as forward gain.  A friend still has it installed at his home QTH.

Here's another Yagi truism.  The three main performance characteristics of a Yagi are: Forward Gain, F/B ratio and SWR bandwidth.  You can optimize for any factor, but the others will suffer.  Any Yagi design is a compromise between these three parameters.  Pick one (or maybe two).  I've had Yagis that were broadband but were wet noodles in a pileup.  Others (think KT-34XA) that had forward gain, but poor F/B.  The 'XA was a special case for SWR bandwidth because it had dual driven elements.

Another friend, W0UA, a contester, made a profound statement to me one day.  I had to learn a lot more about antennas before I realized that I was hearing words from a master.  Sometimes knowledge is imparted before one is ready to absorb it.  He said, "Front to back is nice but forward gain makes Qs."  If that sounds too simple, you need to be in some more pileups.  Zen is where you find it...

OK, here's a little heresy for you.  Four elements on a 26 (or 31) foot boom on 20m won't give you any more gain than three.  You can change the pattern slightly with careful placement of the 2nd director at such short boom lengths, but the difference in gain is insignificant.  Four, or even five, elements won't do any good until the boom length approaches three quarters of a wavelength, and at that length the extra elements make a big difference.  But that's nearly a 50 foot boom on 20m.  In practice, you will start to see advantages in gain from those extra elements with around a 44 or 45 foot boom.  

This is of course true on any band, but higher frequencies have correspondingly shorter boom lengths.  On 10m for example, you only need a 25 foot boom to achieve 3/4 wavelength.  I built a five element 10m Yagi on a 27' boom and it was a killer antenna.  Some time with your modeling program will confirm this.  The advantages of a three element over a four at shorter boom lengths are obvious; lighter weight, less wind resistance, lower cost, accessability to the balun or matching system from the tower.  Four elements normally won't hurt you, but it won't help you either.  The fourth element does add another variable when designing the antenna, making it more difficult to get everything right.

One option for a four element that is valuable to to move the first director very close to the driven element (OWA design).  This will broadband the SWR response if both CW and SSB are important to you with a low reflected power.  Still will have the gain of a three element.  The first director serves only to broaden the SWR curve.

Yeah, this one's an SOB from the West Coast...bad enough from here in Colorado.  Don't know how many times I've seen Apollo posted from the east coast on 40 CW only to hear absolutely nothing here.  The only tip I'm aware of is "be there or be square" when it finally does happen.  It's just gonna take propagation, and that's been real hard to come by this cycle.  Maybe your 17m monobander will get it done for you.  

P5 and SV/a were my last two on CW, got 'em both on SSB. Now it's just P5.  

I almost fell out of my chair when I heard Apollo (or perhaps a guest op...though that's technically not supposed to happen from Athos) working a split CW pileup on 17m.  Either Apollo has improved his operating skill dramatically since I worked him on 10 SSB years ago, or he bends the rules and allows guest ops occasionally.  

The 10m QSO was a "last two" lidfest, a technique Apollo learned working nets, in case you need another reason to hate nets.  He had only just started working freelance at that point.  To make matters worse, I had to take an hour out of my prime run time for EU during the CQWW CW contest to work him.  But work him I did (as SY2A) and still managed to set a low power record for the 10th district in the CQWW.  That record still stands, BTW. Unless this cycle does something dramatic, it probably will continue to do so for at least another cycle.

Jack thinks I have little faith but it's much worse than that.  I have no faith.  With this one it's "Show me the money."  There were many reasons to believe this might have been Slim, including a host of EUs saying just that.  I pulled the envelope out of my PO Box today still expecting to find my own QSL card inside with a note, "Sorry not QRV on that date."  

Not strange, but arcane perhaps.  It takes another DXer to understand the concept.  The world evolves politically and so does the DX program.  Doesn't mean the countries (hard to say "entities"...still) weren't valid when they were worked.

I think it's kind of cool.  A long list of deletes in your record signifies longevity in the DX game.  A badge of honor from the great days of DXing.

Time to take the QRPer up the hill to see the Old Timer and ask him what he thinks.  Bet he has a bunch of deletes in the bag.

...received today for CW QSO on 26 May.  Card was mailed on 14 July.  Just slightly over a three week turnaround.

Yes, I waited until some others had their cards before I mailed mine just to be reasonably sure it wasn't a slim.

OK Peter, have your way.  It's easy. 

I love the internet.  Make an obviously true statement and somebody, somewhere will dispute it.

I actually have Swan Island as a country, back when it was KS4.  Now deleted, of course.

I've been receiving QSLs thru the buro system for almost 50 years now and my experiences have been all over the map.  Generally, since I received a zero callsign in 1985, my luck has been good.  Unfortunately I went thru a spell (when a previous club was sorting the 10th district) when I got few mailings.  Turns out my "R" sorter was an over-the-road truck driver and seldom was home, let alone had time to devote to QSL sorting.  I've had no problems since the Mississippi Valley DX/Contest Club has taken over buro duties.  They don't want envelopes or stamps.  I just send them a check and mailing labels and they provide necessary supplies and postage.  Hopefully one of these days they will get set up for PayPal or at least online credit cards.  That would be the ultimate in ease.

I think everyone knows that buro work is a thankless job, but I believe no one will have their attitude changed, regardless of what they see at ARRL HQ, if they can't pry their cards out of their district sorters.  I think some clubs go into the sorting business great guns and all enthusiastic, only to burn out over time.  Sorting gets relegated to the back burner when sorters get old or die or become inactive in the club.  It's hard to provide reliable service over the long haul.

This would be a great idea.  So much DXCC history is preserved only as oral tradition among DXers and is always in danger of being lost.  The trick would be to find an author who could relate all the experiences fairly and in an unbiased manner.  Many of the most interesting events were embarrassing to the operators involved or indeed to the League itself.  Remember Don Miller, W9WNV?  Plenty of black eyes to go around there.  And of course more recently, the Romeo saga.  At one point, the ARRL was crosswise with a certain monk, too.  The tendency to embellish or omit otherwise interesting occurrences would be tempting, depending in the personal views of the scribe!  A truly inclusive history would indeed fill a book.